Everything about The Royal Gorge totally explained
The
Royal Gorge (also
Grand Canyon of the Arkansas) is a
canyon on the
Arkansas River near
Cañon City,
Colorado. With a width of 50
feet at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of 1200 feet in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the
granite of
Fremont Peak.
About 3 million years ago as the
Rocky Mountains rose from the surrounding plains, a small
rivulet that would become the Arkansas River rose with them. Over the
millennia, it cut a deep
channel for itself through the surrounding granite, at a rate of about one foot every 2,500 years. The gorge's peculiar shape, contrasted to broad canyons such as the
Grand Canyon, can be attributed to this long, direct erosion through hard rock.
Before
European settlement,
Native Americans of the
Ute people wintered in Royal Gorge for its protection from wind and relatively mild climate. The
Comanche,
Kiowa,
Sioux, and
Cheyenne used Royal Gorge on
buffalo hunting expeditions as an access point to mountain meadow regions such as
South Park Basin. Colorado's Rocky Mountain region fell under
Spanish claims, and
conquistador expeditions of the
17th century or
fur traders may have seen Royal Gorge in their traversal of the area. The first recorded instance of a European arrival, however, is the
Pike expedition of 1806.
Zebulon Pike's group built a crude shelter in the gorge and explored the area, descending on horseback over the frozen Arkansas River.
Nearby
Cañon City was founded in 1860 to exploit possible mineral deposits in the area. Discovery of
silver and
lead near
Leadville in 1877 prompted a race to build rail access to the area. Royal Gorge was a bottleneck along the Arkansas too narrow for both the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to pass through, and there was no other reasonable access to the South Park area. Both railroad crews thus took to fighting the
Royal Gorge Railroad War, two years of essentially low-level
guerrilla warfare between the two companies.
Federal intervention prompted the so-called "Treaty of Boston" to end the fighting. The D&RGW completed its line and leased it for use by the Santa Fe.
In the
1890s Royal Gorge was used as a passenger route for
transcontinental rail travel. As many as four trains per day went through the gorge, though in time the establishment of alternate routes through the mountains made the Royal Gorge fall from favor for transcontinental use, and passenger train service on the main line was discontinued in 1967. A sightseeing train now follows the route through the gorge.
In 1929 Cañon City authorized the building of the
Royal Gorge Bridge, which at 1,053 feet above the river is the highest
suspension bridge over water in the world. The bridge forms the kernel of
Royal Gorge Park, a theme park owned and run by the city.
In the summer months,
whitewater rafting is a very popular activity in the Royal Gorge.
Tourists travel from around the world to tackle the
Class IV rapids of the Arkansas River and enjoy the scenery of the gorge. Named rapids in the Royal Gorge include Sunshine Falls, Sledgehammer, Wallslammer and Boateater. River recreation in the royal gorge is regulated by Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area (AHRA) and daily user fees are required to launch at all of the recreation sites upstream of the Royal Gorge. There are many commercial rafting companies which are licensed by AHRA to run the Royal Gorge and summer weekends can see hundreds of rafts packing the river.
Base jumping,
bungee jumping, and
rock climbing are generally not permitted at the Royal Gorge; however, during special events such as the "
Go Fast Games" these sports have been temporarily allowed. However, it's only allowed with the consent of the land owners.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Royal Gorge'.
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