Mimi and Maumau, Martine and DD Return! Or the Denver-Denver Loop of the 4 Friends (page 14 of 17)

Hello! 🙂

Katia: Meeting that charming old man was such a special moment! Everything came together to make it really intense.

Jean Luc: Good thing there are pros to correct our mistakes. Thanks, Jean Luc, for the fix and the details. I’ll have to double-check what I write since we’re in this Colorado you know so well 😉

Françoise: It’s easy when the scenery is stunning and the weather’s perfect!!! Much harder when the conditions aren’t ideal.

Martine 🙂

Day 18 Montrose-Cripple Creek Cripple Creek Hospitality House: 4 people with breakfast. 162 €. It’s an old hospital (1900) turned into a hotel and kept almost exactly as it was. A little out of the town center and 5 minutes from the Mollie Kathleen mine. It’s a real museum with period objects everywhere. The doors of unoccupied rooms stay open so everyone can enjoy the decor. Microwave available. Excellent breakfast. No fridge but a large shared freezer. Departure at 8:11 AM. First, we drive along the Blue Mesa Reservoir, then the Curecanti National Recreation Area—both really pretty with their pinnacles, the river, and the water reservoirs.









While driving through Gunnison, we come across a quirky shop with a huge display of wood and trophies on the front: Trader’s Rendezvous.

It’s a massive taxidermy and souvenir store. You can find all sorts of stuffed animals for sale: bears, mountain goats, lynx, bobcats... There are local species





and others that are more unexpected: crocodile, lion, zebra... We wander around this jumble where, of course, guns are also for sale. The saleswoman assures us that most of these animals came from road accidents. Mimi and I prefer to take her word for it without asking too many questions. The only interesting thing about this store was the chance to see certain species up close. Once again, we realize how kind Americans are when a passerby, thinking our vehicle had broken down, offers to call the rental agency for DD and Maumau. We cross a pass at nearly 3,500 meters while driving through Monarch Park. The trees are starting to turn yellow—you can really tell fall is just around the corner.

The landscape of prairies and pinnacles has given way to a mountainous scene with ruins of old buildings.

Skyline Drive. In the morning, I’d warned Maumau!!! Fate decided it this way—you won the honor of driving us on the roller coaster. Mimi chokes, « It’s today »!!! Yes, yes, my Mimi, it’s today—don’t worry, the drive is short!!! What to say, what to do!!! We stick to the plan!! We leave US 50 E to take a left turn (after an express ATM) just before Canon City. After the gate, we’re there and start the ascent. This 5 km road, super narrow and without guardrails, was built by convicts in 1905. The climb is smooth. It rises gently. Then it winds in a gentle slope, dropping like a roller coaster onto the ridge 240 m above the ground. In the photo below, you can really see the road’s path—good grief, it’s not wide!!!

That’s where the ordeal begins. The precipice on both sides—Maumau is glued to the wheel, a hushed silence fills the car. Mimi is terrified, but she’s not the only one—everyone’s clenching and feeling uneasy!!! Adrenaline rush and guaranteed chills!!! At the summit, a small parking lot lets you see the valleys below. What a sight—on the right, the highway and the mountains. And on the left, the plains of Canon City. Workers are up there, perched in the void without any protection, picking up all the trash that those piggish tourists toss when they stop. We start the descent, which is pretty easy overall, and finally reach the bottom in a fairly residential neighborhood, thrilled we did it. We were way up there on the ridge where you can see the tiny dot of a car.

A strange way to welcome visitors. Mau, happy to have driven us safely, is ultimately glad he had to drive because his concentration kept him from thinking too much about the drop. Based on a forum friend’s advice, I’d planned to take Phantom Road after our night in Cripple Creek, descending leisurely toward Manitou Springs, but discovering a last-minute Pow Wow near Garden of the Gods on the day we arrived made us change our plans—we had to be there by 2 p.m. at the latest, so we had to take the shortest route. Phantom Road So, we’ll take it on the way up. We find the start of the trail with difficulty. This path, nestled in the forest with its pines, high walls, and tunnels, is certainly cute.

