Americas MOST LUXURIOUS Train | The Canyon Spirit

This is the most scenic train in America that you have never heard of. A four-day journey starting at Denver's historic Union Station and climbing west into the Rocky Mountains, tracing raging rivers through postcard-worthy canyons, the wide-open plains, burnt orange vistas, and into the beauty of the rusted red rocks leading to Utah's Mighty Five National Parks. From first-class dining, through tunnel after tunnel, to all the trains we passed en route, to the heart of the American Southwest. From arches to canyons, hoodoos to desert landscapes, this is the canyon spirit. And it all begins with my flight into Denver International Airport and following a quick transfer on the airport train, which takes you directly into downtown in about 40 minutes. I'd arrive at Denver's Union Station and the canyon spirit also partners with a bunch of local hotels that are only steps away from the station. So short of actually sleeping on the passenger tracks, it doesn't get any closer. And for me, that meant one night at the Hotel Indigo. The next morning, I'd head across the street, over the tracks, and into Union Station and holy moly, this might be the nicest train station in the entire United States. Now, yes, I have not been to all of them yet, I might add, but what a beautiful place and it seriously gets you in the mood for a luxury train ride. What a station to start the trip. So this is Denver Union Station and from the outside, the east and west wings were constructed in 1881. But the centerpiece, travel by train, Denver Union Station, now was constructed between 1906 and 1914 and the whole station was a giant union between the Union Pacific, the ATSF, Atchison-Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and also the Denver and Rio Grande Western. I mean, just look at some of the stonework outside on the building, it's absolutely miraculous. But the real hidden gem is on the inside, the inside of the terminal, which was completely gutted and renovated in 2014 from the old train station terminal to now a 110-112 room hotel, the Crawford Hotel. They have a cafe, coffee shop, the terminal bar, which ended up eating it last night, food was pretty good, and some other restaurants as well. What a beautiful use of a century-old station and this is more than justified for the Canyon Spirit, an amazing starting point. And at 8.30 sharp, we get the all-aboard call to board the inaugural, first-ever Canyon Spirit train departing from here in Denver en route to Salt Lake City. And yes, they even rolled out the red carpets too. I'd head inside and get situated with absolutely no shortage of legroom, which is always appreciated. It's a pretty good setup so far, I mean like look at this elbow rest, this is pretty next level. They got a little swanky table that pops down, coffee please, this is pretty nice. Just like that, we pull out of Union Station, taking our first few strides down the tracks and the start of over 180 miles that we'll cover today from Denver west in the Glenwood Springs later tonight. We'll roll past Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team, as well as over 50 tunnels and 18 canyons en route to Salt Lake City. And it is those 18 canyons in which the Canyon Spirit got its name from. And within a few minutes, the city skyline will begin to fade behind us as we begin our ascent into the mountains. And the Canyon Spirit is also the only train in the United States with fresh air access via their open air vestibules, which will come in handy for later on with the scents of the pines and the wilderness in the mountains, or here with that nice little plume of diesel exhaust, which I kind of really like. I don't know if I should be admitting that, but I love the smell of diesel. And not even out of Denver, the staff would commence breakfast service, which started with a blueberry scone, which was super crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, and loaded with fruit, which I really liked. Or the other option, a banana muffin, both of which were great. Now for mains this morning, they had a golden sugar waffle, wild berry parfait, and a veggie frittata. And I went with the veggie frittata and the parfait. The Canyon Spirit doesn't really have any limits, so if you want to try two dishes, maybe even try all three, or maybe you're a grown boy like me, it is absolutely no problem. And right as I was finishing up the last of my parfait, we'd hit our first major landmark, the Big Ten Curve. The Big Ten Curve is a 270 degree curve designed to manage the mountain grade at or below 2.2%, which was the standard grade for mainline railroads when it was completed in 1902. Now 2.2% doesn't really sound like that much, but when you factor in how strong the winds coming down off the mountains were, these winds would quite often knock engines completely over at the steepest points of the grade, so constructing the Big Ten was absolutely vital to keep trains moving. And from here, we will immediately enter tunnel country. And this is the start of over 30 tunnels in just 13 miles. We would head inside tunnel, after tunnel, after tunnel, and every time that we would emerge, the landscapes had completely shifted. Different lighting, different terrain, and a brand new set of scenery awaiting us. But the biggest and the most monumental is the Moffett Tunnel. This is a six mile long tunnel that goes straight directly under the Continental Divide. Now in 1923, they would construct the six mile long tunnel, which opened up in 