Cripple Creek is a former gold mining town at 9,494 feet in the Colorado Rockies, about an hour's scenic drive west from Colorado Springs. The drive takes you around the back of Pikes Peak and up near the tree line — bring layers, because snow and sunshine can happen on the same summer day.
The town boomed in the 1890s gold rush and the handsome brick main street dates from that era. Today nearly every storefront is a casino — Colorado legalised limited-stakes gambling here in 1991 — but enough of the old character survives to make it worth a visit beyond the slot machines. The Butte Opera House, perched above the firehouse, stages melodramas and musicals year-round. The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine offers underground tours of a real thousand-foot mine shaft, and the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad runs a scenic loop through the old mining district.
The Mt. Pisgah cemetery above town has panoramic views and some colourful headstones from the mining days. Ghost tours run on summer evenings. The companion town of Victor, four miles south, avoided the casino makeover entirely and preserves its 1890s streetscape largely intact — it's quieter and more authentic, and easy to combine with a visit to Cripple Creek.