Our Adventures RV'ing

Our Adventures RV'ing

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Bridges and Chilies -Colorado

Canon City "Gateway to the West"
September 19-22, 2016
Canon City, Colorado

We saw beautiful fall colors on our drive from Breckenridge to Canon City and crossed the Continental Divide.


Fall colors





Canon City is the destination area for visiting the Royal Gorge Bridge. We planned a 3 night stay in Canon City to position ourselves close to Pueblo, Colorado for the early morning time slot for parking at the Newmar International Rally, a convergence of 420 Newmar RV's. The rally has educational seminars, entertainment, social activities, service and parts from Newmar, Spartan and Freightliner companies.

We stayed at the Royal View RV Campground. The only RV park in the area that you could see the Royal Gorge Bridge from the park.


Zoomed in photo of the bridge from the overlook at our RV park
Nice hike from the park up to an overlook.





Our site


Office




We went to the Royal Gorge Park but did our viewing from the parking area. It was built as a tourist attraction in 1929 and was the tallest suspension bridge until 2001. A fire in 2013 damaged the buildings and tram but the bridge itself had little damage. It was reopened in 2015 with new facilities, a gondola and a zip line across the bridge. I wanted to walk across the bridge but didn't want to do any of the touristy zip line, gondola and amusement park activities and in order to walk on the bridge you still had to pay the entrance fee. I settled for a view of the bridge from the parking lot. 
Royal Gorge bridge

Old portion of the Rio Grande train



Visited the Winery at Holy Cross Abbey in Canon city for some wine tasting.

Tasting room

Grapevines
 Downtown historic Canon City.











There is a scenic train ride you pick up in Canon City and takes you through the gorge along the Rio Grande river and travels under the bridge. We didn't get a chance to do this but talked with people at the rally who did and they all said it had spectacular views and was worth the price. It would have given a different perspective, a view from below. Originally started in 1879 it was bought and reestablished in 1998. The Royal Gorge Route Railroad now combines Colorado history, spectacular scenery, and unique dining options on a leisurely 2-hour journey through the breathtaking scenery of the Royal Gorge.

Royal Gorge train station



Rio Grande River

Walking path along the Rio Grande River
September 22-30, 2016
Pueblo, Colorado


 A big rally of 420 Newmar RV's and 840 people in attendance. This was rally style parking and I'm glad we chose the higher priced option of a 50amp full hookup site since it ended up being an unseasonably warm week and we needed to run all 3 air conditioners. We learned a lot, had a chance to see some 2017 models and revisited with some friends we met at the Idaho Rally.  Not very dog friendly being all asphalt but we survived , however I spent a lot of time washing the dogs feet every couple of days, what a mess it caused of their white fir. I enjoyed some of the social events and classes held during the week and Mike was able to go to an intensive Spartan Chassis workshop.
Rally style parking

Lots of RV's

We happened to be in town during the annual Pueblo Chile Festival. It was fun to see all the varieties of Chiles and to see them roasting. I was able to buy some roasted chilies and freeze some for the rest of our trip.





Roasting Chilies

All varieties of chilies


I went to the Sangre de Cristo Art Center to catch the last day of the Ansel Adams exhibit.





There wasn't much to do here and I'm not sure I would have put Pueblo, Colorado on our travel destination radar other then we were here for the rally but while we were here we explored and found interesting things to see and do. That is the joy of travel; anyplace can be an adventure.

No comments:

Post a Comment