Cañon City, CO
Site:
Royal Gorge KOA
Site: 22
Wifi: Verizon - 64 down, 38 up / ATT - 35 down, 12 up
Cost: $50/night
Noise: No complaints!
We got a last minute reservation that we ended up extending after we had spent a week locked in a hotel room. We didnt want to rush right back into boondocking, so we decided to spend the week with hookups to ease back into it. The Royal Gorge KOA is 3 miles from the Royal Gorge, as well as about 15 minutes from Cañon City. The sites themselves are spacious, and you don't feel crammed in by your neighbor. The people who work here are clearly proud to be at the KOA, and it shows in the immaculate bathrooms and clean grounds. Everything is dirt or gravel, so it was a little difficult on the bike on hills, but the KOA fit in with the area. There is also a really creepy, almost abandoned looking “family theme park” with a giant slide, mini golf, and go karting that is open on the weekend. If the KOA crew hadn’t mentioned multiple times that we should try it, I would have assumed Pennywise lived there. The office/store is renovated and looks amazing, but is a bit anemic in its selection. However, the cell reception here was insanely good. You can see a cell tower in the distance, but it feels like such a remote area that I figured we would get usable but slow speeds. This was like having wifi in a home. We would have stayed longer had we not already booked a reservation for our next stop.
Rating: Will be back next year!
City
Cañon City, CO
Cañon City is one of those towns that clearly used to be small but was suddenly hit with things like Walmart and Starbucks. The town is almost clearly split between the shopping/industrial part, and the historic downtown. The downtown portion is comprised of empty stores and mom & pop shops. It has cute, old architecture but not much in the way of things to do. More to the east you have your chain stores. The town has a large correctional facility (and there are more nearby), but it’s not an eyesore or distraction. The city is at the valley at the end of a band of mountains, and riding out of town yields breathtaking views.
Rating: Too small and also too big for us to stay long.
Restaurant:
We passed by the Waffle Wagon on the way to our KOA and immediately knew we would have to stop during the trip. While the restaurant itself didnt really have a decor theme (it all looked pretty disjointed), the food and service were stellar. We were immediately sat, even though the place was full, and were brought our beverages within two minutes. The menu is basic American breakfast food, with nothing that really stood out as unique, but sometimes its nice just to get the basics. Ron ate a chicken fried steak with hashbrowns and gravy, and really enjoyed it. I had the standard eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns and was happy that the hashbrowns didnt taste like they were just reheated when ordered (which was the issue with the last few breakfast places we ate). Serving portions were large and neither of us cleaned our plates. Price was under $10 each for entrees, and we also had a hot cocoa (me) and orange juice (Ron). The cashier was friendly and told us she was the mother of the person who started the restaurant in the 80s. I love when we can stop at a family breakfast.
Rating - While nothing stood out as stellar, it was really nice to just get great home cooking.
