On
another sunny morning, we headed off to visit the Royal Gorge Bridge in Cañon
City. From Colorado Springs it’s a nice
easy drive, through some pretty scenery.
The
actual bridge is a few miles on the other side of town; Cañon City has 7 jails
in the city limits, as we drove towards the bridge we drove past the oldest.
Arriving
at the bridge, building works were in progress, a fire in June 2013 destroyed most
of the complex; luckily the bridge was saved.
We knew the complex had been closed for a while but hadn’t realised why.
We
thought the entrance fee was quite expensive at $16.00 each, but for that we
could walk and drive across the bridge, and who knows what else will be there once the rebuilding works are complete.
The road at the other side of the bridge is still closed, so as we
couldn’t drive out that way we decided just to walk across.
Opened
in December 1929, Royal Gorge Bridge is over 1,000 ft above the Arkansas River
Gorge and is the largest single span suspension bridge in the world.
There
were some amazing views from the bridge.
Looking
the other way.
The
Royal Gorge Train as it follows the Arkansas River under the bridge.
State
flags line each side of the bridge and as we walked across people were having
their photograph taken by their state flag.
The bridge is made of what look like railway sleepers and if a vehicle
crosses the bridge as you’re walking across it sort of ripples, it’s a
very strange feeling.
The
steel cables that hold up the bridge.
In
some sections gaps in the sleepers mean that you can see the river far, far, below,
quite a scary view.
Once
we’d walked back across the bridge, we enjoyed coffee and delicious homemade
muffins and cookies in the café, it’s a very nice spot and has lovely views of
the bridge.
On
the way back to Colorado Springs we saw signs for Cripple Creek and Victor, I
suggested we drive back that way, DB said no, we’ll maybe do that another day,
that turned out to be a very good decision.
Have fun, we are!
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