Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Ski Train

On Sunday, Bazilla and her niece, Eleanor, and I got up at 5:30 AM, drove to downtown Denver, and boarded the Ski Train to Winter Park at Union Station. We had some fancy railroad car, nice big leather seats (which we didn't learn how to properly operate until the trip home) and some new ski pants and gloves. Since the weather has been fairly balmy in Denver, you know sunny, warm, no snow--and Winter Park is 57 miles away, we were prepared for slightly colder temperatures, but I was NOT prepared for the feeling that I was in a totally different world--but there were 157 inches of snow base, and it snowed the entire day we were there!!

Our plan was to snowshoe for 2 hours, and then catch the bus into town for some tubing. However, the train was a bit late, due to some very busy train schedules, and we missed the snowshoe tour--which was probably just as well, it was cold, windy and snowy on the mountain. So, instead, we caught the bus to Fraser, and spent a wonderful hour on the tubing hill. Bazilla was the bravest of us all, getting running starts and squealing all the way down. It was a blast!!

We barely had time to get back to Winter Park, get some lunch, do some shopping, before catching the return train to Denver. It was worth the ride though; the scenery through the mountains was spectacular, and we went through 29 tunnels, the longest of which was 6 miles and took us 15 minutes. I will be posting pictures as soon as Eleanor gets back to California and can send them to me!! I recommend a ride on the ski train when you visit Denver...you can go summer or winter and there is plenty to see and do!

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