All Aboard the Royal Gorge Railway in Cañon City, Colorado

In May of 2024, Teddy and I took a 10 day road trip through the state of Colorado, visiting National Parks and Monuments, cool small towns, and other natural areas along the way. On day two of our trip, we headed about an hour south from Colorado Springs to Cañon City.

One of my favorite things to do on a trip is to find a scenic railway tour. I’ve done them in Alaska, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. If there’s a way to fit it in the itinerary, I’ll make it happen.

As I was exploring things to do in Colorado, I knew I wanted to do a scenic railroad, but there’s so many that I had to figure out how to narrow it down. We ended up doing two railways during our trip, with this being our favorite of the two. What set this railroad apart was that it 1) Goes through a gorge which means you’re going to get incredible views 2) Are served a meal if you purchase it and 3) Have open air and dome cars for viewing.

We booked a ticket for the 9 AM departure in the dome car with breakfast. It’s booth style seating but from the second floor of the car with a dome overtop which means you get incredible views out the windows. Since there were only two of us, we sat with a couple we didn’t know but it worked out just fine as we chatted while we were at our seats, but ended up spending a fair amount of time out in the open air car taking in the views. There’s also a snack bar if you decide not to get a meal that you can order from as well.

The trip was about 2 hours and begins at the Santa Fe Depot. The railroad runs beside the Arkansas river in the gorge and at some points, you have 1,000 feet of cliffs on either side of you. We made sure to get outside in the open air car for this part as the views were just beautiful.

We were back at the depot and on to our next stop by around 11 AM. While we had hoped to travel through Salida for lunch on the way to our next stop, there was a snow storm (in May) on the high elevation pass which created delays so we decided to take a different route. We ended up stopping at Coyote’s Coffee Den which was absolutely packed but well worth the wait. We grabbed a Mexican Mocha coffee (a mocha but with spices including cayenne pepper) and a slice of cake as a snack before our next stop.

If you’re at all near the Colorado Springs area, or making a visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park, add this scenic railway to your list of things to do. With 4 excursion times each day, there’s a lot of flexibility in how to fit it into your schedule.