And looking over the pass toward the west:
There was a nice gift shop, restaurant at the top:
I did follow this fellow up part of the mountain. I think he was out practicing:
I headed on to Canon City, where the Royal Gorge Bridge is located. Pat, Patrick, and I had visited here in the '80's and I was through here a few years ago. Nice place to stop. The bridge over the gorge was built in 1929 and up until a few years ago, they allowed auto traffic over it...no more. Here you can see the bridge and the gondola that takes you across the chasm.
What you can't really see is the zip line you can experience, taking you across the gorge on one thin cable!
Flowing through the gorge is the Arkansas River, and because silver was discovered in the area in 1878, a railway was built at the bottom of the gorge. It is now used for excursion trains out of Canon City.
The bridge is some 1300 feet long and the bridge deck is some 955 feet above the water below, making it the highest bridge in the United States. Here are a few more pics:
Here are a couple views down into the gorge itself:
Until 2013 there was an incline railway that ran at a 45 degree angle down into the gorge below. In June, 2013, there was a wildfire in the area of the Bridge, and all the buildings were destroyed, as well as the incline railway and the gondola that was built in 1969 and travelled across the gorge. All that has since been rebuilt (better than ever, of course), the gondola was replaced (see the first picture), but the inclined railway was not. But, in the next picture, you can see the "station" at the bottom of the gorge where the incline railway terminated:
This was informative:
Nice day today.
Tomorrow, I'm headed east on US50 to Dodge City, Kansas. Hope to meet up with Wyatt Earp!
Miles today: 231
To Date: 13,751