Sunday, 25 January 2015

Riding the rails - Royal Gorge Railroad

Cañon City is about equal driving distance from Colorado Springs and Colorado City, so on a sunny, somewhat warmer morning set off from Colorado City to ride the Royal Gorge Railroad.
 
We’d already bought our tickets so all we had to do was pick them up, we drove north on I25 and took US 50 west.   As we drove, we joined CO 115 and crossed wide open prairie, in the distance Pike’s Peak as it rose sharply into the clear blue sky.
 
After picking up our tickets at the station,
 
DB got some coffee, found a bench and sat in the sun, while I had a look in the store.

I bought a couple of things, one of which was a book (well worth reading) about the life of Dr Susan Anderson, known as Doc Susie, who spent some time in Cripple Creek.   We were told, I forget by whom, that the TV show Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, was based on her life.

Our train boarded at noon, we’d booked seats in the Vista Dome, and had excellent views.   There was a nice lunch menu, but as we weren’t particularly hungry, we just had coffee and raspberry iced tea.

We were right at the front of this carriage.
 
Our train left on time and slowly made its way into the Arkansas River Gorge. At times the gorge is so narrow that you feel you can reach out and touch the rock walls on both sides, of course you can’t and I wouldn’t recommend trying!
 
 
 
In places you can still see remnants of the old wooden pipeline that used to provide water to the town.
 
I think actually being under the bridge makes you realise just how deep the gorge really is. 
 
It was a nice trip, on yet another great day.
 
Have fun, we are!

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