Entry No. 22 — the Pueblo file — filed under: outdoor
Skyline Drive
“A grad student only noticed the dinosaur footprints in 1999.”
Sixty prisoners from the Territorial Prison carved this one-lane road along a razorback hogback in 1905, earning ten days off their sentences for every thirty worked. It is still one way, no guardrails, 800 feet of air on both sides. Half a mile in, the rock beside your window erupts in bumps: some fifty Cretaceous ankylosaur footprints that bulge out instead of in — you are seeing the underside of the trackway, mud casts turned to stone and tilted skyward. A grad student only noticed them in 1999.
The move: Park at the overlook just past the dinosaur-track sign, walk back along the ridge together, and put your hand where an armored dinosaur stepped in Cretaceous tidal mud — then ride the roller-coaster dips down into town.
📍 Before you go The entrance is a stone arch off US-50 on the west edge of Cañon City, about nine miles east of the Royal Gorge — traffic runs one-way eastbound, so once you pass under the arch you are committed until the road drops you onto 5th Street downtown. Leave trailers and wide RVs behind; the lane is barely a car wide, with steep dips and no guardrails. Do not stop at the tracks themselves — park at the overlook roughly a hundred yards farther along and walk back. Skip it on icy days, and pair it with the Museum of Colorado Prisons at the bottom of the hill.
- 📍 Cañon City
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: 50389 W US Hwy 50, Cañon City, CO 81212 (arch entrance off US-50, west edge of town)
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11