
MerrySkeleton
Member
- Aug 16, 2019
- 36
I visited the Royal Gorge bridge a while back. I've seen a number of posters asking about this bridge as a potential CTB spot so I figured I'd post some of the pictures I took and describe what the location is like. For those who don't know, the Royal Gorge bridge is located in Canon City, Colorado (about two hours south of Denver) and is the tallest bridge in the United States. The drop down to the Arkansas river underneath the bridge is 955ft.
For my visit, I arrived at around 4:30pm on a weekday. The bridge itself closes to pedestrian traffic at 5:45pm but the various attractions (including the gondola which runs adjacent to the bridge) close at 5pm. The parking lot (photo #1) had a fair number of cars in it but the bridge park area is pretty large and spread out so it didn't feel like there were that many people there. At the main entrance building, you're charged $25 to enter park area (photo #2) which leads to the bridge and all of the attractions. From there, you can walk straight onto the bridge or you can turn left and take a Gondola ride (photo #3) to the other side of the canyon and start from there. At the end of the Gondola ride you walk a couple hundred yards down to the back entrance of the bridge (photo #4). The bridge itself is 1,260ft long. The floor of the bridge is made up of wooden planks which you can see in between (photo #5) and the sides are lines with rail/fence system that's roughly 4ft high (photo #6). There is no additional railing or netting (aside from what is visible in the previous photos) that would impede a drop down to the rocks below (photo #7). At that time of day, the only people on the bridge other than my group were a family about 100 yards behind us. There were no park employees anywhere near the bridge, save for when they would occasionally drive tour vehicles across. At the exit of the bridge (or entrance, assuming you walk from the front to the back side) there is no suicide hotline phone, nor is there any signage referencing suicide at all. By 5:45pm the park was basically empty save for a few workers milling about and telling the remaining tourists that they need to go.
Overall I would think this would be a pretty ideal spot to CTB. The only thing which I could envision being a problem is the strong SI you feel when you look down 955ft over the side of the railing. Aside from that though, it's pretty much wide open to whatever you would want to do.
For my visit, I arrived at around 4:30pm on a weekday. The bridge itself closes to pedestrian traffic at 5:45pm but the various attractions (including the gondola which runs adjacent to the bridge) close at 5pm. The parking lot (photo #1) had a fair number of cars in it but the bridge park area is pretty large and spread out so it didn't feel like there were that many people there. At the main entrance building, you're charged $25 to enter park area (photo #2) which leads to the bridge and all of the attractions. From there, you can walk straight onto the bridge or you can turn left and take a Gondola ride (photo #3) to the other side of the canyon and start from there. At the end of the Gondola ride you walk a couple hundred yards down to the back entrance of the bridge (photo #4). The bridge itself is 1,260ft long. The floor of the bridge is made up of wooden planks which you can see in between (photo #5) and the sides are lines with rail/fence system that's roughly 4ft high (photo #6). There is no additional railing or netting (aside from what is visible in the previous photos) that would impede a drop down to the rocks below (photo #7). At that time of day, the only people on the bridge other than my group were a family about 100 yards behind us. There were no park employees anywhere near the bridge, save for when they would occasionally drive tour vehicles across. At the exit of the bridge (or entrance, assuming you walk from the front to the back side) there is no suicide hotline phone, nor is there any signage referencing suicide at all. By 5:45pm the park was basically empty save for a few workers milling about and telling the remaining tourists that they need to go.
Overall I would think this would be a pretty ideal spot to CTB. The only thing which I could envision being a problem is the strong SI you feel when you look down 955ft over the side of the railing. Aside from that though, it's pretty much wide open to whatever you would want to do.






