Good morning, Everyone.
Coffee in front of me and no plans to speak of. We had originally planned on going to a farm where they sell beef, but since the roads getting to the farm might be iffy, we decided to wait a week. Besides, I think I'm coming down with a cold, so I probably better not get out too much. That's gonna suck because I really like going to church on Sundays.
Anybody here afraid of heights? Then don't look....
...Royal Gorge bridge - looking down. Yeppers...that's a train engine right close to the bottom of the picture.
Back many years ago, before one made it to the bridge from Highway 50, one encountered a tourist stop known as Buckskin Joe. It was a western town made up for tourists, and they even had stagecoach rides and gun fights in the street. In fact, Buckskin Joe was a fairly popular place for the movie industry with a number of movies where some of the shots were done in the "town." The Wiki link below lists some of the movies that were partially shot there. Do any of you recognize any of the movies? I remember at least 5 of them.
Wikipedia - Buckskin Joe
One of the other features of Buckskin Joe was a small train that meandered across the area and went out to a viewing area where one could see the Royal Gorge and the bridge. This next picture is of that viewing area. Sadly, all of Buckskin Joe is gone. One of the Koch brothers bought much of the structures to take to his property somewhere on the "western slopes" of the Rockies. The train was about the only thing besides the gift shop left, and the train got sold as well and is now up somewhere north of Denver. The Buckskin Joe property has now been bought by someone wanting to put a bunch of tiny homes up, either for sale or for vacation rentals.
Pictures of the train.
Views from the viewing area at the end of the ride out.
Zoomed in on the bridge and the A-frame structure that is a swing that one pays money to ride so that they can swing out over the edge of the gorge. (No, thank you very much. Not for me.)
AND....we have a "swinger."
These photos of the train and from the viewing area were taken in 2010. In 2013, wildfires raged in the Royal Gorge area and destroyed a lot of the stuff that was there, including some damage to the bridge timbers that make up the deck of the bridge. If I remember right, even the structures for the aerial tramway were destroyed, and maybe the cable supports as well. That tramway has been "rebuilt," and they have added a zip-line ride near the tramway. These next pictures show the new tram cars and some folks on the zip line.
Some of the pictures in this group were taken after the fires and after they had begun to rebuild things.
Coffee in front of me and no plans to speak of. We had originally planned on going to a farm where they sell beef, but since the roads getting to the farm might be iffy, we decided to wait a week. Besides, I think I'm coming down with a cold, so I probably better not get out too much. That's gonna suck because I really like going to church on Sundays.
Anybody here afraid of heights? Then don't look....
...Royal Gorge bridge - looking down. Yeppers...that's a train engine right close to the bottom of the picture.
Back many years ago, before one made it to the bridge from Highway 50, one encountered a tourist stop known as Buckskin Joe. It was a western town made up for tourists, and they even had stagecoach rides and gun fights in the street. In fact, Buckskin Joe was a fairly popular place for the movie industry with a number of movies where some of the shots were done in the "town." The Wiki link below lists some of the movies that were partially shot there. Do any of you recognize any of the movies? I remember at least 5 of them.
Wikipedia - Buckskin Joe
One of the other features of Buckskin Joe was a small train that meandered across the area and went out to a viewing area where one could see the Royal Gorge and the bridge. This next picture is of that viewing area. Sadly, all of Buckskin Joe is gone. One of the Koch brothers bought much of the structures to take to his property somewhere on the "western slopes" of the Rockies. The train was about the only thing besides the gift shop left, and the train got sold as well and is now up somewhere north of Denver. The Buckskin Joe property has now been bought by someone wanting to put a bunch of tiny homes up, either for sale or for vacation rentals.
Pictures of the train.
Views from the viewing area at the end of the ride out.
Zoomed in on the bridge and the A-frame structure that is a swing that one pays money to ride so that they can swing out over the edge of the gorge. (No, thank you very much. Not for me.)
AND....we have a "swinger."
These photos of the train and from the viewing area were taken in 2010. In 2013, wildfires raged in the Royal Gorge area and destroyed a lot of the stuff that was there, including some damage to the bridge timbers that make up the deck of the bridge. If I remember right, even the structures for the aerial tramway were destroyed, and maybe the cable supports as well. That tramway has been "rebuilt," and they have added a zip-line ride near the tramway. These next pictures show the new tram cars and some folks on the zip line.
Some of the pictures in this group were taken after the fires and after they had begun to rebuild things.
