Summer Trip 2018, Mueller State Park near Cripple Creek, CO

Mueller State Park

Mueller State Park is located high up in the Rocky Mountains at 9,600 feet just north of  Cripple Creek, CO. Mueller State Park is one of the nicest state parks in Colorado with electric, water, clean restrooms and beautiful views of the Pikes Peak range. 

Our Campsite at Mueller State Park

Our site was expansive with granite boulders framing our campsite

Visitors Center has extensive displays and an auditorium

Comfort Station with coin laundry and pay showers

Mueller State Park has great hiking trails. We took day hikes each of the three days we camped out here. Each one was unique with beautiful views of mountain valleys and Pikes Peak mountain range to the east of the park  

Views from the Wipita Nature Trail near the Visitors Center at Mueller State Park

The Lost Still Trail, a 1.6 mile trail, was a pleasant hike with views of the Lost Cabin, a abandoned structure that was used by ranchers many years ago.

The Lost Cabin 

View of the Pikes Peak mountain range from Lost Cabin

The Peak View Trail was a 2.1 mile trail that looped around through mountain meadows and groves of Ponderosa Pine. We ended up at Lost Pond not far from where we parked our car at the start of our hike.

View of the Pikes Peak from the Peak View Trail

Mountain Meadows common on the Peak View Trail

This wild flower was interesting glistening in the summer sun

Beautiful Mountain wild flowers were all around us in the meadows

Horse back rider we meet on the trail who enjoys riding in these beautiful mountians

Lost Pond

My final hike the last day of our stay at Mueller State Park was a one mile round trip up to Grouse Mountain. The views from up at the top of the 9,843 foot summit were spectacular.

Highest point in Mueller State Park

View of Pikes Peak from the Grouse Mountain Overlook

Close up with my zoom lens of the visitors center at the summit of Pikes Peak

You could see for miles from the summit of Grouse Mountain

We took a afternoon trip to Cripple Creek to explore this old gold mining town with casinos that line the town's main street. We enjoyed a ride on the narrow gauge railroad, The Cripple Creek and Victor RR, that runs along the ridges past old and current gold mining operations.

The Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge RR

One of the trains returning from the run through the mountain ridges

The gambling town of Cripple Creek as seen from the rails

Old abandoned mine

Large active strip mine near Victor, CO as seen from the rails.

During our visit at Cripple Creek we stopped at the Heritage Museum located on the outskirts of the town overlooking some of old abandoned gold mines and one active oned, the Mollie Kathleen gold mine. Visitors can tour the Mollie Kathleen gold mine which is a treat that I was not able to do as we were limited for time during our visit.  

The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine

Hill side view of the Mollie Kathleen gold mine

We will come back to Mueller State Park in our future visits to this area. It is always nice to spend time here to cool off before returning to the hot and humid FL. The highs during our visit were in the mid 70's with lows in the 50's making for great sleeping weather and lovely hiking conditions.

Double Rainbow the last night at Mueller State Park