Haunted at Timberline Home

Cottonwood Pass crosses the Continental Divide at 12,126 feet. It is one of the highest passes accessible by passenger car in Colorado. If you travel to St. Elmo, be sure to cross Cottonwood Pass and visit Taylor Park Reservoir, where, before the river was dammed, many white settlers fought the local Indians. (It was the Indians, however, who backed off, moving west.) Before the road over Independence Pass was built to the north, Cottonwood Pass was one of the primary mining supply routes to Aspen. Ashcroft can be reached after crossing Cottonwood Pass by crossing Taylor Pass or, a short distance farther west, Pearl Pass; Aspen is then a short distance from Ashcroft. The photo below shows the remains of the mill at Pie Plant, which operated a short distance from Cottonwood Pass and served a series of small mines strung along a road above it; the road ascends all the way to timberline and then into the alpine.