Canyon Spirit Denver to Glenwood Springs, Colorado

We spent the evening in the Hotel Indigo in Denver.  The Indigo is a contemporary upscale hotel in the heart of downtown Denver.  Union Station was directly across the street from the hotel building which was convenient.  We did not have breakfast at the hotel since the Canyon Spirit serves breakfast as the first order of the day.  We packed up our suitcases with their appropriate Canyon Spirit luggage tags and left them in the room. The next time we will see them will be in our room in Glenwood Springs, assuming everything goes according to plan. Spoiler alert: it did go according to plan!

Union station in Denver is a surprisingly busy rail station. We stood on the pedestrian bridge overlooking the tracks and watched the Canyon Spirit back into the platform where we would soon board to begin our journey.

We proceeded down the stairs to the boarding platform to the red carpet at the entrance to our car. Mike, our car attendant for the journey, took our tickets.  The train is spotless and gleaming. The windows were freshly washed and the flags on the entrance was a nice touch signifying we were about to embark upon a first-class journey.

Once we were on board, Mike gave us a welcome speech and introduced the rest of the attendants for our car. We have two cars at our disposal. The coach where we were seated and then the lounge car with snacks, a bar and comfortable sofas and chairs. Both cars featured sky view windows that were sparkling clean. First order of business as we pulled out of the station was our breakfast order as they served mimosas and a scone prequel to our meal.

A delicious mixed berry scone along with a champagne mimosa started our journey.

As the train makes it way through the rail yard outside of Union station, the first sight that we encounter is One River Apartments. These luxury apartments are controversial because of their exterior breaks in the glass exterior, representing a Colorado slot canyon and woodland ravine.  Within there is a trail extending over the 6th through 8th floors featuring an open air walkway trail covered with plants and featuring some waterfalls. On the roof is an Alpine lake swimming pool with a view of the Rocky Mountains.

As we continued outside of Denver we approach the Big Ten Curve.  This curve is a 270 degree circle in which the train begins the climb up the Rocky's.  The 10 refers to the 10 degree bend in the rail as it traverses the circle. 

This series of 10-degree curves allows the train to gain 4,000 feet of altitude over just 3 miles of track. The result is a remarkable vertical gain while covering a minimum distance on the ground.

Eventually, we reached an apex of 9,239 feet as we traveled through the 6.2-mile-long Moffat Tunnel.

The tunnel passes through the Continental Divide and was built in the early 1900s. A parallel tunnel is a water tunnel, bored by pioneers to transfer water from the Pacific watershed on the western slopes of the Rockies to the City of Denver on the east.

A linen table cloth was placed on our airline style tray and breakfast was served on the Pacific side of the Continental divide. The meals are themed to the Southwest which we are traveling through. I chose a Frittata which has roasted peppers, onions and cheese in the egg omelet and comes with a side of  tomatillo salsa.  Also on the plate were tri-color potatoes. I was more interested in the protein and really enjoyed the savory flavor.

 

The landscape changed to Lodgepole pine and mountaneous terrain before the rock formations became ignacious in character as we met up with the Colorado River traveling along side as we twisted and turned through the steep Canyons.