1928, five years later, and this would cut down the coast-to-coast travel time by almost 200 miles, which means we're plunging into about 10 minutes of complete darkness before we would emerge into an entirely different world. The views over the plains and the mountainous terrain now absolutely front and center. Now we would pull off on a siding to let sowing to pass us, and with an increasing amount of foamers waiting trackside, this meant something absolutely huge was just ahead of us. So we are currently pulled off on a siding, as you can tell, and we just got some fantastic news. A train is about to pass by, but not just any train, not just any freight train, specifically the Union Pacific Executive Train. There's no word if the big boy is on it, but oh my god, if the big boy rolled by, what a sight. How on earth do you get to see the big boy? But if you have seen any of my videos, I am the biggest steam train enthusiast, steam train fan. Wouldn't that be a treat? I'm such a foamer. I make fun of foamers, but I am such a foamer. Here it comes, here it comes. Goodbye rich people. And with the Union Pacific Executives aside, we continue west and through the pass. On an absolutely beautiful day too, I might add. I mean the sun was shining, things were getting really warm, and whether you're taking it in from the vestibule open-air platform or these massive full-length floor-to-ceiling windows, it was pretty hard to find complaints here. So the route that the Canyon Spirit takes is the original Denver and Rio Grande western transcontinental route. So they were able to break through from Denver up to Salt Lake City, and then they met up with the Western Pacific Railroad that went from Salt Lake City into Oakland, technically speaking Emeryville, California, just outside of San Francisco, and that was their transcontinental route. But what's really cool about it is that they also had a whole narrow gauge extension that went from Denver all the way down to Alamosa, Chama, New Mexico, Durango, Colorado, up to Silverton, Colorado, and the resource-rich San Juan Mountains. And I actually rode the Durango to Silverton, the Cascade Canyon Special over the winter. I have the summer route all the way to Silverton coming up in June, which I'm really excited for. But this is the entire transcontinental route. And on top of that, coffee's been great. Coffee was hot, coffee was strong. Possibly the most luxurious and most scenic train in the United States. I think one of the things that I'm enjoying the most about this Canyon Spirit ride is that everything is always changing. It's never the same scenery, the same landscapes for too long. I would imagine never the same on any two given days, whether it be spring, summer, fall. They don't operate during the winter months, which I think would be cool if they did, but it's been a fantastic experience so far. And they've just kept the food coming. They'll probably have to roll me off the dolly on a dolly when we get to Glenwood Springs tonight with how much food they've had coming my way on this beautiful Denver and Rio Grande transcontinental route. And speaking of farm to table, or should I say track to table, lunch service was about to begin. And it would start with an arugula salad accompanied with candied walnuts, cranberries, and shaved parmesan. Now for mains, they had a Colorado trout with sweet potato mash and a braised chicken burrito. The trout was good, but I'm telling you, this burrito was hands down my favorite dish on the entire trip. And for dessert, it would be accompanied by a pistachio cake from a local bakery in Denver, which I really liked. But I'm telling you, I will never get tired of meals like this and views like that. And it's probably obvious, but in case it wasn't, I love trains. And my true dessert was seeing the California Zephyr Pass us heading east shortly after. And that train runs 52 hours from San Francisco, California to Chicago Union Station, which is just another train that I will have to add to my bucket list. But hey, if you want to see that or any of my other train adventures, hit the subscribe button because it's free to do so. At this point, we've been following the mighty Colorado River for a few hours and we'll continue to follow it until tomorrow night. But this river runs nearly 2000 miles through the Grand Canyon and into Mexico. And from the train, you are literally seeing parts of the country that are only accessible by rail or raft. And because of that, the Colorado has become famous for its, shall we say, glowing landscapes where rafters will give trains the old Colorado salute or a friendly wave. I guess it depends on how you see it. Now, sadly today, there were no wavers. And while there were quite a few passengers that were very relieved that we did not see any, I was pretty upset that I just couldn't return the favor. But moonscapes aside, the best portion of the day was right around the bend. And that is the Glenwood Canyon, a rugged and scenic 12 and a half mile stretch of track running along rock walls towering over a thousand feet above us. As the Colorado River not only runs through it, but shaped all of it. When I said in the intro of this video that there would be postcard-worthy canyons, glowing mountains, and raging rivers on this trip, this is exactly what I was referring to. I've heard that this road is the most scenic in all of America and I can't confirm that yet because I haven't ridden every single train. But that Glenwood Canyon, I swear it's not even a canyon, it's more like a