A Troll, a Gold Mining Town and a Sunset

A bit cool today when the sun was not out but still a pretty good day. 

Martha and I drove the Honda CRV down Colorado highway 67 towards the town of Victor, Colorado. 

Back during the Gold Rush days, this town was a booming area with gold miners trying their luck in the nearby hills. 

But we were looking for a troll named Rita. There's a short trail starting from the American Eagles gold mine's location off of highway 67. 

Some pretty impressive infrastructure remains of the gold mine, you can see the scaffolding that supported the elevator for the carts filled with gold ore that were drawn up from the bowels of the Earth. 

A short walk down a rocky trail and there was the troll, Rita: 

This is Rita's view

We return to the town of Victor to look around: 

Local lore suggests Nikola Tesla personally wired the Black Monarch Hotel for electricity in 1899, hence this unexpected mural as one drives into town.

Back in October of 2007, I rode Maria, my R1150RT Beemer through Victor and got this shot of her and a painted Elk statue:

Today, we posed by the same elk, at least I think it's the same one:

Today's moto content:

Zundapp!

Enroute back to our camp, we stopped to check out an old railroad tunnel at the Horsethief Trailhead.

The short tunnel is blocked off by metal portals, but you can see the interior construction from back in the day I guess. 

We relax back at the campsite, had a great dinner and then walked the short way to the campgrounds amphitheater to catch the sunset: 

I liked how the sun caught the top of the Aspen tree