AREA INFORMATION

A theme park three million years in the making.

Did you know some of the earliest and largest dinosaurs roamed the Royal Gorge region over 100 million years ago? Or that one of these residents was the brontosaurus, among the largest of all earth's inhabitants? This area was the original "Jurassic Park" and its prehistoric origins are a field trip in the making.

In fact, noted paleontologists have discovered some of the most complete dinosaur remains less than three miles from the Royal Gorge Bridge. Dating 100 to 200 million years ago, fossil bones found here include the allosaurus, stegosaurus and comptosaurus.

One of the most massive gorges in the world.

The Gorge was created some three million years ago when a trickle of water first began to slowly carve a canyon out of the solid granite bedrock. Today that trickle is the raging Arkansas, one of America's longest rivers. And the masterpiece it continues to carve at a rate of one foot every 2,500 years is the Royal Gorge in Cañon City, Colorado.

The Royal Gorge is considered a world wonder, and often referred to as the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas River. Yet it's unlike any other canyon. The width at the canyon bottom is no more than 40 to 50 feet, while the top measures only a few hundred feet.