Cripple Creek is a former mining town not too far out of Colorado Springs. A City that made many millionaires and kept many paupers in the late 1800s, it is fascinating and quirky and fun to visit.

Until the late 1990s it was a charming place – jewelry stores, saloons, old mining-type stores – just a place you would want to wander and stroll on a weekend afternoon. But within the last decade or so, Cripple Creek was changed into a gambling town, and all of the quaint and interesting shops have become casinos.

Still a unique hamlet that is fun to visit, I recently packed the nieces and grandkids in the car and made a little trip ‘up the mountain’ to check on one of my listings. The kids were totally enamored with the quaintness of the houses and the buildings and the inhabitants of the town. Actually, it is quite difficult to drive down the street, as is evidenced by the following picture. If you slow down for a stop sign, you are swarmed. This is a picture of the lady who stopped at the opposing stop sign . . . the kids were enthralled.

Tragically, one of these fellas was killed the following day by a driver who didn’t slow down for the swarm.