It is not the most conventional of greetings.
On a boat on the Colorado River, a fisherman greets us, then turns around and proceeds to pull down his pants to expose his (rather large) butt.
“We call this Moon River,” our train guard laughs, explaining that this unusual act is considered a good-natured prank. We received what the train staff calls the ‘Colorado greeting’.
Welcome to a journey from Denver, the capital of Colorado, to the city of Moab in Utah, aboard one of the most spectacular train rides in the United States: the Rocky Mountaineer.
The 370-mile trip takes you through the Rocky Mountains, with bald eagles soaring overhead and deer flying alongside the tracks. Rising from desert grasslands, you’ll soon find yourself between jagged, snow-capped peaks and negotiating vast red-hued canyons.
Cowboy Country: Tom Chesshyre experiences the first Rocky Mountaineer train route in America. Above, the train moves through De Beque Canyon in Colorado as it heads toward Utah.
“Emerging from the desert grasslands, you’ll soon find yourself between jagged, snow-covered peaks and negotiating vast red-hued canyons,” Tom writes.
Rocky Mountaineer trains began in Canada in 1990, running between Vancouver, Jasper, Banff and Calgary, and the sumptuous trains, with gourmet meals and elegantly dressed staff, were such a success that the rail operator expanded two years ago with a route through the United States. Joined.
American tours run between mid-April and October, and include an overnight stay in the intriguing small town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where Wild West gunfight legend Doc Holliday died in 1887.
It is one of the best train trips on the planet (let alone the United States). And it’s not just the landscape that is attractive.
There’s a lively camaraderie on board, which might have something to do with the free-flowing drinks in the SilverLeaf Plus lounge, where the tunes of Fats Waller and George Gershwin play on the automatic piano.
‘Isn’t this just wonderful?’ says Sam from Vancouver, who brings me a martini and tells me about the novel he’s writing about the Old West.
Debbie, who joins us, also with a martini in hand, is dreamy as we enter another canyon: “I love this ride.”
Rocky Mountaineer trains began in Canada in 1990, running between Vancouver, Jasper, Banff and Calgary, and the sumptuous trains, with gourmet meals and smartly dressed staff, were such a success that the rail operator expanded two years ago with a route across the US .
The train concludes its journey in Moab, Utah, home of Canyonlands National Park (pictured)
Staff provide commentary from time to time as the train chugs along. We learn that the line we are on was laid out in the 1880s to connect Denver and Salt Lake City.
At one point, we are crossing the Continental Divide, where water runs east into the Gulf of Florida or west into the Pacific Ocean.
The tracks are operated by Union Pacific, which decides when trains have priority on the railroad, sometimes on a single line.
On occasion, we move to sidings to allow Amtrak’s California Zephyr service to pass.
The trip includes an overnight stay in the Colorado town of Glenwood Springs (pictured), where Wild West gunfight legend Doc Holliday died in 1887.
The maximum speed is 60 mph, although the average is 35 mph. After our night of partying in Glenwood Springs, with modern cowboys in old-style taverns and steaming hot springs (hence the name), the next morning we continued cruising through more wonderful ravines.
Small settlements with names like Silt, Rifle and No Name come and go. It really feels like the bottom of the afterlife.
Past old uranium mines being decommissioned, we pull slowly to the edge of Moab, where the joys of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks await: fantastic red rock landscapes with mesas, ravines and needle-shaped formations up to where the eye can see.
The Rocky Mountaineer has lived up to its name, quite gloriously, from start to finish.