Cripple Creek Colorado Blog

Fairplay Hotel

2008-02-25T05:35:00.001-08:00

Here is one of my favs in Fairplay, a MUST SEE for anyone rolling through the South Park!

The Fairplay Hotel, an Historic Gem lovingly restored and absolutely beautiful! Right across the street from the Park County Offices, the Fairplay Hotel has rooms, a restaurant and a bar. The decor is original and authentic, and the hotel offers plenty of Turn of the Century charm, something we love in Colorado! I promised my friends David & Anna months ago that I would post pics on my blog, and I am finally getting around to accomplishing this! Enjoy!

Here is the exterior; you can find out all about the history by just going in and asking! Looks like an original old Hotel, walk through the doors for a blast to the past!

These pics show the hotel front desk, large and comfortable entry hall with the stairs leading up to the Hotel Rooms. I did not get any pics of the rooms and am still wondering how I could have been so negligent?
I think it was because I was distracted by the cool bull head hanging over the fireplace in the bar, or, maybe it was the bar itself. Original to the Hotel, it is shiny and huge and beautiful!

You will definitely feel like you are back in the old days while sitting at this bar. The Hotel hosts many local parties, Victorian Balls, etc. Its a bit far for me to go to participate, so I have not attended any of their functions. One of these days, maybe! I like stopping in for a cool one apres ski, or after any visit to Fairplay. I have been going here for lots of years!

The red chairs on the LEFT are under the Bull Mount in the bar. Pretty comfy! The photo on the RIGHT is a shot of the dining room. They have a limited menu in the winter, but will expand on that when the season breaks.

I definitely recommend anyone heading to Fairplay take this fabulous journey back in time and stop in and say Hi to David and Anna. They are the friendly faces behind the bar! Tell them Carrie from Guffey/Cripple Creek sent ya!

Road to Fairplay!

2008-02-06T06:17:00.000-08:00

A road trip! I gather my things and head out to Fairplay, Colorado from my home. I live in a little town called Guffey, which is EXTREME South Park, yes THAT South Park....so all of my county business is conducted in Fairplay, the county seat of Park County.

You have to be careful on the road to Fairplay, I take Hwy 9 to Hartsel, jump on Hwy 24 til just through Hartsel then back on to Hwy 9 N through the Badger Basin. There are several hundred Buffalo roaming in the big valleys throughout the South Park pastures. On this day I was lucky enough to catch a couple of pics of them browsing in the snow. They are truly magnificent creatures! But drive carefully, there have been many times when they break out of their huge pastures and hang around on the road. You have to stay sharp driving through the South Park! The views are breathtaking, one of the reasons I live here!

Here are the Park County Offices, right on the main drag. Oh! Do NOT speed through town! They will get you! They ARE watching! :)

Park County offices have always been extremely helpful when going in to either the Clerks office or the Assessors office. It is small enough that they have not lost their personableness and I hope they never do.

Heres a shot of the Historic Fairplay Hotel! Its right across the street from

the Park County Offices. I have several interior shots of this beautiful Historic Gem, lovingly restored by the current owners David and Anna. I will have to put those up on their own blog, as they deserve to be showcased!

This next beautiful building sits in the middle of the town park, just N of the Fairplay Hotel. I think it is the library, but I have to double check that info! Its very cool and I believe they finished restoration not too long ago, as in last summer. Oh well, that means another trip to Fairplay!

Next, I took a drive down Front Street, which is one block to the West of the main drag. There are several small shops along this street. Not much was open, so I just snapped some pics of interesting stuffl. I love the Chocolate Moose sign. Bet you can get chocolote covered moose poop in there. At the end of the street is South Park City; a completely restored town that was moved to Fairplay for show & tell! It is open in the summer for you to wander through and experience the life of the bygone days! There is a great little museum gift shop here also.

A Tour of My Country

2008-01-28T17:44:00.001-08:00

Here are several photos of my town, Cripple Creek. The mountain peak in the top left is Mt Pisgah, very distinctive and prominent. Our cell phones and internet distribution towers are on top of this peak, so a lot of us are dependent on line of sight with Mt Pisgah! The Jail Museum opened up this late fall, it has been restored and there are actual cells within its walls....we used to have Boy Scouts Haunted Houses in there back in the early 1990's, it was certainly a creepy cold box then but is definitley an interesting and worthwhile tour! There is a gift shop inside also!

Here are a couple of photos of the towns most distinguished residents, the Donkeys! They are notarious and world renown! These little guys (or, their ancestors) are symbols of stability and dependability in Cripple Creek...they helped develop the District and packed many a miner and his tools up to and into the mines which made Cripple Creek the Worlds Greatest Gold Camp! Every year we celebrate their brayiness with Donkey Derby Days the last full weekend in June. We have a great parade, kids activities and street vendors and Donkey Races and lots of other foolishness that goes with a towns summer festival! This year promises to be awesome with a new line up and a healthy injection of funds into supporting the event, starting off with a Chile Cookoff June 20 2008 then the Donkey Derby Days starting June 27 2008 then ending with a BIG finale of Fireworks on the 4th of July. We have awesome fireworks and great visibility!