But it takes us longer than expected to reach Cripple Creek, which prevents us from visiting the Mollie Kathleen Mine because we arrive at 4 p.m., just as the last group is coming up—and unfortunately, it’s full. Disappointed we can’t go down, we settle for taking a few photos.



Before heading back to Cripple Creek. And our hotel. Where we love strolling—the decor is so nice.

Cripple Creek and Victor. We're at nearly 3,000 meters altitude, and it's still pleasant in the sun at the end of this mid-September day. After about an hour of rest, we decide to explore these two small towns. They flourished during the gold rush. In the early 1900s, there were over 500 mining companies here. The deposits were exhausted, the gold fever faded, and these little towns became shadows of themselves, taking two very different paths.

Cripple Creek It turned to gambling and now features a main street lined with casinos, including Bronco Billy’s, and its restaurants.

And hotels.

You can still see some beautiful old facades here.

As well as some cool murals.

There are also little donkeys, descendants of those that spent their lives in the mines, but we didn’t see them.

Victor It’s only 5 km from the first town, and on the way there, we pass an open-pit gold mine still in operation.

Victor seemed more authentic to us, even more moving, though it looks more like a ghost town with its antique shops and dilapidated storefronts. Here too, there are murals.

Old cars.



A few beautiful old facades, lit by the setting sun, that speak volumes about the town’s past.





Dusk is setting in.

Not a soul on the street except for a young homeless guy and this little coyote. And a drunk man, whom a lovely antique shop owner will take care of for us. She sells bottles of alcohol and reopens her shop door, which she had already closed, to lead us to the back of her store, where a section of the wall holds gold nuggets. Victor is also known for its mining relics, which we plan to see tomorrow morning. The restaurant we’d spotted for dinner was closed, so we head to one of the casinos on the main street that also serves food. Arriving too late to visit the gold mine is the big disappointment of the day. Tomorrow, we want to walk through the mining ruins—it’ll take time, and if we visit the mine afterward, we’ll arrive too late to see the native costumes and dances, which we really want to see. Oh well, too bad about the mine, but it’s still a shame!!!

This little skyline is so cool! I saw the photo posted in the thread about roads, I think... and I located it. It’s on our upcoming itinerary leaving Denver, after Victor and Phantom Road, and before the Great Sand Dunes...

I thought the stop in Canon City was a great deal: there are 12 prisons there! In 2017, 16% of the county’s residents were behind bars, so there’s plenty of room in the hotels! Christelle

In Gunnison, the saleswoman at the Trader Post never lies!!! (she’s a friend, she doesn’t know how to lie)

hello,

I also followed this trip with pleasure—it was well illustrated, well told, and nicely spaced out, with a touch of humor! Deserves an ‘A’, maybe even an ‘A+’🙂!

Here’s my little comment, somewhat tangential, about the ‘Trade Rendezvous’ in Gunnison, where the saleswoman—who-never-lies—is a friend of Blue Mesa (shoutout to her!)

If I believe this:

www.thedenverchannel.com › news › state-news

she might not need to lie 🙂!

The shop still feels a bit like ‘catacombs’—of course, hunting trophies have always fascinated mountaineers, hunters, Americans, and others—but I think Colorado is the only state that can boast a hotel whose name harks back to the days when it was famous for its trophy collection:

History Of The Antlers | Antlers Wyndham Hotel

That said… In the regional context of the Rockies, it might be interesting to note that the word ‘rendezvous’ takes on a pretty specific meaning—it evokes an episode from the North American fur trade,

a very particular one in territories not yet American, and thus an episode predating ‘the conquest of the West’:

the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous

which leads to gatherings and reenactments in Colorado and elsewhere:

Current Rendezvous - Rocky Mountain National Rendezvous

Blue Mesa could probably tell us more!

