The plunging Royal Gorge is cool in its very own right. But what’s even more specific is that you could experience it in distinctive methods — from above, from under, from halfway down the rock face.
Whether you’re an adventure junkie, a leisurely sightseer, or something in among, here are eight methods to experience one of Colorado’s maximum iconic herbal capabilities.
Walk through the highest suspension bridge in North America. Completed in 1929, the bridge is 956 ft above the Arkansas River and gives sweeping views of the gorge on both sides. Take a photo with your property nation’s flag — each kingdom is represented on the bridge. When the wind starts blowing, you might feel squeamish up so high. However, the bridge was strengthened and refurbished in the Nineteen Eighties (and looked at using engineers after the 2013 fire) and is solid.
From the zip line
Once you’ve walked through the historical bridge, take a first-rate speedy way lower back: the zip line. You’ll be strapped right into a harness in a seated position, then pushed off a platform to move flying across the gorge 1,2 hundred toes above the Arkansas River. You don’t even need to keep on!
From the trail
Lace-up your trekking boots and hit the Canyon Rim Trail, a mellow 1.7-mile path you may connect with other trails inside the park for an extended adventure.
From the thru ferrata
One of the latest approaches to seeing the Royal Gorge is by using mountain climbing its walls. Even if you’re not an experienced climber, you can still feel the coronary heart-pumping thrill of being perched on a rock wall high above the roaring river way to the new through ferrata inside the park. Wearing a harness, you’ll clip onto a metallic cable as you climb iron rungs up the aspect of the gorge. There are routes of varying trouble and length, such as a full-day trip.
From the sky, coasterIt’s like a bungee soar and forms like a giant swing set. You’ll strap in with up to 2 friends, then free fall and swing out over the gorge like a pendulum at 50 mph.
From a raft
Once you’ve appeared down on the Arkansas River, it’s time to hit the rapids and look up on the bridge. Echo Canyon River Expeditions, as an example, offers half-day and full-day rafting journeys (entire with a riverside steak lunch) via the Royal Gorge and along different mellower stretches of Arkansas. You might experience frightened about the rapids (with names like “Boat Eater” and “Sledgehammer,” who wouldn’t be?); however, never fear. The crew of experienced river publications will place you properly comfortable — they can even factor out exciting historical sites, local vegetation, and fauna as you navigate the water.
From the train
A much less-severe way to view the bridge from under is using taking a trip at the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. You can choose from an array of classes of service, such as a journey after an engineer within the cab of a locomotive. Order food and drinks on board, or book a 3-route lunch or dinner ticket. If you adore a great drama, you’ll be satisfied to recognize the tracks you’re riding along had been as soon as a part of the extreme “railroad wars” of the 1870s, when two railroad businesses competed to construct tracks via the Royal Gorge.
From a helicopter
See the gorge from the seat of a helicopter all through the day or, for a greater colorful view, at sunset.
