Royal Gorge
Tuesday morning we got up and checked out of the Hilton Garden Inn in Colorado Springs. It was a nice hotel and friendly staff. We went out to breakfast at a local place I can’t remember the name of. James had a ham and cheese omelet and I had a breakfast sandwich. They had the good has browns with thin little pieces of potatoes like they went through a ricer and then were fried so I actually ate mine.
From there we headed out of town to the Royal Gorge. I was excited about this one because it is the natural gorge with cool architecture thrown in which is something I think is interesting. It is a suspension bridge across the 1,200 ft drop of the gorge walls.
Being a suspension bridge, it does wobble with movement and just the wind. While we were walking across a work truck drove across which really made it shake. It made me a little nervous to be up that high on something that felt unstable but you should have seen the size of the cables on that thing. It was nuts. And also very hot. I was sweating in shorts and a t-shirt.
Anyway, not all of the attractions were available but you could walk across the bridge or take the gondola. They do have a zip line across the gorge which I thought would be awesome and so terrifying but they didn’t have it open so I didn’t have to make a decision on if I would actually have the nerve to ride across or not. We chose to walk across the bridge and then ride a gondola back. We should have picked the opposite.
The walk across was nice. Again, soo hot. It was a super sunny day, I’m glad we got sunblock right away when we got here. They have every state mentioned on the bridge with the state’s flag which I thought was nice. Once across the bridge we took in some sights and then started the walk up to the gondola area. This was an uphill climb the whole way which would have been much nicer to walk down (which is why I mentioned we should have ridden the gondola the opposite way).
Once we got to the top we found a spot in line that was in the shade. The cars run in sets of 3 and they are only putting 1 group per car at this time. They aren’t very large cars so it was really nice to not have to sit with anyone. Once the cars emptied this older couple with their dog who had just gotten off the car cut in front of us and hopped right back on the ride and headed back the other way! I couldn’t believe they would jump in front of us like that and barge their way onto a gondola car when they had just gotten off the ride to head back exactly where they came from! I’m still mad.
We waited for the next set of cars and this time got the front car. James (always seeing the silver lining) noted that since we had been cut out of the last ride we now got to sit in the front which he preferred. It wouldn’t have made a difference to me because this was the view from the side and it was awesome.
After making a stop in the gift shop and the bathroom we hit the road and headed to Crawford, CO. For some reason they had a train sitting beside the parking lot. I don’t think we missed any mention of the train in or around the bridge, so I’m not sure what the significance is except that back when the bridge was made, they used trains for everything.
This was another 4 hour drive - 4 hours seems to be the magic number when it comes to driving between towns out here. We drove past some more water on the way and stopped for a few photos.
As we were driving, I check the GPS and see it looks like switch backs coming up so I let James know I think we are coming up to another mountain. We keep driving and come up on this incredible canyon. I think right away this must be Black Canyon (which we are going to see on the 17th) and we have to drive past it to get to where we are staying. After all, we are staying on Black Canyon Rd and, I mean, look at this place. What else could it be?
So this is not Black Canyon. I think it is part of the same formation but it isn’t actually the Black Canyon people come here to see but it is worth a look. This is part of Curecanti National Recreation Area and we have driven by it 3 times now going in and out of Crawford. There aren’t many ways to get to this town.
We got to the house and it is so nice! There are 2 floors, a full kitchen (with a gas range that so nervous to cook on), walk in shower, and a back deck - this is just the first floor. In the basement there is a craft room and a weight room which are both better than mine at home. I want to use the crafts but I don’t know that we will have time with the tourism we have planned.
There is a country store about 25 min away so we headed there to pick up food to make here for the next few days. I guess we haven’t been mentioning it but everyone out here does wear masks. All of the buildings have signs just like at home saying they are required and to stay 6’ apart.
Tomorrow is razer driving in Buena Vista! We just realized this is about a 3 hour drive from our house so looks like another early morning.
