The Tracys of Denver: Amtrak and Glenwood Springs

October started off with one of my favorite trips…Jack’s 3rd birthday Amtrak train trip to Glenwood Springs, Colo., from Denver, Colo. I loved it!! The boys did too, but what a special trip.

We went to Denver’s Unio

n Station and it reminded me of a movie set as it was reminiscent of the old train depots from years ago. They really haven’t altered the station at all and the conductors still meet in the middle of the station to hand out tickets. It seems so archaic in a way…no security lines, no computer scans, no ID checks…very strange after flying for so many years.

The train was late,

by two hours, so we killed time by playing with choo-choo trains and Ryan grabbed us large coffees (thank goodness).

Once the train arrived, we boarded and I was pleasantly surprised. There was an outlet at our spot which we could use for the boys’ DVD players, there was ample leg room at each seat and it was relatively comfortable compared to flying.

I loved the freedom of movement while on the train. You could go to the train car with the expansive windows to take in the views - - the Amtrak folks kindly asked that you take turns and not monopolize a seat there. The snack car was easy to get to – - expensive, but easy to get to.

The views from the windows in the first weekend of October were breathtaking. The colors of the aspens and the gold hues were vibrant…the whitewater streams paralleled the train most of the ride up the mountains until the Continental Divide. To cross the Continental Divide, we went through the impressive Moffat Tunnel, a six-mile tunnel which cuts under James Peak to take you directly into Winter Park, Colorado. After passing the empty ski slopes we stopped at Fraser where the conductor said we could get out for a smoke break. I thought that was funny as you don’t hear people condone this anymore…but the break went faster than I thought and it was short-lived as we took it as a time to run and get a picture at the front of the train, but two whistles later had all of us running for our car so it wouldn’t leave us. Poor Jack was crying about this little stunt.
We ate a quick picnic lunch on the train and continued on our trek...passing gorgeous golf terrain which made me envious to say the least.Once back on the train, we hit the next stop Granby (not a smoking break) where we eventually met up with the impressive Colorado River. After whizzing by Hot Sulphur Springs, we hit some amazing canyons which were just beautiful and the little thrills didn’t cease with the trip. I found it interesting that somewhere in the middle of nowhere was a vast shooting range which was packed with shooters during the mid-day on Friday.

As you can see from the below pictures following the Red Canyon along the Colorado River, we saw some kayakers or other type of boaters. This family decided to moon the train and I happened to have my camera up and captured it…it gave all the passengers on Amtrak a good chuckle.

Glenwood Canyon was neat and once we entered this canyon I knew we were about to arrive to Glenwood Springs.

As we waited for our hotel shuttle to pick us up, this elderly gentleman befriended the two boys and told me part of his story - - he was never married, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and travels on the train to random paces because he can. He loves children and always tell them to have fun - - something like that.

Our first night consisted of dinner at a Mexican restaurant next to our hotel and swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel. This pool was nothing to write home about, but we did have it to ourselves and the boys were happy to be swimming.

Early on Saturday we woke up and headed to the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park for the day. We practically had the pace to ourselves - - there were no lines and we were the first riders to go on the Alpine Roller Coaster. The boys and us - - well, we loved this ‘do it yourself’ roller coaster. You chose the speed at which you travel down the mountain and it’s a two-man contraption.
It was so fun that I think we hit this thing at least 7 times prior to leaving. Three times in a row just in the morning alone…it was a blast!

The views from the park were gorgeous and you could look up and down the canyon with nothing in your way. We were lucky it was such a sunny day - - perfect weather!

They had a 4D movie experience and that’s the only thing that Jack didn’t like.
So we played in a huge sand box while Eban and Ryan did the movie rides. Another favorite item for the boys was a spelunking box which simulating cave crawling - - it was a little maze in this thing but they spent at least an hour crawling around in this 7 fout by 7 foot box. The caves were neat but it was close to their nap time so we only saw one of the deep caverns. It wasn’t scary for the boys and they were only restless. My camera broke after this part of the trip, so I have nothing to show you, but the kids loved it. Ryan bravely went on the Giant Canyon Swing which propelled you out over the canyon…I opted to stay with the boys.

After our fun-filled day - - and it was fun, we went to Village Inn to celebrate Jack’s third birthday. I think we all split one of the cakes, but I can’t remember. We were so tired that this evening is a tad mushy for me to recall.

The Glenwood Springs
Hot Springs pool was awesome!! On Sunday, we jetted over to the pool where we swam and played for two hours. I loved the pools and there were three HUGE pools – the largest one was cool, the second one was warm and then a smaller one was hot. But it was still amazing to be at such a big place that had historic building looming over it, mountains as a backdrop and hot springs in the cool morning of the fall. This was a new experience for me. We zoomed back to the hotel to pack and leave for the tiny train station.

The train ride back was fun too with the exception of when Eban crawled from his seat to my seat which was across the aisle. He didn’t look prior to starting his crawl but an older woman was walking down the aisle and simply had a horrible trip over him. I could have sworn she was going to break a leg as that’s how it looked from my perspective - - and she was frail to boot. She didn’t speak English but kept smiling and shaking her head like she was okay as she limped away. Ryan and I felt horrible. JUST horrible. We checked on her again and she made the same facial gestures like she was okay and we made Eban go to her seat to apologize. I hope she understood what was happening but I’ll never know…but we were lucky on this day.

To say this trip was fun is an understatement. I guess Eban said it best when he said, “Mom/Dad, I want to go on a train trip for my 5th birthday just like Jack had a train trip for his 3rd birthday. But next trip, I want to go on a sleeper car!” We thought that would be neat and looked into a sleeper car for a family of four…only $1000+ dollars for a one-way trip from Denver to Chicago or from Seattle to Los Angeles. This had some food included…good deal or no?