Royal Gorge Train and Bridge

Today I'm going to show you pictures of the most stressful day of our vacation!

It started innocently enough. We took a train ride through the Royal Gorge. The Arkansas river runs through the Gorge, and it was beautiful riding alongside the river.

Here is one of the old cars on the train. They use old refurbished cars, so it kind of feels like stepping back in time.



This was our car. The top was covered in glass, which gave us a good view. We rode it in the morning, so didn't get anything to eat, just had something to drink.


A view of the train going around the curve.

There were several rafters in the river that day.

Another view of the train.

Apparently, in the early 1900's a wooden pipe line was put through the gorge to supply water to a neighboring city. It was built by prisoners and they had these little shacks built every so often. They were called warming shacks, as the prisoners were allowed to go into them occasionally to warm up. We were told that no prisoners were hurt during the work, but 30 escaped during this time. We could see remnants of this line along the walls of the gorge.

This is the Royal Gorge Bridge, from below.


After our train ride, we drove to the Bridge.

When you park and walk in, you are greeted by this clock. It is one of 3 clocks like it in the world. It runs on water power and tells the time, date, month and year.

Now we will move on to the stressful part of the day. I may have mentioned a time or two (or three) that I don't like heights! I was about to encounter a little height.

Here is the bridge from the side. At this point my stomach was already getting that sinking feeling, but I didn't want to admit defeat!


Walking across! I took just a few pictures, because I was intent on just getting across. Cars can drive across also, and 2 of them did while I was on it. This meant moving closer to the side... It also makes the bridge shake as the cars cross!
Bob later told me I looked like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man. Head down, fast shuffling steps! I reminded him that at least I made it. A man who appeared to be in his early 30's got about 1/3 way across and started talking very loudly about what a stupid thing this was to do, then announced to his family - "That's it, I can't take it, I'm going back". So, I felt good for doing it!
I should mention that this bridge goes nowhere. There are a few attractions on the other side, but you need to go back across, so I had to do it again.

You can also use this tram. No - I didn't do that!


This is a view of the gorge from the side of the bridge. Look how far down that river is!


Andy took this picture and showed it to me when we were done. This is taken through one of the cracks between the boards on the bridge, looking to the river below.

So, I survived! I'm glad I did this, but once is enough in my lifetime!