How and Where to Cut Down Your Christmas Tree in Crested Butte

People often ask me about: “How and Where to Cut Down Your Christmas Tree in Crested Butte”

The Perfect Crested Butte Christmas Tree Adventure – see Video below for Extra Tips!

Cutting Down Your Crested Butte Christmas Tree Can Be a Fun Family Adventure!

I love the holidays in Crested Butte, and getting to cut down our Christmas Tree. We are surrounded with National Forest Land, BLM Land – and your perfect Christmas Tree is out there waiting for you! Ready for some great tips on Cutting down your Crested Butte Christmas Tree?

Whether you are gathering with your family to celebrate Christmas in your Crested Butte Home or visiting for a vacation after Christmas and through New Years’, being in Crested Butte is a fun and festive time. We enjoy the family time together and cutting down our Crested Butte Christmas tree.

HOW to Cut Down Your Crested Butte Christmas Tree

Cutting down your Crested Butte Christmas tree is an adventure. And mostly a very fun family event for you here in Crested Butte. Finding the “Perfect” tree is hard – but don’t pass up a good one because hiking farther means you have to haul it out farther too! Getting the perfect tree is not easy because everyone (at least in our family) has their opinions about what makes the tree perfect…

“With 4 women in our family – I am outnumbered and I have learned that it is best if everyone agrees on selecting the perfect Crested Butte Christmas Tree…”

It seems to be “more fun” If everyone is happy! (Ha!)
You want everyone’s help to haul the tree out. If they think it is “your tree” or not “their tree” then “they” may not be so happy to help (learned from experience).

The best tree is usually uphill. Far UPHILL! And when you get to it, you will hear: “nope, that one is no good.” “It has big gaps,”, or “it is too tall”, or “too short” or “too skinny”. It is common to see the best tree, only to trudge through the deep snow to discover the perfect Crested Butte Christmas tree is really two trees that are squished together, and neither are acceptable. So, you continue to hunt…

Christmas Tree Permit

You can Buy Your Christmas Tree Permits Online. In the past you had to drive to the Gunnison Forest Service Office – now you can buy your permit online. Here is the link to buy a Christmas Tree permit for the Gunnison Ranger District – Gunnison National Forest – Gunnison Colorado.

Or You can get a permit from the Forest Service office in Gunnison: Gunnison Ranger District Office – 216 N. Colorado, Gunnison, CO 81230, (970) 641-0471

WHERE to Cut Down Your Christmas Tree in Crested Butte

We like to go up the Snodgrass trail, or out Gothic Road (if it is still open), but this requires a bit of a hike in. The farther you hike it, the farther you will be hauling the tree out. The tree slides pretty well on the packed down trail… The good news about Crested Butte is there are many choices – a good option may be to drive out Kebler Pass Road, there is also Brush Creek Road to the Brush Creek Trail head parking lot, and also you might go out Slate River Road, or Washington Gulch Road…

Park and put on your snowshoes, or cross country skis and keep going… just be sure you are cutting down your Christmas Tree on public land – not private land!

If needed – you can get a map at The Alpineer, or the Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center.

Christmas Tree Cutting Tips

Plan for a couple of hours – or longer. Don’t squeeze it in before something or you may miss that “something”. Go during the day, don’t go alone. Don’t wear a new puffy coat – it could get ripped. Probably will get ripped.

Bring a saw. Don’t cut yourself – I used cardboard and duct tape to create a sheath for the saw. Bring gloves (work gloves if you have them), bring a rope or straps. Always cut trees with a trunk size of 6 inches or less in diameter. Cut the stump close to the ground..

You can hike up Snodgrass with snowshoes (without snowshoes if the snow is packed-down and cold in the morning – people frown on people who post-hole in the ski tracks). Bring your Forest Service Christmas Tree permit.

What Not To Do Cutting Down Your Christmas Tree

Don’t get a tree too big that it won’t fit in your home (measure before you go). And Big trees are heavy. Don’t pass up a good tree – even if it is the first good tree you see. Maybe check out a couple others farther away -but if they are significantly better, go back to tree #1 that is closer. Never look for a tree that is downhill. Ever. We did this once. It was not very far downhill so I thought okay this will be fine… It was not.

Dragging a large tree uphill with little or no support from the women was not easy. The excuses are very creative… “It is too heavy, there is no room for me, WHAT do you want me to do?, the needles are sharp, OUCH!, think I cut myself. I am cold, Okay!… I have to pee, Dad, you got this!”

Hauling Your Crested Butte Christmas Tree out

This is not so hard. If you have two or more people you can have one person on each end and carry the tree. Hauling the tree requires a bit more work especially if you are dragging the tree through deep snow. You may rig a single rope for one person – or a big rope for multiple people (think mule train).

VIDEO – Cutting Down Your Crested Butte Christmas Tree

How to Put Your Crested Butte Christmas Tree Up

CUT DOWN YOUR CRESTED BUTTE CHRISTMAS TREE

Tall trees tip over.

You have probably brought home a monster of a tree. A Tall tree – tall trees tip over easily.

This may sound like the easy part – but not really. You see when you cut down your Crested Butte Christmas tree your eyes will be bigger than your stomach (or your room)… and so

So I created these diagrams and materials list just for you – so you can see how I put together my tree stand.

You cannot use a wimpy tree stand . Okay – you will need to construct your very own tree stand to the right and below – see the diagrams and the materials list. Everything you will need! (You can get your materials at the Crested Butte Ace Hardware – or at Alpine Lumber

Materials List

Crested Butte is a Special Place – Especially During Christmas and the Holidays

People often ask me “What makes Crested Butte special?” It is hard to put into words, but the family time searching, cutting down, and decorating Your Crested Butte Christmas Tree might just be one of the best…

If you are coming to Crested Butte for Christmas enjoy your time with family and friends, and whether on the chairlift, a barstool, or a bench on Elk Avenue put down your phone, tell someone else Merry Christmas and enjoy this special time in this special place.

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