Gorge-ous

A couple days after Christmas, B and I went up to the Royal Gorge. You know? The huge hole in the ground in Canon City, Colorado. We bought a season pass - which just so happened to be cheaper than a day pass. Not sure how that works...

It took us a couple hours to get from Breck to the park. Once we got there, they almost didn't let us in without printed tickets because their internet was down and they had no way of checking our confirmation number... I didn't accept that possibility and they reluctantly let us pass anyway. ...

Once inside, we went straight to the incline railway and down to the bottom of the gorge. This one is the WORLD'S STEEPEST railway, at a 45 degree incline. It took about 5 minutes to get to the bottom and we enjoyed a beautiful view of the canon walls on both sides all the way down.

The Arkansas River rushes below the lookout, so we thought about jumping in and seeing how long it would take us to get back home to T-Town.

We took a quick pic and B's favorite sunglasses fell about 150 feet to the ground... :(

After mourning the loss, we rode back up to the top and made our way over to the Aerial Tramway. It is "1,100 feet above the canyon floor and is the world's longest single-span Aerial Tram." - They're all about the "world's largest and longest" at the Royal Gorge.

The ride to the other side was majestic. It took us about 15 minutes to get over there. Once there, some passengers got out to walk to the animal park, but we decided to drive instead.

We got back to the main part of the park and drove through the small "town" and over the "world's largest suspension bridge" to the other side of the gorge. Over there, we drove through the small animal park. We saw elk, American bison, and bighorn sheep. I felt bad that they had to be caged in, but they were busy eating and didn't seem to mind.

The bridge was cool. It hangs "1,053 feet above the Arkansas River and is the world's highest suspension bridge. A legendary feat of engineering renowned the world over, the bridge was built in 1929 for $350,000. The cost today would easily exceed $15 million."

Cool stuff. Definitely worth the trip to Canyon City. :0)