Another kind of gorge

I know, I know.  When you think gorge and how I love food, you think of the Golden Corral, the home of the all-you-can-eat, everything-you-could-want type of buffet.  But Tuesday, June 30, that’s not what Jaz and I had in mind.  We were of a mind to head to Royal Gorge.

Dams, reservoirs … they are really cool places, and this one was no exception although we opted to not do the tour as we’ve both been on some before.

Coming up to the reservoir the bridge is a beautiful thing, its metal gleaming in the sun.  The greenery surrounding the area is lush with huge trees that take your breath away. 

While not very long, in my mind this is a mighty bridge for beauty.

We crossed the bridge and headed for the visitor center.  In the parking lot there were three sheriff vehicles.  Had they been warned about us?  I was riding the Police bike.  Perhaps it was a courtesy?  I think not.  Haha!!!

The visitor center had some great information, which we took, and off we went, riding across the top of the dam and around, taking a road down to the bottom near the river.  It was very cool … people were fishing in little boats, taking river rafting trips.  It would be a fun place to come and spend some time doing water things.

Gorgeous is everywhere.

We hiked a bit of the trail going down to the river, but then elected to go back up and ride down.  It was much easier and I wasn't breathing nearly as hard.

Jaz and I built this one.  Who knows how long it will last before someone pushes it over.

The path led us under these rocks.

A sharp corner was enhanced with a mirror so you could see what or who you were going to hit.

By damn, there's the dam.

All too soon, we once again hit the road and headed to Rawlins, Wyoming, our destination for the evening.  We hit some hellacious storms, lightning, and rain that could float Noah’s ark.  We managed, slowing down and at one point getting off the road for a while as the big 18-wheelers going by threw up so much water it seemed as though we would drown.  I put on my helmet after our stop and I was glad as we hit two more major thunderstorms.  Lightning was shooting off to our right, lighting up the dark sky.  It’s beautiful, but I’d rather view it from inside, not from the seat of a wet motorcycle.  My only consolation was that we were not the tallest things around. 

By the time we reached our destination for the night we’d been wet, mostly dry, wet, mostly dry, wet and again mostly dry.  What do you do?  Hop in the pool and the hot tub?  That made our night complete.