My World Tuesday - Large Animals

This week's My World Tuesday contains the last couple of photographs from my Royal Gorge visit. The  park has a few assorted animals on the South Rim of the bridge, and here are a couple of them. I believe they are bighorn sheep and bison.

Other people's worlds can be seen on the My World Tuesday meme.

Scenic Sunday - Royal Gorge Incline

A couple of people asked whether Socks actually hikes with me or whether I carry him. He comes on almost every hike I take, and despite his small size (7 pounds or 3.2 kg) he walks the whole way, even on 6 or 7 mile hikes. When we get home he's still got energy to play! The only time I carry him is if it's very hot and sunny, there's a gravel trail, and no shade, because it's just too hot so close to the ground for him. He scrambles up and down rocky sections better than I can! He'll drink water from my hand, or drink it from a stream. Sometimes it's just me and Socks, other times I've got one or more friends along, it depends on when I go.

One of the attractions as the Royal Gorge is an incline that takes you down 1,000 feet to the bottom of the gorge. It's on a 45 degree angle, as can be seen in these photos, taken near the top.

Here's a photo taken near the top while in the incline's car.

A railroad runs along the bottom, and we were lucky enough to see a train going by.

The aerial tram seems a long way up!

There are people going down the rapids in rafts and kayaks.

And finally, here's a view looking up the incline from the bottom.

If it doesn't make you too nervous, this is a must-do since it's included with the (not cheap) price of admission.

Scenic Sunday - Royal Gorge Bridge Views

First, noel mentioned that the margins in my blog are getting cut off, and I'm wondering if this is something other people are seeing? If so, what browser and operating system are you using? The blog appears fine on my PCs in Explorer 8 and Firefox, but if there are problems I'd like to fix them.

It doesn't get too much more scenic than this. Here are some views, all taken while on the Royal Gorge Bridge. The river over 1,000 feet below is the Arkansas.

This one is looking straight down between two planks of the bridge, clearly showing the river and the railroad that runs next to it.

And finally, looking between the bridge and the cable.

I love places like this!

Scenic Sunday - Royal Gorge Tramway

For this week's Scenic Sunday post, here's a very scenic but vertigo-inducing post from the Royal Gorge Tram.

It claims to be the world's longest single-span aerial tram, with a length of 2,200 feet (671 meters).

It glides 1,178 feet (359 meters) above the Arkansas river. And you feel a lot higher than that!

Here's the view from it when you first get on.

It provides great views of the Royal Gorge Bridge.

Don't miss this if you're at the Royal Gorge!

Scenic Sunday - Royal Gorge Bridge

For Scenic Sunday, here are some shots of the Royal Gorge Bridge. It stands 1,053 feet (321 meters) above the Arkansas River, and is 1,270 feet (384 meters) long.

The cables weigh 300 tons.

There are 1,270 wooden planks that form the road surface of the bridge. (And yes, the No Fishing signs are still posted.)

It was built in 1929, and until very recently was the highest suspension bridge in the world. (Don't try to take this next photo if you're afraid of heights.)

The towers are 150 feet high.

The views are incredible, but those are for another post.

Skywatch Friday - Royal Gorge Bridge

We had a visitor in town last weekend and took her to the Royal Gorge Bridge, about an hour south of Colorado Springs. It's a suspension bridge (with other assorted attractions) over 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River, and for Skywatch Friday (please click on the link to see skies from around the world) I thought I'd post a couple of sky-themed photos I took while I was there. First is a shot looking up at one of the towers while walking on the bridge. You can see the main cables running from the top to the bottom of the photo, and the cables that suspend the bridge surface coming off that (they look very thin in this picture).

Next is a shot looking up at the whole bridge from down in the canyon, 1,000 feet below. The spot just below the bridge, on the right near the rocks, is the tram (gondola) that crosses the gorge - it's barely visible in this photo.

Finally, and completely unrelated, a couple of photographs of clouds from the last week.

Lots more photos to come from the Royal Gorge, including nice shots of the bridge, photos taken from the aerial tram, and several from the bottom of the gorge (reached by an incline railway).

And now to answer a couple of questions people asked in the comments from the last week or so.

In last week's Skywatch Fridy post, Kcalpesh asked if the first photo was shot with a wide angle lens. The answer is yes, the first and last photos in that post were both shot wide-angle, with a 10mm lens (since I have a DX-format sensor, that equates to approximately 15mm in standard film format). The first two shots in this post was also shot were also shot with that lens, the first at 10mm and the second at 20mm, which are the extreme ranges of the lens (a Sigma 10-20mm for Nikon mount).

Ann asked if we get a lot of thunderstorms. We get more thunderstorms here than almost anywhere else in North America. Many years we'll get 60 or more days with at least one storm. In the spring and summer, days usually start out sunny, and clouds will form over the mountains, particularly Pikes Peak. In the late afternoon they'll move off the mountains and over us, and by the evening it's typically clear again. In a good year you can almost set your watch by the thunderstorms, so people who have lived here a while don't set up their outdoor activities for late afternoon. I love thunderstorms, but could live without the violent weather they sometimes spawn (last summer we had 3 tornadoes within 15 miles of our house).

And finally EG Wow asked if we still have snow in our mountains. We certainly do, in fact two ski resorts are still open top-to-bottom. But it's melting quickly in the warm weather we're getting.