Why do the giant ornaments on the old gallows frames above Victor go dark on a Tuesday night in December? Because someone has to drive out, fuel a generator, and connect the line power, and those people are volunteers who do it on weekends.
The Southern Teller County Focus Group, the nonprofit behind the holiday headframe lighting, says the lights will be up "Friday-Sunday nights Thanksgiving weekend through New Year's Day, weather/safety and volunteers permitting." The tradition goes back to 1998, and how it runs explains when you can see it, where you have to stand, and why it lasts at all.
A display built from donations
Most of the headframes sit on Newmont CC&V property, and the company sponsors the lighting. The rest is pieced together. The STCFG project page gives the group the hands-on work: "placing, fueling, maintaining generators, marketing, and organizing the lighting of several sites where ornaments and holiday signs are located." The materials come from around the district.
| What the display needs | Who provides it |
|---|---|
| Electric power | City of Victor and the Cripple Creek District Museum |
| Gas for the generators | CC&V and the City of Cripple Creek |
| Lights and wiring | CC&V |
| Everything else | STCFG's budget, funded by public donations |
The group behind it is small. STCFG is a Colorado 501(c)(3) whose work covers recreation, historic preservation, and mining education. The same group that maintains the district's trails and interpretive signs also hangs the ornaments. When The Gazette traced the event's history in 2019, it reported that the lights grew out of local marketing talks about drawing holiday visitors. STCFG later took on the organizing, and mine volunteers stepped in to help.
The group's own event page describes the weekly work plainly:
"Volunteers staff the generators and line power connections each weekend."
That is the reason for the Friday-to-Sunday schedule, and the reason "weather/safety and volunteers permitting" is part of it. A snowy Saturday on a mine road is a real limit when a person has to get to the generator.
The 2026 calendar, night by night
The 2026 calendar on VictorColorado.com lists the headframe lighting from Nov. 28 through Jan. 1. STCFG frames the start as Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26 this year, and New Year's Day lands on a Friday, so the Friday-to-Sunday pattern works out to these weekends:
| Weekend | Nights the lights are scheduled |
|---|---|
| Thanksgiving weekend | Fri., Nov. 27 to Sun., Nov. 29; the Victor calendar lists Nov. 28 as its start |
| Second | Fri., Dec. 4 to Sun., Dec. 6 |
| Third | Fri., Dec. 11 to Sun., Dec. 13 |
| Fourth | Fri., Dec. 18 to Sun., Dec. 20 |
| Christmas weekend | Fri., Dec. 25 to Sun., Dec. 27 |
| Final night | Fri., Jan. 1 |
Every one of those nights depends on weather, safety, and volunteers. Christmas night and New Year's night both fall on Fridays this season, so they are on the schedule, but they are also nights when volunteers have their own family plans.
The headframes you hike by day are closed at night
The structures carrying the ornaments are the same 1890s headframes many people know from walking the Vindicator Valley Trail. STCFG says the trail areas around the Theresa, Vindicator, American Eagles, and Independence mines are handicap accessible and open year-round. The 2-mile Vindicator Valley loop has two trailheads, one across from Goldfield and one at the Vindicator Mine on Teller County Road 831.
The STCFG hiking page also says this: "All trails are open dawn to dusk only, no night time access is allowed for safety reasons." The trails close at dusk, just as the ornaments switch on.
So the lights are meant for a drive. STCFG says they are "best viewed from public roads around the district after dark." In its December 2025 holiday lights roundup, The Gazette named Highway 67 and Teller County Road 81 as the best viewing routes. The Colorado Sun's trail listing points to the same two roads and confirms the Vindicator headframe is among those that get lit. STCFG has posted a 2026 self-guided map for the drive.
The ornaments are large, some as tall as 20 feet, so they read well from a car window. The designs have varied over the years. The 2019 Gazette feature described a big snowflake among the decorations near the Hoosier Mine headframe above Cripple Creek and a dove on the Vindicator headframe. The 2026 map is the guide to this year's sites.
Using one Saturday for both views
Since the trails close when the lights come on, a winter Saturday in Victor works best as two outings: the headframes up close in daylight, then the same frames lit from the road. Here's one way to fit it together when friends or family are in town:
- Late morning on the trail. Walk the Vindicator Valley loop from the Goldfield trailhead or the Vindicator Mine trailhead on County Road 831 and read the interpretive signs about the district's mines, railroads, and gold rush towns. The trails sit near 10,000 feet, and STCFG asks hikers to consider whether they're fit for that elevation.
- Afternoon at the museum. The Victor Lowell Thomas Museum at 298 Victor Ave. is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends in November and on December weekends through Jan. 2, 2027, weather allowing. Its modern Cripple Creek & Victor mine tours ran Thursday through Sunday through October, and the CC&V mine tours page shows no availability for November.
- An early dinner on Victor Avenue. The Mining Claim 1899 at 315 Victor Ave. is listed as open daily from noon to 9 p.m. Dirty Sally's Pizzeria at 306 W. Victor Ave. is listed Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., though its posted hours have changed before. The Victor Hotel at 321 Victor Ave. promotes its Victor Lounge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and has a bar. Winter hours in a small town can change week to week, so call ahead.
- After dark, the drive. Bring the STCFG map and follow Highway 67 and County Road 81.
For a morning start, Gold Camp Bakery at 112 S. 3rd St. is listed Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It works for breakfast before the trail. It won't be open for dinner before the drive.
Dec. 11 puts two traditions on one night
One date on the calendar doubles up. Victor's Parade of Lights & Santa at the Elks is set for Friday, Dec. 11, and that's also the first night of the third headframe weekend. Victor Elks Lodge #367 is at 3rd and Diamond Avenue. Check the city's event listings for the start time as the date nears. A family could catch the parade in town and then head out on Highway 67 to see the frames lit above the district.
The final scheduled lighting is Friday, Jan. 1, and the museum's last winter weekend day is Saturday, Jan. 2. After that, the frames go back to being daytime landmarks along the trail.
What keeps the lights on
STCFG's budget comes from public donations, along with what the cities, the museum, and CC&V contribute. The group's about page explains its broader work for anyone who wants to support it or find out how to volunteer. The weekend schedule exists because of the people who fuel those generators, so the number of weekend nights depends on how many of them show up.
If having family over for the headframe lights has you wondering what your own place in the district is worth, High Country Realty can put together a current, local valuation for you. Get Your Home Valuation, and we'll walk you through the numbers before the new year.
