There's Gold in Them Thar Hills! Or Not.

 A couple of months ago we visited Cripple Creek which was an old gold mining town, turned casino town. We had seen all the "Ramblin Gamblin" buses headed south on highway 67 toward Cripple Creek and wondered what was happening there.  It was a bit of a shock since I had visited there about 30 years ago when it was still a run down little mining town with some dusty antique shops and not much else.  Not the case now.  There are brand new casinos, hotels and the downtown is filled with casinos built into the old storefronts.  One casino, Bronco Billy's, takes up one whole block of the 4-block long Main Street!   We also saw houses with interesting architecture and colors.

Today we ventured to Victor, a town near to Cripple Creek: another little gold mining town.  It was quite a contrast to the newness we witnessed in Cripple Creek. It was a bit depressing what with all the abandoned buildings, store fronts, general dis-repair, and dilapidated gold mining equipment littering the countryside everywhere. Victor is the closest town to the largest gold mine in Colorado, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_%26_Victor_Gold_Mine, yet for all the millions of dollars extracted, the local town doesn't exhibit much benefit.  The snow couldn't hide the huge human-made piles of mining spoils.

Abandoned mine (and dreams) combined with the gray weather made for a dismal landscape.  

Some creative soul is optimistic about Spring!

Main Street Mural added some color to the day.

What was once a booming town has dwindled to 400 people.

What once was.

One bright spot: We stopped at a lovely little German bakery in town that served fabulous food - Soup and a Miner's Pie! (It's behind the New Beetle) 

We also had coffee, a fruit turnover and a pastry called bee sting.  Delicious!  Plus the bakery's tagline is "we bake at 10,000 feet altitude where the calories all bake out!"  That's what I am talking about! We will definitely revisit.

A little flavor of the west - gotta love the blue truck at the top that says "The junk posse - our only crime is lovin' junk!"  And that is an E on the end of the name of the theater . . . just sayin!

I did wonder what makes some people leave everything to look for gold . . . in a mine or a casino.  The chances are so low for 'striking it rich' and in mining, it's such hard and dirty work!  Is it dreaming for a better life? Greed? ... It seems the cost to one's soul by both is quite high.

As Kenny Rodgers' song "The Gambler" says "you gotta know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, know when to run . . ." Now I'll have that song going through my head for the next couple of days as well as the song, "Goin' down Cripple Creek."

And here's what we saw on the road on the way back home.

Yep!  A Mountain Ewe!  

It was a great day of exploring!

--------------------------------------

Additional wildlife sightings: at camp, last week we saw tracks of a different animal at camp last week . . . the "kitty" passed within 20 feet of our apartment! Meow!

Tom (Maintenance Director) comparing paw size to hand:  a big cat!

Yep, 4-5 inches across!

Wild turkeys, Red fox, and deer too! (but no pics.)

-Jonathan & Betty