The Rockies by Rail

 This post is by Sue Tindell.

    One of the more enjoyable trips I've taken was back in the fall of 2015, when my husband and I flew to Vancouver, B.C., and boarded the Rocky Mountaineer train for a trip through the Canadian Rockies. We overnighted in Kamloops and ended our two-day excursion in Banff, Alberta, flying home from Calgary. The scenery was spectacular, and the Rocky Mountaineer lived up to its reputation as a first-class travel option.

    So, when RM announced it was opening a US-based line in our Rockies, I was seriously interested. This past September, Dave and I flew to Utah to begin our ride on the rails!

Jezabel, my cat, didn't want Mommy to leave. Or,
at least she expected to come along.

September 15-16 -- Minneapolis to Moab

    The first leg, as usual, was by car from our Northwest Wisconsin home to Minneapolis. With an early flight on the morning of Friday the 16th, we got a hotel near the airport for the night before. This has the added advantage of allowing us to leave our car parked there for free. For early-morning flights, this is an option you can't beat, especially if you live a couple hours away, as we do. 

There's not much to do when you're waiting for
your shuttle to the airport at 5:30am.

  

    Our flight to Salt Lake City lifted off the next morning on schedule and after a short layover in SLC, we had the short hop to Moab. It was our first visit to this enchanting town in eastern Utah. Moab is at just over 4,000 feet of altitude and has about 5,300 year-round residents, but it's one of Utah's busiest towns for tourism. The reason: outdoor activities, and lots of them. With several national and state parks within a few miles, Moab has tons of things to do, if you like hiking, biking and taking in magnificent desert vistas. 

    This was the first airport I'd ever seen with outdoor baggage claim! It also had only a handful of vehicles available at its rental car desk, but one was reserved for us, and off we went for the 16-mile trip to town.

    We'd always heard that the red-rock scenery of Utah was spectacular, and we were immediately convinced as we drove to Moab. Checking into our hotel on the edge of town, we did a little exploring before settling in. We would have two full days to explore this beautiful part of Utah before boarding the train, and we didn't want to waste a minute!

September 17 -- Hiking the Grandstaff, viewing the Arches

    There are so many hiking trails around Moab that we couldn't really go wrong, so we chose one whose trailhead was relatively close to our hotel. The Grandstaff Trail follows a stream deep into the rocky escarpments to a box canyon. We'd heard that a severe rainstorm a month earlier had caused some rather severe flooding on the Colorado River, which flows past Moab, and the streams that flow into it, and indeed there was a sign attached to the trail map warning that the trail might not be all there. The sign was right.

The devastation from the flood was everywhere, often
wiping out the trail. 

We had to cross the stream many times. This
was probably the easiest one. 

Well into the canyon,
we were still in good shape.

The stream had receded back to
its normal channel, but was 
still pretty swift, if not deep.

The end of the trail was in a large cavern hollowed out of
the rock, topped by a huge arch. The stream entered the cavern
from a hole in the wall at the rear. Here's a link to a video
we shot in the cavern: At the end of the trail.

    We hadn't brought our walking sticks along from home, but quickly found a pair from the debris of the flood that fit the bill. It took us two hours to get to the end, and another two to return to the trailhead. On the way out, we encountered several hikers who apparently hadn't read the sign about the washout, because they didn't look prepared. It was a tough go, but well worth the effort! 

    Getting back to our vehicle, we were pretty tired from a morning of rough hiking, but we wanted to drive through Arches National Park before returning to the hotel. The park is big, over 119 square miles, and home to a spectacular collection of natural rock arches, over 2,000 of them. It's very popular, and the line of cars waiting to enter the park can get long. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long in line and proceeded into the park, up a winding switchback two-lane road from the park entrance on the valley floor. 

    It had been a long but exhilarating day, and we returned to our hotel satisfied but tired and a little on the dirty side. But thankfully, the hotel had a very nice outdoor pool, so after a refreshing dip we got dressed and headed downtown to look around and have dinner. We quickly discovered Moab has no shortage of souvenir shops and also plenty of nice restaurants. We capped our day with a fine meal, a stop at a local pub to hear some music, and then we returned to the hotel, looking forward to our next day, which would feature a bike ride on one of Moab's many bicycle trails.

September 18 -- Biking north of Moab

    Dave and I enjoy biking along the back roads near our home in the country, and we were looking forward to seeing the great scenery of Utah on two wheels. We'd reserved two bikes from Poison Spider Bicycles, where the staff was very efficient and succeeded not only in renting us bikes and helmets but selling us new pairs of biking gloves. We had decided to ride the trail that actually began right in town and headed north, past our hotel. 

    Once we got past the entrance to the Arches National Park, about four miles outside of town, we got off the paved path and started exploring one of the myriad loops. Fortunately, they were all well-marked with map signs at each trailhead. Our off-road experience back home was pretty limited, so we decided to stick to the easier trails. A couple of excursions onto more difficult terrain quickly resulted in some spills, so we didn't test our limits too much. We got back onto the paved trail and followed it out to the end, then back to town. All told, we covered about 25 miles.

