The colorful history of Crystal Lake Resort and the adjoining town of Pine dates back to 1872. The Denver-South Park & Pacific Narrow Gauge Railroad built 340 miles of track from Denver to Leadville Colorado, mainly to facilitate the booming Timber Industry. Pine Grove (now Pine) sprung up to serve as a coaling and water station for the trains and Crystal Lake soon developed into a favorite picnic resort area. Amenities included a dance pavilion and billiards parlor. By the mid 1880's, there were regular fishing trains that would stop at points along Platte Canyon including Crystal Lake to let off ardent fishermen. When they wanted to return to Denver with creels full, they would simply wave down the train with a handkerchief which would stop and let them aboard.

In the 1920's Charles Eggert bought Crystal Lake and founded the Eggert Ice Co. furnishing much of Denver's ice, cut from the Resort's lake, shipped via the railroad. Eggert built ice-storage, a bunk house and the Crystal Lake Lodge. A very popular restaurant was operated at the Lodge from the 1940's until 1972.

The present owners, the Jones family, acquired the resort in 1993 with the idea of gradually rebuilding this historic site to it's former grandeur. The first step in this restoration was the opening of the refurbished Ice House, Ice storage, and bunk houses as the Crystal Lake Bed and Breakfast.

Next, the resort's restaurant, The Trout River Grill, was opened as a catering facility to all special events and as a fine dining option to the public. Presently Trout River Catering, is not open to the public, but does do a limited number of off premises catering events as well as all on site catering for the resort. An event Pavilion with a capacity of 150-200 guests was constructed on the west shore of Crystal Lake.