I live in the Gunnison at 7700 Ft at the valley floor. It's pretty dry down here but we are surrounded by much higher peaks and high alpine terrain (it's behind that storm in my photo). The town of Crested Butte is 28 Miles away and it is a full high alpine environment and 1000 Ft. higher up that end of the valley and goes up to 12-14,000 Ft peaks.
So here at this end it's high desert style riding, kind of like Fruita if you have ever ridden there. The trail system is called Hartman Rocks and there's close to 100 Mi of singletrack in short named and graded sections that can be linked for almost limitless combinations with another 100+ Miles of jeep trails for additional options. It's considered to be a world class trail system. Crested Butte is better known and has 100's of miles of high alpine riding so it's nice to have the variety. I moved here for the skiing and stayed for the cycling! I ride these trails from my house after work on summer evenings and it's great. Road biking isn't bad here either but but there are a lot more options and variety for MTB.
When can I visit?
I'm recall reading lots about Crested Butte when reading US bike magazine and I've seen the trails at Fruita from when folk first started posting trail rides online.
I moved to Sheffield for University and stayed for the cycling, nightlife + culture. I live 5-8 minute ride from about 7 woods [it's a very green city] which then lead out into the Peak District. Not quite as high as anything you have, but lots of climbing wherever you go. The Tour De France came through here last year and the route completely blew the peloton apart and Peak District did the same thing to the Tour Of Britain in August this year. We have the odd World Champion too as Steve Peat is a local lad and trained on one of the DH trails I built for a national race, Tracey Mosley who is now doing the Enduro circuit came here for Uni and the riding.
The main rock around here is also quite abrasive as it's gritstone, Millstone Grit in fact, so called as millstones for grinding flour were made from it as it was well....gritty. You often come across mill stones that never quite made it to a mill out on the Edges, which is where they were carved out of the rock face in situ. See shot below
This shot may not seem like your usual cloud pic. It was however taken inside one. We had some really odd weather last week, blue skies and warm sunshine in city centre and then clouds about a kilometer from centre just sitting at ground level and turning day into almost night.