Colorado Holidays
National
Parks & Trains of Colorado is
a breathtaking new tour for 2007, exploring the beautiful
panorama of Colorado, as well as some of the most famous rail
journeys in the US. Read about the stunning Colorado locations
and view two fascinating videos
online.
Colorado Holidays - National Parks & Trains of Colorado
On your journey, you’ll explore Colorado’s capital, Denver and
the Colorado Railroad Museum, which features over 70 locomotives.
Also, you’ll visit Colorado Springs,
a place of natural beauty located at the foot of Pikes Peak.
You’ll travel to the towering red rock formations of
the ‘Garden of the Gods’ and then take a fabulous
train ride on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway,
with breathtaking views from the summit of Pikes Peak.
Experience the panoramic vistas of Royal Gorge Bridge
and Park and travel for 12 miles on the Royal
Gorge Railroad, whose rail tracks were laid over
120 years ago. Enjoy the Aerial Tram ride and admire the
spectacular views of the Arkansas River and the Sangre De
Cristo Mountains.
The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, built in the 1880's, is the most authentic steam era line in North America. The 64-mile line connects Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico via the San Juan Mountains and the 10,015- feet high Cumbres Pass. On tour, you’ll board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for a scenic ride through San Juan National Forest, travelling on a steam-powered locomotive that hugs steep canyon walls, as it winds its way through Rio de Las Animas Canyon.
Visit the ruins of ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park and the historic Spruce Tree House. The last leg of your journey will include the 1,800-feet walls of Glenwood Canyon and the scenic Trail Ridge Road, which will take you over magnificent mountainous terrain to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Colorado Holidays - Denver
Denver is a relatively young city, created by a gold strike just 140 years ago. In fact, the first permanent structure where Denver now stands reportedly was a saloon and the city boasted a theatre with sold out performances of Macbeth long before it had either a school or a hospital.
Today, Denver boasts 2.1 million residents (Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was born here). It’s full of vitality and since 1990 it has built a brand-new airport, baseball stadium, central library, downtown amusement park and light-rail system.
In addition to great museums, thriving neighbourhoods, a flourishing arts scene and an ethnically diverse population, Denver boasts a happening downtown core full of restaurants, clubs, boutiques, galleries and packed sidewalks as well as beautiful parks.
Downtown capitalizes on mainstream fun, while LoDo (Lower Downtown), the city’s oldest region, boasts the trendiest places, often jammed and rocking into the night. Clubs range from country-and-western to sports, comedy, and jazz. Coffee bars are big, too, both downtown and on Capitol Hill. Sports bars include LoDo’s Bar & Grill, with a patio overlooking Coors Field, Sports Column, with an outdoor rooftop café, the Adam’s Mark Hotel’s Players, and ESPN Zone, with non-stop action amid 100 screens.
Colorado Holidays - Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs was founded by Civil War hero and railroad magnate Gen. William J. Palmer in 1872 and was originally known as Little London.
The city thrives on culture, with its own symphony and performing arts centre. In fact, there are nearly fifty area attractions, ranging from the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre and the American Numismatic Museum, a Mecca for coin collectors. You’ll also find opera houses, fine hotels and restaurants.
Denver also hosts one of the nation's three U.S. Olympic Training Centres, and visitors can watch world-class athletes in action.
Colorado Holidays - Pike's Peak Cog Railway
A stunning nine-mile train ride on the Pike's Peak Cog Railway takes you to the 14,110-foot summit of Pikes Peak. The round trip lasts just over 3 hours.
You’ll pass along Ruxton Creek in Englemann Canyon following a cascading stream through thick stands of Englemann spruce, Colorado blue spruce and Ponderosa pine trees onto the beautiful Minnehaha Falls.
At the old settlement of Ruxton Park, the train passes through a natural gateway in the mountains called "Hell Gate". It’s then onto Deer Park and once over the Four Mile Siding the first glimpse of Pikes Peak appears! Another siding comes up, Mountain View, which is the halfway mark on the rail journey.
Now the train begins climbing in earnest. Many of the trees
in this area are bristlecone pine, some of the oldest living
things on earth! It is thought that some of the trees on Pikes
Peak are over 2,000 years old.
Once above timberline (the area where trees stop growing),
the views become more expansive. To the east are the Great
Plains out beyond the border of Colorado and Kansas. To the
south, the Sangre de Christo (Blood of Christ) Range stretches
south to New Mexico. On the west horizon view the Collegiate
Range. To the southwest at the base of Pikes Peak, sit the
old mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor. Once upon the
summit you can see the skyscrapers of downtown Denver.
