Cañon City, CO
Five miles east of Cañon City in the Arkansas River valley, with the front range of the Sangre de Cristos rising west and the Wet Mountains to the south. Single 4,970ft runway 11/29, uncontrolled. The closest GA field to Royal Gorge, three miles west of town — a 1,053ft-deep slot canyon spanned by the Royal Gorge Bridge (1929), one of the highest suspension bridges in the world. Cañon City's historic district preserves 19th-century territorial architecture from the silver boom.
A 10-mile-long slot canyon of the Arkansas River, cut 1,053 feet deep through Precambrian granite — narrower than 50 feet at its base in places. The Royal Gorge Bridge, completed in 1929, spans the chasm 956 feet above the river and was the world's highest suspension bridge for 72 years (until China's Sidu River Bridge opened in 2001). A historic narrow-gauge railroad still runs along the canyon floor, threading under the bridge — one of the most dramatic train rides in North America. The Hanging Bridge section, where the canyon narrows to 30 feet, required cantilevered ironwork to hold the tracks above the rushing river.
At 14,115 feet, the easternmost fourteener in Colorado — and the one Katharine Lee Bates climbed in 1893 before writing "America the Beautiful" inspired by the view from the summit. Zebulon Pike never actually summited the peak named for him; he tried in 1806 and turned back in November snow. The Pikes Peak Cog Railway has been running to the summit since 1891 — at 14,115ft it's the highest mountain railway in the US. The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has roared up the 12.4-mile highway every July since 1916, second-oldest motorsports race in America. The mountain's sheer prominence — 5,500 feet above Colorado Springs — makes it the most visible peak in the state.
A 1,367-acre city park of dramatic red sandstone fins and spires at the foot of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. The vertical sandstone slabs are remnants of an ancient sea floor pushed up onto edge during the formation of the Rocky Mountains 250 million years ago; the deep red color comes from iron oxide. Charles Elliott Perkins, a railroad executive, bought the land in 1879 and his children donated it to Colorado Springs in 1909 with the stipulation that it must remain free to the public forever — admission is still $0. The signature view: Pikes Peak rising 8,000 feet straight behind the red rock formations.
The tallest dunes in North America — Star Dune and Hidden Dune both push 750 feet above the valley floor. They sit in the San Luis Valley with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rising 14,000ft directly behind them, an absurd visual juxtaposition. The dunes are a product of wind funneling across the entire 8,000-square-mile valley and depositing sand at the only natural pinch point. Medano Creek runs along the southern edge of the dune field for a few weeks each spring, creating a beach in the middle of Colorado. NASA tested Mars-rover concepts on the dunes in the early 2000s.