The ski train from Denver to Winter Park will be running again this coming ski season. You can even make connections out of Denver International airport!!
MorganB
aka The Colonel
That's neat. If I remember correctly from a visit to Winter Park about a dozen years ago, the train tracks come within a short distance of the ski trails.
I recently heard rumors of a ski train being built to Snowshoe in recent years. Not sure from where but I think it's a cool idea and pays homage to the area's rich logging history.
The difference for flying into DIA is that there is a new train that goes from the airport directly downtown to Union Station in about 40 minutes. The fare is $9 and the train runs every 15 minutes during the day as well as every 30 min in early morning and late evening. That means connecting to the Winter Park train is possible without paying for a cab/shuttle from the airport.
http://www.denver.org/about-denver/transportation/airport-rail/
Tickets will be available after August 30. Apparently all the tickets sold out during an experiment for a couple weekends either last season or the season before.
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/25/winter-park-express-ski-train-tickets/
LOVE this news. As a kid in Denver, I rode the ski train every Saturday with the Eskimo Ski Club. In those days anyway, the train stopped just yards away from the original WP base area/base lodge. The mouth of the Moffatt Tunnel (under the Continental Divide) is right near there, so the train would just come out of the tunnel, pull onto a siding, and stop. I vaguely recall that the train would blow its whistle once before leaving in the afternoon, but you really had to watch the time. If you missed the train, your parents had an unpleasant drive over Berthoud Pass at night to retrieve you. Bad for the parents, worse for the kid!
When I lived in MD, I skied at SnowPeak occasionally - a long ago closed area east of Harrisburg. Train tracks ran on the south side of the river just below the area. I always dreamed about a snow train to SnowPeak. Alas it was not to be.
This is thrilling! We are Y of the Rockies members and longtime summer (Estes) devotees. However, we've never taken the Winter plunge to Snow Mountain Ranch / Winter Park because of the volatility, expense, and hastle of renting a capable vehicle at DEN and driving all the way to WP. I heard about this last year and figured it was just a short-term special. However, looking at the Amtrak schedule, this is the real deal this season. One can book from Jan 7 - Mar 26, 2017 for the Winter Park Express, so game on! It runs Sat and Sun only plus MLK and President's Holidays. So the primary drawback appears to be weekend/holiday limitations plus the singularity of the schedule with one outbound and one return per day.
For us East Coasters heading out par avion, a Denver overnight will be necessary on both legs of the trip. Not such a bad thing on the first leg (helps the family adjust to altitude a bit at 5000 instead of 8500 ft), but that return leg with the Denver stay will probably feel like time lost on the mountain for the hardcore skiers.
Prices appear incredibly reasonable: $39 one-way (adult), 1/2 price child.
Cheers, Tim
Here is a link to more details of the ski train
ski train sounds great in a bob hope and bing crosby kind of way.
i want to adress that concern about the "hassle" of a car. just rent a fwd beater and go. the only time i hve been delayed getting to a ski area by too much snow was in west god bless (*). those crafty coloradans know how to maintain their roads. the taffic on i70 on a saturday morning or evening is a bigger concern, but temporary.
(*) I have been delayed flying out of DEN a couple of times by snow, but getting to DEN was not a problem....
pagamony wrote:
ski train sounds great in a bob hope and bing crosby kind of way.
i want to adress that concern about the "hassle" of a car. just rent a fwd beater and go. the only time i hve been delayed getting to a ski area by too much snow was in west god bless (*). those crafty coloradans know how to maintain their roads. the taffic on i70 on a saturday morning or evening is a bigger concern, but temporary.
(*) I have been delayed flying out of DEN a couple of times by snow, but getting to DEN was not a problem....
I grew up in the Rockies. My opinion of I-70 is set in stone. If I can avoid it, I will.
Cheers,
Tim
