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Snowed out of Pikes PeakMay 4, 2009
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Sunrise
A bit later
I had forgotten how much we loved the Colorado Springs area but we sure had a quick reminder this morning. I opened the blinds about 6AM and the sun was just starting to break. Much like Hawaii, the clouds settle around the base of the mountain and all of a sudden the sun starts showing and the clouds just rise up and disappear. It was awesome…..
Our plans today was to take the train up to the top of Pikes Peak. The last time we were here we drove all 14,115ft above sea level but once was enough for me. Do you know that they don’t even have guard rails? We drove to the town of Manitou Springs so see about getting the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad train… When we got there we found out that we couldn’t have driven up today if we wanted to. The rain we had the last couple of days meant snow for Pikes Peak and they closed the road off half way up. They did the same for the train but since today was a beautiful day and tomorrow promises to be even better, we booked our ride for 1:20 tomorrow. They are sure that they will be able to go all the way to the top by then.
Next on our agenda was a desire to go to Cripple Creek at Pikes Peak and ride the Narrow Gauge Railroad through the canyon. We set out and found ourselves driving through some of the most beautiful scenic country we have seen. We went up and around always with the background of Pikes Peak with us. We finally got to the sweet little town of Cripple Creek….. Cripple Creek is touted as “In the Heart of History” and is a designated National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.
For nearly 15 years, a cowboy ranch hand named Bob Womack scoured the southwest slopes of Pikes Peak in search of gold. In 1890 his hunch paid off when he found gold in Poverty Gulch- soon to become the boom town of Cripple Creek. During the next twenty years the Worlds Greatest Gold Camp was the home to up to 50,000 residents. More than 22.400.000 ounces of gold was extracted from over 500 mines in the area. Three commercial railroads were established. These 50,000 people must have all stayed in hotels and today the streets are still lined on both sides with hotels turned casino’s/ It reminded me somewhat of Deadwood, SD without all the tourist shops.
When we left Carson City it was 63 degrees. In Cripple Creek at 9000 feet it was 43 degrees. Burr…. We went into the first casino we came to after parking the truck that just happened to be the Gold Rush Casino/Hotel where we had a super lunch for a very reasonable cost. I put a couple of bucks in the slot and walked out with $100 about 15 minutes later.
We were looking to take the train on a fabulous journey into yesteryear. An old steam engine takes you on a four mile round trip through the canyon and many of the old mines but to our dismay, we found out that they don’t run until Memorial Day weekend. Now wouldn’t you think the Visitors Center would have told us this? Bummer Big Time….. Well what else could I do except try a few more of the casinos. One of our favorites was the Brass Ass Casino and Hotel.. The story is that the Ass in the window was in the Chicago World’s Fair as a mechanical mule and became an instant hit. He is all brass. Interesting story. I was allowed to take pictures inside the casino since I asked and wasn’t taking any of people. The waitress I talked to was very helpful and knowledgeable. We crossed the street and peeped more casino/hotels on the other side and soon found ourselves back to where we started. Well I just had to try my luck one more time and this time I cashed out $150.00. I had put a few back in the other places but I truly came out a winner in this one. It’s no wonder that the Gold Rush had ten times as many people in there then the rest.
We took a different route home this time and before we even got out of Cripple Creek we ran into a couple more asses. We found a herd asses and a lazy ass. Saw a couple big asses too but we won't go there now. How’s that for one day. You’ll know what I mean when you see the pictures.
About 18 miles into our new route we came to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monuments. Well that was a new one for us. I can’t believe we hadn’t been here before. We turned into the Monument right at the Little Red School House and showed our Golden Age Passport to save the admission price. I got my passport book stamped and away we went on one of the hikes. We chose the 1 mile hike around the Petrified Forest Loop. The story goes that thousands of years ago Colorado was much warmer and the area had some of the largest Redwood Trees in the world. Even bigger than California. Volcano’s erupted and destroyed almost everything in sight and burying everything in its path. The things under all the layers of lave eventually became petrified and today scientist have uncovered many petrified trees, bugs, leaves and just about everything that was on the earth at that time. It was beautiful and very impressive. We didn’t think that a one mile hike would cause us any problems but we had forgotten that we were already over 8000 ft up.. Boy we were so thirsty and out of breath when we got back. Bill has lost his voice completely by now and the return trip home was a quiet one.
As we were pulling up to our campground in the State Park, we were welcomed by a beautiful herd of deer. We have seen their footprints behind our house but have not seen them this close before.
I am feeling better today but Bill is still trying to get over whatever he has. It is lingering on and really tires him out. Such a shame to be sick in such a beautiful area with so much to do……. I took 108 pictures .. I'll try to cut that down for you. Later…………
