A Day Out

Today we drove Stagecoach Rd. to Gold Camp Rd. up to Cripple Creek.  It was the perfect day to get out and see brilliant gold Aspen trees as they turn.

Both of these roads are dirt with wash boards in areas.   Couple of sections will really rattle your teeth. Gold Camp has narrow sections and narrow blind curves making passing oncoming traffic challenging.  Considerable traffic kicking up dust, as soon as we got home I rinsed off the truck as it was covered.

Along the way we stopped at Saint Peters Dome trail.  It’s an out and back trail with a distance of 1.6 miles, a 620 feet elevation gain and is rated easy.   You get an awesome view of downtown Colorado Springs and beyond in addition to the surrounding peaks.

Further on down we stopped off along a small stream to take some pictures.  We stacked a few rocks and enjoyed the sound of the rushing water.  We came across several nice campsites and boy I really got the bug.   I just don’t know that it will happen anytime soon.   I have a lot going on with work and some travel coming up in the next week.

We found our way into Cripple Creek and parked.  Walked the street past several of the casinos and found a burger shop.   We were both hungry as it was now a little after 4PM.  With our stops it took us about 5 hours to get there.   We did stop into one casino and we put a $20.00 into a slot machine.  Cashed it out five minutes later for $25.60. 

The Aspen trees were in full color, from brilliant gold and fiery orange and reds.  This was the perfect time to be out if you wanted to see this spectacular display of color before the leaves fall.

I have been working hard to get my miles in.  Doing pretty good this month, as of today I am up to 73 miles and still have a couple days left.  I have a bunch of vacation time that I need to take or I am going to lose it.   So yesterday I took advantage of that and scheduled a day off.   I would say more of a morning off.  

We headed out of the house just a little after 7AM and headed to the trail head.  We did a 5 mile hike up over the mountain and back.  The first part of this hike is a 960 ft incline in the first 1 mile, it’s a real breath taker.  Once you get to the top, you follow the ridge so you have some decent views of the city.   Mable went with us and she walked the entire way.   For most of the hike she was off leash, there was about a mile of road that she needed it.  This was great hike and a decent work out me.