I run into these guys to the right very often on my drive into town. This herd has been around for years and lives in a protected area known as Dome Rock State Wildlife Park. It is just over the hill from Teller County Road #1 that I use to get to town. They come down to the road as it is warm and lick the salts and nibble on the exposed grasses. They are very cool! Rocky Mountain Sheep!

To the left is a photo of the Train Depot. That train runs a short 45 minute guided tour up the mountain on narrow gauge and open cars, with a coal fired locomotive every spring and summer. We all know it is spring when the smell of coal drifts through the air and we hear the whistle blow! The middle photo is of our County Courthouse, built in the late 1890's and housing our valuable records, it is great to walk inside and check out. The building had some renovations last year to the interior. The courtrooms are authentic, the Assessors, Clerks, and Treasurers office are all authentic with some minor modifications for the computer age! This is right across the street from my office! Upper Right Hand corner is the District Museum. This building houses many archival pieces of interest for you History Buffs, all original to the District. Well worth the visit and the minor donation it takes to tour the place, you will see many photos, pieces of equipment, clothing and more original Cripple Creek pieces!

Finally I will end this short tour with a photo overlooking Cripple Creek, taken at sunset this month. The distant mountain range is the Sangre De Cristos, one of the many you can view as you drop into town off of Tenderfoot Hill. Thats the town below. Quaint and quiet? Ha ha ha NOT! Come and see for yourself!

A Cripple Creek Trail Ride!

2008-01-23T05:55:00.000-08:00

Early Spring around here brings out the intense desire to saddle up the old pony and head for the hills....here are a few photos of one of my favorite rides. Its quiet, remote and challenging. But it is also a great place to ride in the Early days of Spring! Most of the photos are of my horse's ears as we stop along the trail, but occasionally I do have a group of girls that go with me. I am on the sorrel horse on the left, in the pink shirt at the BLM trailhead, and those are my good friends Sherry & Sharon.

I love this dead tree that I come across on one particular route. It is so magnificent and

photogenic! It just stands up against the skyline and is a particularily useful

landmark as I wander through the brush. I often take along my spare horse, and here is a photo of Willow as we stop for a break along the trail. I like to keep 2 horses shaped up through the summer. Luke is my main ride, he is the sorrel horse I am riding. Hope you enjoy these photos!

First News From Cripple Creek, Colorado!

2008-01-16T11:32:00.001-08:00

Hello and Welcome to My Very First Blog! Well, thats not really true....I do have some test blogs out on the internet but this is my very first one of my very own creation! I am excited and anxious to get started!

My name is Carrie Miller, and I own a Real Estate Brokerage in Cripple Creek, Colorado, home of the Worlds Greatest Gold Camp!

Travel with me as I take you through the streets of Cripple Creek, Colorado, where I work and play and have lived for almost 20 years. The photo to the left is of my office on Bennett Avenue, Gold Country Realty, in the Historic May Block, recently rennovated back to usefulness! This building once housed a bakery and boarding rooms, then an attorney in the 1970's then a carpenter, and now me and my crew, which I will introduce to you in the future! Right now I wish to just introduce myself and my Blog!

The photo to the right is me, a couple of years ago, and my good horse, Luke. He and I travel many a trail through the high country near Cripple Creek and even ride through downtown on occasion. This is my love, to ride and enjoy the company of a good horse, the breathtaking views available out there and the quiet and challenge of negotiating trails! I will talk about that in my blogs also!

I have lots of photos of Cripple Creek. I tried to post one here but ran into what we call operator error..... We can often stand in the middle of the street and take photos without getting run over. Cripple Creek has a small population of around 1200 people, but all of that demographic information you can get off of my website, which I will link to once I figure that out. Heck, 3 cars at a stopsign causes a traffic jam around here! Everyone waits for the other person to go first, and out in the country its even more interesting! Believe it or not, this town had at one time, more than 50,000 residents!

We have some great events, I love living up here, and this is a great place to come visit, live and raise kids, or vacate and recreate! We have limited stakes gambling in several casinos, great mine history, several super museums, a herd of donkeys that wander through town to feed, pet and take pictures with and several great hiking trails and biking trails as well as horseback riding, fishing and more!

Weekends are full of fun activities like gravity races, Ice carving festivals, Chile Cookoffs, Donkey Derby Days, parades, Veterans Appreciation activities, museum visits, Melodrama, Victorian Dress Ups and Strolls, Gunfights, Cemetary Visits and so much to do and so little time!

I encourage you to check it out! You can go to goldcountryco.com and check out the links to historic hotels, casino action, museum action and available real estate too. The LINKS are at the lower right hand corner of that page. Or you can certainly email me at carrie@goldcountryco.com with any questions, I will help you the best that I can!

My intent is to keep these blogs short and interesting, so for now I am going to say Happy Trails, check back often, and I hope to see you out there in the big wide open country someday soon enjoying life!

Carrie