🚗 Day Trips
$$ Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek, CO 80813
A historic 19th-century gold-mining town turned mountain casino destination — Victorian buildings, donkeys roaming Main Street, and one of Colorado's prettiest mountain drives to get there.
About an hour southwest via Highway 24 and Highway 67 — the drive over Tenderfoot Hill is half the experience. The town’s Main Street is preserved Victorian-era, and the local herd of wild donkeys that roam free in summer is a real thing, not a marketing gimmick.
Don’t miss the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine Tour (descends 1,000 ft into the mountain) or the Cripple Creek Heritage Center. The casinos are mostly small-stakes and friendly — a few hours of penny slots and a chuckwagon dinner is the move.