Carbondale is home to both ranchers in white cowboy hats and sporto types in fleece, quaint Carbondale is set at the confluence of the Crystal and Roaring Fork Rivers and is anchored to the south by 12,953-foot Mount Sopris. Sopris, towering above Main Street, claims to be Colorado’s greatest continuous vertical gain mountain. The classic Rockies town is also home to new-school cool: A 13,000-square-foot skateboard park just opened, and a white-water park is in the works. Carbondale is located three and half hours from Denver and only 45 min from Aspen.