Travel

Bill's One Tank Trip: Royal Gorge Bridge

Take Train, Go Rafting To Enjoy View

POSTED: 1:21 pm MDT June 24, 2004

UPDATED: 11:49 am MDT June 25, 2004

Canon City is the gateway to the Royal Gorge Bridge and it's just 115 miles from downtown Denver.

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See All You Can Do On One Tank Trip To Royal Gorge

The signs and billboards scream out that tourism is big business there and most is built around something that's millions of years old.

Go there for the view from the 75-year-old bridge that spans the gorge to the Arkansas River more than 1,000 feet below.

When the bridge was built, it was considered to be something of an engineering marvel. That was back in 1929, when automobiles were fairly new and Canon City needed a tourist attraction to boost the economy.

"You 're not going to set any speed records crossing the Royal Gorge Bridge and, frankly, the noise of the wood planks on the bridge is a little bit unsettling but what a view!" Bill said.

The incline railway takes you down the canyon walls.

The skycoaster kicks up the thrill factor a notch or two. It swings a tethered twosome out over the cliff to look down at the river in a way some people will only ever imagine. It's 1,300 feet from the coaster top to the riverbed so the skycoaster may not be on some people's list of things to do.

The incline railway is a less stressful way down the canyon walls. To get a look at the itty, bitty bridge 1,000 feet above you, you want to get closer to the river and to do that, you're going to have to work -- and paddle.

Rafting is kind of like driving a car, Bill said. The forward stroke is the gas pedal and the backstroke is the brake pedal.

And when you're rafting, you provide the power for each of them. Canon City and the surrounding countryside are loaded with rafting companies but Echo Canyon is one of the best and best known.

One family-friendly stretch of the river is upstream from the gorge so you could raft and then make a railroad connection to go back to Canon City. Echo Canyon offers package deals with the Royal Gorge Railroad, one of the area's newest tourist draws. They call it rafting and railroading.

The Royal Gorge Railroad is a great way to see a lot in a few hours.

The Royal Gorge Railroad is fairly new, just 5 years old, but the engines and refurbished cars cover a rocky roadbed first blasted and jackhammered in the 1870s so that miners could carry precious metals from the mines around Leadville.

Now, the train is a great way to see a lot in a couple of hours and it's worth the money.

Bill's Travel Tips:

Driving to Canon City is an easy 2 1/2 hour trip via Interstate 25 to Colorado Springs, then southwest on Colorado 115 and U.S. 50.

If you think T-REX is a nuisance, check out I-25 in the Springs. It seems that it's been under construction for years. And the exit to the Canon City road is as confusing as it was when I first took it nearly 40 years ago. But once you get south of Colorado Springs, the drive becomes an enjoyable one.

We stayed at the Best Western Royal Gorge and found the rooms quiet, clean and comfortable. Affordable, too.

Had a great dinner at Merlino's Belvedere, on the south edge of Canon City. Locals tell us Merlino's has great steaks, but we were told this only after we'd eaten there. Good Italian cuisine. I went nuts over the salad and homemade Italian dressing. Prices were very modest considering the quality and amount of food and the folks were super-friendly. They didn't know who we were and still treated us like neighbors.

You can't do everything we did in one day, and even if you could, it would be a bad idea. Take a couple of days, maybe three. In fact, if you go the weekend of June 25-27, you'll be in time for the Mountain Man Rendezvous at the gorge. The highlight, I'm told, is the pickled quail egg eating contest. The world record is 42 pickled eggs in hot sauce.

If you want to move on, head west on U.S. 50 to Salida to see the great things that have taken place in this little town. You'll need more than a tankful of gas. But you'll come back home with a smile.