We are staying at the Starlite RV Park where vintage rv's the owner has restored can be rented for the night. This 1973 Winnebago is next to our 2010 coach made by the same company! What fun we had peering in the windows to check out the furnishings. It's funky but I'll stick with my rig!

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Because we've been here before and because it's really hot we decided not to take the suspension bridge across the gorge to the park. Instead, we drove down the road from the campground and got to see the bridge from this vantage point. The bridge was built in 1929, is the highest suspension bridge in the US and spans the Royal Gorge some 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River.

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Shelf Road opened in 1892 for stagecoaches and freight wagons traveling to and from the Cripple Creek/Victor Mining Districts. It got it's name because the road travels along a shelf with mountain on one side and a steep drop-off on the other. Lorraine was a bit nervous as we drove this one-lane road with many twists and turns.

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Along the way we spotted what looked like a cowboy and his horse in the valley. When he wasn't moving we realized what we were looking at was evidently a metal memorial to a fallen cowboy.

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It's always fun to see beaver dams up close.

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We spotted Window Rock high above us.

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After 26-miles of driving the Shelf Road we arrived in Cripple Creek. More than $350 million in gold has been removed from this area since 1891. Most of the present day structures in town date from the 1896.

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Once gold was discovered the population grew to 18,000 with the boom ending in 1904. The gold operation was reactivated in the 1930's and gold is still being removed today. It's fun to see the old mines that dot the hills.

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Victor was founded in 1893 and was one of the world's richest sources of gold. In the prime of its mining heyday at the turn of the 20th century, the town's population topped 12,000 and dozens of trains rolled through daily. More than 300 houses and buildings from the early days are still standing including city hall where Jack Dempsey trained.

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Our return trip took us along Phantom Canyon Road. During the gold rush days, this was the route the trains took to and from the mines of Cripple Creek and Victor. Several old train tunnels cut through red rock formations along this 30-mile trip from Victor to Canon City.

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Hmm is that a vintage uke player under the awning of the 1963 Shasta trailer?

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This museum is housed in the original women's prison built in 1935. Displays feature a gas chamber, confiscated inmate weapons, disciplinary paraphernalia and inmates original photographs and artwork. Believe it or not, today there are 13 operating prisons here in Canon City!

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We've been waiting for rain since the wind started blowing. Just before it started raining, I spotted a rainbow in front of us. Got the photo just before it really started raining.

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