USA Rail Journey: Day 6 — Denver to Glenwood Springs
I woke up pretty early. By now, I am used to Amtrak trains getting delayed. So, even though I had only one hour to reach the train station, I took the public transportation to the Denver Union Station. I was right. The train was running 90 minutes late and I spent a good chunk of time (and money) for breakfast.
I was looking forward to this leg of the journey. I had heard so much about the Denver to Glenwood Springs train journey and had seen so many amazing pictures as well. It was all true. In one sentence, this is the best train journey I have ever been on. The train snakes through the Rocky Mountains, crosses through many tunnels, and finally finds a place by the Colorado river. Then, it follows the river through the Glenwood Canyon to reach Glenwood Springs.
The train also goes through Moffat Tunnel, the third largest tunnel in the US, where it also cuts through the Continental Divide. Crossing through the Continental Divide was an interesting sight. Before the tunnel, water was flowing east and as the train came out of the tunnel, the water was flowing west. The tunnel is 6 miles long and it took almost 15 minutes for the train to finally see the light at the end of it.
To make things interesting, Amtrak had two guides telling us the history of the places we passed by, and other interesting things.
This write-up definitely doesn’t do a good job of describing what I saw. Hopefully, the pictures at least try to! High hills on one side, river flowing on the other the side, tunnels, canyons, etc., all in all, a perfect recipe for an amazing train journey.
As if this wasn’t enough, I came to my AirBnB house. The house has a gorgeous view that can put any NYC skyline view to shame. This is where it is and this is how it looks! Just to put things into perspective, Google Maps will not take you to this place. I had to call up the owner, take handwritten directions to reach this place.
