An Old West town made of ice, with slides, firehouses and miners.   Cripple Creek, Colorado has that and more.   The Colorado Traveling Ducks traveled southwest of Denver, into the mountains, to the old mining town of Cripple Creek.   Yesterday was the last day of the Ice Festival.

Wow.   This is a “cool” train.   Small humans are having fun on the ice slide.

They sit on a piece of cardboard and slide down.   If necessary, bales of straw stop them at the end.   This could be a scene in the Old West.

An important part of old towns is the Saloon.

Let’s go in.   This is a well stocked bar.

And, mining towns need a diligent prospector.

We really like him.   Without cars, horses were the major form of transportation.

Guess we are going back to the Saloon.   Even in the Old West towns, the sheriff was needed.   There were always some characters wanted by the law.

Before cows, the buffalo did roam.

Just in case, the Firehouse was ready.

Now that scoundrel, Soapy Smith Duck, is sitting on a big boot.

Careful, that spur can do damage.   Leaving the ice sculptures, we sat in the caboose.

This is nice.   Hey, look at the wooden swing.

These are logs for log homes.    Swings are so much fun.   Here we have Sangria, from http://www.whatwelove.com

Michael Hasler is the owner and winemaker.    Time to eat.   Grammies Desserts have less to sell now.

Moms are buying lots and it looks so good.   We also bought warm, homemade tamales here.   Yum!   Cripple Creek Ice Festival is great and we love it.   As the sun begins to get lower in the sky, we enter Century Casino.

Twenty-five years ago gambling was legalized in Cripple Creek.   The casinos are not allowed to build huge new casinos.   The historic buildings now are casinos.   This makes the town retain the Old West look and atmosphere.  Video poker is the game of choice today.

The moms have a good time.   Some hands they win and some they lose.   We ducks are fascinated with video poker.   Soon the humans are finished, cash out the winnings, and head for the bar.   A bag of popcorn, a hot dog and diet Cokes are just what we wanted.   Great festival food.   Visit Cripple Creek soon.   This is a great town and they have great festivals.