Diary for Harry and Judy's RV Trip


Day 25-July 30, 2017-Cripple Creek, CO casinos

2017-07-30

Day 25-July 30, 2017-Old Historic Colorado City and Cripple Creek Casinos

Rained all day, sometimes really heavy, chilly-high was only 53.

Started the day by registering for another 2 nights at the campground.  This is unusual for us, we rarely stay anywhere for more than 2 or 3 nights, but there’s a lot to see and do here.  Drove into Historic Old Colorado City, only 6 blocks down the road.  This is where Colorado Springs originated.  A lot of people out at restaurants having breakfast on a Sunday morning.  Pretty murals painted on the sides of buildings, too.  Cute little town, some places were closed on Sunday, we might go back another time.  We then drove 41 miles to Cripple Creek, down route 24 past the entrance to Pikes Peak, past Cave of The Winds and The Cliff Dwellings through Woodland Park, “The City Above the Clouds” at 8500’, a nice city that has preserved the look of the old west, especially on the main streets but also on the outskirts of town where McDonalds, Arby’s and Wal-Mart are in log cabin looking buildings. We are constantly climbing in altitude, the highest we got was about 10,200’.  At Divide (alt. 9165’) we took a sharp turn and drove on route 67, a curvy road with sharp turns, steep grades and no shoulders.  Just as we passed a sign warning about Mountain goats two of them appeared on the side of the cliff.  Dense pine trees, red soil, rocks, rocks and falling rocks. Twenty miles of this til we got into the town of Cripple Creek in the valley.  Cripple Creek was a gold mining town in 1891 and still has one working mine.   Along with gold mining comes gambling and there are a slew of gambling establishments in Cripple Creek.  It has one steep street and both sides are lined with restaurants, casinos, hotels and gift stores. But mostly casinos.  We went into Bronco Billy’s which turns into Baja Billy’s up a few stairs, then back down a few stairs to just plain Billy’s.  Of course we didn’t win so we went across the street to Century Casino where again we didn’t win.  Undaunted, we then went to Colorado Grande Casino to try our luck.  No luck there either.  There’s also a 2-foot gauge coal fired steam locomotive and museum in town but it was raining so hard we could barely see where we were going and wanted to get on the road.  All the way back it poured and traffic continued to build until we were stop and go at the entrance to Pikes Peak and it lasted that way all the way back to the campground.  Glad we went today though.  There were signs saying construction was starting tomorrow on the road we were on and construction equipment lined the road getting ready.  Wouldn’t want to be stuck in the traffic that will cause.  Back to the RV to read a bit.