Durango Cascade Canyon Winter Steam Train

When I was a teenager, we started spending some Christmas breaks in Durango to learn skiing at Purgatory Mountain. One of my memories is going on the Durango Silverton train so I figured it would be fun to do it as an adult. Jeri also has never been on a steam train, and my dad was visiting for a few ski days so we got tickets for us to go on the Cascade Canyon Express steam train. This was a five-hour roundtrip train ride (two hours up, two hours back, with an hour stop in the middle for lunch).

The steam engine meets the passenger and passenger cars at a station in downtown Durango, hooks up to them, then you board, and are off. It’s great seeing all the people who see the train as it chugs through Durango and they stop/wave. We chose a reserved seating indoor/enclosed car, although there are open-air cars too. We figured it would be too cold given the time of year (3/12/2022). In the summertime, there are even more trains and routes with more passenger car offerings so look at all the options here (some have lots of windows including on the ceiling/canopy for the best viewing). The ride is all through the scenic San Juan National Forest and you go over some tall steel bridges, narrow gorges, cliffs, etc. We got some amazing videos and photos!

There are concession cars with reasonably priced food and drinks, and you can walk freely between the cars to see the different classes which is an experience in itself given the rocky motion of these old trains when moving. While you can pre-pay for a box lunch, outside food/drink is allowed so we brought our own huge spread to have a picnic at the lunch stop. The lunch stop was alongside the Animas River and they have a covered pavilion and picnic tables riverside. We were even able to take a few cool photos next to the engine and talk to the engineer (driver).