The Best of Colorado's Historic Railroads with Road Scholar

Our group of 35 Road Scholars met at the Hilton Garden Inn in Aurora, Colorado, near Denver International Airport for this nine day program "to ride the historic trains of Colorado and traverse the rugged Rocky Mountains to relive the glory days of train travel."  

The next day we boarded our luxury motor coach which took us 1220 miles around the state during our tour.

The first full day, we headed to Georgetown, where we toured the famous Hotel de Paris and had time to explore the town.

Then we boarded the Georgetown Loop Railroad, passing by the actors who were about to portray crooks about to rob the incoming train and the marshals who thwart them.

This train connects the towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume which are only two miles apart but 600 feet different in elevation, requiring an impressive engineering feat involving switchbacks and four bridges including the 95 foot high Devil's Gate High Bridge seen in these photos...

Here's a video I made of this train ride

The next day we motored to Garden of the Gods, a Colorado Springs city park, where we viewed various formations such as "Balancing Rock" seen below.

We also visited the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum which was opened just for us by the director...

The famous Broadmoor Hotel was next, including lunch in its Golden Bee English Restaurant. We also had time to walk around the hotel's lovely lagoon and park grounds.

I was disappointed that we couldn't ride the Pikes Peak Cog Railway since it is being completely rebuilt over a three year period (it was over 120 years old!) and won't reopen until May of 2021. I did ride it decades ago with my family, and I will return when it reopens!

I did visit the Broadmoor's Primrose Museum with its impressive display of memorabilia, cars, and history of the famous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, first run in 1916.

The 97th running was this year -- 12.42 miles, 156 turns, starting at elevation of 9390 feet and finishing at the top, 14,115 feet -- the winning time in 2019 was 9 minutes and 12 seconds!

Our final Colorado Springs jaunt was dinner at Glen Eyrie estate, also known as The Castle, home of Civil War general William Jackson Palmer who founded several railroads as well as the city of Colorado Springs.

The next day we drove to Canon City to ride the Royal Gorge Route Railroad established in 1879 along the Arkansas River and through the 1000 foot granite cliffs of Royal Gorge...

...from which we looked up at the bridge overhead. I've been on the bridge several times and still chuckle when I recall the humorous sign prominent up there: "No Fishing From Bridge." This was my second ride on this train, and I've also rafted the river through this canyon.

Here's a video I made of our ride on this train

Next we rode the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad, begun in 1876, which crosses 9300 foot LaVeta Pass, the world's highest rail crossing at the time and still the highest standard gauge railroad in the country.

We coupled an engine that had to be taken to the end of the line and the conductor invited some of us to tour the engine, walking past the V-8 engines up to the cab.

Here's a video I made of this train ride

The next day we arrived in Antonito to ride the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. 

This railroad allows visitors to examine the rolling stock in the yard and the engineer also took two of us to see the shed where several old cars were being completely rebuilt, inside and out, by a master carpenter...

We also found one of their two rotary snowplows in the yard...

We stopped for a full turkey dinner for lunch at Osier seen in the background below. We couldn't ride the entire route but did experience both namesake locales -- Toltec Gorge and Cumbres Pass (10,015 feet elevation), the latter being where our bus picked us up for the drive to Durango. Twice I have ridden this entire route.

Here's a video I made of our ride.

The next day we rode the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad which has been in continuous operation since 1882, traveling from Durango's 6512 foot elevation up to Silverton's 9305 feet. The railroad has been recognized as an historic engineering landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. This was my fourth trip on this train and I hope to do it again!

Now the scenery became exciting, and I've been waiting years to be able to get this photo...

Here we are looking down onto the Animas River hundreds of feet below. The train is on a shelf blasted from the cliff wall (seen above.)

The Animas River is much smaller and calmer as we approach its headwaters near Silverton. I was surprised when I asked the conductor if this river is ever paddled by whitewater kayakers and he said yes --- competent rafters and kayakers can run as much as 27 miles of the river with some class IV and V rapids!

Here's a video I made of our ride

We then met our bus in Silverton and drove the "Million Dollar Highway" through the Red Mountain Mining District from Silverton to Ouray. During its 20 year heyday in the late 1800s, over 30 million dollars in silver, lead, gold, zinc, and copper were extracted in this district's mines, well over a quarter billion in today's prices.

Ouray is often called "The Switzerland of America," and when my family brought our northern Italian foreign exchange student here in 1989, he exclaimed that it did remind him of the Swiss Alps near his home.

There is no railroad coming over the mountains here, but Otto Mears, who designed and built this road as a toll road, wanted to build a railroad to Ouray, but the northernmost eight miles made it impossible to do so. Ouray is located at the end of a true "box canyon" and eventually a railroad did come here from the north, but  was never built over or through the mountains.

Bear Creek Falls can be seen from an observation platform along the highway a few miles south of Ouray...

Here's Ouray from above...

Instead of riding a railroad here, we were driven in 4-wheel drive vehicles to Yankee Boy Basin and its alpine meadows up at 12,525 feet elevation. I four-wheeled here in my Nissan Xterra for five days back in 2001with about 50 other Xterra owners and we had a blast, so this was a nostalgic ride for me. To see more photos of these sights in this high country of the San Juan Mountains (known as the Alpine Loop) you can go here.

We also visited the open-air Ridgeway Railroad Museum near Ouray which includes railroad equipment and artifacts...

...including its operating "Galloping Goose" rail-motorcar. This is a replica of number 1 of 7 such vehicles built in the 1930s by the Rio Grande Southern Railway. They had US Mail contracts and a few passengers to carry, but it was too costly to run a complete steam train just to carry mail and/or local passengers, so the first "Goose" was built using a 1931 Buick four-door sedan with a truck stake-bed for the cargo and a few seats aded for passengers. Railroad trucks (wheels) were mounted so it could run on the rails. This operating replica is also built on a Buick frame.

Yes, we all got to ride the Goose around their half-mile oval track. Below is a photo of the inside of the cab...

Here's a brief video I made of this ride.

We also had time in Ouray to visit Box Canyon Falls on our own if we wished to, which I did...

The next day we motored to Montrose to visit the Ute Museum with its extensive indoor and outdoor exhibits...

...as well as the graves of the Ute's Chief Ouray and his wife, Chipeta...

There is a bike trail behind the museum building, built on the right-of-way of the old railroad that went as far as Ouray from north. I biked that trail a few years ago but hadn't stopped at the museum -- and I should have. It is worth a visit!

We then began the long drive back to Denver, stopping in the small town of Redstone where we toured the Redstone Inn and had a buffet lunch...

...and also visited the Church at Redstone to see its lovely and unusual stained glass windows...

The trip was ably organized and by PJ who has led this trip over 40 times. She is a director at The Mountains and Plains Institute which offers this program through Road Scholar.  PJ's exceptional organization, efficiency, attention to detail and easy-going personality guaranteed a smooth-running and enjoyable time for all participants.

Steve (on the left) was our instructor and a raconteur who constantly regaled us with stories of his 19 years as an engineer for the Santa Fe Railroad as well us teaching us the long and colorful (and sometimes convoluted)  history of railroads in Colorado and the people who envisioned, built, and ran the railroad companies.

Victor was our superb bus driver who drove us over 1200 miles through Colorado, often on scenic but tricky mountain highways and always with a smile on his face.

Here is a video showing highlights of everything we did on this 9 day program (hit the square at the bottom right of the video to go full screen.)

All of Chuck's 41 Road Scholar/Elderhostel programs



And here's our entire group of Road Scholars...