Royal Gorge from a Train

Sunday May 10th Bev and I hit the road early for a trip to the Royal Gorge in Canon City, CO

It was a nice scenic ride down Highway 115 where we picked up highway 50 west to Canon City. Where ever we drive in Colorado the scenery is spectacular. Our first stop was at the Royal Gorge Scenic Railway which runs out to the edge of the gorge for viewing from above. As you can see this was not a large train but fun to ride. The train holds quite a group but there was only 4 of us on board as you can see from the empty seats.

The train traveled across the fields until we reached the gorge. We are approaching the gorge up ahead.

You can see the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge looming over the gorge in the distance. (I you click on the photo go get the full size view.)

We viewed the gorge from this platform on the edge of the gorge.

There goes a group of rafters down the wild Arkansas River.

We had fun on the kiddie train but now it was time to get on a real train and head down through the gorge. We drove to down town Canon City to the train depot and boarded the Royal Gorge Route Railroad.

Now this is what I call a train.

There are a few options to ride the train. Coach: A regular train car with access to an open-air car, Vista Dome: Glass-topped dome cars that offer fantastic views of the gorge as well as breakfast and lunch, along with a full bar. Other options are the Bar & parlor car, Gourmet Lunch, or Gourmet Dinner. We chose the Vista Dome so we could get a great view of the gorge from inside the train. Our car is in the previous photo.

Here is a view of Canon City from our car just before we headed down into the gorge.

I took photos out our window as we traveled down the gorge.

Look how close we are to the towering 1000 ft granite cliffs as we traveled down the gorge.

Here is a great view of the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge as we passed below. Hanging 1053 feet above the wild Arkansas River, the Royal Gorge Bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge. Built in 1929 for $350,000, the cost today would exceed $15 million. At the bridge there is a park with many attractions including walking or driving across the bridge, riding an incline railway down into the gorge, riding the aerial tram, a Skycoaster which is a cable you dangle from 1200 feet above the river. (I think not.)

Bev and I went to the bridge but we did not cross it. They wanted $25.00 each to get onto the bridge. I did not want to pay just to get jittery knees.

As we continue down the gorge we passed rafters shooting the class 4 rapids. We saw one raft that tipped over but I didn't get a picture of them in the ice cold water.

We saw rafts, kayaks, and even this pontoon boat.

The rapids didn't look to bad from our seat in the Vista Dome but when Bev went below and looked out the window she said the rapids were wild.

Canon City use to get water from a wooden pipe that ran through the gorge. Here you can see remnants of the old pipe.

It was tough taking pictures through the window with the glaring sun.

We did get a great lunch on the train, a large order of nachos with pulled beef. Here I am enjoying a beer after lunch. Life is good when you can drink beer and watch this spectacular scenery.

On the way back to Canon City we passed the Colorado Territory Prison. This prison has been here for many years starting when this was only one of two prisons west of the Mississippi.

We arrived back at the station after a 2 hour 24 mile very enjoyable round trip through the Royal Gorge.

Now this is the train I would have liked to ridden on. It was parked at the train station. I bet this is the type of train passengers first road through the gorge.

The history dates back to the 1870s when two competing railroads, the Denver Rio Grande and the Santa Fe, both worked to build tracks through the Royal Gorge to reach the mining riches further west in Leadville. The only problem was that the Royal Gorge was a chasm, so deep, over 1250 feet in places, and tight, only 30 feet at its narrowest point, that there was room for only one set of tracks. An all-out war broke out between the two, along with a legal battle that raged in the courts for almost two years. (An attorney's dream come true!)

Both the D&RG and Santa Fe built stone forts in the Gorge, rolled rocks down on the men working on the right of way, and threw their tools in the river as they leapfrogged each other. The Santa Fe hired the legendary "Bat" Masterson to assemble a group of men to defend their interests, and soon picks and shovels were replaced by rifles and pistols.

On March 27, 1880, litigation was finally settled when both railroads signed the Treaty of Boston which gave the D&RG access through the Royal Gorge.

In 1976 passenger train service ended and visitors were left high and dry, with no access through the Royal Gorge.

In 1999 the tracks were purchased from the Union Pacific, allowing visitors from around the world to once again experience not only the Royal Gorge, but classic rail service, dining, and entertainment.

