In keeping with my goal of trying to hike in parts of the
state I haven’t walked in before, with a couple days of nice weather in the
forecast I decided to head south to hike Greenhorn Peak, the highest mountain
in the Wet Range . I probably could have done it as a day trip, but taking
things leisurely and seeing a few sights along the way always makes travel more
enjoyable. So instead of taking the Interstate south, I drove into the
mountains on Route 285 and then south on forest service roads on the west side
of the Rampart Range to Teller County.

Teller County lies directly west of Colorado Springs and
Pike’s Peak. The towns of Cripple Creek and Victor were the center of one of
Colorado’s early gold mining areas and now constitute a significant historic
district. Cripple Creek has been spruced up over the last 15 years or so as one
of three towns in Colorado to have casino gambling, but Victor remains in a
state of atmospheric decay. I knew I’ve passed through Cripple Creek before,
but can’t recall ever being through Victor, a town nice to walk around and
overlook from the mining zone on the hill above it. I’m not one to gamble, but
the casinos in Cripple Creek are a good place to get a full tummy at reasonably
priced buffets.

I also made a stop at Florissant Fossil Beds National
Monument, a National Park System unit which contains (as you would expect from
its name) fossilized trees from ancient redwoods back many millions of years
ago when the region was volcanic. There’s not much to do besides a paved loop
walk trail, but it’s free on my annual pass and nice to see again a place I
visited probably about 17 years ago.