Cripple Creek's Second Peak: What Bennett Avenue Looks Like After the Donkeys Head Home

The banners come down the Monday after Donkey Derby Days, the pack burros drift back up to the hills above town, and for about ten days Bennett Avenue exhales. If you live here, you know the feeling. You also know it doesn't last. By the fourth week of July the calendar loads back up, only now the crowd is different: fewer selfie sticks, more show cars, more fair trailers, more of your neighbors.

That reshuffle is the argument of this piece. Late July into early August is the town's second peak, and it behaves nothing like the June rush. Here is how the next few weekends actually shape up, room by room and block by block, from someone who watches this street for a living.

The next three weekends, in order

The 2026 Cripple Creek events calendar puts the Teller County Fair from Friday, July 24 through Sunday, August 2, the Colorado Z-Fest Car Show on Saturday, July 25 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the Rocky Mountain Rambler 500 on Colorado Day, Saturday, August 1. Stacked together, that is three back-to-back weekends where you can either surrender the errands or plan around them.

A note on Z-Fest that only matters if you drive Bennett on a Saturday morning: the car show packs the street between roughly 9 and 2:30, which means if you need groceries or a post office run, do it before 8:30 or plan on parking behind Chamonix and walking in. The Rambler 500 the following Saturday is a rally, not a static show, so the disruption is shorter but rowdier.

The Butte's summer slot, and why it matters this year

The 2026 professional season is presented in partnership with Chameleon Arts & Entertainment and Green Glass Productions, two Colorado Springs-based production companies led by Betsy McClenahan and Nicholas Charles Madson. The season opener, "Under the Colorado Moon," a classic melodrama with an original script by Chris Sorensen produced by Chameleon Arts & Entertainment, ran June 12 through July 12, so if you were waiting on locals-recommend-locals, you missed it. What comes next in the announced slate is "Dames at Sea," followed by "Sweeney, The Demon Barber of Cripple Creek," and "The Winter Wonderettes" to close the year.

Sweeney is worth flagging early because it is not a revival. Green Glass Productions is staging the world premiere of a brand-new Halloween melodrama set in Cripple Creek during the gold rush, written by Chris Sorensen and taking inspiration from the story of Sweeney Todd, and it features Mrs. Loveland of Loveland's Tavern, bodies hidden in vats of chili, and the tagline that in Cripple Creek, justice, like chili, is best served hot. If you have a house guest coming in October and you want them to see something they cannot see anywhere else, book that one now, not in September.

Practical detail worth keeping in your phone: the Butte is an 1890s opera house at 139 E. Bennett Ave., extensively refurbished in 1999 with Victorian-era wallpaper, period chandeliers, and modern sound and projection, seating 184 with a 1,350-square-foot stage and cabaret-style tables alongside traditional auditorium rows. The cabaret tables sell first. If you want them, buy early in the run, not the week of.

Where locals actually eat when Bennett fills up

Cripple Creek added a genuinely new dining layer in the last two years, and the routing question for residents has changed with it. Chamonix, whose materials and details reflect the historic buildings that line Bennett Avenue mostly dating back to 1896, is a nine-story, 440,650-square-foot property that brought the first luxury guestrooms and suites to town. What that means at street level is five different rooms to choose from without leaving the block.

980 Prime Steakhouse is where James Beard-pedigreed chef Barry S. Dakake brings Las Vegas artistry to Rocky Mountain warmth; Don Juan's Cocina runs bold, authentic Mexican; Nonamè is a hidden speakeasy for those who know where to look; the Home Café next door at Bronco Billy's is the local favorite; and the Hotel Lobby Bar & Café pours Lavazza coffee, espresso drinks, and pastries from 6 a.m. daily. That last one is the sleeper. If you have never treated the Lobby Bar as your Tuesday-morning coffee stop, try it once on a fair week when Bennett is jammed and you need somewhere with a chair, a decent espresso, and no line at the register.

Nonamè is the room that changes your night out. It is not on Google Maps in a helpful way and there is no exterior sign screaming at you, which is the point. Ask at the Rendezvous Bar and someone will walk you over. Take out-of-town family there once and they will stop telling you Cripple Creek is only casinos.

Home Café stays open through fair traffic and works well when the Chamonix side is on a wait. If you are meeting someone off the highway at an odd hour, that is your default.

The donkey herd, once the derby crowd is gone

The free-roaming donkeys are the town's most photographed residents and also the most misunderstood. The herd is believed to be distant relatives of the original donkeys from the town's Gold Rush days, and they do not vanish when the June festival ends. They spend the rest of the summer working the same three or four blocks they always have, generally uphill of Bennett in the mornings and down toward the shade by mid-afternoon.

Two things to keep in mind if you have moved here recently. First, they are not livestock in the pet sense. They are a managed herd with people who look after them, and feeding them anything from your kitchen is a fast way to make yourself unpopular at the next town meeting. Second, they are the single best answer to "what should we do with the kids on a Sunday morning when nothing is open yet." Walk two blocks, find a donkey, done.

A note on where the money is going

The town-scale story under all of this is worth naming plainly. Chamonix was a $250 million project delivering what its developer billed as the first luxury guest rooms in the Cripple Creek market, blending the comfort and charm of Colorado with European elegance. The on-site amenity mix includes a state-of-the-art spa, full-service salon, outdoor heated rooftop pool, the Winter Garden outdoor steam room, and elegant meeting and conference space, with the spa and salon crafted around Victorian influences that nod to Cripple Creek's storied past.

For a homeowner, what that translates to is a shift in what the town sells to visitors. The casino-day-trip identity is still here. Layered on top of it is a destination-weekend identity, and the destination-weekend visitor books a fair Saturday, a rodeo weekend, or a Butte show months in advance. That is the mechanism that makes late July and August behave like a second peak instead of a shoulder season.

A working weekend template for the rest of summer

If you want a default plan you can copy for any of the next three weekends, it looks like this. Saturday morning coffee and a pastry at the Lobby Bar & Café before Bennett fills. Walk down to whichever anchor event is running, the fair grounds or the car show or the rally staging. Late lunch off the strip at Home Café. If you have tickets, an early Butte show. Dinner at Don Juan's Cocina or, for a bigger occasion, 980 Prime. A nightcap at Nonamè if you can find the door.

That routing works whether you have lived here for six months or thirty years. The point is that the town gives you two very different experiences in a six-week window, and the residents who know the difference get the better one.

Move here, live here, sell here

The Case Advantage watches this calendar the way other agents watch the MLS, because the rhythm of a Cripple Creek year is part of what a house in this town actually is. If you are thinking about buying, selling, or just want to talk through what your block looks like in five years given everything opening on Bennett Avenue, The Case Advantage would be glad to hear from you. Schedule a consultation and let's talk about your next move.