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Crystal (also known as Crystal City) is a ghost town on the upper Crystal River in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. It is located in the Elk Mountains along a four wheel drive road 6 mile (10 km) east of Marble and 20 mile (32 km) northwest of Crested Butte. Crystal was a mining camp established in 1881 and after several decades of robust existence, was all but abandoned by 1917. The Crystal post office operated from July 28, 1882, until October 31, 1909. Many buildings still stand in Crystal, but its few residents live there only in the summer.

In 1874, geologist Sylvester Richardson discovered promising deposits of silver near the confluence of the North Fork and South Fork of the Crystal River in Gunnison County. In the years that followed, the aboriginal Ute people were removed from the area and prospectors began mining operations, creating a new mining camp in 1880. A year later, on August 6, 1881, the Gunnison County court held a session and voted for the incorporation of Crystal City, made official as of June 8, 1881. At the height of its prosperity in the mid 1880s, Crystal had over 500 residents, a post office, a newspaper (the Crystal River Current, succeeded by The Silver Lance), a pool hall, the Crystal Club (a popular and exclusive men's club), a barber shop, saloons and hotels. The remoteness of Crystal hindered its success. Transporting ore to the depots in Crested Butte and Carbondale (via Marble) and bringing of basic necessities and mail into Crystal were a challenge in the snow free months and difficult or impossible during the winter. Deep snow and late lying snow drifts were hindrances and avalanches, rock slides, and wet, slick ledge roads were dangerous and sometimes deadly. Transportation difficulties cut into profits and by 1889 Crystal was in decline with the winter population being less than 100. In 1938, many years after Crystal had been abandoned, Emmet Shaw Gould of Aspen, Colorado, traveled to Crystal searching for ore to run through a recently purchased mill. He bought several mining claims along with the city lots with the cabins still standing. The area stayed in his possession, though it was never again became profitable through mining. Eventually, ownership was transferred to one of Gould's daughters, Dorothy Tidwell of Treasure Mountain Ranch, Inc. In 1985, during Tidwell's ownership, Crystal was placed on the National Register of Historic Places Inventory after nomination by the government of Gunnison County.

The highest average temperature is 68.1 degrees F (20.1 degrees C), while the lowest average temperature is 41.6 degrees F (5.3 degrees C). In July the average temperature is 56.8 degrees F (+13.8 degrees C), and in January the average temperature is 13.6 degrees F ( 10.2 degrees C).

The rock in the Elk Mountain Range in the area surrounding Crystal is composed primarily of (90%) sedimentary material, including mostly coarse clastics, shale, and limestone. The last 10% is mostly igneous rock. The Maroon Mountains formations (which are the closest notable mountains to the valley town of Crystal) are composed of mostly sandstone and siltstone, which are coarse clastic rocks and are exposed for the most part. Fine clastic rocks cover a fifth of Crystal. Glacial remain and out wash created the sandy loam material which fill the valleys in the area, including the bottom of the Crystal River which runs through the valley in Crystal and surrounding towns. Today Crystal is best known for one of the most photographed historic sites in Colorado, the Crystal Mill, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Gunnison County Road 3 connects Crystal to Marble. Much of the road is a rocky shelf road, suitable for four wheel drive only. Forest Road 317 (a. k. a. Gothic Road) connects Crystal to Crested Butte via Schofield Pass. It traverses the Devils Punchbowl, considered among the most dangerous four wheel drive trails in the state.