June 11th & 12th Pine National Forest & Cripple Creek

June 12^th Cripple Creek Next

On our way to Cripple Creek we took the Skyline Drive, why take the highway when you can take path less taken?

Our next leg of the trip to Cripple Creek was by way of Phantom Canyon drive, where we wound our way through a one lane, red rock road and various tunnels into the old mining towns of Victor and Cripple Creek. This road was once the railroad bed during the gold mining times.



Why go to Cripple Creek you may ask?

In 1890 gold was found in Poverty Gulch, which is now Cripple Creek. Between 1890 and 1910 it was known as the world’s largest gold camp with more than 22.4 million ounces of gold extracted from over 500 mines. In today‘s dollars that is about 11.2 billion in gold. Today, you can eat, drink, gamble, shop in boutiques and explore the gold mines via tour or museum. We opted for the food and drink… but thought about winning a motorcycle in one of the casinos.  As Lars would say, “only in a America” would you find a 24k bike.

July 11th
Our first official night of camping was in the Pine National Forest between Woodland, Colorado and Buena Vista, Colorado.

We took a little afternoon hike to get a bird’s eye view of camp spot.  Look closely to see the RV and Jeep.

We also found a great place to sit outside and enjoy the mountains (unfortunately Pikes Peak was behind us and not in front of us), but we did have a freshly brewed beer and a pretzel as an appetizer.