Alta, Colorado

Alta is a small former mining settlement in Colorado's high mountains at roughly 11,800 feet elevation, where only a handful of buildings survive from its working years. The ruins reveal the layout of old streets and homes that housed miners and their families across several decades.

The settlement emerged in the late 1880s when miners began extracting gold and other minerals, remaining active until around 1948. A fire destroyed the ore processing mill in that year, triggering the town's decline and eventual abandonment.

The settlement was built by miners and carries this heritage in its name and remaining structures. Visitors can read the daily rhythms of the past through old buildings and streets that still show how people organized their lives here long ago.

The site is typically inaccessible during winter, making the best visiting window May through October. Reaching it requires a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle to handle the dirt road branching from Highway 145 south of Telluride.

The settlement was among the first places where Nikola Tesla's alternating current transmission was put into practical use, delivering power over long distances to the mines. This technological advance made underground work more efficient and marked a turning point in electrical distribution.