Durango Silverton Railroad — Local services in Silverton

One of the coolest things we've ever done in our 20 years together.

We boarded at 8:30am and didn't return til 6:30pm. The train takes you through a few towns and then it starts climbing. You can see by the smokestacks how hard the engine is working. On our way up to Silverton, the stacks were always blowing steam. On our way down, there was barely any steam and the squealing of the brakes was grating and loud.

The route is the same both ways, but since we stay in our same seats, we get a different perspective. Our car was the Knight Sky, with a glass roof so you can see the mountains towering over you. There were two bathrooms in the car behind us, which required hanging on in the open air and making it across the coupler as the train jangles along. It's not a smooth ride. When we arrived in Silverton it was like what I imagine as Alaska. The population doubles when the train comes to town. All but one or two roads were paved. The rest was muddy gravelly dirt streets. There were only three restaurants open so as soon as the train disembarked, there was a crush at those establishments. We moseyed along and just sat on some benches in the sun for awhile until we saw people headed back toward the train. Then we went to Avalanche Brewing Co. and had a few beers and ordered wraps to go.

The return trip, most folks were tired and didn't move around much so that gave us some room to get out on the platforms and video the crossing of the Animas River at 400 feet high. I had done it from my seat earlier in the morning but this direction was better.

Most of the media I've included here are videos for a reason. The clackety-clack of the wheels, the whistle of the train, and Tash, our guide, giving us the highlights and also warning us of photo...

The railroad and train experience itself is excellent! The town of Silverton needs work. The Pickle Barrel restaurant sat us next to a blackface painting. The owner or someone must have mentioned to the owner that I was looking at it because he came over to our table while we were eating and started explaining why it was okay and how he kicked a couple out of his restaurant before for complaining about it and calling it racist. I was scared to get kicked out (my daughter is visiting from Sweden and I didn't want her to experience that) so I just waited for to finished talking and hoped he would go away. After coming over a second time he let us finish our meal in peace. The waitress in The Pickle Barrel was wonderful however. I wonder recommend this experience for sure but when you get to Silverton you might want to eat somewhere else unless you want to support a racist...

A very cool experience! The train ride is about three hours each way, and you get to spend about two hours in Silverton. Definitely bring water because the inside of the train cars can get insanely hot. (There is a concession stand, but moving from car to car can be difficult especially for older passengers). They take a picture of your group on the train, print it out and give it to you- but then they take it away 20 minutes later unless you’re willing to spend $40 for them. Our group was excited because there was no mention that the photos were for sale, we thought it was just a cool souvenir. I would have even considered buying them, but $40 for two photos is steep considering we’re in the age of smart phones. Overall this was still a unique and...