My Cripple Creek World

GOLD COUNTRY REALTY

333 E BENNETT AVE

CRIPPLE CREEK, COLORADO
My New Digs on the Main Drag in Cripple Creek! This photo below is obviously before i got the sign placed on the window!

Here in Cripple Creek this summer you just never know what is gonna come down the road! I sit here in my office at Gold Country Realty and watch the world drive by, and sometimes I am lucky enough to get pictures. Today, Saturday, July 26 happens to be the National Day of the Cowboy. In honor of this day, the local Saddle Club out of Woodland Park, Co had a commemorative Trail Ride from Cripple Creek to Victor, Colorado, through some of Colorado's most spectacular mine country. Take a look browse the photos and enjoy!

These are some friends that I horseback ride with.

Thats it for now, I am waiting for the Trail Riders to come off the hill at about 10,000 ft elevation and its lightening and raining out, and the train whistle is a blowin and echoin through the mountains and valleys! Its another beautiful day in the High Country!

Happy Trails, Carrie

If you want to come and Play in the Creek give me a call; I will be happy to guide you around the District!

719-689-3434 office

719-641-7074 cell

carrie@goldcountryco.com

http://www.goldcountryco.com/ website with awesome property for sale!

Summers in the Creek

So, summers here are spectacular and to add to the fun we sit around all winter long and think of things that we would like to do in the Summer! Take Summerfest, for instance; a 3 weekend long blitz of activities starting off with the Chile Cookoff over June 20-22. We had 30 cooks come in and demonstrate their ability to cook some ass kicking chile, while we demonstrated our ability to cook up some ass kickin' margaritas!

After that weekend and we had all recouperated from the hot fired chile and margaritas and salsa, we have Donkey Derby Days. This is a great 3 day event full of fun for us up here in the high country.

We kicked off the event with a Steak Fry cookout complete with Dancing Girls and Can Can acts, Mae West showed up as well as Annie Oakley and some really nefarious charactere, Wild Bill, Buffalo Bill to name a few. Saturday's fun starts with a great parade with marching bands, and every kind of vehicle we can muster to show up here including the pooper truck which is also known as our local septic pumper. Donkey races commence through town where we make tourists perform all kinds of tricks while dragging or being drug by a burro to the finish line and the 200.00 prize! Smack through town, too!

4th of July was a lallapalooza! 40,000 folks paraded through town and got entertained at the stage, showed off their hair legs and white legs and enjoyed home made ice cream. We had 2 eves of fireworks! I went home and slept! I was tired!

Our next events are Veterans Appreciation days, we have a parade then also, its in August over the 18, 19 & 20th, so be sure to come up and salute our awesome Veterans. Check the Cripple Creek website for better information, my dates may be off. We have a General coming to speak as well as other military dignitaries and we really appreciate what you Vets do for us and our country! (http://www.cripple-creek.co.us/)

Well, till next time, I am trying to keep the batteries in my camera in good shape, but over the Big 3 Summerfest weekend I did not have time to take many photos!

For More Info on Cripple Creek, the "District", advice, opinions or anything else for free:

Carrie@goldcountryco.com

www.goldcountryco.com

719-689-3434 office

719-641-7074 cell

A Tour of My Country

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!

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!