This was another enjoyable day of sight seeing and this time we didn't have to stop for supper on the way back home to the camper. We were still full from the great lunch we had on the train.

Manitou Cliff Dwellings & Cave of the Winds

Thursday June 7th with our "dinged up car" we were back in the touring mode. We went to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings which overlooks Manitou Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak.

Next to the cliff dwellings is a three-story Pueblo-style building that houses the Anasazi museum featuring cultural displays of prehistoric Southwestern artifacts. This structure was designed and constructed in the architectural style of the Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Anasazi.

Preserved under a protective red sandstone overhang, authentic Anasazi cliff dwellings, built more than 700 years ago have been very well restored. There are no "Do Not Touch" signs, you are free to touch and even go inside these fascinating remnants. After we viewed the museum Bev and I did just that, we went in, out, and up through the cliff dwellings.

The views overlooking Manitou Springs are awesome.

Wouldn't you like to live in this caretakers house with these views.

From Manitou Springs we continued west on US Highway 24 up the mountains to the Cave of the Winds. The Cave of the Winds is perched high on a mountain surrounded by deep canyons.

See the buildings with the gift shop and cave entrance high on the edge of the cliff.

What a view of the canyons and town below.

You can see the bridge on US Highway 24 in the distance.

They have two different cave tours but Bev and I have been in many caves around the country so we opted not to go down in this one. We did check out the gift shop and walked around the area hanging over the edge of the cliffs from the balcony. It is very high up and my knees were weak when I got close to the railing.

For the truly brave at heart that are up for a challenge there is the Wind Walker Challenge Course. It is a three story obstacle course balanced on the rim of a 600-foot drop into the beautiful Williams Canyon. Each participant is placed in a full body harness and securely attached to the course using the unique overhead tracking system. As you can see it is scary just looking at the structure with people walking tight ropes. Click on the photo to enlarge it. You can see someone on the tight rope hundreds of feet above the canyon below.

I don't care how securely attached I was there is no way in hell that I would be up on that structure. I am jittery just looking at it. (Hey Pete, would you climb around on that?)

After we left the Cave of the Winds we drove around some more checking out the scenery before we headed back.

Near our campground there is a Village Inn restaurant which has the most fantastic pies. You guessed it, we stopped for supper. I usually have the coconut cream pie but this time I opted for the apple pie a la mode. It was fantastic. Do you think it was a Weight Watchers Pie? Not!

Wild Adventure with a bad storm

Bev and I had another wild adventure but this one we did not fair very well.

Wednesday June 6th started out great, Bev and I headed back to Pam & Kent's house to relax and visit. They are great hosts and we really enjoy visiting with them. Bev and Pam worked on crafts while I stayed out of the way drinking Kent's beer.

Pam made a great supper (it's always good when someone else cooks) then Bev and Pam returned to playing with their crafts while Kent, Elisabeth and I watched TV. The news on TV talked about very bad thunderstorms in the area with flash floods but we really were not concerned. At about 7:30 pm it was time to hit the road because I had a headache and like to get back home to the camper before it gets dark. It normally takes us about 45 minutes down I-25 to return to Monument.

Just after we got on I-25 we hit extremely heavy rain, lots of lightning, and then it started. We hit "HAIL" and I don't mean "hail" I mean "HAIL". The "HAIL" and rain came down so hard that we, along with everyone else on the highway, had to pull over and stop because we couldn't see to drive. We have never been in hail so bad that lasted so long. The noise in the car was so loud that Bev and I couldn't hear each other talk. We waited for the "HAIL" to stop but it kept on pounding and pounding and pounding and would not stop. I have been in hail before and it hits and passes in 10 or 15 minutes but not this "HAIL" it just kept on pounding.

After quite a while we started creeping along. At that time I-25 was now covered by over 4 inches of hail (it looked like snow covered the highway) but we kept creeping along while the hail kept pounding. I really couldn't see very well so I accidentally exited the highway. Driving up the ramp the "HAIL" was so deep and frozen on our windshield that our wipers stopped working. Now we were in for it! Bev stuck her hand out the window to try to clear the ice but her hand got blasted so hard it left her with a couple of cuts and the ice was still there. I inched off the ramp, stopped on the side of the road, and went out in the storm to clean the windshield. I got the ice removed along with getting soaked and my back beaten by "HAIL". The wipers started working again so we moved into a Walgreens parking lot to wait out the storm.

