Fossil hunting and Cripple Creek, CO

​June 18, 2022

It’s sprinkling this morning, the first rain I’ve seen in months and the first rain on my travels here. I had terrible Internet so I actually called my sister Carol in Florida to ask her to give me some details. It looks like it was going to be OK until noon, which then  I raced back towards Florissant on about 8 miles of dirt road in this forest to get to a private fossil hunting business. They didn’t open till 10 so I patiently waited, and I was first in line for an hour session to open up the shale, hoping to find fossils. They pared us up in teams on the picnic tables, so I got to know Ben from Maryland who moved to Colorado last year. The young man of 24 was quite charming and we had so much in common. He used to make some art and he loves to hike, and he loves the great outdoors. I was so excited to find my first good size leaf, and I let out a schoolgirl squeal and everybody laughed. I went on to find all kinds of things including pieces of bark and flies and then Ben found a small spider. Even though I don’t like live spiders. I was  thrilled with how detailed it was when you think this is 34 million years old. He gave me the mirror half of the spider so I traded him for what was a fly, or a small bee. We were having such fun that I decided to add another hour and was very tempted to add a third. So I have a nice box of fossils including another good size leaf. The weather was actually perfect. The sun was in and out, and it wasn’t too hot, and thankfully the rain held off. I would’ve stayed except I was on a mission to the next town called Cripple Creek, a mountain town known for gold mining and every day mining at 9600 foot elevation. The windy road, and my lighthead made it challenging to get here. The next challenge was finding a place to spend the night. I used every single app and resource that I own and there was nothing available except for a pullout along the highway with sketchy reviews. I decided to pursue a campground which I did for $40 a night. It was actually super quiet and I have full hook up so why not take the extra-extra long shower and I will clean out tanks and fill up tanks to get me prepared for the next week or two.


Cripple Creek was an interesting town with many beautifully restored old buildings. I visited the old jail which gave me claustrophobia, and a restored fire house. All very nicely maintained with a lot of history and nice people. The town is mostly casinos with restaurants and bars. Not really my thing but interesting to find that out here in the middle of nowhere. I did find an antique shop and a general store but did most of my walking just window shopping. I was surprised how steep the roads were and the climb up to the top of a hill not being able to see over the other side was a little unsettling. I got serval flashbacks from driving in San Francisco. They were incredibly steep and still had plenty of houses tucked around, the charming gingerbread Victorian homes and then the poorest of the poor homes. Burros are also running wild through this town, left over from the mining era, and at one point when I came out to my RV, where there were piles of poop quite close to my door. I managed to capture an image of one borro, and this just added to the charm of this whole area. It was a fun day and I now get what they mean by “Rocky Mountain high” too.















































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