"If we didn't have that revenue, the mill rate for citizens of Cañon City would be around 21 mills – about seven times what it is today." City Administrator Ryan Stevens said that in June, the week the City Council approved a new operator for the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park, according to the Cañon City Daily Record.
The rate he was comparing against is 2.887 mills, the Cañon City portion of a local property tax bill. Using the state's searchable map, the Daily Record put that next to similar-sized towns. Rifle sits at 5.261, Durango at 8.537 and Glenwood Springs at 8.625. Fruita, Steamboat Springs and Johnstown run from 10 to almost 24. The gap comes from the bridge. The city owns the park and leases it to an operator. For about 60 years that operator has been the same company, Royal Gorge Company of Colorado, and that stops this Saturday, October 31.
Sunday, November 1, CMBH Partners, LLC, takes over on a 25-year lease. To visitors, that's an ownership-page update. People who live here are the landlord, so the handoff touches their passes, their holiday calendar and the line on their tax bill that most towns pay a lot more for.
The Lease Is the City's Budget, Written as a Contract
The Council approved the CMBH agreement unanimously on Thursday, June 18. It ended a three-year process that began in 2023, when the city decided that after six decades with one operator it owed residents a competitive bid. The full contract is posted with the June 18, 2026, special meeting agenda in the City of Cañon City's agenda center.
Here's what the city gets out of it, as the Daily Record reported:
| Lease term | What it says |
|---|---|
| Rent on admissions | 25% of admission revenue, same as the prior contract |
| Rent on food, drinks and merchandise | 10%, same as the prior contract |
| Rent on special events | 10% |
| Capital improvements | $3 million in the first 10 years, with $1 million due by March 1, 2029 |
| New attractions | At least two major ones between Nov. 1, 2036, and Oct. 31, 2051 |
| City's attraction fund | Sinking fund grows from $600,000 to $1 million |
| Inflation | Consumer Price Index escalators over the life of the lease |
| Potential end date | 2071, if every extension is used |
Those percentages added up to about $2.5 million a year for the city in June's reporting. In October, the paper described it as about $3 million a year to the general fund and estimated that a single week of closure could cost the city $57,534. Either figure supports the same point. The park has to keep selling tickets for the city to keep that low mill rate.
The lease also has a short list of benefits written for locals: two free community days a year, discounted season passes for locals, discounted pricing for schools and educational groups, and support for certain local events. The size of the discount, the dates of the free days and who counts as a "local" haven't been published yet.
Some Local Perks Are Already Off the Calendar
The perks you'd notice first are the ones winding down with the old operator.
- Season passes. The park's site says general admission season passes expire 10/31/26. Under the outgoing operator, Colorado residents could buy passes at half price every April. Nobody has said whether CMBH keeps that sale. The lease guarantees a local discount, but not that one.
- Boo at the Bridge. The park's Halloween night is canceled for 2026. The park's marketing director told KOAA the park is in the middle of an ownership transition and couldn't host it this year. Whether it returns in a later year is still open.
- Online tickets. The park's homepage says e-tickets are currently unavailable and all tickets are sold in person.
- The Skycoaster. The Royal Rush Skycoaster is closed to riders.
- Shorter days. The park's posted 2026 schedule moves closing time from 5 p.m. to 4 p.m. starting November 1.
Each item on that list hits the people who visit often more than people who come once. For a visitor from Denver, a closed ride costs one afternoon, while a Cañon City family with an expiring pass is also missing a Halloween tradition this year.
What's Still Open as of the Handoff
The most recent public account came from the Daily Record on Oct. 16. The paper got a copy of an Oct. 9 letter from Brent Hargrave on behalf of CMBH Partners. It asked the city for dates CMBH would get access to the property, a full list of known deficiencies with who is fixing them and when, a written plan for Skycoaster repairs, clarity on property conditions, and assigned transition responsibilities. The letter also named the condition of the parking lots and "unresolved matters involving intellectual property and naming rights." CMBH estimated the closed Skycoaster alone could cost $600,000 a year in revenue.
Mayor Phil Lund told the paper the Council would do all it could to keep the park open November 1:
"It undoubtedly will have some significant challenges."
Stevens said the city is working closely with CMBH to keep any downtime to a minimum, and later that the two sides were "on the same page." He also pointed out that the city is unwinding a contract that dates to the late 1960s and has been amended 13 times. Council had a regular meeting on Oct. 19 and a special meeting on Oct. 21, so check the city's agenda center and the Daily Record for anything newer before you drive up Fremont County Road 3A this weekend.
The naming-rights question matters for one event in particular. Bridge of Lights, the park's December walk-through with Santa photos and a Christmas market, is a branded event name. A Colorado.com listing shows 2026 dates of Nov. 27–29, Dec. 4–6, Dec. 11–13, Dec. 18–20 and Dec. 25–27, but labels them "subject to change." Treat those weekends as tentative until the park announces them.
An infrastructure assessment the city paid Alfred Benesch & Company up to $76,652 for, reported by the Daily Record in August, valued the park's major assets at about $23.6 million. It put the bridge at $10 million, with replacement projected for 2093. The disputes are about access, upkeep and paperwork. Nothing in them is about the 1,257 planks over the river.
A November and December That Don't Depend on the Gorge
While the park sorts out its first winter under new management, the rest of the season's big dates have their own organizers.
- Wednesday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m. The Veterans Day Ceremony at Veterans Park.
- Nov. 19 through Dec. 30. The Royal Gorge Route Railroad, a separate business from the park, runs two holiday trains through the canyon with up to four departures a day. The Holiday Train leaves at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. for a 1-hour-45-minute ride. Adults pay $109 to $139 and kids 1 to 12 pay $104 to $134, depending on class and peak pricing. The Santa Express includes cocoa, cookies and a gift for ticketed children, with adult fares of $99 to $144 and child fares of $94 to $134.
- Saturday, Dec. 5. The Christmas Parade of Lights on Main Street, free to enter or watch, according to the Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance. The start time hasn't been posted yet.
For dinner after the parade, Main Street's newest option is Antithesis, the fine-dining restaurant in the restored Robison Mansion. It opened to the public in July and serves lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday. Reservations are at 719-778-3231, per the Daily Record. A few blocks away, Classic Furniture at 510 Main St. plans to close around the end of the year after 20 years, and its closing sale is running now.
When CMBH publishes the local season-pass rate and the two free community days, those are the first lease terms Cañon City residents will feel personally. The $1 million in improvements due by March 1, 2029, is the next one to watch.
If you own in Cañon City and want to see how the city's 2.887-mill share fits next to everything else on your property tax bill, or how it compares with a place you're weighing in Florence or Pueblo West, call me. I'll pull the numbers for the address you have in mind. That's everyday work at Colorado Foothills Properties. Work With John.
