Cripple Creek

Yesterday I decided to take the family on a ride after Aubrey's nap. I have been trying to get to know the area really well for recreation activities like camping, biking, fishing, hunting and climbing. (By the way, in Colorado you can't get a hunting or fishing license until you've been a resident for 6 months. Booooooo! That means no hunting or fishing in Colorado for me this year.)
In some of the books I have been reading through, they mention a dirt road that goes from Colorado Springs around the south side of Pikes Peak to an old gold rush town called Cripple Creek. I was really excited to get out and in the mountains to see what the area had to offer.
After getting lost for an hour trying to find the road, we finally began our ascent into the mountains on the upper Gold Camp Road. The road is closed for a short section between the lower Gold Camp road and the upper and has a detour we didn't know about. But we still really enjoyed the roads we got lost on: The Lower Gold Camp road and High Drive.
We drove up and up for quite awhile and then we were rewarded with some amazing views of Colorado Springs and the plains.

The mountains were looking great yesterday and the aspens looked like such a bright green set against the dark pines and the red dirt.

These next two pictures are to serve as proof that I'm not a yuppie (maybe I'll do a post later on yuppies, ick). Many people now days buy SUV's simply for symbolic value. They have become such a status quo item that it's kind of annoying. Many of the owners of the Hummers, Jeep Rubicons and other SUV's never even take them off of pavement. They would rather drive around town in a vehicle that comes stock equipped to travel many of the 4-wheel trails in moab just to show off their wealth rather than use it for what it was engineered and designed to do. They drive along sipping their Starbucks coffee, never daring to let the tires of their expensive ride see dirt or rock. These are the people that annoy me and I hope to never be mistaken for them.

So, on the way up I found this side trail that looked like a fantastic place to break in our Pathfinder. After all, that's what it does, right? Find paths?

Lisa wasn't as excited about it as I was, but she went along for the ride anyway like a good sport. Although not as impressive as a jeep or old school landcruiser, I was quite pleased with our "family" car. Let's see a minivan do this!

We saw this younger buck off to the side of the road in his velvet glory. Although still young, you can see he has the potential to be a real bruiser.

The Gold Camp Road was originally used by miners to transport their gold from Cripple Creek down to Colorado Springs. It was one of the most productive gold rushes in the history of the United States. It's mind boggling how much gold they pulled out of there. They upgraded to trains eventually and had to carve out tunnels in the mountains. Here is a picture of one of the few that remains intact and has not collapsed. They were pretty cool to drive through.

After enjoying the amazing scenery along the road we finally came out into Cripple Creek. The main roads were all blocked off and we decided to see what the hub-bub was all about. As we strolled along main street with the kids we discovered that they were having their summer festival.

There were all sorts of activities going on and the kids loved the live folk music. I tried to get Lisa to dance to it, but alas she refused :(

All in all it was a great day for driving, sight seeing and enjoying the town of Cripple Creek. I plan on going back up next week when they have the Donkey Races. Anyone else want to come?