Starting south out of Colorado
Springs on S.R. 115, the road drops down to two lanes and settles into country mode—soft hills and scrub pines wax and wane with each mile. Crossing major artery U.S. 50, the
first stop on S.R. 115 is Florence. Best known for prisons, including Supermax, the town could be called super-fun—at least for antique hunters. Reportedly, 15 years ago the town had only the Oil City Merchants Antique Mall. Over time the town attracted a bevy of other antique stores (20 total to date), five art galleries and almost a dozen restaurants. Today, bustling Main Street can
hold your interest and satisfy your hunger (try the incredible sweet potato fries at the Mainstreet Grille and Bakery) for at least a few hours, if not half a day. Two events on the same weekend (Sept. 16 and 17, 2011) are definitely worth attending: The 8th annual sidewalk/street sale, Junktique, and the 84th annual Florence Pioneer Day Celebration, complete with Main Street parade. Back on SR 115, it’s only a short
10-mile hop northwest to Canon City (originally named Canyon City, but a reporter used the Spanish spelling, canon, which stuck). Known also as a prison town, it is an enjoyable mix of broad streets and eight 1800s buildings in one of the largest intact National Register of Historic Places districts in Colorado. A must-see is the small, evocative Museum of Colorado Prisons. Outside is an actual gas chamber. Inside, 32 jail cells include displays that highlight bad guys from the 1800s up to the 1970s, as well as information on little-known women prisoners. Shifting gears from museum to
vista, you can find one of the most surprising—and vertigo-inducing— vistas outside Canon City on U.S. 50 heading for Royal Gorge. A sign and right turn leads to Skyline Drive (See Pin 1 on the map on p. 27), a one-lane, one-way track that climbs up to what looks like a relatively small hogback. But the tiny ribbon of asphalt has such serious drop-offs on both sides that you feel as if an opened car door would hang over thin air.
28 EnCompass September/October 2011
The Wet Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop to the breathtaking view of the Royal Gorge and its bridge.
Built by convicts in 1903, the road has a pullover at the
start and end, but the middle is right on the knife edge of the 800-foot-high hogback and doesn’t seem much wider than your car. Spectacular 360-degree panoramas can be seen by anyone not closing their eyes from fear. Regaining the more down-to-earth U.S. 50, it’s only a few
miles west to the turnoff for Royal Gorge Bridge and Park (See Pin 2 on the map on p. 27). This Canon City-owned natural and man-made wonder is Disneyland-clean. For a closer look, the incline railway—the world’s steepest
at 45 degrees—makes a five-minute crawl from the canyon’s edge to the Arkansas River below. You then have 10 minutes to look around—and up! If you’re there at the right time, you can see the passing of the Royal Gorge Route Train, a 24-mile roundtrip passenger train that gives a whole other perspec- tive to the Gorge (pick up the train at the Santa Fe Depot in Canon City). Another way to see the canyon is from a seat on the
Skycoaster—a free-fall tower that sweeps you 50 mph to hang momentarily 1,200 feet out over the canyon floor. Coming back down to earth, you return to U.S. 50 and
shortly enter Big Sheep Canyon. The scenery is nearly for- gotten as you contemplate the seemingly endless strings of ghostly train cars that sit patiently beside the west canyon wall like lost cattle waiting for someone to lead them some- where. Will their owner ever return to save them? At Texas Creek you branch off U.S. 50 and take S.R. 69
heading for Westcliffe. The road gets smaller then crests a rise and suddenly before you is the wide expanse of Wet Mountain Valley, with the Wet Mountains to the east and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the west. The contrast between the two ranges is stark: The Wet Mountains (named for the amount of snow they get) barely reach over 10,000 feet and are covered mostly in pine forests. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains boast more than 25 peaks over 13,000, with sharp crests. Bookended by these ranges, the Wet Mountain Valley is an
ocean of prairie grass, highlighted by the occasional ranch house. The vista is stunning—the air is so clear you can see
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© Jeff Miller
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