There are some days on a road trip when the drive becomes as memorable as the places you planned to see. Day 2 in Colorado turned into one of those days.
We left Colorado Springs in the morning and headed toward Royal Gorge. The landscape was already beginning to change around us. Mountains were getting closer, roads were getting quieter, and patches of yellow were starting to appear among the trees.
Royal Gorge was our big stop for the day, and we started by walking across the bridge.
It is difficult to understand the scale of this place until you’re standing in the middle of it.
The Royal Gorge Bridge stretches 1,260 feet from one side of the canyon to the other and sits 956 feet above the Arkansas River. It was built in 1929 by a crew of around 80 men, and somehow they finished the entire thing in just seven months. For more than 70 years, it held the title of the world’s highest suspension bridge.
And you’re walking across it on wooden planks.
More than 1,250 of them.
Looking between the sides of the bridge and seeing the Arkansas River that far below was enough to make us stop a few times.
Then we got lucky.
A train appeared at the bottom of the gorge.
We stood on the bridge and watched it slowly make its way alongside the Arkansas River, almost a thousand feet beneath us. From that height, an entire train looked like a tiny model moving through the canyon.
That probably gave us a better sense of the gorge’s scale than any number could.
The gorge itself has an even older story. The Arkansas River has been cutting its way through this landscape for millions of years, exposing rock that dates back into the Precambrian era. Standing on a bridge built less than a century ago while looking at rock measured in billions of years puts time into perspective.
Our next stop was the raptor meet and greet.
This was one of those unexpected parts of the day that ended up being fascinating. We got to see the birds up close while learning about falcons and owls, how they hunt, how incredibly well adapted they are and what makes each of them such effective predators.
Keanah got a wildlife lesson in the middle of our Colorado adventure, although the adults were listening just as closely.
Then it was time to cross the gorge again.
This time, without walking.
We stepped into the aerial gondola and started floating across the canyon.
The gondola gives you a completely different view. The bridge we’d just walked across was now beside us, the Arkansas River was far below, and we could see the canyon opening out toward the mountains.
After peacefully floating across Royal Gorge, Ana and myself decided we’d been sensible for long enough.
The zip line.
Standing at the launch point and looking across the canyon makes you reconsider the idea for a few seconds.
Then you go.
That first moment is wild.
The platform disappears and suddenly you’re flying across Royal Gorge with hundreds of feet of open space beneath you.
The bridge is beside you. The Arkansas River is a tiny ribbon below. The canyon walls stretch out in both directions.
For those few seconds, you’re flying across one of the most spectacular landscapes in Colorado.
Easily one of my favorite experiences of the trip so far!
After Royal Gorge, we got back into the car and pointed west toward Montrose.
This was supposed to be the long driving part of the day.
It turned into one of the most beautiful drives we’ve done.
We followed US-50 through the mountains as the scenery kept changing around us. Mountain walls rose beside the road, rivers followed us through the valleys and small Colorado towns appeared between huge stretches of wilderness.
Then the fall colors took over.
Yellow aspens were everywhere.
Some mountainsides had huge streaks of gold running through the darker evergreens. In other places, the trees came right up alongside the road.
Every few miles we’d turn another corner and somebody would point out the window.
Look at that.
And then we’d find another view that was somehow even better.
This is exactly why we wanted to see Colorado in October.
When the sunlight catches the aspens, whole sections of the mountains seem to glow. Photos capture the yellow. Being surrounded by it while driving through the Rockies feels completely different.
The road eventually took us toward Monarch Pass, more than 11,000 feet above sea level.
The temperature dropped, the air felt different, and suddenly we were standing on the Continental Divide surrounded by mountains.
A few hours earlier, we’d watched a train crawl along the bottom of Royal Gorge.
Then we’d flown across that same gorge on a zip line.
Now we were standing above 11,000 feet.
As we continued toward Gunnison, there was one sight that was much harder to enjoy.
The water was incredibly low.
Seeing parts of the Gunnison River and the Blue Mesa area looking so dry was sad. Huge exposed sections that should have been underwater stretched alongside the road.
This wasn’t just the normal end-of-summer drop either. Colorado has been dealing with extreme drought in the Gunnison River Basin, and Blue Mesa Reservoir was down to around 17 percent of its capacity at the beginning of October.
You could see the effects right in front of us.
It was such a contrast to everything else we’d seen that day. Golden mountainsides, beautiful valleys and spectacular fall colors, then a landscape showing very clearly how badly this part of Colorado needs water.
We continued through Gunnison and eventually toward Montrose.
It was a long drive, but it never felt like dead time between destinations.
There was always something outside the window worth looking at.
Another mountain.
Another valley.
Another hillside covered in golden aspens.
By the time we reached Montrose, we’d walked almost a thousand feet above a river, watched a train pass beneath our feet, met some incredible birds, floated across a canyon, zip-lined over Royal Gorge, crossed the Continental Divide and driven through some of the best fall colors we’ve ever seen.
Tomorrow, Telluride and Ouray.