gorge, a Glenwood Gorge. Actually, that sounds a whole lot better than probably should have been a gorge instead, but it's spectacular. It really is. And I hope that the video does it justice. I don't know if it will, but the towering, towering, towering peaks. Without these 360 windows, there's no way we would have been able to take it all in to appreciate and to see it. I mean, I'll be honest, I was a little bit disappointed there was no Colorado salutes or Colorado mooners, which is a tradition here. But outside of that, this is one of the most scenic stretches of track and right now running along, I guess, the very tail end of the Glenwood Canyon into Glenwood Springs. What an amazing end to day one. I'm excited to see what day two has in store for us. A few moments after, we would begin our approach into the town of Glenwood Springs, which is marked by the absolutely iconic Hotel Colorado, as we pulled into the station, drawing a close to day one. Off the train, I'd head across the street to the Hotel Maxwell Anderson, which is the former Hotel Denver for my resting spot for tonight. And with a few hours to explore, well, I was absolutely gonna make the most of it. Nestled in the heart of the roaring Fork Valley, Glenwood Springs is a super cute mountain town with a year-round population of 10,000 that I kind of want to live in. I mean, I can only imagine how stunning it is here in October when all the aspens turn gold. But Glenwood Springs is actually world famous for three things, the Hotel Colorado, which I mentioned earlier and opened in 1893, Ted Bundy, because this is where he was arrested and then shortly after escaped in 1977, as well as the geothermal Glenwood Hot Springs. And as tempting as the hot springs were, a couple of the guys on the train and myself decided to opt for the au naturel option. So we went for a nice little cold dip in the Colorado River before it was off to bed. So good morning from Glenwood Springs, our overnight stopover. It was kind of weird. I've been on so many trains that are sleeper trains, you just kind of keep rolling through the night and the fact that the train comes in, you walk across the street to the hotel and you stay there overnight. It's kind of weird, but kind of a nice change. The beds were big, cozy, comfy, a cute little town. I kind of wish we were staying a little bit longer, but there's a train to catch. And so I'd head inside the station and at 8 30 AM, our beautiful blue and gold concest would arrive. That's our train. This is day two. Canyon spirit. We got to go. That's the train. This is your Travis. We got to go. Good morning. Good to see you again. And at 9 AM we would head West for the start of day two. Out of Glenwood Springs, we would pass by the biggest natural baking soda deposit in the entire world. Anybody on board have some vinegar? Obviously I'm kidding. Or am I? Now, yesterday was all about the Rocky Mountains and canyons, and there will be plenty of snow-capped mountains today, but day two is all about the Red Rocks. Being seated in premium, of course you can take in the scenery from the floor to ceiling windows or the open air vestibule, as well as the lounge car, where they have cheese boards and pretty much every drink that you could possibly imagine. It really is a great spot to relax and take in the scenery like right here with Mount Garfield in the background or the eastbound California Zephyr. I mean, come on, I love trains. And Amtrak runs the Zephyr daily, so no matter what direction you take the Canyon Spirit on, you will pass by at least one every single day, regardless of the direction that you're going. We'd spend the rest of the morning running along the Colorado River, in and out of tunnels, passing along massive cliffs and even some vineyards. Wine in Colorado, who knew? But shortly after, we would enter the town of Grand Junction, which is marked here by the original 1905 Denver and Rio Grande station, which sadly does look like she has seen better days and hopefully can get a new lease on life sometime in the future. Out of Grand Junction, we would enter the Ruby Canyon, and there they are, those beautiful burnt orange vistas, like right here with the night, which looks a lot like a or here with the Three Sisters cliff, which is said to be Three Sisters gossiping. And I couldn't help but wonder, I wonder what they're talking about. Maybe they're talking about trains. Oh, hey, look at that. I finally got my Colorado salute. So maybe they're talking about the mooners on the river. But whatever it is, let me know in the comment section below, what do you think they're talking about? The Colorado-Utah state line does mark the end of the canyon, which I absolutely love that somebody decided to write it on the rock above instead of putting up a sign. And with the red rocks behind us, the landscapes would change one final time. And this time was the La Salle Mountains, towering over 12,000 feet in elevation and 50 miles away. Yeah, they're big boys. And keep in mind that we were in the middle of the desert. So when the Spanish explorers first saw these mountains, they thought there was no way there was going to be snow in the desert. So it had to be salt deposits on top of the mountain, which is where they get their name from, the La Salle, the salt, mountains. But alas, those are indeed snow-capped mountains off in the distance. And this is also where all the drinking water in the town of Moab originates from. You have to keep in mind, I've never done this route. This is actually like the first