We spent one full day exploring the Royal Gorge located near Canon City, Colorado. This gorge is formed by the Arkansas River, cutting through the rock.
In the morning, we spent a few hours at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. This park gives you excellent views down into the gorge. You can walk along the rim a bit, you can walk across the bridge, and you can even take a gondola across the gorge.
We decided to take the gondola across, then walk back across the bridge. I was initially a little scared to take the gondola, but it ended up being well worth it. What an amazing experience!
As you walk along the bridge, there are little fun facts about the bridge, as the bridge has been used for various dare-devil stunts over the years.
The view from the bridge also shows you just how vast the gorge is, when the gondolas look like tiny little specs over the gorge.
We took a short little hike along the rim trail, this part is not part of the park, so you don’t need to pay. We didn’t go all the way down the trail, but people say you can see parts of the gorge pretty well along the way.
We then headed back to town to board the Royal Gorge Railroad that takes you on a tour through the gorge. This was one of my most favorite experiences of the entire 6.5 week road trip. Wow, the views were gorgeous.
There are three levels of tickets you can purchase to ride the train. Vista Dome is the highest level, offering large overhead windows to view the gorge, while you relax at a booth style table. The club level is the middle level, where you are seated at a table, but has regular windows. The coach being the lowest, still offering great views, but no table to sit at. All three levels are able to walk out to the open-air car, where you can get the best views of the gorge!
We went with the middle level, club, which I think was perfect. We ate dinner and enjoyed the beer flight, so having the table was definitely nice.
The train rides out to a certain point, then reverses direction for the ride back. The total trip takes about 1.5-2 hours or so. We spent the ride out eating, drinking, and enjoying the views from our table.
You receive a pamphlet that describes so much history about the gorge and you can see various points of interest as you go along the route. Some of the information shared was incredibly interesting. I suggest looking up the history of the Royal Gorge War between two railroads competing for access to allow for the movement of silver.
On the way back to Canon City, we decided to spend most of the time out in the open-air car. This area definitely provided the best views.
As we got closer back to the town, we passed under the Royal Gorge Bridge. Being able to see where we were walking across, nearly 1000’ above the gorge, was very cool.
Overall, the Royal Gorge Route Railroad was a fantastic experience. I would never hesitate to recommend this to anyone.
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