Royal Gorge Train

This has actually been one of our items to do on our Colorado bucket list.  Our friends the Neely's and the Bergeron's asked us if we wanted to go with them this past Sunday and of course we said "YES"!  The train left at 12:30 so we opted to have lunch on the train instead of eating in town before we left.  The day was absolutely gorgeous with cornflower blue skies, very few clouds and temps in the upper 80's.  

The Royal Gorge has two ways to view it.  One way is from down in the canyon, on the train.

Arkansas River

Old water ducts

Waterfalls

Rafters on the river

Royal Gorge Bridge

Suspension bridge

The best story of the day however, was when we were on the train getting ready to pay out our lunch tabs, Steve Neely lost his wallet when a gust of wind knocked it out of his hands and landed on the train tracks.  We immediately informed the train personnel but they told us that they wouldn't stop the train.  However, they would send a truck up on the tracks after the last train left for the day to search for it.  So in the meantime, we decided to extend our  sightseeing and went to go see the bridge from up top but we didn't actually walk out on the bridge.  Not that we were afraid to or anything, it was more the fact that they wanted $20 per person to walk out on it and we thought that it was a little pricey for such a short stroll.

Royal Gorge Bridge

The Graves, Bergerons, and the Neelys

After we finished looking at the bridge from the topside, we went on Skyline Road which provided some awesome vistas during the drive.  

We also made sure that we stopped and looked at the dinosaur tracks that are embedded into the side of the hill.

Dinosaur tracks

And we drove through downtown.

Downtown Canon City, Colorado

And then went over to the local park to put our feet into the Arkansas River and waited to hear whether or not they found Steve's wallet. 

The train engineer said that they didn't find his wallet but that we were welcomed to go walk the train tracks to see if we could find it.  By this time it was already about 7 pm and the Neely and the Bergeron's kids had to start school on Monday so Angela and Ticha and Mark and I decided to drive back to Parker (2 hours) and we left Steve and Jerry to hike the trails (in flip flops) to see if they could find it.  And lo and behold, they actually did about 3 miles up the track- EXACTLY where Steve had told him that he lost it.  Apparently the train didn't send out the truck or they would have found it as easily as Steve and Jerry did.  It was the perfect ending to a great day!