Colorado Holidays - Rocky Mountain National Park
For breathtaking experiences and adventures, the Rocky Mountain National Park cannot be beaten. Elevations range from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the weather-ravaged top of Longs Peak.
You can spot black bears, coyotes, cougars, eagles, hawks, elk, mule deer, moose and bighorn sheep.
The oldest rocks in the park are estimated at 1.7 billion years old, making them some of the oldest rocks within the National Park System.
The Continental Divide runs northwest to southeast through the middle of the park atop the high peaks. This accounts for two different climate patterns - one arid on the east side near Estes Park and the other more precipitous in the Grand Lake area on the park's west side.
Colorado Holidays - Royal Gorge
At the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park looking down is even more breathtaking than looking up.
The rocky cliffs of Royal Gorge are a humbling sight for any traveller. The park features an striking suspension bridge and recreational park located among the majestic rocky mountains. Royal Gorge is a geological marvel that took three million years to form as it was carved out by the Arkansas River.
One of the USA’s most spectacular attractions, the Royal Gorge Bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge. Beginning as a one-lane toll bridge built in 1929, the Royal Gorge Bridge spans 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River.
An average of 500,000 visitors per year marvel at the breathtaking vistas from the bridge and adjacent park.
Aboard the 127 year old Royal Gorge Railroad you’ll experience everything the Royal Gorge has to offer including the Royal Gorge Bridge hanging over 1,000 feet above the train, the raging Arkansas River, wildlife and scenery found only on the train.
This is the only way to see the entire 12-mile amazing canyon called the Royal Gorge. The new Vista Dome cars offer the best seats in the house with unobstructed views from the upper level of a classic 1950's glass topped dome car. All passengers have access to one of our open-air observation cars.
It’s a two hour scenic and historic train ride on the most famous portion of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western train line.
Click here to watch Royal Gorge Railroad VIDEO
At more than 1,100 feet above the canyon floor, the Aerial Tram at the Royal Gorge is the world's largest single-span Aerial Tram. Built in 1968 at a cost of $350,000, the ride offers extraordinary 360-degree views of the Gorge, the Bridge, the Park and Colorado’s majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Between the blue skies above and the granite walls below, you'll feel as if you're walking a 2,200 feet tightrope across the very Gorge itself.
Colorado Holidays - Mesa Verde National Park
In Southwest Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park is the one of the USA’s richest archaeological preserves with over 4000 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.
Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300.
Spruce Tree House is nestled in a deep overhang. The three story buildings extend to the ceiling. This third largest cliff dwelling on Mesa Verde has 114 rooms and eight kivas nestled in a 66 by 27 meter cave.
Cliff Palace and Long House are larger. Due to the protection of the overhanging cliff Spruce Tree House had deteriorated very little. The surviving kiva roofs at Square Tower House were used as models to restore two kiva roofs at Spruce Tree House.
Colorado Holidays - Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
Tucked away in the southern Rocky Mountains is a prized historic artefact of the American West that time forgot. Built in 1880 and little changed since, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is the finest and most impressive example of steam era mountain railroading in North America. Its equipment, structures and vast landscape exist today as if frozen in the first half of the twentieth century.
The time has long passed when the railroad last hauled precious metals over Cumbres Pass. But its steam locomotives still labour up steep grades carrying visitors over high trestles, through tunnels, and along narrow shelves above yawning gorges.
The 64-mile, fully operational steam railroad is jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico.
The C&TS is recognized around the world for its spectacular scenery and unspoiled vistas, as well as the historic rolling stock and railroad structures that are preserved on the line. Many of the buildings and railroad equipment date to the turn of the twentieth century or earlier, making the C&TS the best-preserved steam era railroad in North America.
Colorado Holidays - Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad will take you on a glorious journey through San Juan National Forest, travelling by a coal-fired and steam-powered locomotive on the same tracks miners, cowboys and settlers of the old west took over a hundred years ago.
The town of Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1879. The railroad arrived in Durango on August 5, 1881 and construction on the line to Silverton began in the Autumn of the same year. By July of 1882 (only nine months after construction began) the tracks to Silverton were finished, and the train began hauling both passengers and cargo.
The line was built to haul silver & gold ore from the San Juan Mountains, but passengers soon realized it was the view that was truly precious.
This train has been in continuous operation for 125 years, transporting passengers behind vintage steam locomotives and rolling stock indigenous to the line.
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