Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cañon City’s Tunnel Drive Trail

Back in the late 1800’s a water pipeline was built, partially out of redwood staves, that brought water for irrigation and use for Cañon City from the Royal Gorge area of the Arkansas River. Back in the day Cañon City produced apples, plums, pears, peaches and grapes. Lots of em’. The pipeline passed through three tunnels cut out of the granite cliff on the north side of the Arkansas River. A hiking trail is now the site of the old pipeline, much of which is buried underneath the finely crushed and packed rock path that parallels and overlooks the Arkansas River. It’s about 4 miles out and back. The old pipeline continues up into the Royal Gorge. A lotta hard work went into this endeavor.

Remnants of the old pipeline. This last tunnel was well past the end of the trail. I bushwhacked up to it and there was no getting around it. Didn’t wanna crawl through straddling that old pipeline. I couldn’t see any light at all down in there.

This is the confluence of Grape Creek (flowing in from the south) with the Arkansas. Grape Creek runs up to past Westcliffe; it was dammed about 120 years ago to build Deweese Reservoir. This is heading towards the Royal Gorge along the Arkansas; the present Royal Gorge Route Railroad runs up through here from Cañon City. This is the Arkansas flowing back towards Cañon City.

Some of the scenery along the hike. I’ve seen bighorn sheep up in here a lot.

Nice. Beautiful actually.

Nice photos and story!

Thanks for posting!

Cool area for sure! We vacationed through there a few years back with the kids. Did the train ride, all the fun at the Gorge, Bishop's Castle, and some other stuff. Even found good pizza in town. The old Prison tour is pretty cool, too. I like that area quite a bit.

Cool.

Pizza Madness in Cañon City...?

Great pictures and story! Thanks for putting it up, enjoyed it.

Call me silly, but you didn’t mention which state this is in. I guess I can Google it, but threads with little information are puzzling. 🧐

Colorado.

Love the drive from Canon City to Salida.

It is beautiful through there. Bighorn Sheep Canyon. Along the way, it covers 56 river miles and climbs 1,700 feet in elevation.

Very cool! Thanks for posting.
I drive that road every other year or so heading up an over Monarch Pass. I've seen that pipeline many times and never knew what it was.

Why no production of the many fruits today?

I think it’s due to a combination of things. The huge orchards that once stretched across the wide and fertile Arkansas River valley east of the Royal Gorge have been replaced by hay fields and houses. And a devastating flood in 1921 washed away much of the fertile topsoil.

Nowadays smaller orchards are producing heritage varieties and you can go and pick em’ yourself. Also nowadays small vineyards are scattered throughout the area. And they’re makin’ some pretty good wine.

Beautiful pics guys.

Great pictures, thanks for sharing!

Dale

Nice Thanks for sharing.