The Royal Gorge Route| The Royal Gorge Route |
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| Written by Richard Hitchcock | |||
| Wednesday, 25 August 2010 01:31 | |||
 Our train from Cañon City to just past Parkdale was full. There were two dome cars for deluxe service, and the rest were coaches and the Concession Car and the open car. Sometimes, the train stopped for a few seconds before proceeding. When the train pulled away from the depot built by the AT&SF in 1914, off the north side of the tracks, we saw the Colorado State Penitentiary and then, to our left, a power plant which still receives coal loads to fire the boiler for the generation of electricity.Further along, we saw evidence of the former wood and steel water main that once served Cañon City. Candelabra cactus was beginning to bloom near the tracks along the right-of-way. It had magenta-colored blooms. A concrete water flume built over the tracks in 1946 to carry excess water away from the tracks safely is still in place. We all wondered about the modest shack nearly gone but for a wall or two and a roof, at milepost 166.4. This was built to allow the workers to warm themselves in the winter. The passengers can easily see the outcropping of black gabbro in the red rock walls near milepost 168. Nearby, the remains of a dam and intake gate for the waterline remain. I got a photo of that structure on the left, across the river. By the time we reached the Suspension Bridge and the Hanging Bridge, the dark colored gneiss rocks began to change to red granite. After seeing the slide detector fences near milepost 169, the highway bridge of US-50 crosses the river at rail milepost 169.75 and soon, the siding at Parkdale is encountered. Today’s train went a bit further west than it did in the 2002 trip of eight years ago. We were at about milepost 172 before stopping. The rails are cut beyond milepost 172. There are the remains of a plant to process feldspar at milepost 170.2. All that is left now are three concrete silos beside the track. We are at the point across from the put-in point for the river rafters which frequent the waters of the Arkansas River. The train crossed the Current Creek and Tallahassee Creek in this area. The elevation varies between 5,357 ft above sea level at Cañon City to 5,752 ft above sea level at Parkdale. There is enough gradient to cause the water of the river to flow rapidly. Maybe that is why the river is popular for rafting. The sky was clear and the air was warm and dry. We saw several river rafts filled with rafters floating down the Arkansas River.
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