Day 2 - The Royal Gorge

The second day was the busy day. We took a ride on the Royal Gorge Railroad which went along the Arkansas river (I wonder which state the Colorado river is in ). For the adventurous you can go up the river in the train then come down the river in a raft - but for us we went both up and down the river in the train. One of the most interesting sights for me was the wooden water pipe. Its a thirty inch pipe made of redwood planks that carried water down the canyon - the amazing thing is that the pipe was used until 1974 (over seventy years). It really drives home how, with proper maintenance, even items made of simple materials can last a looooong time.

After the train ride we drove over the Royal Gorge bridge, and walked through the shops and the petting zoo on the other side. Then we took a cable car over the canyon and while Chris and Darlene shopped Bobby and I took the kids on a couple of rides on the merry go round then down the canyon on the inclined railway. After that it had started raining so Chris and Darlene took the kids back over the canyon in the cable car while Bobby and I walked across the bridge.

As we were leaving the park Bobby was able to get several good pictures of a double rainbow (if you look a little above the first rainbow you will see the second one). After that we had dinner at Chili’s to finish off our day.