A Family Train Trip Through The Colorado Rockies

by Tim Larison

This spring we had an old fashioned travel experience – we took a train trip from Denver to Glenwood Springs, Colorado! After years of family travel on planes, cruise ships, cars, and buses, the Larison family had different reactions to train travel.

Anne and I loved the relaxed nature of the trip. On our 7 hour ride we were treated to beautiful views as we weaved through the Rocky Mountains on rail. Particularly impressive was the scenery of Glenwood Canyon and of the Colorado River.

Andrew and Josh, who were more accustomed to rapid air travel, had different thoughts. “It was a really long trip, and boring toward the end,” said Josh. “It was long but we found stuff to do,” said Andrew. Josh’s favorite part was eating supper in the dining car (shown at the right). Andrew liked the ability to walk between the cars on the train.

At the peak of rail travel in the 1930’s Denver’s Union Station had over 80 passenger trains arriving and departing in a 24 hour period. Nowadays the station only sees two passenger trains per day! While we all agreed we preferred air travel to get to far away destinations much quicker, we enjoyed our train trip as a fun and different family travel experience.