Road Trip!: Day 8: Excellent adventures in central Colorado

We spent all of today in central Colorado. We headed south out of Golden and followed a long scenic loop on 285 and 24. I hardly need to say how scenic the drive was. Our first destination was Royal Gorge Bridge in Canon City. It’s the highest suspension bridge on the planet (hanging 956 feet over the Arkansas River), and is ¼ mile long. I had seen pictures of it and wanted to walk across it. We did that, and it was very cool—but not the coolest thing we did today. That came next. We took scenic Hwy. 67 north from near Canon City to near Manitou Springs. I’m being specific, because this is a road I will never forget. It’s also called Phantom Canyon Rd. At the beginning of the road, there are several caution signs--no vehicles over 25 feet in length; this is an unpaved, narrow, twisty, curvy canyon road; last chance to turn around—those kinds of signs. None of it could scare us away. We dove in and began one of the most scenic drives we have ever been on. Ever. Anywhere. Part of its jaw-dropping attraction is the fact that it’s so very, very narrow. Every time we came upon a car coming in our direction, one of us would have to scootch way over to the side. On one side of us was an immense, rocky, canyon wall; on the other side, a drop off. Scootching was not optional. The scenery on all sides of us was breathtaking—very rugged, wild, rocky, narrow. Twice, we drove through short tunnels that looked like they had been carved out of the mountain with a pickax. This nerve-wracking, awesome, gorgeous, twisty, gravelly drive was 29 miles long. We would drive it again tomorrow, if we didn’t have other fun things to do. When we left that rocky, narrow canyon, we were again seeing scenes of vast, distant, colorful mountains. This is Saturday, and the weather was perfect, so there were lots of other people out enjoying the drives. Around every bend, cars were parked on the sides of the road, with people taking pictures in all directions. We did exactly the same thing. Now, we’re spending the night in Woodland Park, near Manitou Springs. Out the window of our room is Pikes Peak. That’s our destination for tomorrow. : )