By then the headache I started out with was now a migraine and I didn't have any pills so I was glad we stopped at a Walgreens, I got pills. The "HAIL" still did not stop so we got back on the highway and parked under a underpass with other cars and waited. Finally it looked like the "Hail" was subsiding so we started driving. YEA! We were out of the "HAIL" and heading down the highway. We were in the "HAIL" continuously for one and one half hours and were sure glad to be driving at highway speeds again.

We finally made it back to the camper. The camp ground never did get any of the bad weather, everything was nice and dry.

The rest of the evening we watched the news which was constantly reporting on the severe conditions and how many people had to get rescued from floods and deep ice from the "HAIL". Cars were actually covered up to their hoods in ice. This was truly a one of a kind storm.

Now you are probably wondering how the car faired. Not good at all! I didn't look at it until the next morning because it was dark out and I was exhausted. Our nice new 2012 Red Honda CRV is destroyed! It looks like someone worked on it with a hammer for and hour and a half. The top, hood, sides, back, everything is full of dents. It is still drivable and the windows did not break so we will keep using it. I called the insurance company and we are now waiting for a claims adjuster.

This couldn't happen to our 14 year old Saturn, NO, it had to happen to our new car.

Well I guess dems da breaks (or dents)!!

Bev and Tom still livin and lovin the RV lifestyle even with the dents.

Road down into the Black Canyon and return to Monument, CO

Well, I now have Internet in the camper again. We have returned to Colorado Heights Resort in Monument, CO where our cell phones and computer phone card again have service.

Before we left Gunnison we had to take one more trip into the Black Canyon.

Thursday May 31st we returned to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We wanted to hike the Warner Point Trail which is a great trail that has views on both sides. The trail is 1373 yards long each way and one side overlooks the valley while the other side looks into the canyon.

What a scenic view of the valley below and the snow covered mountains in the distance. It was very relaxing just look out over the valley.

There were colorful wild flowers along the trail.

At the end of the trail Bev sat on the edge of a cliff enjoying the view into the canyon.

It was a nice hike even though the trail had a lot of ups and downs but the weather was perfect and a nice breeze kept us cool.

We hit a couple more shorter trails along the way but one of the main things I wanted to do was drive  the road down into the canyon to the Gunnison River.

The surrounding valley was very dry so in the early 1900s they decided to dig a tunnel from the Gunnison River in the canyon to the valley below to supply the water needed to cultivate the area.

Once plans were made to construct the Gunnison Tunnel, a town was needed to support the workers. First came tents and log cabins, but as digging began in January, 1905, the town of East Portal was born. Hydrographer Abraham Lincoln Fellows led the design team on the tunnel, and he laid out the road leading down from the rim.

Unlike our trip up to the Cimarron Pass, which was a wild and exciting dirt path, this road down into the canyon was a nice blacktop road. Now the road was steep though. It had greater than 16 degree grades along with constant switchbacks all the way down to the bottom.

Once we reached the Gunnison River we saw where the tunnel started and were able to drive along the river.

The little building straight ahead is where the water enters the tunnel.

Dedicated in 1909, the tunnel is the starting point of a system of ditches that was finished in 1923. It still supplies water to fields and homes in the Uncompahgre Valley. The tunnel is full of water during the growing season, but it is empty in the winter when scheduled inspection trips are made.

We drove along the river to the Crystal Dam where the road stops. The Crystal Dam along with other dams on the river supplies electric power to the area while keeping the river in check.

It was another great trip to a very scenic National Park, we really love this area but we must now leave to continue our trek north.

Saturday June 2nd we hit the road again crossing Continental Divide at the Monarch Pass. Our Winnebago worked hard pulling the Honda CRV up the mountain but we crossed the pass without any problems.

At the top there is a gift shop and restaurant so we stopped to check it out. We were able to pick up a Monarch Pass hiking medallion along with coffee and muffins. (Bev got hot chocolate)

It was a very scenic and easy trip back to Monument but as always it was great to get "home" to our site.

We will be here for two weeks when we will hit the road for Wyoming.

Bev and Tom Livin and Lovin the RV lifestyle.