Read about the best things to do in Crestone. Read about the top events in Crestone. There is a wide array of activities in the region, including rock climbing, fishing, hiking and camping, as well as spiritual explorations. There is free dispersed camping located only minutes from town. They may be small, but these cool Colorado towns have plenty to offer. From epic mountain…. Strange Lights is a Crestone Colorado band playing melodic rock, indie, pop, and psycho folk styles.
The population was 73 at the census. It is a small village at the foot of the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Range, in the northern part of the San Luis Valley. It includes an amazing array of spiritual sites: more than two dozen ashrams, monasteries, temples, retreat centers, stupas, labyrinths, and other sacred landmarks. To use a homely metaphor, you can hardly throw a stick in Crestone and not hit something spiritual.
From the s through the s it was a mining town, and then a center for ranching. But its identity underwent a dramatic change in It had been subdivided for use as a retirement community, but the Strongs changed their plans for it after a wandering mystic told them that the land had unique spiritual qualities a message echoed later by Native American elders. So the Strongs decided to give free land to religious groups that agreed to establish centers there.
To coordinate the program, they founded the Manitou Foundation. Today the Manitou Foundation works to preserve both the spirituality and the ecology of the region. The wilderness in the surrounding mountains is home to bear, elk, and mountain lions, while the Baca National Wildlife Refuge in the valley protects nearly , acres of wetlands and grasslands. Crestone itself has just people the entire county has 6, I know of no other small town in the world with as many spiritual sites of so many varied traditions.
As these centers attracted practitioners to the Crestone area, additional religious groups began to establish themselves there. Today, Crestone features more than two dozen religious centers, including one of the largest and most diverse groupings of Eastern and New Age spiritual communities in the world. Crestone and the Baca community have also been the site of legal battles over water and fossil fuel development since the s.
More recently, the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council and other environmental groups have challenged the plans for oil and gas exploration in the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge and nearby Great Sand Dunes National Park were authorized by Congress in , but mineral rights were not protected in the arrangement. James P. You are here Home.
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