We woke up at Hospitality House this morning. Damn, thar bed was COMFY!!!! I slept great! We hung out in bed until breakfast was served downstairs, where we had breakfast burritos. They were really good! And the whole thing was fun. All the guests came about the same time, and everyone was generally chatting and talking about things to do and what they did yesterday. It felt very hostel-like. So much fun! 

After going back to the room and getting our act together post breakfast, we headed to the little town of Victor, just a few miles down the road. The goal was to hike to Rita the Troll, a 1.9 mile loop just outside of town. 

SO COOL. Rita was hilarious! And we got super lucky and we were the only ones there when we arrived, which was nice. We weren’t sure how that would play out – we chose to do the whole hike instead of driving up to the upper parking lot and we’d seen several cars pass by on the road. We got to fart around quite a bit at  the troll, and we had gotten the chance at the old mining site by the upper lot as well. 

When we’d had our fill (and it took a WHILE – the views of the Sangres were AMAZING!), we closed the loop and got back to the car. We drove into town for lunch. 

We parked, and about thirty seconds later, a local guy walked by and just started talking to us. He owns the Victor Mall Hotel. He told  us about how he hopes the people from Denver who have made bank on real estate in the city come up and buy up some of the properties and hopefully revitalize the town. We talked to him for about twenty minutes, which was cool. Nice guy. 

We found lunch at Gold Camp Bakery. The sandwiches on the fresh made sourdough were HUGE! So big that we only ate half each and took the other half home. 

After lunch, we wandered around Victor a little more and shot ALL the videos and photos… Then headed back to Cripple Creek the other way so we could get a picture of the sign. 

On the way, we saw another old mine sight, and stopped there too. What the hell, right? Also super cool. This one, you could actually go inside the buildings, and the framing of the Sangres in the distance with the rusty old metal legs of the structure was just incredible. SO cool. 

Then, back to the hotel for a nap and a shower…

We were all excited to check out the Boiler Room bar over at the St. Nicholas Hotel, so we drove over and parked in the completely empty parking lot… That should’ve been our first clue. We walked around, tried the front door – it was locked…

We finally tried the back door that opened into the parking lot, and it opened. We walked in, saw a sign for the bar pointing down the stairs, and went down. It was super dark, and all the doors were closed… Weird. 

We went back upstairs and were trying to figure out what to do when a guy came out and asked if he could help us. Turns out the Boiler Room is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Dammit. We went back out to the car to reevaluate. 

We decided, screw it, the guy at the hotel mentioned the Saltgrass as a decent place – it was just at a casino and we were trying to avoid that… But whatever. Better than the Creek again. 

We parked at the Golden Nugget and went inside. Thankfully, Saltgrass had a pretty decent bar, and we ordered some drinks. The place was actually kinda cool – sort of an upscale shit-on-the-walls vibe. Good enough for a couple drinks and an appetizer, anyway. 

Afterwards, we wandered out to the casino floor and stuck a $20 in a slot machine… We played a bit, then switched machines once or twice… Matt told me I’m the lucky one and I spun a bit. At one point I told him if we went over $20 we were done… And then I won more than $17, putting us at $33.75! Ha! We cashed out and ran while we were ahead! Well, Matt got kind of annoyed, but screw it, we beat the casino!

We went back to the hotel and went to bed. 

Breakfast the next day was another burrito for me and biscuits and gravy for Matt. He said they were really good, and so was my burrito…

We chilled for a bit after eating (there was zero hurry to get anywhere), packed up our stuff, and headed out. 

We found the hike we were going to do on the way home and parked the car… Matt swore we’d done this hike before, I didn’t have any recollection. But maybe. There was a big door that looked like it went into a mine at the trailhead, maybe he remembered seeing that door. I don’t know. 

Anyway, the trail was snowy, but packed down enough we didn’t need snowshoes or spikes. We we headed to Horsetheif Falls… 

I love waterfalls. Until they’re under so much snow that all they look like is a pile of rocks with snow on them. It was ridiculously anticlimactic. Still nice to stretch our legs, though. 

When we were finished, we got back in the car and drove home, arriving early enough to do laundry and chill for the afternoon. 

The end. 

Here’s the video: