Royal Gorge
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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 is only allowed with the consent of the land owners.
