After getting settled into Manitou Springs, we headed out to the town of Cripple Creek. We decided to take a ride on the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad. It was powered by a real steam engine and looked to be pretty authentic. While waiting for our departure, we walked the downtown section for an hour.Jason just had to pose by this “unusual” casino sign. This is the 15 ton engine that pulled the three cars on the scenic tour of the mining district. This engine was built by H.K. Porter & Co. of Pittsburg in 1927 and originally was used to haul lead and zinc in mines at Avelos Zacetactus, Mexico. We chose to sit in one of the two covered cars as we could see the storm moving in. Lucky for us! It started raining during the last part of the ride. The weather actually produced enough snow to bring out the snow plows at the pass and cause mud and debris to cover the road in places on the way back. Part of the main highway into Manitou was flooded and we had to turn off our phones as the incessant flood warnings were becoming annoying.This is one of many abandoned mineshafts located near the town. This is the narrow gauge track heading up the hill towards the bridge (which was replaced by mine tailings years ago following a train derailment). An interesting note on the fill: The value of gold in the tailings is estimated at over $1,000,000 BUT it would take about $4 million to extract it. They call this the “million dollar” fill for a good reason.The scenery looking across Echo Valley was awesome.This is the abandonded Chicken Hawk Mine, where about $6 million in gold was removed.This is part of the Cripple Creek & Dixon Mine. They removed 490,000 ounces of gold from here last year. Hmmm, at $1,800+ / oz, that’s a whole bunch of money!These miners holes dotted the landscape, there are more than 5,000 of these in the area. For every gold-bearing find, there were about six of these holes dug.An abandoned one-person gold mine is shown above. When the gold ran out the minor just up and moved, leaving everything.Again, these gold mines dotted the area. With the exception of South Africa, this was the richest concentration of gold fields in the world.This home was purchased long ago from the Sears catalog for less that $1,000!Jason is standing in one of the giant dump truck beds that has been converted into a viewing platform for the mine behind him. This is the richest single gold mine in the world (again, with the exception of South Africa). You can barely make out the huge machines hauling rock right above Jason’s head. The depth of this dig is over 600 feet and this mine is planned to remain active for another 25 years. Reclamation of the grounds is planned to continue into the 2050s.The hues of minerals was breathtaking. There are finding gold, silver, platinum and several other precious metals here. We took a couple of dirt roads (4WD) and came across a lot of Vadose wells used for testing the ground water and a couple of groups of deer and pronghorn antelope.On the way back to Manitou Springs we spotted this Pikes Peak Cog Railway car with an unusual name. You have to be special to get a car named after you!
Pikes Peak is closed due to ongoing construction at the very top. It can be accessed by shuttle bus from about the 13,000 foot mark and we will catch one in the morning. The Manitou Incline (a mile long staircase leading up an approach hill to Pikes Peak) is closed, as well as the Cog Railway. Both of these are under construction to upgrade and rebuild and expect to re-open in 2021.
WiFi has been hard to find, I am at the Carnegie Library (1904) in Old Town Colorado Springs while Cathy and Jason are taking a walk.
Glad to have that named after me, lol! I am happy that you are taking some time off from those big killer hikes! Looks like there is enough to seenn BBC here too!
Travelling with the Schinglers 
Glad to have that named after me, lol! I am happy that you are taking some time off from those big killer hikes! Looks like there is enough to seenn BBC here too!
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