Hi Martine, Hey, this little road brings back memories of France, this time in the Alpes-Maritimes! 😠 We definitely won’t be taking it! But I think we’ll end up in the Rocky Mountains to avoid snow in early June! We always love reading your posts, and what beautiful photos! Looking forward to reading more from you soon!

Hello 🙂 Christelle: you're right to include the Skyline in your itinerary. We loved going through it even if we were a bit nervous!!! There are also dinosaur tracks, but we didn’t look for them. If we were to do it again, we wouldn’t take the Phantom Road—it’s too time-consuming and too long. And that’s how all four of us felt. I thought I’d see remnants of the railroad or even some animals, but we didn’t see anything except a few goats and pigs. That said, if you have plenty of time, it’s still pretty and very peaceful. Jean Luc: when you see your girlfriend, say hi to her from us. Mimi had been looking for a chipmunk plush for a while, and she was thrilled to find one in that Ali Baba’s cave. Good luck with your Colorado winter! Jean Paul: thanks for my A!!! 😉 and especially for all those details and anecdotes. Good grief!! We’re going back to Colorado in September!! We’ll have to increase our life insurance premiums before we leave!!! MM: seriously, it’s worth it!!! If you pass by, climb up there for fun!!! Martine 🙂

J20 September 21. Cripple Creek-Manitou Springs. Rodeway Inn Manitou Springs: 4 people with breakfast. 300 € for two nights. Hotel 2 km from the city center and 800 m from Garden of the Gods. Very friendly welcome. Large room with refrigerator, microwave, and jacuzzi tub. We had arranged with them to hold our luggage for an early arrival, and we finally got our room at 1:30 PM. Great breakfast. Departure at 8:40 AM. Impossible to leave earlier!! Today’s leg is only 110 km Vindicator Valley Trail Road 81 Victor We’re heading back to Victor to do the loop that’ll let us walk and see the mining remnants that make it famous. It’s not quite 10 °C, but we have beautiful sunshine with no clouds. We start walking through the rusted equipment and wooden supports.





It’s nice out, pleasant but a bit repetitive!! Plus, this whole mine thing is stuck in my head!!! We were disappointed yesterday for arriving too late!!! We’ve never seen a gold mine, and we already missed the one in Deadwood!!! The first descent into the Mollie Kathleen mine is at 10 AM. What if we stopped the hike and went back there? We haven’t walked much, and we have time to go. Only DD isn’t too keen!! Come on, let’s vote!!! Three for, one against!!! Deal, we’re going back!!!! Mining remnants are everywhere.

When we arrive at the mine, the ticket booth isn’t open yet, and only 4 people are waiting. Cool!!! We’ll finally get to see this gold mine!! And since the tour lasts a little over an hour, we’ll arrive early enough to enjoy the Pow Wow. Mollie Kathleen gold mine. 1 mile N Hwy 67 Cripple Creek It was operated from 1892 to 1961 and is named after its founder, Mollie Kathleen Gortner, the first woman to own a mining claim. The tour costs $25 per person, but honestly, it’s worth it. They put a helmet on our heads, and we wait in front of the elevator.

Here we are, entering one of the two tiny historic miner cages. There’ll be 8 of us in each. We start humming: “Ah, how cramped we are at the bottom of this box, sing the sardines...” under the amused gaze of the other visitors. A bell rings, given by our guide standing on the second cage, and off we go at high speed into the darkness, 300 meters underground, in the same conditions as the old miners. At the bottom, the tour lasts over an hour and gives us a glimpse of the living conditions of those men who once extracted the precious ore from the depths of the earth. We start by walking through this maze of tunnels. The galleries have names. And as we go along, we clearly see the evolution of underground mining over time (lighting, extraction, drilling).



They went from pickaxes and shovels to electric machines.

Watch your step! Clever pulley system!





To really put us in the mood, our guide, a former miner, starts up the machines that extract the ore—deafening noise!

The tour continues with a little train ride, then we walk some more. You can’t say privacy was really preserved.

A bit of emotion as we pass the spot where the men ate their meals and where the little donkeys that pulled the carts lived.

