Cross Mountain Trailhead

The ghost town of Stunner is just east of the campground. This was a mining town that failed due to nonproducing mines and transportation problems. Parts of the town are private property, so pack out all your trash and observe posted trespassing signs. Stunner Campground is beside the Alamosa River 2 miles below the top of Stunner Pass. There are 10 campsites with tables, fireplaces, vault type toilet, ample parking and a developed water system operated with a hand pump. Firewood is limited. Convenient trailer spaces available. The Alamosa River is nearby for fishing, unfortunately, naturally acidic water severely limits fishing in the Alamosa River between Stunner Campground and Terrace Reservoir. Big game hunting is possible. Stunner is a ghost town of historic significance. Please pack your trash. Obtain permission before entering any private property in the area. Stunner, never very big, has long been a ghost town with ghost mines on both sides of the Alamosa. The names of its mines have a special flavor -- the Orpheus, Cornucopia, the Merrimac, Log Cabin, and Snow Storm, and as always, a mine named for a wife, daughter or sweetheart, the Louise. Only those mines north of the river shipped payable ore; those south, shipped no ore. Stunner, like the Platoro camp south across the mountain to the left, had transportation problems. The government road had washed out by 1885 and was not repaired because of the discontinuance of the forts at Fort Garland and at Pagosa Springs, and the construction of a railroad over Cumbres Pass to the south. This meant mail was delivered by pack trains and post riders in the summer and on skis in the winter. The ink-blue, fringed gentians bloom in the meadow in late August. One of the nation's earlier transcontinental telephone lines passed here, built about 1910. The Telephone Cabins sheltered the heroic m