Day 2 on the Canyon Spirit: hiking, hot springs, and a very memorable “salute” from some tubers
Some mornings start with coffee and a to-do list. This one started with a half mile walk to Lions Park along the Colorado River, which was a perfect start to the morning.
The walk from our hotel was easy, mostly flat, and took us right to a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Colorado River. You can make your way to Arches National Park Entrance from this park, but we didn’t have time to actually go into the park this trip, although I’m already planning the version where we do. There was an option to take an excursion into the park, but we opted to explore the area on our own this trip.
By 11am we were back on board and lunch service was started right away. We also were served dinner onboard later in the afternoon. The food on day 2 wasn’t quite the standout day 1 was, but the portions were so big that we didn’t mind eating a little lighter.
The real highlight of today was all the wildlife outside the window. We saw pronghorns, which our guide described as a cousin to the giraffe (a fact I did not have on my radar before today). Mountain goats were walking on the cliffside like the crazy animals they were. A coyote made an appearance, along with something that looked like a small badger, though I’ll admit my wildlife ID skills stopped there.
We also passed through sections with visible fire scars from the Jones and Snyder fires, and at one point a firefighting helicopter flew right alongside the train through Ruby Canyon. We didn’t smell any smoke and there was none in the air though, so the views through the canyon were amazing.
As we rolled closer into Glenwood Springs, we got the full Colorado welcome: a group of river tubers giving us what I’m calling the good old Colorado salute. If you know, you know. If you don’t, ask me on Instagram, I’m taking questions.
Once we arrived, a bus took us to our hotel where our luggage was already sitting and waiting (still one of my favorite parts of train travel like this: your bags just appear). We changed quickly and headed straight to Iron Mountain Hot Springs for a soak before calling it a night. That will be it’s own blog post!
Today, we’re headed to Denver on what they’re calling the most scenic route of the whole trip. I’ll believe it when I see it, but so far this train hasn’t oversold anything.
