Tunnel Drive Trail

The Tunnel Drive Trail is an out-and-back hiking trail located in Cañon City, Colorado. The trail parallels and overlooks the Arkansas River and the Royal Gorge Route Railroad.^[3] Popular with locals, the trail starts just inside the Cañon City city limits and then, crossing out of the city, it goes on State of Colorado and BLM land.^[4]

Tunnel Drive Trail
One of the tunnels along the trail
Length	4 miles (6.4 kilometers)[1]
Location	Cañon City, Colorado
Trailheads	205 Tunnel Drive, Cañon City, Colorado, 81212
Use	Hiking
Highest point	5,500 feet (1,700 meters)[2]
Lowest point	5,400 feet (1,600 meters)[2]
Difficulty	Easy
Sights	Arkansas River Royal Gorge Route Railroad
Surface	Concrete for the first 100 yards; the rest is gravel
Right of way	The former route of an irrigation canal
Website	www.canoncity.org/facilities/facility/details/tunneldrive-26

Original use

The trail was originally the site of a wooden irrigation canal that also supplied water to Cañon City. It was built in the late nineteenth-century and was called the redwood stave irrigation pipeline. The city stopped using the canal in 1974.^[2]

The canal passed through three tunnels cut out of the granite cliff on the north side of the trail. The trail now passes through the tunnels, one of which is quite long.^[5]