Again, nice and cool overnight, but warmer than usual when we awoke. Today we decided to get in some much needed exercise so we headed off to a walk along an old railway line a few miles away. We made an early, for us, start to try and beat the heat. We succeed in the first goal and failed in the second.
By the time we got to the area it was already hot. Unfortunately the old line was a couple of hundred feet above the parking area, so a bit of a steep trek to get to it.
Once on the track we had a great view down at the Arkansas River, and also the rail line that we traveled on the other day.
With a name like the tunnel trail you’d expect to find the occasional tunnel
Some interesting rock colouring.
The river was active with rafters, it had been closed to commercial rafting for a few days due to high and fast water levels. I guessed these guys to be doing 10-12 mph floating with the current.
Some more flowers and cactii
and even a turkey vulture riding a thermal
There are many of these small lizards around, but they move pretty fast. I finally managed to get a picture of one.There were a number of geo-caches along the trail, but most involved some rock climbing, we decided to give them a miss, but we did find one cunningly hidden in a pipe!
After about 2.5 miles in 35°C temperatures, we headed off north to find the suspension bridge that we saw from the train. The bridge was located in a park area which had strategically placed fences all around to prevent you getting a view of the bridge, unless you paid an entrance fee. Unfortunately the rather high entrance fee also included free access to various rides and activities, all we wanted was to see the bridge, so that was a dud! I did manage a shot though.
Driving out of the area there was a no parking area next to a fire hydrant, this gave a better view, but also resulted in a caution that we shouldn’t park there!
On the way out there was a small dirt track with a cache at the end of it. The cache was called Royal Gorge for Free. We had to go for that one. Unfortunately we didn’t find it, but we did get a few more views.
Bridge and Canyon
Bridge and Gondola
Bridge and Zip Liners
We headed back to the camp site, and Lyn said their was an Amish store on the way that she’d like to stop at, we forgot it was a Sunday so the store was closed.