After the Mollie Kathleen mine & train tours, we drove over to Victor & found the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company & drove up to have a look-see at their current operation.
Dad was enamored with the dump trucks we saw moving rocks down below us. We thought "Oh, those are big" and then we saw this little white thing go by one. When we realized that little white thing was a 1/2 ton pickup, "big" turned to "sweet fancy Moses, those trucks are monstrous!" We figure those trucks are as big as two of my houses stacked on top of each other.
See that little white thing - yeah, that's a 1/2 ton pick-em-up truck.
Dad just had fun watching those trucks move huge piles of rock around. There was also a dozer down there & said it was a D-11 Cat or something, which is the biggest dozer Caterpillar makes.
We headed up the mountain some more & saw these two deer just hangin' out by the road. I got out & tried to visit but they took off. How very rude of them... Sure were purty, though.
Up on the top of the mountain , there was an old mining site - the American Eagles. After using the binoculars to spy on more of the strip mining operation, we wandered through the buildings & equipment. Dad had me stand in front of the headframe to show it's size. Orange spot = my "I've gone to find myself. If I'm not back before I return, keep me here" t-shirt.
This was the hoist that was used to lug stuff up & down the shaft. It had huge cables that went up to the top of the headframe. Dad & I had to see if there were any moving parts, of course. Stinkin' rust...
'Twas much fun & we picked up some rocks on the way down for Mom. By the way, just so ya know, it's a felony to take rocks from a National Park. We learned that after our last trip 7-ish years ago when we returned to Kansas with our pretty souvenir rocks from Pike's Peak & Garden of the Gods. Some of them got stolen from Mom's garden & others were accidentally left at one of the old rentals.
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