It's About the (RV) Journey....: Cripple Creek...................

Tuesday we headed to Cripple Creek, a historic gold mining and gambling town nestled in among the mountains. It was about an hour from Colorado Springs. The drive alone was worth the trip. What spectacular mountainside scenery on winding country roads. Nice.

heading to Cripple Creek

winding mountain roads...spectacular scenery

Cripple Creek-a historic mining and gambling town

In the old days, this area...Cripple Creek and its neighboring town, Victor....produced over $18 million dollars worth of gold, and that was in 1910! Today, Cripple Creek and Victor produce over 200,000 tons of gold. At $1300 an ounce, that's billions of dollars in value. Wow! Globally, these are one of the top-producing gold mines today.

gold mine tours

we stopped at the Heritage Center

didn't realize we were at such elevation-this town is nestled in among the hills

We stopped at the Heritage Center, but passed on the historic gold mine tour. We decided we'd really like to ride the Cripple Creek train, a short train ride with historic narrative. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed the journey back in time with the train conductor embellishing history with stories, making the time period come alive.

Cripple Creek Narrow Gauge Railroad

ready for a train ride!

It seems there was a convention of Hell's Angels going on in Cripple Creek when we were there. So many motorcycles.....and so many "angels" from all over. Their leather jackets let us know where they were from....Virginia, South Carolina and Colorado. It was also quite noisy with motorcycle revving, since they seemed to travel in packs.

check out all those motorcycles!

those tough guys were riding the train too!

The train traveled just a short distance, about 4 miles, and was about an hour long. The conductor pointed out the mines and painted the picture of the old mining town, complete with gambling halls. We could see into the valley where the town still stands, complete with casinos! All the buildings are "new" though, and made of brick. Back in the day, the buildings were made of wood, and two fires literally burned the town down. It was rebuilt of brick.

museum at the depot

mining equipment

heading out and passing a mining village and some mines

the structures are falling down

like that

a very pretty ride too

a mining excavation to see if there is gold (lots of these pits everywhere)

the view was gorgeous

Tom looked very small next to this really nice Hell's Angel from Colorado (the guy was enormous)

fun times :)

the current gold mine up ahead...one of the biggest gold producing mines in the world

another view

an old mining building....

another mine across the street

the end of the line...actually, a bit unnerving to see

another mine on the rail line

so close to the tracks

more of the mining camp and old mines

mines were everywhere

weather moving in

more old mining camp housing

lots of housing...all made of wood...all falling down now

a really pretty ride on the train

yes...i saw that knife thing in his pocket too

here comes the other train

Virginia!!

cruisin' back into the station

a fun time

We headed into town for a picnic lunch in a nearby park, before exploring the town a bit more. Lots and lots of casinos! As the skies darkened, we wrapped up our walk in town, and headed out to the next town over, Victor, which is another mining town.

driving through town

lots and lots of motorcycles (about 200 left while we were on the train ride)

lunch at the park overlooking town

cool

heading into town to explore

the rest stop...protection from the elements!

a whole street of casinos!

meandering

wait...are you making fun of me?

what a great idea!

weather moving in

We stopped again on the way to Victor for the views, which were really nice. We had a nice view of the modern gold mine that is in full operation today. Very interesting . The rain was moving in, so we didn't linger too long. Though you never know where its going to rain! It is hit and miss.

scenic overlook

it doesn't rain everywhere, just some spots-but you never know where!

the modern gold mine of today

busy working

As we rolled into Victor, it sort of felt like a ghost town. No one was on the streets. Many of the storefront buildings were empty. We just got a weird vibe, both of us, and after strolling around for a few minutes, we got back in the car. We were on a "main road", that would take us to the highway... but suddenly the road turned into a dirt road. Was the GPS guiding us wrong again? Nooooo....we spotted a Visitor Center on the corner, and we were told that it was only a dirt road for a little while, then became a regular paved road. She was right! Whew! Don't want to get caught on a dirt road in the rain in OUR car!

heading into the town of Victor

nice art work on the firehouse

love the old buildings...but where is everybody?

most of the storefronts were deserted

what happened to the main road??????

oh boy...we gotta trust the lady in the Visitor Center!

Once on the paved road, we passed by the mines, and an old mining camp with the houses and other structures just falling down. The countryside was beautiful though. We noticed a lot of dirt roads, and if you aren't careful, you end up on one! Since we don't have 4WD, we try to avoid them. Regardless, the drive was really nice and we enjoyed the scenery and wildlife heading back to Colorado Springs.