For someone who lives by shortcuts, express lanes, Global Entry, TSA-pre check and anything else that can get me to my destination faster, I took a remarkably long time to travel from Colorado to Utah recently—about 30 hours, to be exact. It typically takes six hours by car, but this was a journey no vehicle could make.
I was headed west aboard Rocky Mountaineer, traveling from Denver to Moab on the luxury train’s Rockies to the Red Rocks route. Over the course of two days with an overnight in Glenwood Springs, I’d be among the 52 passengers enjoying the experience of a lifetime, riding alongside mountains, down valleys and through tunnels, admiring the scenery of the autumn-kissed American West. It was magical and would test my patience and reliance on technology in ways I didn’t expect.
The Canadian company, which operates luxury train experiences in Western Canada and the American West, launched the Colorado/Utah route in 2021, taking passengers through parts of the Rockies that are inaccessible by car. This was the train’s first full season, which runs April through October to maximize the daylight hours it can travel.
The Rocky Mountaineer embodies every ubiquitous quote you’ve ever read about the journey being greater than the destination, and it makes good on its promise. You only travel while the sun’s out in order to get optimal views of your surroundings, which you’re guaranteed seated in the custom glass-dome coaches that give passengers a panoramic view of the outdoors. You’re seen to by three in-car hosts, one of whom is a culinary host responsible for your five-star meals, and there’s a literal red carpet you walk on to board the train. Not to mention the station team who waves you off, Titanic-style (it was pretty adorable and reinforced the idea that this was not an ordinary train ride).
Life on the Rocky Mountaineer is pleasantly analog—if you can handle it
The original title of this article was “How an anxious person survived a two-day train trip through the Rockies.” Faced with a day and a half on the road, I worried about what I would do with my time and how I would get work done without reliable Wi-Fi. Sure that my 21st-century ingenuity could get around the analog accommodations, I packed a couple of hotspots. “It’s spotty,” said one of the publicists who’d made the trip several times before. I was overly confident in my technology—two hotspots and a cell phone that could be used for tethering, what could go wrong? First, it was the tunnel district. A series of 30 (!) incredible feats of human engineering, the longest spanning 6.2 miles, which takes 13 minutes to traverse. Then it was the many canyons and miles of remote train tracks, neither exactly top of mind for telecommunications companies.
I was the only white-knuckled passenger while everyone around me touted how relaxed they felt in the middle of nowhere. “There are few opportunities where you can truly disconnect,” said someone a few rows behind me. One woman had used magnets to display a map we’d been given so that she could follow along as we journeyed west. Imagine that! Thinking I could get more bars if I walked to the next car (lol), I took my computer to the lounge car, where I found fellow travelers swapping vacation stories, talking to the bartender and taking in the autumn landscape. I refreshed my email, but still nothing. And this is when, with a heightened stress level but even more resolve to soak in the experience, I gave up.
I spent the next few hours learning about the crew, marveling at the first player piano I’d ever seen in person and catching up on some reading—on my Kindle, of course, because I am an obstinate tech junkie who likes the convenience of carrying several books with me. I also took this opportunity to learn about the food and drink on board. Most of the wine is sourced from Palisade, Colorado’s wine country, while spirits are brought in from Glenwood Springs and beer is chosen from the finest craft breweries in Denver. Rocky Mountaineer’s management team seeks out as much local food as possible. For us, this meant peaches from Palisade and fresh cinnamon rolls from Sweet Coloradough bakery in Glenwood Springs, among other things.
While on board, you’re served breakfast and lunch on day one and breakfast and a snack on day two. There’s a printed menu tucked into the seatbacks, and the culinary host goes over choices before each service and takes individual orders. A Colorado-based catering company provides the onboard catering, which the host finishes off and carefully plates in a tiny gallery kitchen near the front of the train. Tucking into a fresh meal at my seat was such a delight—cloth napkins, proper silverware and the moving scenery to distract me from being totally disconnected. I’m so accustomed to screens on a plane and a computer to accompany my normal working lunches that I forget how nice it is to enjoy a low-tech meal. The heavy pours of viognier also helped me relax.
