#18 Royal Gorge rides & Salina

While we were in Salida we went to the "Old Town" and had lunch. We could sit and watch these people play in the water while we had lunch. They would go to the riffle and turn their kayaks upside down and then right themselves.

They would line up and take turns flipping ins the water. There must have been 10-12 people flipping their "duckies." It was fun to watch.
This is where the "duckies" launched from. Right below the restaurant were we ate. Very cool.
At the Royal Gorge there are rides for everyone. This is the "sky coaster." You are strapped face down in a harness, then pulled back and you swing out over the gorge. Unreal. I stayed very far away from that thing!!!
There is also a gondola ride that you can take that is suspended over the gorge. I cannot imagine swinging on those cables over 1,000 feet above the ground. This is as close as we got to the gondola.
Now here is our type of ride. Nice and close to the ground. This was a really cute ride simulating some of the things you might have seen back in the early part of the century while riding on a real steam engine. This is Box Canyon as you can see. The skeleton is a wayward armidillo from Texas. (The joke in Colorado is all about all the Texans that come here to escape the humidity and heat of Texas during the summer.)
The big teepee is where you live, and the little one is "out back." As you can see this was a ride you had to have a sense of humor to ride on.

As we were leaving we wanted a reminder of the fun time we had here at the Royal Gorge. Check out the clock and calender above the water wheel. In the parking lot there are some of the original cars and engine from the Denver and Rio Grand Western Railroad which is the railroad that won the contract to build the railroad through the Royal Gorge.