Those poor things who only knew the depths of the mine. “From staying in the dark, the animals went blind,” the guide explains. The men weren’t much better!! With 16-hour days, by 50, they were already old!! Accidents were common.

The tour ends with a mineral exhibit, and everyone gets a small piece of ore from the mine. To go back up, we keep the same order as when we went down, and here we are back in the open air, just as quickly as we descended. What an incredible lesson in courage and survival!! Life must’ve been so hard for those men!!! Sharing a bit of their working and living conditions makes us put things into perspective (unfortunately, just for a little while!!) about our own little aches and complaints over nothing. Okay, I’ll stop!!! We’re not here to philosophize but to share our experiences!!! We finish with a quick stop at the attached shop (so expensive!!) before hitting the road again. At 11:45 AM, we leave Cripple Creek where we went back to fill up on gas. Last look at this region we really liked, and off to Manitou Springs to get to know the first inhabitants of this amazing country!!!

Well yeah, bad drivers: it's because we really love Road Kills and tastings at Road Kill cafés 😊 😜

Indeed, and that brings us back to an old discussion:

Culinary humor in America |

Cripple Creek…

First off, I want to acknowledge the respect you four have shown for the work of underground miners—those in Cripple Creek, in this case. That’s the same feeling I had as a student the first time I went "down below."

Hats off and helmets down to the miners who’ve truly earned their advantages.

To further illustrate life in the mines, here’s a photo of a manhole, (a vertical shaft) in the former small copper mine of Jordan River near Sooke, BC, which was still in operation in the 1970s.



The technological advances that allowed miners in Cripple Creek—and those in underground mines worldwide—to descend so deep (up to 4 km) have their roots in Central European mines, particularly in Saxony and Bohemia. For centuries, since the 1500s or even earlier, the Bohemians (under various political regimes) mastered underground mining better than anyone. In Bohemia, in the region of Jáchymov, for example, they’ve been the ones—since Roman times—who’ve advanced mining techniques the most. During the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Austrian Empire, and especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire, miners achieved records. Under Franz Joseph, they reached a then-record depth of 800 meters, if I remember correctly—an achievement celebrated by the Emperor himself, who was notified by telegraph and rewarded them fairly. (This comes from an oral interview with local engineers during the communist era.)

In Saxony, in 1556, the first modern mining treatise since Roman times was published in Latin for a wider audience. It was written by a certain Georg Bauer, known as Agricola, who, after spending several years in Bohemia and gaining experience in Jáchymov, returned to Saxony. In his treatise, he was the first to discuss the potential conflicts between mining and the environment.

An interesting confrontation, long before the industrial world—and one that hasn’t aged a bit!

I’ll quote (translation from one of my former bosses):

‘‘ Many quotes from ancient authors and priests claim that man can be happy without metals. The mine destroys fields, vineyards, and orchards. Miners destroy forests to obtain the wood needed for their constructions and furnaces. Waste kills river fish. Many murders and wars are due to greed. How can we deny the destructive power of gold and wealth? Finally, isn’t it unhealthy to seek what nature has taken care to hide?

In defense of mining, one must mention fishing—fish hidden in the sea, just as ores are hidden in the earth—and recall that metals are used to produce other riches. It’s also worth noting that man can no longer live without tools. But we must guard against excess: it’s the same with everything, even wine.

Metals are useful to doctors, painters, architects, merchants, and farmers…’’

However, contrary to what’s sometimes written, it was in Jáchymov, in 1716—now in the Czech Republic, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia—that the first School of Mines in Europe, and thus the world, was founded, fifty years before the one in Freiberg, Saxony.

And when you visit the underground workings of Jáchymov, now a spa town, and walk through the various galleries that have marked centuries of miners’ progress, the emotion is palpable.

For example, in front of the small sanctuary carved into the rock to house a statue of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners (among others), where miners would pray upon arriving underground for several days.

