A Life Lesson for Our Sons and Daughters
As our train through Royal Gorge neared the station in Cañon City, Colorado, Ray and I asked our tour guide what she suggested we do afterwards. We took her advice and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon — with no entrance fees.
On her recommendation, we drove a short distance from the train station to Skyline Drive. The pretty rock entrance to the two and a half mile road dates to 1932, but Skyline Drive was already twenty-six years old when the entrance was completed.
Inmates at the Colorado correctional facility at the base of Skyline Drive completed the one-lane road in 1906. Skyline Drive begins at a slight grade . . .
. . . and then climbs quickly to the top of a tall, steep ridge. This ridge is part of the Dakota Hogback Ridge which runs from Wyoming to New Mexico. The angles on either side of Dakota Hogback Ridge are as sharp as 45 degrees! I believe it!
Here’s the view from my side of the road . . .
. . . and here’s the view from Ray’s side.
This view of other ridges we could see from Skyline Drive illustrate what Coloradans mean by hogback ridges.
When inmates completed the road in 1906, the only vehicles allowed were horse-drawn carriages, like this one.
The next year local officials allowed motorized vehicles to travel on the road, too, but only on Tuesday mornings and Friday afternoons. Here is another view from a Suburban early on a Saturday afternoon.
I loved riding on Skyline Drive.
When we got to the end, I suggested that we do it again with me driving this time. Ray enjoyed it but wasn’t ready for a second drive. He said he had now been on Skyline Drive twice — his first time and his last time.
Skyline Drive is a great object lesson. It would have been a great illustration for Solomon to use when he was teaching his son to watch carefully the path he took in life.
Let your eyes look directly ahead
And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
Watch the path of your feet
And all your ways will be established.
Do not turn to the right nor to the left;
Turn your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:25-27
I learned facts for this post from the Rocky Mountain National Park website and from this article from The Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/2014/03/28/canon-citys-skyline-drive-not-for-the-timid/.