Today, was going to be another hot day in Colorado Springs, so we thought a trip up higher in the mountains would be the thing to do. We followed the Gold Belt Scenic Byway to Cripple Creek. There are four different routes, 2 of them are on dirt roads, we chose one of the paved roads.
At an elevation of 9494 feet, it was about 20 degrees cooler.
Cripple Creek was a prosperous gold mining town in the late 1800's with a population of 25,000 people. Today, there are less than a thousand.
There are a lot of casinos in the town.
We walked down the main street admiring the early architecture. We arrived at the Cripple Creek District Museum.
There are three stories of artifacts and we spent a couple of hours going through all of the rooms. It was really quite impressive.
This telephone switchboard took up a whole wall.
Then, there was this Victorian dining room setup.
The Cripple Creek donkeys were outside in a pen. They usually are allowed to roam freely through the town, but there was going to be a special event this weekend and they are put in the corral during special events. They certainly liked to be pet. They are supposed to be part of the herd descended from the original mules who had worked in the mines.
On our way back, we took the highway towards Woodland Park through Manitou Springs and back to Colorado Springs.
It was a beautiful drive as we wound our way through the mountains and back down again.
When we got back to Colorado Springs, the temperature was 99. We were certainly glad we had spent the day at higher elevations.
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