CRIPPLE CREEK, COLORADO

We stopped in Colorado for a few days on our way home. The first day here, we decided to take a ride to Cripple Creek.  The last time I was in Cripple Creek, it was literally a ghost town. The buildings were empty and falling down. It was as if the miners just up and left one day and left most of their stuff behind. 

I had heard that it had changed and it definitely had. Now, there are casinos lining the streets. It looked like a few restaurants that were independent of the casinos had once existed in town. However, they were now abandoned. We looked for a place to eat and even though there were many restaurants listed on-line, all of them were in casinos. 

We ventured into one casino to ask about eating and their cafe was about 10 tables right in the middle of the casino. They did not allow smoking in the casinos (because of masks), but the casinos were saturated with smoke smell from pre-mask. We began to think that we were going to have to drive somewhere else to have lunch. A guy sitting outside of the casino told us that there was a new casino in town and their restaurant was separate from their casino. Sounded like lunch to us. Their service was a little sketchy, but my lunch was good.

Cripple Creek has some really nice and interesting murals around the town. 

We had lunch and drove over to Victor, Colorado. It is a neighboring town. It was a ghost town too the last time we visited. It is now a cute little town with shops and restaurants down their main street. Their main street was only about 2 blocks long. They have redone the old buildings and it is slowly growing. 

On the way to Victor, we drove by an active mining area. They are still finding gold here. Once we arrived in Victor, they still have a lot of the old mines and their equipment still preserved and you can get out and look at them. I find them very interesting. 

The drive there and back produced some beautiful scenery. We had hoped the aspens would still be gold, orange and red and most of them didn't disappoint. This day proved to be the only day we would have that would be clear and smoke free. We certainly enjoyed the day and the beautiful weather.