Riding the Rails

Trains have been a love for my husband for many years, so it was an almost “must do” to visit Durango, Colorado and ride the narrow gauge railroad up to Silverton.  This is one the most famous historic trains in all of the United States and it gets more media coverage and write-ups and films for television than any other.  We had made our reservations well before the trip began, because we had heard that two or three months was suggested.  It would have been terrible to show up and try to get a ride and be turned down because there were no seats available.

The morning of the trip we were up pretty early and down to the lobby area for the expanded continental breakfast.  We had discovered that the local bus system was good and would take us right to within two blocks of the railroad station so we walked a block to the nearest stop and waited a few minutes for the next bus.  We arrived at the station with enough time to get acquainted with a few fellow travelers.

The trip from Durango to Silverton is 3 ½ hours and then you have two hours before you return to Durango.  For me it meant two hours to recover from the hard vibrating ride, eat lunch and look around.  You have to remember, this old railroad is still using the old equipment they had back then. That’s a part of the thrill of it, but my back isn’t the best and I was in a lot pain, but still felt it was worth the trip.  

We were back into Durango about 7 p.m. and went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant but were disappointed with it.