Colorado Springs - Royal Gorge

Well, we're finally down to the last day of our trip to Colorado, and not a day too soon - there's just so much I need to blog about that's been stacking up for the last two weeks!

Last Saturday Agnes and I drove about an hour southwest of Colorado Springs to the town of Canon City to visit the famous Royal Gorge. This is an amazingly beautiful, thousand-foot deep gorge cut by the Arkansas River and spanned by the world's longest single-span suspension bridge. We actually saw the sights from two perspectives: first from the Royal Gorge Railroad train along the river at the bottom of the gorge, and then from the bridge far above.

Here's a sign at the top which offers a little history...

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. We first drove to Canon City to ride the Royal Gorge Railroad through the gorge. We opted for the most expensive tickets, buying seats in one of the VistaDome observation cars...

In this picture, you can also see the open car in front of the VistaDome car - this was for unobstructed photography, and (as you will see) we made good use of it. Our seats in the car were perfect - right in the front, offering great views all around...

The train wound its way through the gorge and back, passing magnificent vistas of the towering rock walls, the Arkansas River, and the Royal Gorge Bridge itself far above...

After passing through the gorge, the train stopped to wait for clearance for the return visit, then headed back to Canon City down the same route. Along the way, we passed many groups of white-water rafters working their way down the river, some more successfully than others...

After returning to the station at Canon City, we hit the gift shop (of course), then drove about ten miles to the site of the Royal Gorge Bridge itself. This was one of our first views of the bridge as we arrived, taken from a point near the boarding location for the aerial tram...

And here's the aerial tram...
I'm not particularly fond of heights, and so we didn't ride the tram. In fact, I wasn't really thrilled about walking over the bridge, either...intellectually, I knew it was perfectly safe, but it bounces and sways alarmingly as you walk (or ride across), and the gorge 1,053 feet below is visible through the gaps between the wooden planks of the bridge deck as you walk across. Agnes, far more adventurous than I, dragged me across the bridge and back. I don't look too terrified, do I? ...

And it was my braver-than-I Agnes who went right to the edge of the bridge and took this picture - straight down - of the train we'd ridden earlier in the day.

Here's another picture of the entire bridge, taken from Point Sublime on the far side...

And, of course, while the scenery is wonderful, you can just never find a bathroom when you need one...
There are lots and lots of other pictures, including some of the staged Old West-style gunfight at the park on the far side of the bridge, but time has run out and I need to get ready for work. I'll just add one more picture, though, in honor of Amanda. She's been blogging about the choking haze that covers Palembang (and most of Indonesia) at this time of year. I suggested looking at the bright side - the gorgeous sunsets such haze can provide. This is a view of a Colorado sunset, courtesy of the wildfires burning in California ...

Tomorrow, we're back to the usual commentary. For now, work looms on the horizon.

Sigh.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo