The Hansen's go on...

The next morning we headed east to Canon City, about 35 miles from Pueblo. Once in Canon City, we began exploring the area looking for a camping spot. Most of the camp sites in the area were small privately run places. We drove on east 15 miles or so and found a nice little KOA alongside the Arkansas River. We felt lucky to have a semi-secluded campsite right on the river bank. After setting up camp we drove back toward the Royal Gorge and went to Buckskin Joe's, an authentic late 1800's town.

After a beautiful night by the river we rose early the next morning, had breakfast and broke camp. We loaded up the car and drove down the road to one of the whitewater rafting outfitters in the area and signed up for a half-day trip. They fitted us with life vests and gave us safety instructions then told us to load up on an old repainted school bus. We headed down the river about 10 miles and pulled over. The guides unloaded the rafts from the trailer we had towed. Then Rich, the guide who was apparently in charge assigned us to guides and rafts.

We carried our raft down to the river and cast off. It was about a two and a half hour, 8 mile trip with several sets of Level III and Level IV rapids. We had Rich as our guide and he did a good job telling us about the river and the finer points of white water rafting. He told us the best time of year is late June and early July since that's when the river is at its highest and swiftest.

We didn't take the advanced trip down the Royal Gorge since they want you to have prior rafting experience before you do this, but we had a great time and our trip had several pretty good rapids which definitely soaked you with the cold water!
To see a photo of our trip down the river click here.

Our vacation adventure continues here.