Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
surrounding landscape and destroyed the vast majority of the park attractions, including
the visitor center and aerial tram, but miraculously spared the bridge.
The park estimates that the bridge will remain open to traffic, but the rest of the park
may stay closed through 2015 while renovations are undertaken. Both raft trips and the
Royal Gorge Route Railroad (
Click here
)
will continue to run through the gorge.
Check the website for the latest updates and ticket prices.
Garden Park Fossil Area
(Red Canyon Rd)
The second-largest Jurassic graveyards in Colorado, but still one of the
largest in North America, these are one of the quarries that spawned the Bone Wars and
produced such dinosaur stars as
Stegosaurus
,
Diplodocus
and
Allosaurus
back in the late
1800s. They're still standing in the Smithsonian today. The world's most complete
Stego-
saurus
skeleton was excavated here in 1992.
It's pretty unlikely that you'll spot a giant femur sticking up out of the ground, but it's
still an easy quarter-mile hike out to the Marsh-Felch Quarry from the turnoff, and you
can combine a visit with a drive along Shelf Rd (
Click here
)
. To get here, turn north onto
Field Ave from Hwy 50 at the east end of town.
PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE
Cañon City Municipal Museum
(612 Royal Gorge Blvd; 10am-4pm Wed-Sat; )
Good for that rare rainy day is this muni-
cipal museum, which introduces the region's early history. In 2013 it incorporated the loc-
al dinosaur museum collection (it's here indefinitely), consisting of a
Stegosaurus
cast and
a few skull replicas. Visits are by tour only.
MUSEUM
Prospect Heights
(4th St)
When United Artists were making John Wayne Westerns in Cañon City, this is
where they lived and worked. A turn-of-the-20th-century Colorado Fuel & Iron company
town before Hollywood came and went, Cañon City was legally dry, so the drinkers, like
Wayne and cowboy actor Tom Mix, came down to this area to drink and fight. You'll see
remnants of the old stone jail and brick storefronts. To get here follow 4th street from
Main over the river and across the tracks.
HISTORIC SITE
Activities
