A Visit to Royal Gorge and Skyline Drive

We had made reservations for our month in Colorado Springs back in February.  After the reservations were made, I was searching websites of some of the places that were close.  I found season passes at Royal Gorge for half price, that was less than a one day admission ticket.  Since it was about 30 miles from where we were staying, I purchased them.

So, today, we made a visit there.  We had been there 30 years ago with our kids and thought it was time to go back.

We checked into the office to get our passes and then hopped onto the sky ride across the gorge.

The sky ride takes you right across.  I was a little concerned about the wind, but there was no real shaking or swinging as we went across.  The views were pretty spectacular.

That's the Arkansas River below with rafters floating the river.

 We exited from the sky ride and walked to the observation deck to get a full view of the gorge, bridge, and river.

We watched the people on the swing for quite awhile.  Three people would get strapped into this bungee type swing on their stomachs.  The operator would have a machine pull them back, then it would let go, swinging them out over the gorge.  I really think we all had more fun watching them than they had swinging.

Next, it was time to walk back across the bridge.

The wind was really gusty as we walked across.  Jim had to hold his had in his hand after he almost lost it over the bridge.

We made it across the bridge and the last thing we wanted to do was take the incline train down to the bottom of the gorge.  We rode in the back and the car slowly trudged down the steep incline.

We reached the bottom of the gorge and looked up to the bridge.  That's a long way up there!

We walked along the bottom for awhile getting a close look at the river and all of the rapids.

We waited for the train to make its way back down again so we could make the ride back up.  This time we rode right in the front so we could see the view the whole way up.

We had a fun time at Royal Gorge and on our way back we passed the entrance to Skyline Drive.  I had read about it on Trip Adviser as a definite must do.  So, Jim pulled into the entrance.  We began the climb on the narrow paved road.  This road was built in the early 20th century by prison inmates. As we climbed,  the views were breathtaking.

 Speaking of breathtaking, we both became a little out of breath as we continued to climb and the road was literally on the edge of the mountain.  We didn't know it was one way until we had reached the top.  We weren't sure how to handle an approaching car.  I tried to do my part by leaning over to Jim's side of the car as we got close to the edge.

 We would get to a part of the road and have no idea where it was going next, like the pictures below.  We sure hoped the road was continuing on.

We made it safely down, but I have to say my stomach was in my throat by the end of the drive.  I certainly recommend the drive, but just be forewarned about the heights and narrow roads.