Cripple Creek - BUST

For our first mountain day this year we went to Cripple Creek. Now, I know that they have casinos up there so I researched it first to make sure there would be other stuff to do and enjoy. There appeared to be enough to fill a day up so we decided to go. When I was a kid I loved going to these old mining towns (Cripple Creek, Central City, etc.) and I wanted to see how things fare there. It was a major disappointment. In Central City there are a lot of casinos. In Cripple Creek - everything has been turned into a casino! It's so sad! They've been required to keep the old buildings so there are still beautiful old buildings to look at BUT they are now marred with casino signs every few feet.

The buildings are gorgeous but... see all those signs? To give you a little perspective every single building you see in this picture holds a casino. This is only half of the main street and of course there's the other side of the street too. That side has a few shops and there are a couple bars sprinkled in for good measure. There are HUGE parking garages for the casinos too but they've been given a brick facade to hide some of the ugliness.

In case you don't understand, I love old buildings in mountain towns! They make me giddy. Which gives Dave a reason to laugh at me.

Dave took this picture (below) because I also get super excited about old houses, especially if they have gingerbread trim and all sorts of fancy details, and this one behind me (waaaay in the back) also happens to be teal and aqua which is even more fun.

Anyway, the other "things to do" were greatly exaggerated online but we did enjoy a ride on the Cripple Creek Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad.

I also love old trains and really did enjoy this ride. Here's where it gets good...

You see the old buildings? Remnants of days gone by. Gets me all fired up. It was really an interesting ride through mining country - I think the guide said there were 500+ mines just in Cripple Creek!

And it's beautiful country. This is called Echo Valley. The conductor blew the whistle to demonstrate - said you can hear it 10 miles away - that was fun to hear. And look at all the mountains in the back. This is from an elevation of 9494 feet. Gorgeous!

There's one other curiosity in Cripple Creek worth mentioning - donkeys. They meander through town now and then and just hang out. Another remnant of the old mining days.

Silly donkey.

This was a sad farewell to Cripple Creek as we'll never be back here. Absolutely not worth the trip. I'll have to find my old western towns somewhere else. That said, it was still nice to get out for the day and  take a nice little break.