Or in front of the small niches carved into the rock walls, blackened by the smoke of oil lamps they once held, lining the oldest galleries.

But, you might ask, what on earth do the miners of old Bohemia have to do with our topic—that is, American miners (and Americans in general)?

It’s simple: they’re the origin of their currency (well, the name of their currency, at least!).

Indeed, thanks to the efforts of Bohemian miners in the early 16th century, a certain family—the Counts of Schlick—became extremely wealthy.

Count Schlick became so rich that he got a big head and started minting his own coins. Thus, in 1519, the Thaler was born, which played a major economic and financial role in Europe and beyond for four centuries and gave rise to the American dollar in 1792.

But the name "dollar" was known long before 1792, as evidenced by its use by William Shakespeare around 1611.

Interesting reading on the subject:

Origin and history of the Word Dollar and Dollar Sign (good online Google translation)

A little wink from history: today, the name Thaler remains associated with economics and finance thanks to a Nobel Prize winner, Richard Thaler.

Hi there! 🙂 More explanations!!! Thanks Jean Paul 🙂

Hello

Did you find everything?

Hey Gilles 🙂 I followed your advice and sent two emails to the admins. They were already aware. Everything’s back except what I wrote this morning, but that’s no big deal!!! Thanks for the tip! Martine 🙂

hi,

I don't know if you made a wrong move, but other discussions seem to have suffered the same temporary glitch. happy ending! 🙂

Cripple Creek - Manitou Springs We left the mine around 11:15 AM, and Manitou Springs is 65 km away. Quick stop at a store called “special Christmas decorations” not far from the toll booth that leads to the Pikes Peak road. For those who might be interested and have young kids, there’s a small amusement park right next to it. We arrived at the Rodeway Inn, where we were surprised to find our room ready, and they gave us the keys to drop off our luggage.

Rock Ledge Ranch: 3105 Gateway Road Manitou Springs Garden of the Gods is 800 meters away, and there we were at the entrance of Rock Ledge Ranch, where the Pow Wow was taking place. Our senior status meant we only paid $5 instead of $8. This ranch, which we didn’t visit, is usually a living history museum where you can discover how the inhabitants of the Pikes Peak region lived in the 19th century (reconstructed houses and demonstrations of the lifestyle of Native Americans and farmers by costumed interpreters). It organizes these Native gatherings every year for the past 10 years. The Pow Wow used to be a religious event or a celebration of war exploits. Today, it’s a festive gathering where Native Americans from different tribes come together to share their traditions, keep their cultural heritage alive, meet friends, or make new connections. There are dance demonstrations and competitions, as well as cultural, artisanal, culinary, and artistic exhibitions. When we arrived at 3 PM, everyone had been there since 10 AM. We sat on bleachers surrounding a grassy arena, and since we didn’t quite understand what the announcer was saying, we just opened our eyes and ears wide to take in the spectacle. Couples dressed in traditional clothing moved in circles to the sound of the music, but there were also others in regular clothes joining them.



Mixed couples, women, children, elders—everyone was on the dance floor, carried away by the singers and musicians.









The traditional outfits were stunning—painted faces, braided hair, beads—it was an explosion of colors and shapes. The sound of the drums and the songs in ancestral languages or rhythmic cries guided the dance movements.

The costumes were all more beautiful than the last. We were transported a thousand miles and a thousand years away from where we were, our hearts full of emotion. Next came the girls’ dances. They ran, they jumped, all with so much grace.



Some of them were downright airborne!

These photos are amazing! Mimimicha was the one who introduced us to one of these in Quebec! It's a meet-up between communities that takes place in September, apparently in gorgeous costumes! Once again, we're going to miss it! You did the right thing making the most of it! Thanks for sharing!

Pow Wow continued After the women’s performance, it was the men’s turn, with dances that seemed much more warlike to us.

























After that, we wandered through the stalls to admire the beautiful traditional crafts, and we only got positive responses when we asked them to pose for photos (okay, I’ll admit we did sneak a few shots anyway!!) They’ve got their geeks too