Today, we decided on a road trip to see the Royal Gorge Bridge in Canon City (pronounced Canyon). The drive was about 2 hours and well worth the trip. Along the way....we were up, down, in and around the Rockies and saw many different types of 'mountain-scapes.' This one caught my eye...sort of looked like this poor mountain got a bad haircut!!
Huge ranches are everywhere. We have been intrigued by the entrance decor....this one is the ZZO Ranch with the name burned into the sign under the crossbar, and a metal covered wagon and windmill/fence above.
This one at Mountain Star Ranch was my favorite with the letters cut out of the metal name plate. I moved closer to the gate to get the sky as background to the letters - pretty cool, huh!!
The Royal Gorge Bridge was built in 1929 and hangs 956 feet above the wild Arkansas River which runs on the eastern side of the Continental Divide. The bridge is a legendary engineering feat and is one of the world's highest suspension bridges; originally costing $350,000......more than $18 million in today's dollars.
The bridge is the centerpiece of a much commercialized Royal Gorge Park and may be crossed on foot or by trolley - we walked across. The size of the cable bundles is enormous and would probably take three large hands to encircle. The bridge boasts 300 tons of cable and 1,000 tons of steel in the floor of the bridge - and is able to support more than 2 million pounds. Certainly made me feel safer about walking across!!!
This is a view looking down from the bridge. The black horizontal line is the bridge's shadow. You can see the rapids far below and we saw kayaks and rafts riding the whitewater!
We also took the Aerial Tram across the gorge. They packed about 30 of us inside the 'cage' and we glided across. I could not get any good pics - crowds and cage bars.
We also took a ride on 'Incline Railway,' one of the world's steepest incline railways. The 1,550 feet of incline is at 100% grade and a ascends/descends at a 45-degree angle. Whoooo - pretty steep! During the ride, you are 'caged' in one of 8 cars. It is tough to get any decent pics, but thought I would include this one to give you an idea of the incline. Here, we were in the first car on the trip going back UP.
In another section, there was a Western Wildlife Park. There were probably 8 elk in this corral....here is one big guy enjoying the shade of the trees. The female elk, or 'cows,' were kept in a separate area - there were at least 10 or 12 of those 'ladies.'
The Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep were hard to capture in pics. They were pretty elusive, but I was able to capture these two enjoying the shade.
The Bison were plentiful and there were even some rare white ones in the group. My favorite pic, however, was of this momma and her 3-week old baby. If you can call buffalo cute...these two were cute!!
While it was kind of sad to know these animals were all in captivity, it was interesting to be able to see them close-up and personal. They all seemed to have comfy digs with plenty of food and fresh water.
We stopped at the Whitewater Bar and Grill for some COLD beer and great burgers. It was a fun place and the food was great. I asked the bar gal to take our picture - she was either a little fuzzy, or forgot to focus the picture. Lots of fun today!
Tomorrow morning, we will head out of Buena Vista and make tracks for Estes Park, CO - located at the eastern entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. Dick is currently figuring our drive route for tomorrow.....trying to balance scenic views and elevations as we are hauling our rig and car through the passes in the mountains. Guess we better keep our breakfast light as not to add too many additional pounds to the load :-)
We also took the Aerial Tram across the gorge. They packed about 30 of us inside the 'cage' and we glided across. I could not get any good pics - crowds and cage bars.
While it was kind of sad to know these animals were all in captivity, it was interesting to be able to see them close-up and personal. They all seemed to have comfy digs with plenty of food and fresh water.
Tomorrow morning, we will head out of Buena Vista and make tracks for Estes Park, CO - located at the eastern entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. Dick is currently figuring our drive route for tomorrow.....trying to balance scenic views and elevations as we are hauling our rig and car through the passes in the mountains. Guess we better keep our breakfast light as not to add too many additional pounds to the load :-)
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