real train I've taken across the U.S. I've done the Durango and Silverton steam lines. I've done different steam train excursions, but never like an actual real deal train experience. What a diverse range of scenery from today. I was actually kind of worried that it wouldn't be very green or very beautiful. This is the start of April. This is the first train, the inaugural train on the Canyon Spirit. Yeah, what a beautiful green road. And we would begin our final stretch into Moab at what may actually be quite possibly the most beautiful train depot in the entire world. We'd make a quick transfer from the train onto a bus that'll shuttle us into Moab, a town that kind of looks more like the surface of Mars than what I was imagining when I pictured Utah before the trip. But Moab has a year-round population of 5,000 and also a massive uranium mine. Eddie, don't you worry about radiation. All I know, Clark, is that my teeth have never been whiter and my garden is spitting out 50 pound tomatoes. But most importantly, Moab is also the gateway to the Mighty Five. And those are the five national parks throughout the state. The Canyon Spirit does continue on into Salt Lake City, but you can also opt to end things here in Moab. And when you see what I'm about to show you, I think you will see why the scenic route, the scenic way to Salt Lake City, is absolutely the way to go. It starts the next morning with a scenic drive into Archer's National Park, only a few minutes outside of town, with massive red rock formations and loads of greenery, lots of crevices, and right here with balanced rock, which kind of makes me wonder how has this not fallen over yet? What do you think? It's nice out here. It's the ultimate kid's playground. It's just crazy. What a beautiful place we live in, beautiful world we live in. I don't mean to sound too hooby-dooby, but Archer's National Park was only established as a national park in 1971, so it's definitely one of the newer parks in the U.S., but all this that you're seeing here was a part of an ancient inland sea floor at one point in time, and all the arches were all shaped by salt erosion. We're in Archer's National Park, and there's arches freaking everywhere, especially this one, which is the tallest arch in the entire national park, and also where they filmed the train scene in Indiana Jones The Last Crusade. I mean, it doesn't even feel real. It literally feels like I'm on the surface of Mars, and it's even more insane to me that despite the 28 degree heat, there are in fact snow-capped mountains just off in the distance. Our next stop of the Mighty Five is only 30 minutes away, Canyonlands National Park. Now, the name is pretty self-explanatory. Loads of red rocks, but it is in fact the land of canyons. There's canyons everywhere. There's a canyon here, a canyon there, and canyons everywhere. And my mom may watch this and say, that's a little bit risky. Why are you sitting there? I'm telling you, this spot, this entire park is so relaxing. That's an 800 foot drop down there. And absolutely everything here that you're witnessing in the park was in fact carved by the mighty Colorado River, and sitting here up against the rocks, taking it all in from above on an absolutely perfect day, I don't know if it gets any better. Now, the next day we would hit the road and go through Capitol Reef National Park, but that was more importantly en route to Bryce Canyon to see the hoodoos. And oh my god, look at that. I mean, this is over 50 million years of white and orange sandstone that with the effects of constant thawing and freezing would cause them to expand into the shapes that you see today. I mean, it is absolutely magnificent. Now, Bryce Canyon and the previous three parks are special, but there is a reason I saved the best for last. This is Zion National Park, and it's almost like Banff National Park in Canada, but it's in the middle of the desert, and substitute orange sandstone instead of the rocky peaks, and some of the deepest green valleys anywhere around. And getting up to the top of the Watchman's Trail to get a perspective of all the Watchman's peaks, what a treat to cap off this trip of a lifetime. This has got to be hands down the coolest train experience, the coolest train journey that I've ever had in my life. With the Mighty Five National Parks, going out of Denver through the Big Ten Curve, through the Glenwood Canyon, which I'm now calling the Glenwood Gorge, through the Red Rocks, this has just top to bottom been, I mean, you be the judge for yourself. Has this not been the coolest train journey you've ever seen on YouTube? I mean, it is. I mean, I'm in the middle of it right now as you're watching this at home on your phone or your TV, and I want to go back, and I want to do it again. If you enjoyed this video, and you want to take an exact same train trip just like I did on the Canyon Spirit, and then through the Mighty Five National Parks, there's a link in the video description at rockytrain.com. You can book through there, and it is the exact same world-class experience that you just witnessed here on YouTube. And if you enjoyed this video, and you want to see more trains, whether it is steam trains, sleeper trains across Canada, across the United States, historic hotels, and everything in between, I do new videos every single Sunday for your viewing pleasure, so feel free to hit the subscribe button, and leave a comment down below, because I respond to all comments, and I cannot wait to see you in the next episode. Thanks for watching.