Skyline Drive

February 18, February 24

With a little time to kill before our 3:00 check-in at our AirBnB, we decided to make a short detour and drove Skyline Drive, a thrilling 3 mile drive up and over a hogback on the west side of Canon City.

History

The scenic byway was built by inmates from the nearby Territorial Prison in 1905. A one-way lane rides the ridge up Skyline Ridge, a hogback of Dakota sandstone where ankylosaurus tracks were found and preserved on the side of the road. A couple of signs mark the spot where one can read about the find in 1999.

February 18

The road continues up with the ridge jetting up to the sky on the left and a cliff plummets off to the right as you climb. Soon, the left side disappears as well and you’re left riding the narrow ridge over the peak of the rock formation. It’s a quite harrowing experience, in fact, Brandy elected to not join me on my return trip on Saturday as she found it too intense from the passenger’s seat (she stated that she’d me a lot more comfortable if she were driving.)

We plugged on until we reached a parking lot near the top. We got out and enjoyed a broad panoramic view of Canon City to the east and the hills surrounding Royal Gorge to the west.

Once we had our fill of picture taking, we headed on down the backside of the ridge. The road is pretty straight until you get to the last half mile or so, then you experience a series of switchbacks that drop you down into a residential neighborhood.

From here, we headed to the AirBnB and checked in and spent the week in Canon City.

February 24

At the end of our week in Canon City, I decided I wanted to get some GoPro footage of the drive over the ridge. I set up the camera on the sunroof with a tether that went through the sunroof and tied it off on the rear view mirror, in case the suction cup holding the camera to the roof failed.

I started the recording in Time Lapse mode from the app on my phone as I turned onto Hwy 50. As I got to the turn-off from the highway, I stopped the time lapse recording and started a recording in real time.

I took the drive up and over with no stops, taking just under 8 minutes, then stopped the recording.

I found my way back Main Street, that runs through the heart of Historic Downtown Canon City, and did a quick recording of the nine blocks from 1st to 9th.

Editing

A bit of background on my history with video editing: back when I was doing time lapse videos of me drawing, I would use one software to capture the individual videos, then I would compile them in an open source video editing software called Shotcut. Shotcut was easy to use, did exactly what I needed it to, and I never had any complaints about it.

The PC I had at that time died and when I bought a new one, it was woefully underpowered and couldn’t keep up with the demands of the video editing process. I gave up on trying to do anything with it and instead tried using online video editors, or the native that comes with Windows, none of which gave the results I got with Shotcut, so I stopped trying to make videos.

Fast forward to our trip to Colorado. I’ve since purchased a more powerful laptop, and in my efforts to put together a reasonable video compiled with footage from the GoPro, I downloaded Shotcut once more. The software works flawlessly on the laptop, so between it, and the installation of Photoshop to create the thumbnail, I edited and posted this video to YouTube:

I’m pretty proud of it. It’s not the most interesting video in the world, I probably could have shaved some minutes off, but for a second first go-round, I’m pretty satisfied with it.

I used this same technique to record the drive over Monarch Pass, including a stop at the crest where Brandy went in and bought a shirt. That video will be featured on my Crested Butte post.

Conclusion

Doing something this daring was definitely something I needed. I know, “ooh, taking a drive, how daring!” but as nail-biting as it was, it really scratched that adventure I’ve been having. I can’t wait to do more stuff out of my comfort zone on these adventures.

The few photos I took on Skyline Drive can be found in my Photo Diary.

Make sure you follow along the rest of the trip on the main hub for the winter 2024 edition of our visit to Colorado.

Until next time!

-Phil