Alas! We'll Need A Bucket List!

10 Jun 2010-Yesterday we went to the Royal Gorge. What a place!!!



They have 4 main attractions: the 1st one we went to was the tram ride across the gorge. This crosses more than 1100 ft above the bottom of the gorge, and 2200 ft across. That makes it the world's longest single-span aerial tram.



And it gives you a great view of 2 of the other attractions...the Royal Gorge Bridge, which at 1053 ft is the world's highest suspension bridge, and the ride that came to haunt me, the Royal Rush Skycoaster, 1200 ft above the gorge floor and recently named the SCARIEST skycoaster in the world.

Here are some tram pictures.

I could see this person flying from the tram...my anticipation began to build!

From the tram you have a bit of a walk before you get to anything else, but at least you get to look at some of the animals they have. Here are some Elk...the 1st one is a baby.

And there was a bay buffalo, who joined his mother who was eating...look how much she is shedding.

This is a white buffalo, rare in the buffalo world...American Indians believe they are sacred.

They had some big horn sheep, too!

They have a fake little old western town, with a jail, a saloon, and even an undertaker.

Finally, we made it to the Skycoaster. I have been anticipating this ride for weeks...check out this guy in diapers!

Here are a husband and wife who were ahead of us...a few years older than me, and you can't here a peep out of them. They have must have been skydivers in real life.

And now I must fess up. I tried to do it, but in the end I just couldn't. Cathy didn't really want to do it, and I kept on her until she said OK...then I panicked and wimped out. We actually paid the money and got so far as to be strapped in, but as the pictures below will show, I missed the final step. I even had a woman set up to film us with our camera for this....

The 1st picture on the left shows the stairs and the hook that straps to your body harness...like the kids in the picture on the right are wearing. Cathy and I got past this step.

Once you are hooked onto the ride they make you lean over and remove the steps from beneath you...this is where I almost started crying. We leaned over, but before they could remove the steps I said WHOA!!!!! STOP!!!! I was looking straight ahead at that gorge and freaked out! So they stood us up, unhooked us, defrocked us from our body harnesses, and gave us a refund. So I missed this ride you see the boys on, and I could spit!!! I was really disappointed in myself.

Here I sit, dejected! And realizing that I will indeed need a bucket list after all. I had hoped to leave it all on the playing field, but just didn't have it in me.

So off we went to the bridge. You can actually walk across the bridge or even drive your car over. I guy drove by us as we were walking and it was a little scary because some of the boards are a bit shaky. Here is a view down to the Arkansas River. By the way, this was originally built in 1929.

All the state's flags are flying on the bridge, so here is Cathy and I with our respective states. I couldn't reach my flag! haha

But I could see the Skycoaster from the bridge....haunting me!

Next we went on the incline railway, the 4th attraction, not yet mentioned. This was built in 1931, and is a 45 degree angled ride down 1500 ft to the canyon floor. You ride in cages, and as one cage goes down another comes up...just inches away.

Along the bottom there are active train tracks. Some people just take a train ride all thru the Gorge...in open seating or in dining cars.

This is looking up the tracks...and then the bridge and my skycoaster from the bottom of the gorge. You might have to enlarge the picture to see the coaster.

Here is a video of the river.

And here we are leaving. See the woman in blue...she is the one who was going to take our video on the ride...she said they were gauging what they might do on what we did on the ride...needless to say they didn't try it! haha

And this is my final sighting of the skycoaster from the other side of the Royal Gorge!!!