10/15/2021
Curious about our Railroads of the Old West tour? Here is your itinerary when you travel with us!
Day 1: Sunday, June 26, 2022 • Lincoln, NE
This Railroad Adventure is an all-fun, all-natural Rocky Mountain High, combining adventure, history and romance into one great group tour. Depart Minnesota and travel west and spend the night in Lincoln, NE. Enter an elegant lobby with its grand staircase and feel right at home with modern amenities, and convenient services. Tonight, we join the Dinner Detective for an event that is very different from traditional murder mystery dinner shows. The actors are not dressed in costume but hidden amongst us in the audience! This results in a fun, social and interactive evening, and a great meal. Marriott Cornhusker Hotel (D)
Day 2: Monday, June 27, 2022 • Denver, CO
Across the prairies of Nebraska, we travel to Denver for an overnight stay. Dinner is on your own, but the Drury Inn & Suites offers their “5:30pm "Kickback". Chicken fingers, baked potatoes, buffalostyle chicken wings, meatballs, fresh vegetables, egg rolls, salad, hot dogs, soup and more are part of Drury's rotating menu served every evening from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. "Kickback" also serves a variety of free cold beverages. Most people can make a meal out of what is offered. Drury Inn & Suites (B)
Day 3: Tuesday, June 28, 2022 • Grand Junction, CO This morning meet your local tour director and depart Denver climbing high into the Rocky Mountains stopping first at Georgetown (8,500 feet). This town was once known as the ‘Silver Queen of Colorado.’ Here our first train ride is on the Georgetown Loop Railroad. Its powered by an old-time steam locomotive chugging its way up the canyon, hauling you past the remains of several gold and silver mines. This open car train runs between Georgetown and Silver Plume, covering mountainous terrain that requires trestles, cuts, fills, loops, and curves totaling 3.1 miles of narrow-gauge track. At the end of the line, we tour the Lebanon Silver Mine, taking you 500 feet into a mine tunnel bored in the 1870s. Your guide will point out rich veins of silver and tell you about early-day mining. The temperature inside the mine is a constant 44 degrees Fahrenheit, so bring a jacket. The tour also includes visits to the manager's office, the miners' change room and the tool shed. Late afternoon we cross the Continental Divide and check in to our hotel for the night. Dinner this evening is included at a local restaurant in the heart of downtown Grand Junction. Hampton Inn & Suites (B,D)
Day 4: Wednesday, June 29, 2022 • Pagosa Springs, CO Today, we take a three-hour Jeep Tour over 12,000-foot Corkscrew Pass into the Red Mountains. You ride beside high mountain cliffs over hanging mining trails where the clear air and the color of the red mountains are simply astonishing. A picnic lunch will be included. The jeep tour ends in historic Silverton, where you board the Silverton-Durango Railroad. This steam locomotive travels 45 miles along the Animas River winding through spectacular and breathtaking canyons in the remote wilderness of San Juan National Forest. You may feel as though you are reliving history as you travel on the same tracks that miners, cowboys, and settlers of the Old West took over a century ago. This train has been in continuous use since 1882. Dinner is included this evening at a local restaurant in Durango. After dinner, we travel to southwest Colorado and Pagosa Springs for lodging. Known for its hot springs, Pagosa Springs is surrounded by the rugged San Juan Mountains and vast areas of national forest. (B,L,D)
Day 5: Thursday, June 30, 2022 • Alamosa, CO
An early morning departure takes us to Chama, New Mexico for a ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad. Perhaps the most beautiful ride in America, it is a rugged, narrow gauge, coal-fired, steam powered mountain railroad traversing 64 miles of unparalleled scenery. You climb through an unspoiled landscape, past historic railroad structures dating back to the turn of the twentieth century. Enjoy the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains as this sure-footed locomotive rolls on through tunnels, above deep gorges and over Cumbres Pass as we zig zag between the Colorado and New Mexico border. A stop is made for lunch at the lonely Osier Dining Hall near the halfway point. Your rail journey will end in Antonito, Colorado, then its a short drive to Alamosa and your hotel. Dinner is included this evening at an area restaurant. (B,L,D)
Day 6: Friday, July 1, 2022 • Colorado Springs, CO Depart early today to visit nearby Great Sand Dunes National Park. Nestled in a spot where the Sangre de Cristo Mountains buckle inward, the dunes within the borders of the park have been building and sifting for eons. A sandbox of epic proportions, the entire dune field encompasses 30 square miles and the tallest dune towers 750 feet high. Next we ride the Royal Gorge Route Railroad for a scenic journey through the spectacular Royal Gorge. Since 1879, these tracks have followed the winding, tumbling Arkansas River deep within the soaring, 1,000-foot granite cliffs of the Colorado Royal Gorge. In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt described this ride as “the trip that bankrupts the English language!” This ride also includes a delicious lunch. Next, visit the Royal Gorge Park & Bridge, where the world's highest suspension bridge towers 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River. Here you will have time to walk out on the bridge explore other sights in the park. Later, arrive at your hotel in Colorado Springs where you will say goodbye to your local tour director. Dinner is on your own. However, you may wish to take advantage of the 5:30 Kickback meal at the hotel. Drury Inn & Suites Colorado Springs (B,L)
Day 7: Saturday, July 2, 2022 • Grand Island, NE
After a full day of travel, we return to the Nebraska Prairie, riding parallel to The Platte River. A rest stop will be made at the Great Platte River Archway before we roll into our Grand Island, Nebraska hotel for the night. Dinner is included at an area restaurant this evening. (B,D)
Day 8: Sunday, July 3, 2022 • Return
After breakfast, check out and begin your journey home, arriving in time to catch the fireworks displays. (B)
