Colorado offers some of our nation’s most spectacular scenery. What better way is there to enjoy it than riding the rails? Full scale, narrow gauge, funicular … in all, five different historic mountain railroads take us on an astonishing journey.

 

Included meals are denoted: Breakfast: B, Lunch: L, Dinner: D

 

DAY 1          D

Our deluxe motorcoach departs Albuquerque this morning and heads north over the Raton Pass to Colorado Springs, where we lodge for 2 nights. We will have time to refresh ourselves before enjoying a welcome dinner. 

 

DAY 2                     B,L

Our local guide hosts a tour of the famous Garden of the Gods, with its magnificent red sandstone rock formations. In Manitou Springs, we board the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, the world’s highest cog train, which takes us to the top (14,115 feet) of America’s best-known mountain. The view from the top is spectacular. En route, watch for Minnehaha Falls, bighorn sheep, and whistling marmots.

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DAY 3                     B, L

The Royal Gorge is a narrow chasm over 1000 feet deep on the Arkansas River. The Royal Gorge Railroad track was laid in the 1870s. It crosses through the gorge and includes the amazing Hanging Bridge where the gorge narrows to 30 feet, its sheer rock walls plunging into the river. We can walk across the world’s highest suspension bridge and take the aerial tram across the gorge. We drive to Cripple Creek, “The World’s Greatest Gold Camp.” Here we ride the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad through the heart of the mining district behind a historic steam engine. We lodge two nights in Colorado Springs.

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DAY 4                     B,D

Leadville, America’s highest city, was once its richest. Now it is rich in beauty, history, and legends. The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum depicts the history and technology of mining and includes a replica underground mine. Next stop is the Matchless Mine and Baby Doe Tabor’s Cabin. This afternoon we board the Leadville Colorado & Southern Railroad for a scenic, narrated ride along the Arkansas River up to the abandoned mining town of Climax and back. We lodge one night in Salida.

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DAY 5                     B, D

At Golden’s Colorado Railroad Museum, one of America’s finest, we find a vast array of historic, narrow and standard gauge locomotives and cars. We continue on to Georgetown, the first of Colorado’s silver boom towns, and once Colorado’s third largest city. We enjoy exploring & shopping in this historic town with over 200 original buildings from the 19th century. Today’s train ride is the famous Georgetown Loop Railroad, going over the most complex railroad loop in the world. Then we drive to Denver to lodge one night.

 

DAY 6                     B

We drive past Colorado’s snow-capped mountains and northern New Mexico’s lovely scenery to home, sweet home.

 

Itinerary subject to change