This Colorado canyon has no road in, you can only reach it by 1882 steam train: Officials say

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The ride of a century is waiting for you
Southwest Colorado hides something you can’t drive to. A coal-smoke-and-steam locomotive has been threading its way through the Animas River gorge since 1882, and the canyon it passes through has no public road. The San Juan Mountains rise on every side, and the whole trip, from a Victorian railroad town at the trailhead to a silver-boom ghost town near 9,400 feet, is one of those experiences that you really can’t replicate any other way. Wikimedia Commons/Barrett, William E. A line blasted from solid rock for silver and gold
Crews laid this railroad in 1882 with a clear purpose: drag silver and gold ore down from the mountains at Silverton. About 500 workers, many of them Irish and Chinese immigrants, did the job, and part of that job meant blasting a narrow shelf into sheer canyon walls. The line has run passengers ever since, and today it carries the designation of a National Historic Landmark. The track you ride on is the same one those workers laid. Wikimedia Commons/Ahodges7
No road reaches this stretch of the Animas
Once the train rolls north out of Durango, the canyon closes in fast. The Animas River drops below you, the walls go vertical, and the road disappears entirely. No highway cuts through here. The only way in is by train or on foot through wilderness trails. The tracks grip the cliff face, the steam whistle bounces off rock walls, and the gorge looks almost the same as it did when those first ore trains pushed through more than 140 years ago. Wikimedia Commons/Carol M. Highsmith
Watch both sides of the train for elk and eagles
The route runs through the San Juan National Forest, and the canyon holds a lot of wildlife. Elk, mule deer and bighorn sheep work the slopes on both sides of the train. Black bear and moose turn up now and then if you’re watching. Above the gorge, eagles, hawks and osprey ride the air currents. Pack binoculars and keep them out. Animals appear without warning, and the train moves slowly enough through the tight sections that you have time to find them. Wikimedia Commons/Didier Duforest
The Highline crawls along a sheer wall above the river
One stretch of the route has a name among regulars: the Highline. The track is cut into a vertical rock face, and the train slows to a crawl while it edges along. The river runs hundreds of feet below. Five times on the way to Silverton, the train crosses the Animas on narrow bridges. If you want the full effect, ride in one of the open-air gondola cars.

No glass between you and the canyon, no roof between you and the sky. Wikimedia Commons/Frans-Banja Mulder
Steam locomotives built in the 1920s still pull the grade
The locomotives came from Baldwin Locomotive Works in the 1920s, and several have recently been converted from coal to oil. Some of the passenger coaches date to the 1880s. Climbing toward Silverton, you can smell the smoke, hear the engine labor against the grade and feel the whole car vibrate with the effort. That’s not a sound effect or a recording. The train is working. The effort it takes to move that weight uphill at altitude comes through in every mile. Wikimedia Commons/FJX2000
Cascade Canyon: a wilderness stop with no signal or stores
In winter, the train turns around at Cascade Canyon, about 26 miles up the line. There’s no road out here, no cell service, no shops of any kind. A covered pavilion with a stone fireplace sits near the tracks, and riders get a layover long enough for a fireside lunch or a walk down to the river. Snow-covered peaks ring the clearing on every side. It’s the kind of quiet that takes a minute to settle into. Shutterstock
Silverton sits at 9,318 feet and the thin air is real
The full-season route ends at Silverton, a Victorian mining town perched above 9,300 feet. The thin air is noticeable when you step off the train, so give yourself a few minutes before you start moving around. Wooden storefronts and old brick buildings line the small downtown, and shops, galleries and places to eat fill the walkable center. The entire town carries a National Historic Landmark designation, and the main street looks like a film set that never closed down. Wikimedia Commons/Rainer Halama
Walk the free Roundhouse Museum in the Durango railyard
Back in Durango, before or after your trip, the D&S Roundhouse Museum sits right in the railyard and costs nothing to enter. The 12,000-square-foot building is a working roundhouse, not a static display. You’ll find narrow-gauge steam locomotives and railroad artifacts, with exhibits tracing Colorado’s mining and railroading past. Families tend to linger here longer than they planned. The trains are close enough to touch, and the scale of them is something photographs don’t quite capture. Wikimedia Commons/Drew Jacksich
Historic downtown Durango grew from an 1880s boomtown
Durango started as a railroad supply town in the 1880s and never really stopped. Main Avenue runs through a historic district of brick storefronts, and the Strater Hotel has taken in travelers since 1887. The Victorian rooms hold antique walnut furniture and period wallpaper, and the hotel’s dining room serves modern American food inside one of the most ornate rooms in the region. You can walk from the hotel to the train depot in about five minutes.

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The post This Colorado canyon has no road in, you can only reach it by 1882 steam train appeared first on When In Your State.

Wikimedia Commons/w_lemay
Mesa Verde’s cliff dwellings are an hour west of Durango
About an hour west of Durango, Mesa Verde National Park holds something the San Juans can’t match. Ancestral Puebloan people built stone homes directly into canyon cliffs more than 700 years ago, then left. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. Rangers lead tours down into some of the dwellings, and you can stand inside structures that have been here since before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. It’s a full day on its own and pairs well with a train trip. Wikimedia Commons/Mike McBey
Four seasons, four completely different trips through the canyon
Spring sends snowmelt roaring down the Animas and fills the river to its banks. Summer brings wildflowers across the high peaks and long daylight hours to enjoy them. Fall turns the aspen gold on the hillsides, and the canyon walls go orange and red. Winter blankets everything in snow and shortens the run to Cascade Canyon. The route itself doesn’t change. The canyon does, and each time you ride it, the same 45-mile corridor looks like it belongs to a different world. Wikimedia Commons/Carol M. Highsmith
Ride the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado
You’ll find the historic Durango Depot at 479 Main Ave. in Durango, Colo. The depot is open daily from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Full trips to Silverton run roughly May through October. Shorter Cascade Canyon runs operate in winter. Plan your full day around the round trip. Book the open-air gondola for the best views, or a heated coach in cold months. No cell service or Wi-Fi runs through the canyon, so download anything you need before you leave the depot. Reserve early for popular dates and preferred cars. This article was created with AI assistance and human editing. Read more from this brand:

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