Wildwood Casino & Gold King Mountain Hotel

Cripple Creek is on old mining town and is 1 of 3 little towns allowed to have gambling - slot machines & tables - in Colorado.  All the casinos are small, quiant and about an hours drive from Colorado Springs. It is about 11,000 feet above sea level and the views are like we are at the top of the world with a long snow covered mountain range off in the distance.

We made a last minute decision to go up to stay over night.  I called a few different hotels and confirmed at the Gold King Mountain Hotel.  We have stayed here before with points earned, so it was free.  But this time we had to pay $72.00 and had a lovely room on the 2nd floor.  It was as nice as any hotel we have stayed at all over the country.  Even had a mint on the pillows!  The rate included a free buffet breakfast = value $15.00 for the 2 of us. The hotel is off site from the casino and there is a shuttle to go anywhere in the town.

The 1st call I made for reservations was to the hotel at the Midnight Rose /JP McGill's / Brass Ass.  I was told the rate was $92.00 plus a $50.00 security deposit.  I asked what for and he said incidentals.  Needless to say I was taken aback.  Can't remember ever staying any place that required a deposit like that.  Me - "What incidentals"?  He couldn't give me a valid answer.  So I told him that eventuality they have had theft and damage to the rooms and now require that deposit.  Since that is the case it was not anyplace I wanted to stay.

We had a lovely time, I won $121 on a Phantom of the Opera penny slot machine at the Century Casino. A short trip like that, for less than 24 hours, is a great mini vacation without having to go so far from home.

We have many Casino related items available in my eBay store (Herbscraftsgifts.com) under the title Casino

Black Hawk, CO

This last weekend we drove up to Allenspark, which is just south of Estes Park. My daughters wedding is coming up at Wild Basin Lodge on 7/3. Since they live in Chicago we went to check out a few things for them. 

There is still a lot of snow in the high country.  This is Meeker Peak and we were over 8000 feet above sea level along this road. 

On the way home we stayed overnight at the new Ameristar Hotel in Black Hawk, one of 3 gambling towns in Colorado.  

All 3 towns were mining towns back in the day and still have the old west feel. 




We played the penny slots at the Ameristar, Isle of Capri and Fortune Valley in Central City which is just a mile from Black Hawk. The only real new machine we found at all of them was a community Wizard of Oz.  Most of the others are not anything very new or different.  The penny machines minimum bet is 30 cents or more.  

 The hotel room was one of the nicest we have ever stayed in.  Especially nice when we had a coupon for a drastically reduced room rate.  ;-))


We walked away with enough to pay for our trip, hotel, food and had left over too!! So we will be looking for more of those machines next time we go up there or to Cripple Creek which is only an hour from our house. 

Cripple Creek, Colorado Turquoise

Cripple Creek, Colorado has been a gold mining town since the 1800's.  The town remains but there is new 'gold ' there now.  It is one of 3 towns in Colorado that is allowed to have gambling. 

It is located on the west side of Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains.

One of the existing mines also has a high quality, very old turquoise. The colors range from typical bright turquoise, teal, light blue, green and pea green, with lots of matrix.

This mine is owned by a couple who dig it by hand. 

After the material is removed it is tumbled in a large tumbler to remove loose dirt.

This nugget still has excess material on it and will be hand ground then polished before it can be worked into a piece of jewelry.

The grinder and polisher

 

Bundling the sterling silver wire wrapping.

The shaping of the wrap and loop for the top.

The finished wrapped nugget.

We have been lucky enough to meet one of the jewelers who obtain their stones from the Bad Boys Turquoise Mine.  They process it by alittle more tumbling, grinding and polishing each gem by hand. 

Now we are proud to present their finished work and have some of their finest pieces listed on eBay. Just click the link to see these very attractive pendants and necklaces.   Shop for Turquoise Cripple Creek Jewelry