Donkey Derby Days

Joel and I have been trying to take advantage of some of the free or low cost local events around Colorado this summer. We were scoping out possibilities for this weekend and we stumbled upon this golden nugget of fun ....

That's right, there's an annual Donkey Derby in Cripple Creek!!! And, yes, this sculpture is made completely of sand! It was pretty amazing!

So, what is a Donkey Derby you ask? Well, we asked ourselves the same question and decided to go and find out for ourselves. It turns out that there are many fun things to do at Donkey Derby Days! They closed off the main street in Cripple Creek and the whole street was full of craft vendors and food vendors and knock-off purse vendors :) ... and donkeys, of course!!!!

We spent the whole morning walking down the street looking at all the treasures and eating fabulous food. I even found a vendor who was selling my FAVORITE potato twists .... you know the ones .... they take a potato and cut it into a long strip using a power tool and then dump it into a hot pot of oil and fry it up!!!! It's so yummy and I can only find them at these kind of events ... reason #1 to return next year!

Around noon we were treated to a parade with horses and mules and old fashioned cars and bagpipe bands and fire trucks!!! It was pretty cool and, now that I think about it, I think that was the first parade the kids had ever seen.

All of these cars were from 1930-1931. There were probably at least 10 of them, but these are a couple of the coolest ones.

Mules!







Look at the size of this MULE!!!! That thing was HUGE!!

There was a long procession of horses and they left some very smelly treats behind. Gabe was holding his nose like this and waving to all of the riders at the same time.

The kids also got to ride their first carnival ride. I was sure Isabel was going to get on the thing and start screaming in terror, but she LOVED it and all we heard were giggles for the first several rotations!





As we were walking to our car, we got to witness the finish of the actual Donkey Derby!





Boy, does that guy look beat or what?? He was dripping with sweat and using the donkey for support as he walked across the finish line! Apparently the Donkey Derby isn't for the birds.

The kids had a great time and we got to see some pretty cool stuff! It was a great day spent in the mountains with the donkeys!!

HEE-HAW