The Royal Gorge, Canon City, Colorado

A few years ago Shelley's brother Tom treated Monte and Shelley to a train ride that follows the Arkansas River through the bottom of the Royal Gorge. This year Shelley and Monte were visiting some of Shelley's family in Canon City and we decided to do the attractions above the Royal Gorge. We were joined by Shelley's cousins Cheryl, Deanna, Michaela, and Katie.

The first thing we did was to ride the Incline Railway to the bottom of the gorge (and back up). The railway is 1,550' long and is at a 45 degree angle. The important point here is that it has 19 manually operated stopping devices and an automatic governor that will stop the cars in an emergency.

Next we walked across the gorge via The Royal Gorge Bridge which is the world's highest suspension bridge. Bridge construction was started in June 1929 and completed in October of that year. It is 1,053' above the Arkansas River, 18' wide, the towers are 150' high and will support in excess of 2 million pounds. Original cost to build the bridge was $350,000. Today's cost would be over $15 million. Although we walked across, driving across is allowed.

Since we walked across one way we rode back across the chasm on the Aerial Tram. It is the World's longest single-span aerial tram. It is 2,200' long and 1,178' above the river and was built in 1968. It was pretty windy but once in the car we did not notice the wind swaying the car as we thought we would.

 Now, I think I promised pole dancing in this blog so here it is.   Shelley pole dancing on the Antique Replica Carousel (shouldn't that be Replica Antique?).

Last was the Silver Rock Railroad. Quite the scenic railway.

A good time was had by all.  And another to do is scratched off of our bucket list.