PHANTOM CANYON AND SHELF ROAD – VICTOR AND CRIPPLE CREEK CO

 On Sept 18 we had a great day trip on the Gold Belt Tour roads north of Canon City. We took Phantom Canyon road up to Victor, the  heart of a gold mining district. Almost all of the road is on the roadbed of the Florence & Cripple Creek Railroad which carried gold ore down the Eightmile Canyon to Florence CO for processing. The canyon was prone to flooding, and the grandfather of many floods in the canyon 100 years ago took out 16 bridges. The roadbed was not rebuilt and rails were torn out in 1915.  I love driving back country roads on old railroad beds as the curves are gentle and grades easy. (These pictures were taken by a Samsung 5 mp Digimax D 53 camera.)

Back Country Byways designated by the BLM are on paved or unpaved roads generally passable to ordinary cars.  We saw a grader smoothing the road as we neared Victor.

 

 

Here a car was exiting the first tunnel.

 

 

And here is the second tunnel.

This sign gives the brief history of the railroad completed in May 1894. It was the first to reach the Cripple Creek mining district.

And here is the only remaining bridge of the F&CC.

The aspens were beginning to change colors, more so in the higher elevations than the lower. The light area on the center left skyline is some of the overburden from the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company open pit mine between Victor and Cripple Creek.

 

 

DO NOT TRESPASS on the Strong Mine. It is near the open pit gold mine which may someday encompass it.

Left side of the pit.

Can you pick the mine trucks hauling ore or overburden here? This is the middle  part of the open pit. We could hear the roar of the engine exhausts this far away from them. The gold is extracted using a leaching system.

And here is still more to the right of the middle view.

These aspens at over 10,000 ft. elevation are turning quite nicely, from green to yellow-green to yellow/orange. These shots were taken from the American Eagles Scenic Overlook accessed  from county road 831 north of Victor. The access to the overlook was changed from our visit about 5 years ago.

 

After walking around downtown Cripple Creek (seeing mainly casinos) we found the Shelf Road to return to  Canon City. The road  follows Fourmile Canyon and the above is quite typical of the upper parts – broad, smooth and easy. Lower parts were steeper and had more curves. A sign advises that the road is best for 4 wd and high clearance trucks (pickups). I would not hesitate to drive a car on the road. I would prefer to drive up the road rather than down because of the steepness in the lower southern part,

 

   Window Rock loomed above the road.

 

Close up of  Window Rock

 

Many miles of the road were on a shelf like this one. When narrow there were wider spots for meeting opposing traffic. We did not need 4 wd low anywhere on the road. The last 8 miles into Canon City were paved.