---
template: byway.jade
id: "2116"
name: Silver Thread Scenic Byway
distance: "117"
description: "The very name of this byway alludes to the abundant silver mining that peaked here in the late 1880s. Once a toll road and stage route for the miners, this route now offers spectacular scenery along the Lake Fork of the Gunnison and Rio Grande Rivers."
contact: "**Creede Chamber of Commerce**  \r\n 719-658-2374  \r\n\r\n**Lake City Chamber of Commerce**  \r\n 970-944-2527  \r\n\r\n"
path: 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websites: 
  - url: "http://www.fs.usda.gov/gmug/"
    name: "Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests"
  - url: "http://www.fs.usda.gov/riogrande/"
    name: Rio Grande National Forest
  - url: "http://www.fs.usda.gov/sanjuan/"
    name: San Juan National Forest
  - url: "http://www.coloradodot.info/travel/scenic-byways/south-central/silver-thread"
    name: Silver Thread
designations: 
  - National Forest Scenic Byway
  - Colorado State Scenic Byway
states: 
  - CO
ll: 
  - -107.05886099999998
  - 38.48947100000004
bounds: 
  - - -107.31738999999993
    - 37.669201000000044
  - - -106.64074700000003
    - 38.48947100000004

---

The colorful old mining camps of the Silver Thread offer
history, scenic beauty, and a heavy dose of authenticity. The
heights around Creede and Lake City remain strewn with abandoned
mining structures, most of them accessible via rugged backcountry
roads. Between the two towns, Highway 149 shadows the upper reaches
of the Rio Grande, serving up a bounty of natural wonders -
sparkling North Clear Creek Falls, the Slumgullion earth slide, and
the shark-like fin of Uncompahgre Peak. These mountains can be
unforgiving: In 1848 explorer John C. Fremont lost a third of his
men - and a quarter of a century later the infamous Alfred Packer
cannibalized his companions - in two ill-fated winter
expeditions.