Colorado Railbike Adventures — Attraction in Erie

Edited 9/21/25: We visited again last night with friends and had another fun experience. Now we’ve had the chance to see how the different employees each bring their own vibes to it.

One thing I would suggest to anyone who reads this: if you go and love it, consider sending the town of Erie an email to let them know how much you enjoyed it. They seem to bring people from all over who might not otherwise visit Erie, and considering that those people often check out local restaurants, etc, Colorado Railbike Adventures is a real asset to Erie. We met people from California visiting for a concert, and another family from Maine.

We are going back again twice in the next month with more out of state visitors and I’m looking forward to the Haunted History ride especially. Plus, it sounds like they have some fun twists to try in the future.

Fun and unique experience and we had no idea we were living so close to it. We already have plans to take our kids and visiting family later in the year. We will also make sure to recommend to visiting friends and family!

Some info and tips: the ride itself is fairly easy, depending on your mobility. I checked during our ride last night and my average heart rate was 98. The ride back is a bit more challenging, since you go uphill a bit - but still totally doable. Our group of 4 was able to still chat easily while pedaling.

You are outside. Take note of the weather and dress accordingly. Hats if it’s sunny, etc. I also saw someone who said they were stung by bees. Good info, but is always a risk anytime you are outside here. We had rain last night, but we had brought outer layers and an umbrella so I definitely didn’t spoil our ride.

At the turn around spot there are picnic tables. We saw people bring coolers with drinks and snacks. At the start of the ride they do have snacks and drinks for sale. But bringing some goodies in a cooler would also be a great idea.

I saw someone else say they felt the cost wasn’t equal to the experience. I would disagree. This is a super unique experience and I think...

We recently did the Colorado Railbike Adventure. It was pretty fun. We pedaled for about 45 minutes for a total of 3.87 miles. The gearing on the railbike was adequate for the small incline the railbike is on. The railbike we were on held 5 people. My wife and son sat in the front and I sat in the back for the first half. The second half on the way back my son sat in the very front seat so he could have a better view and because he was too short to reach the pedals. The trip is split in 1.9 mile halves. You can go at your own pace…kind of. You will be in a group and if the group in front of you are slow, then you are forced to go slow. If you have a nice gap between you and the group in front of you, then you can put down some power on the pedals. Each half takes about 20 minutes to complete. After you finish the first half they have you sit down and listen to a bit of history of the railbike while they turn the railbikes around to go back to the start. The views are pretty, especially if you go at 6:00 pm when we went. Going early or late is also cooler which is a great when Colorado weather decides to be hot. The shack at the start has some refreshments for sale, so if you forget to bring water you can get it there. They also had a mister setup so you can cool down, which was great because the day we went it I was 95 degrees. They have portable toilets in case nature calls at the start. They also had a field setup for games to entertain yourself before the Railbike Adventure starts. I would have liked to not be in a group, but you do have to go through a street where an employee has to stop traffic, so that is understandable. The staff is super friendly. They might be the best part of the experience. I would recommend you doing this...

Friends of ours invited us to go on a four-person bike after we saw the TikTok/reels of this place. While the vibes were good, I feel like we didn't get as scared as we wanted to be. At the start, we were asked if we wanted a white light (non-scary) or a red light (scary version) and we opted to be scared. We had high hopes but literally, only three people silently jumped out at us on the way there and then again on the way back during the journey which wasn't a short ride. While they did give us a small fright coming out of nowhere - given how creepy and desolate the vast land is with the accompanying decorations and length of the tour, we felt there were a lot of missed opportunities to scare folks. I'm not sure if this was because we heard the staff talking about little kids accidentally getting scared or getting on the wrong bike and freaking out; I don't know if they were being overly cautious, but it wasn't as spooky or scary as it was made out to be.

Also, our friend had to unexpectedly use the bathroom during the middle break/stop everyone makes where you wander around for 15 minutes and hang by fire pits, etc and there wasn't a facility out that way - would be nice to have a porta potty at least during that junction just in case. All in all, I might do this again if improvements were made to the scare factor but it seemed awfully expensive for the lack of scares. With Terror in the Corn in the same area, I was hoping for scares on that level but no dice. Maybe offer some adults only nights and/or nights that push it to be even...