While the area is less than an hour's drive from Colorado Springs or Pueblo, you really feel like you are going back to an earlier era in the Royal Gorge region ... one without all the crowds and hurry. This is a place where you can slow down and window shop the Main Streets in Cañon City or Florence. Or speed up, with a paddle in your hands, through the Class V rapids of the Arkansas River in the Royal Gorge. Or some of both.