There’s so much to love about the ride
Unless you’ve flown first-class in one of those ridiculous Emirates planes where you get what looks like a small apartment in the sky to yourself, you won’t be familiar with the kind of legroom you get on the Rocky Mountaineer. It is spacious! At 5’2 tall, I could stretch my legs without bumping the seat in front of me. It made the tray table hard to reach (a bonus, actually, if I needed to scoot in and out of my seat without disturbing my workstation), but I kicked up the footrest and reclined the seat ever so slightly to find the optimal position for my height. One of the hosts could even maneuver the valet cart between two rows, leaving the equally ample center lane free to passengers moving about the train. The bathrooms are also roomy and impeccably clean—not the standard for most planes, regardless of ticket class.
Rocky Mountaineer’s Canadian routes feature double-decker cars for unbelievable sightseeing. The train cars are one level in America because of the tunnel district, but everyone still gets a good view through the glass enclosure. Passengers can also move about and step outside on the viewing platform. Two onboard hosts narrate nearly every mile of the ride, pointing out wildlife (you’re likely to see elk, deer and bears; we saw a bald eagle soar above the Fraser River) and giving you a bit of history about the region. Perhaps less educational but very amusing for this passenger was seeing my first Colorado salute, which is when people on the road moon the passing trains. Unlike Amtrak, the Rocky Mountaineer travels at a leisurely 45 miles per hour, giving us plenty of time to snap pictures. Jokes on them, you see.
Rocky Mountaineer stops in Glenwood Springs for an overnight, and, depending on which direction you’re traveling, you’ll get more or less the evening to yourself. Routes from Moab to Denver have more daylight hours to hike up the Doc Holliday Grave Trail and see the town. We were on the reverse journey, giving me enough time to check out the area’s famous hot springs. Several, including Glenwood Springs Pool, are within walking distance from the train station and the Hotel Denver, where our group spent the night.
Rocky Mountaineer partners with local tour companies to offer additional excursions to passengers at their final destination. Moab might be the last stop on the train, but it’s far from the end of your journey. Options to explore the popular desert include a sunset expedition to Arches National Park, where you’ll see petroglyphs; filming locations of popular movies like Indiana Jones and Thelma and Louise; and some of the country’s most famous rock formations. For the very brave, there’s also a sunset Hummer tour through Moab's famous red rock fins and an area known as "Hell's Revenge." I highly recommend it if you want to simultaneously fear for your life and scream from pure joy and adrenaline.
Train travel is not for everyone, but it could become the preferred way for some
Studies may point to a rise in experiential vacations and slow travel in the coming year, but I’m not there yet. After years of the pandemic and itineraries thwarted by restrictions, I relish the destination more than the journey, and I want to get there quickly.
Most of my fellow travelers were in mid to late life, many of whom remind me of my spry septuagenarian in-laws who’ve spent their last few summers sailing to South America and the Arctic, walking the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu in Peru and taking zodiacs to the edge of icebergs in Greenland. They’re big cruisers who sandwich adventure with long, lazy days at sea. While our wanderlust is similar, our desire to sit back and relax doesn’t exactly match up. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they’ve booked a trip on the 2024 season of the Rocky Mountaineer.
Now, it’s hard to argue with excellent service and the convenience of arriving at the city center without baggage claim or security to get through. Train travel is also more sustainable and, in some cases, less expensive than flying or driving. The Rocky Mountaineer is not one of these bargain options—a standard trip without additional excursions is about $1600. Still, it addresses the industry’s collective need for novelty and adventure and could very well be the catalyst for more luxury train experiences in America, which is already popular in places like Europe and Africa. Could a version of the Orient Express find its way stateside? One could only wish—and hope there’s Wi-Fi on board when it does.
Time Out visited Colorado and Utah on a group press trip with Rocky Mountaineer. We were hosted by Visit Denver, Visit Glenwood Springs and Rocky Mountaineer. For information on our policies around editorial independence, reviews and recommendations, see our editorial guidelines.