    Dave shot a short video while we were riding: Riding near Moab.

    It had been a fine ride, and we returned to our hotel for another dip in the pool before heading back downtown for dinner. Tonight we would have pizza at Zax Restaurant, which we were told had been founded several years earlier by a couple of University of Colorado football players who had come to Moab and decided to stick around and start a restaurant. 

    Moab had certainly turned out to be a fascinating, exhilarating place, and we'd hardly scratched the surface of its trails and parks. Another visit is definitely on our bucket list. But for now, we would be ready to say goodbye, because the next morning we would be boarding the train!

September 19 -- All aboard the Rocky Mountaineer, to Colorado!

    Monday morning finally arrived, the morning we'd been waiting for: boarding the Rocky Mountaineer train. We gathered at the Moab Tourism Center and registered, then boarded a bus for the short trip about 15 miles north of town to the waiting train. In Canada, we'd experienced RM's deluxe Gold Leaf service, with double-decker cars that had a dining room in the lower level. Not here, though; we'd have the next level of service, Silver Leaf, because American rail tunnels are too small to accommodate Gold Leaf cars. But that was all right, because our car was spacious and relaxing, and the service was first-rate. It didn't take us long to settle in and begin our journey east to Colorado.

    You don't ride the Mountaineer for speed. We would be chugging along at about 35mph, perhaps a little slower as we wound our way along the Colorado River through the mountains. The large windows provided excellent views of the scenery, and we could spend time in the small open observation areas in between the cars. All in all, an excellent and relaxing way to travel!

The "ghost town" of Cisco, Utah, which has one or two
permanent residents. 

Along the Colorado, we often saw people camping, swimming
and fishing. They all waved, and some gave us the moon!

    It was early evening when we pulled into Glenwood Springs, a city of about 10,000 in western Colorado. Glenwood Springs has been known for its therapeutic hot springs for more than a century, but we wouldn't have time to visit them on this trip. Too bad, a dip would've felt nice! But a day on the Rocky Mountaineer is certainly not like a day on a bus or a long airplane flight. We'd enjoyed good food, excellent service and good conversation with some of our fellow travelers. We checked into the Hotel Denver for a good night's sleep, looking forward to tomorrow's run to Denver. I loved the hotel and its vintage decor.

September 20 -- Glenwood Springs to Denver

    We rose early enough to get some chai tea at a coffeeshop and explore a little bit of Glenwood Springs. Dave wanted to see the Hotel Colorado, just across the river, but an easy walk across a pedestrian bridge. His favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt, had stayed there for a few weeks in the summer of 1905. Along the way we got to see one of the town's famous hot springs.

Downtown Glenwood Springs, a place I definitely want to
visit again!

The city's famous hot springs swimming pool. There are
several resorts in the area that incorporate the hot springs into
their property, and they're as popular today as they were
in the 19th century.

The beautiful grounds of the Hotel Colorado, built in 1893.

TR actually ran the country from here
during his several visits for hunting
and swimming. 

I loved the vintage furnishings! They brought out 
my inner Audrey Hepburn!

Getting ready to board, we were
greeted by our train manager!

All aboard for Day 2!

    Back on board, everybody was in a good mood. The mountain air had truly been invigorating, and we were all looking forward to another fine day on the rails. The weather had been spectacular and would stay that way all the way to Denver.

  

    The scenery had started to change when we entered Colorado, becoming more mountainous. The river itself became swifter, with more rapids, but there were many signs of civilization along the way: the occasional riverside home, canoeists and rafters, fishing boats, and people fishing along the bank and picnicking. 

    After lunch, our conductor took some of us on a tour of the club cars, which weren't in much use during this trip, but clearly they offered RM passengers an increased level of comfort and relaxation.

    After lunch, we started approaching the eastern slopes of the mountains, with Denver in the distance. 

    The train arrived in Denver around 3pm, and within a couple hours we'd disembarked, said goodbye to our new friends and to our car's excellent staff, and made our way to our hotel near the airport. It was the end of a scintillating two-day trip, and we knew we'd have to come back someday soon. The train and its crew would be turning around and making a run back to Moab, starting tomorrow, with about 300 passengers on this trip, about double what we'd had on ours. 

    The crowded city and heavy traffic took a little getting used to, after our two days exploring the red rocks around Moab and then riding the train through the mountains. We were already thinking of how we could organize a group tour to Moab and the RM run to Denver next year!

September 21 -- Denver to Minneapolis and home

    The jarring difference between train travel and air travel quickly became apparent to us this morning, when we were shuttled to the airport and waited to board our flight to Minneapolis. The crowds, the lines at security, the mediocre food...well, we quickly realized how superior the train had been. So what if it only went 35mph? We were in no hurry!

    The flight was uneventful, if far too crowded for us, and we drove home without incident. It was hard to believe we'd been on the train just the day before, but just like our first trip on the Rocky Mountaineer, our second was everything they'd said it would be, and more!