Despite having shunted around the world on some rickety railway services, I love trains. But the Rocky Mountaineer — with its glass-domed panoramic roofs, luxury carriages and astounding views — is something else.
Riding the ‘Rockies To The Red Rocks’ two-day rail journey from Moab to Denver, is a premium travel experience, with the comfiest of seats, a First Class menu and an attentive team. There’s nothing to do but relax and admire the impressive mountains, canyons, steep bluffs, mesas and desert plains of the Western United States.
Though it would be crazy to fly across the Atlantic and not first explore Moab in Utah, the gateway to beautiful national and state parks, and final stop Denver, at the base of the Colorado Mountains, is a vibrant outdoor city to get to know.
Spotting dinosaur footprints in Moab
After flying into Canyonlands Regional Airport, and spending a night at boutique hotel Gravity Haus (rooms from £180, gravityhaus.com), we have a great itinerary expertly planned out for us by Moab Adventure Center (moabadventurecenter.com) — and first up is Arches National Park.
Moab was founded as a tough Wild West outpost and even today, free range cattle wander across the roads. In 1889 Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang holed up at Robbers’ Roost (visitutah.com), a hideout deep in the outback.
This northern edge of the Colorado Plateau was once covered in massive Mesozoic Era sand dunes and 10,000 years ago giant sloths roamed the land. Now tiny chipmunks skitter around the hiking hotspot, a geological wonder with thousands of arches gouged out of red and green layers of soft sedimentary rock. The imposing Delicate Arch, Turret Arch and Double O Arch were all crafted by Nature.
Later, for our desert sunset off-road Hummer tour just east of Moab, I have to close my eyes as driver Chad tackles the hazardous terrain of the aptly named Hell’s Revenge trail. The approach road climbs up at a daunting angle with sheer drops either side and then becomes a stomach-churning rollercoaster ride without a rail track.
The view of the snow-covered La Sal Mountains (once imagined to be capped in salt) is sensational and ancient dinosaur tracks are clear to see. So clear that in 2014 an Allosaurus footprint was stolen from the site, prised from 190-million-year-old Jurassic sediments. The perpetrator was found but the three-toed therapod print never recovered.
For a picnic spot further west the next day, Dead Horse Point State Park — a natural corral used by cowboys in the 19th century — has breathtaking lookout points. In fact, the final scene in Oscar-winning movie Thelma & Louise was filmed here. Mountain lions and coyotes still prowl the land and the ‘Mormon tea’ plant (Ephedra nevadensis), used medicinally and as a dye by the Native American Ute tribe, continues to thrive.
All aboard the Rocky Mountaineer
The Rocky Mountaineer ride I’m taking east from Utah to Colorado was launched in 2021 and it’s a stunning new route. The railway spur from Moab was originally built for the potash industry in the 1960s but now it carries enthusiastic travellers.
The train only proceeds in daylight so you don’t miss any of the ever-changing scenery. My sumptuous grilled peach and goat’s cheese salad with bee pollen is served to me in my carriage seat so my eyes can stay locked on the landscape.
It's like one long widescreen cinematic sequence passing by. The Hollywood Western’s most picturesque film backdrops are spliced together — and it’s in real time. There’s something otherworldly about the 2,000ft tall flat-topped Book Cliffs. (double the height of London’s Shard). These Cretaceous sandstone buttes, home to black bears and bobcats, look like a very lofty shelf of hardbacks. They extend 200 miles from west to east, with Mount Garfield looming at the highest point.
It's like one long widescreen cinematic sequence passing by. The Hollywood Western’s most picturesque film backdrops are spliced together — and it’s in real time
Ancestral Puebloans were present here, in what is now Utah, millennia before European settlers, gold miners and outlaws crossed this challenging territory in mule-drawn wagons. The pioneers’ ghostly wooden wheels can still be heard trundling by (or maybe the Ginger Gimlet cocktails I’m being served by Rocky Mountaineer mixologist Cheryl are a little stronger than I realise).
