There's only one way to get in to Crested Butte, Colorado, where I'm going for the Digital Storytelling Bootcamp and Festival, and that's through Gunnison. Most folks get to Gunnison by plane, changing from a 737 or other jet to a smaller prop job for the Denver-Gunnison leg, flying out of the grey and thick of Denver's skies up through the clouds, over the mountains, and in to the crisp, clear brightness of Gunnison. At least that's how things looked today from 37,000 feet and on the street in Crested Butte, which rests at 8,885 feet above sea level.

After landing in Gunnison, I check in with the driver of the Alpine Express shuttle in to Crested Butte. Jim (or "Deli," as the locals call him) was once mayor of the town. Crested Butte has a lot of stories like that: mayors who now drive airport shuttles, community theater actors who are on the lam, and 15-mile speed limits that are the result of the town's one traffic fatality. The town also has a lot of small -- and some not so small -- metal sculptures dotting the main drag, Elk Street.

There's the dinosaur made out of auto parts.

Then there's the bench made out of auto parts.

And there's the house with old license plates for siding.

The artistic and architectural love of automobiles can be misleading, however, because Crested Butte is a town that embraces alternative modes of transportation. Shortly after arriving downtown, I saw a dreadlocked man rolling down the street on a long board. Down another block, I saw a woman crossing the street on a skateboard. The town sports a couple of benches made of old snowboard planks. There's a unicycle leaning against a staircase beside one building. And almost everyone in town is there to ski -- or to profit from the skiing.

I -- and 175 other people over the course of the next week -- am here for the Digital Storytelling Festival.

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