Today we went back to the Royal Gorge but this time we went on top.
As you can see you can drive across the bridge or you can walk. Notice the bridge surface is wood planking. We walked about half way across then took the easy way, we rode the trolley over and back. We came in on the east side of the bridge. There are things to do on both sides of the bridge. On the east side the main souvenir stand is located there along with the incline, cable car and an ice cream stand. On the west side there is a theater, restaurant, small souvenir shop, a petting zoo, a small regular zoo and a stage coach ride. We saw the movie about the gorge, the bridge and the railroad at the theater.
A view of the bridge from an overlook out side the park.
A view looking down at the gorge from the bridge. The bridge is 1,023 feet above the river. Notice the rafters on the Arkansas River. Did you see all five rafts. This is the busiest rafting river I have ever seen. Also, notice the people in the open car on the train. That's where I was two days ago when I took the pictures of the gorge.
There is quit a bit of traffic on the bridge, mostly foot traffic. Notice the bugle in the bridge. It does move slightly with the wind. You can only drive cars across it, no RVs but first you have to buy a ticket into the park for each person in the car.
These are the main cables that support the bridge.
I rode the incline down to the bottom of the gorge. This is a view from the bottom looking up the incline. Remember it is a 1000 feet from the top to the bottom. It is the steepest incline in the world at 45 degrees. Get your pencil out and figure out how far the ride is. I'll tell you it takes about five and a half minutes up or down. The distance is a little over 1500 feet. Did you get it?
This is the view of the hanging bridge. The gorge is only 40 feet wide here and the bridge is suspended over the river. This is a little better view of the bridge than the other day when the train was on it.
View of the cable car crossing the gorge. Sorry, I didn't have enough guts to ride it. There was another ride I didn't have the guts to ride and that was the one where they harness you into a large swing and swing you out over the gorge, not me brother. I already had one heart attack, that's enough. :-)
This picture is from their zoo, it is a white buffalo calf. The following was copied from this web site. http://www.merceronline.com/Native/native05.htm"The Sioux are a warrior tribe, and one of their proverbs says, "Woman shall not walk before man. " Yet White Buffalo Woman is the dominant figure of their most important legend. The medicine man Crow Dog explains, "This holy woman brought the sacred buffalo calf pipe to the Sioux. There could be no Indians without it. Before she came, people didn't know how to live. They knew nothing. The Buffalo Woman put her sacred mind into their minds. " At the ritual of the sun dance one woman, usually a mature and universally respected member of the tribe, is given the honor of representing Buffalo Woman.
Though she first appeared to the Sioux in human form, White Buffalo Woman was also a buffalothe Indians' brother, who gave its flesh so that the people might live. Albino buffalo were sacred to all Plains tribes; a white buffalo hide was a sacred talisman, a possession beyond price. "
There is one error in the above statement. These white buffalo are not albinos. They do not have pink eyes and are not pure white.
Thought you might like to see what holds the main cables up. After we left the park we took a loop drive around Pikes Peak. We drove about 50 miles on route 50 to Salida. Route 50 runs along the Arkansas River. There were a lot of picnic areas along the route. I never saw so many rafters. Every mile or two we would see two or three more rafts floating down the river. From route 50 we took 285 north to 24 and back to Colorado Springs and the campground. It was about a two hundred mile loop. On the way back at the top of the mountain pass on route 24 we ran into the worst hail storm I have ever been in. Fortunately the hail wasn't much bigger than a pee but it came down so fast that the road and fields were covered white in a minute. Our car slide slightly a couple of times. Thankfully we drove out of it in a few miles as we drove down the mountain. We still hit a couple of heavy down pours where I had to pull off the road a minute or two until it let up. We did make it home fine and I was glad to see the car didn't have any dents in it.
Thought you might like to see what holds the main cables up. After we left the park we took a loop drive around Pikes Peak. We drove about 50 miles on route 50 to Salida. Route 50 runs along the Arkansas River. There were a lot of picnic areas along the route. I never saw so many rafters. Every mile or two we would see two or three more rafts floating down the river. From route 50 we took 285 north to 24 and back to Colorado Springs and the campground. It was about a two hundred mile loop. On the way back at the top of the mountain pass on route 24 we ran into the worst hail storm I have ever been in. Fortunately the hail wasn't much bigger than a pee but it came down so fast that the road and fields were covered white in a minute. Our car slide slightly a couple of times. Thankfully we drove out of it in a few miles as we drove down the mountain. We still hit a couple of heavy down pours where I had to pull off the road a minute or two until it let up. We did make it home fine and I was glad to see the car didn't have any dents in it.
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