An overnighter in Glenwood Springs
Ruby Canyon’s glowing crimson-toned escarpments stretch across the Utah-Colorado state line and, at dusk, we pull into Glenwood springs for an overnight stay at Hotel Maxwell Anderson (rooms from £274, maxwellandersonhotel.com), which offers impressive old-world hospitality.
The historic resort town is where gunfighter, gambler and — always good to have a fallback steady profession — dentist Doc Holliday is buried. The hot geothermal and mineral springs, bubbling up from deep underground fractures, soon attracted the well-to-do after the railroad arrived in 1887.
The Rocky Mountaineer’s ‘vista domes’ were designed so travellers can see the full height of towering ravine walls and next morning Glenwood Canyon, sculpted over three million years by the mighty Colorado River, reveals itself as one of the most spectacular passes in the country.
Our locomotive, which averages 30 miles an hour, slows down for particularly awesome views. Gore Canyon has tumbling white-water rapids and Byers Canyon is a wide gorge lined with cottonwood trees. We clickety-clack past the nest of bald eagles Eddie and Edith and try to spot moose in the faded green sagebrush.
Moffat Tunnel is our highest elevation and, over six miles long, it cuts through the Continental Divide at 9,239ft with the Pacific to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Ponderosa pines and blue spruce trees soar on snow-blanketed high ridges and squat junipers dot the lower slopes. From here on the track descends downhill from chilly heights to cloudless Denver, dubbed the Mile High City because it’s exactly 5,280 ft above sea level.
The sunshine city of Denver
With a warm send-off from the Rocky Mountaineer crew, Denver awaits. The metropolis has 300 days of sunshine a year and is very walkable. We check into the Hotel Indigo Denver Downtown (indigodenver.com from £180 per night), it’s a great central base close to Union Station.We take a Denver Graffiti Tour (denvergraffititour.com) to learn about the RiNo (River North) Art District. Many of the colourful designs on brickwork are commissioned and the city has a very positive view towards street art. The Love This City mural on N Broadway by Pat Milbery is a project for Visit Denver.
“The average lifespan of street art is usually a year or two,” explains tour guide Jana Novak, “though a highly respected artist or message may stay up for much longer.”
The bold portrait of Billie Holiday by Detour303 and Carmen Richards outside Nocturne Jazz & Supper Club (nocturnejazz.com) on 27th Street is a vivid tribute to the singer. This fabulous venue has live music and we enjoy an excellent meal, terrific service and a passionate performance by a talented jazz trio.
For food-on-the-go, RiNo’s Denver Central Market (denvercentralmarket.com) has gourmet pizza and salads or Denver Milk Market (denvermilkmarket.com) in LoDo (Lower Downtown) is an all-local food hall within the newly renovated 1918 Dairy Block. I love Leven Deli (eatleven.com), just across from Denver Art Museum, the turkey club on sourdough with herb mayo is the perfect takeaway if you’re heading to Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre.
This iconic Denver outdoor venue was opened in 1941 and Red Rocks can seat up to 9,000 people in an auditorium embraced by huge red sandstone monoliths. The natural acoustics are amazing and legends who’ve performed on stage include The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Jimi Hendrix.
If you get time to visit Denver’s Black American West Museum (bawmhc.org) you’ll see the Wild West through a very different lens. An estimated 20 – 25 per cent of cowboys in the American West were African-American and others worked as schoolteachers, ranchers, blacksmiths and lawmen.
Do stop for a coffee at Denver Union Station (denverunionstation.com) before you head to the airport on the super convenient A Line. Built in 1914 Beaux-Arts style, the Great Hall has a barrel-vaulted skylight and is newly remodelled with recreated period fixtures including elegant chandeliers. It’s a magnificent goodbye.
The details
The Rocky Mountaineer ‘Rockies To The Red Rocks’ route (running from April to October, priced from £1,454 pp) also runs in the reverse direction west from Denver to Moab.
The optional SilverLeaf Plus Service experienced by Beverley includes exclusive access to the newly-renovated lounge bar car with craft cocktails and outside viewing platform. Freshly-prepared chef’s meals are paired with local wines.
Plan your journey at rockymountaineer.com
Discover more about Denver at denver.org
