Royal Gouge, er, Gorge...

The Durango & Silverton RR was the last planned activity for the trip, but while mapping the route home I realized that we would be passing fairly close to the Royal Gorge bridge. I'm not one to go rushing to every tourist trap around, but this sounded kind of cool, so I talked the family into seeing it. It turns out that they expect every family that visits the place to BUY the bridge, not just to take home a few pictures. I convinced my better half that it would be a bigger hassle to turn around than it would to pay the man, so I got to see it after all...

It is a pretty cool bridge in that you are encouraged to walk the span and take pictures. Regular cars can cross the bridge, but basically nothing bigger than a car is allowed. Most people just drive to the visitors' center and walk the bridge, but because our route allowed us to approach the bridge from one end and leave the bridge going in the other direction, Bev had the fine privilege of driving over the bridge. She was just soooooo excited! NOT!

For those that have never heard of the Royal Gorge bridge, it was built specifically for tourism. It is not terribly long, but the drop to the river below is over 1000 feet, making it the highest bridge in the world.



Along with the bridge itself, they have a bunch of other activities available. We didn't get to completely take advantage of the entry fee because we arrived fairly late in the day and we didn't have a lot of time to spend there. We did get to take the trolley to the bottom of the gorge. It takes about five minutes to go up or down and it gives you a neat perspective on just how deep the gorge is.


A view straight down from the bridge:


I noticed that they bragged about this guy doing a free rappel and I wondered if he climbed back to the bridge or if he cheated and just took the trolley back to the top...
I also noticed that they didn't brag about anyone setting a record free fall...


A view from the top - It's hard to capture just how high this bridge is.