Things to do / Travel Guide
Railroad Activities around Denver, Colorado
Railroads played a very significant part of the history of the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies. Monster engines chugged their way across the country, over mountains, across prairies, and through deep gorges. During the Gold Rush years, they brought the people out and the gold back, and a large element of the scenery of every burgeoning city and every successful mining town was the train station and the trains running through it.
Many of these train stations, and miles and miles of track, still exist. A fun activity is to visit these relics of history, admire the lofty beauty of the stations and the metallic beauty of the old locomotives. There are lots of railroad activities in this region, and a detour or two for a railroad experience may prove quite interesting and fun. Here are three impressive sites to get you started:
- The Colorado Railroad Museum is located in Golden, a bit west of Denver. There are over 100 authentic locomotives, and offers railroad excursions on some of them.
- Another train treat is an excursion on the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad. The trip is 45 minutes long, departing from the Cripple Creek Train Depot, and you get to see a number of interesting mining sites. The trip ends at beautiful Echo Valley, where the conductor might just put on an echo display of his own by means of his train whistle. Trains depart every 40 minutes from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
- An unforgettable experience is a ride on the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. On the two-hour excursion you travel through the Royal Gorge, and there are special cars with glass ceilings to allow you unobstructed views straight up. Aside from the fantastic scenery, it's also a good opportunity to see the indigenous wildlife. During the summertime, there are multiple daily trains; however in the spring, fall, and winter there are only weekend trains.
- Cheyenne (and Laramie) history is inextricably linked to railroading.
Visit the Cheyenne Depot Museum, located in the handsomely-renovated Union Pacific Railroad Depot. The Depot houses several vintage trains.
One terrific vintage train in Cheyenne (not in the abovementioned museum) is the Union Pacific “Big Boy” #4004, which spends its days as a retiree in Cheyenne's Holliday Park. This is the longest locomotive ever built, at 132 feet. When fully-loaded with water and coal, it was also the heaviest, at 1,208,750 feet. It ran from 1941-1956, being rendered obsolete with the demise of the steam-powered locomotive.
Snow Activities around Denver, Colorado
You can find places to snowshoe, do some cross-country skiing, watch the scenery on a sleigh ride, or whiz by on a snowmobile in quite a lot of places in the region, often near the ski resorts. You can check out outfitters in Granby or Winter Park, for instance. However, it's Estes Park that can boast the most options in terms of these snow activities. There are numerous outfitters in the city, where you can buy or rent equipment, or even charter a guide to take you to the best spots. There are so many variations on the same theme, you'll be left wondering why you stuck with skiing for so long.
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