Royal Gorge Route Railroad and Public Attractions still in use today

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:01]Hey everyone, welcome back. Today we're in Cañon City, Colorado getting ready to follow one of the most dramatic railroad routes in the American West. This is the Royal Gorge Route Railroad.

[00:00:15]And even before the train moves, the setting already tells you a lot. You've got the Arkansas River cutting through the gorge, steep canyon walls rising on both sides, and a railroad line that looks like it barely fits between the rock and the water. It doesn't feel like a railroad that just happens to pass through a scenic place. It feels like a railroad that had to fight for room.

[00:00:34]And that's really the story here.

[00:00:39]It was built because railroads wanted a way through the canyon, and in a place like this, a way through meant forcing steel into one of the tightest, hardest pieces of country around.

[00:00:50]We're starting out in Cañon City, and this is a good place to begin because the town helps make the route feel grounded. It's easy to think of the Royal Gorge only as a dramatic attraction now, but this line came out of a much harder railroad world.

[00:01:03]In the late 19th century, this part of Colorado mattered because railroads were pushing west. Mining regions needed access, and every workable route through the mountains had value.

[00:01:13]That made the Royal Gorge important very quickly because if you look at a map, the Arkansas River Canyon offers a passage westward. But once you stand here in person, you understand the problem right away.

[00:01:24]The canyon is narrow. In places, it feels almost too narrow for the river, let alone a railroad. The walls rise steeply, the space is tight, and the whole thing has that look of a place where every foot of track had to be argued out of the landscape.

[00:01:37]That may be the first thing that makes this route so memorable. It doesn't feel easy, and it never really was.

[00:01:45]As the train starts moving out of town and into the canyon, the mood changes fast. The open space begins to tighten, the rock walls move closer, and the river starts running right beside the track.

[00:01:57]That's one of the strongest parts of this ride. You don't slowly drift into scenery. The scenery closes around you.

[00:02:02]The route pulls you into the gorge in a way that feels direct and physical.

[00:02:06]And once you're in there, the railroad starts making a very clear point. This line exists because somebody insisted on putting a railroad through a place that didn't have much room for one. That's what gives the Royal Gorge route its history.

[00:02:18]In the late 1870s, this canyon became part of what was known as the Royal Gorge Railroad War, a struggle between the Denver and Rio Grande and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe over who would control the route through the gorge.

[00:02:30]That tells you how important this passage was.

[00:02:33]Companies did not fight over country that didn't matter. They fought because the route west had value, and this canyon was one of the places where geography narrowed the options down.

[00:02:42]That conflict is part of what still gives the route its edge because the line wasn't born out of easy expansion.

[00:02:49]It came out of pressure, competition, and the simple fact that there were only so many workable ways through Colorado's mountain barriers.

[00:02:57]And once the track was in, the canyon kept all the drama anyway.

[00:03:00]The farther the train goes, the more obvious that becomes. The walls are high enough that the sky feels narrower. The river looks fast and cold below. The track follows the gorge closely, and in some places it feels like there is almost no extra room at all.

[00:03:17]That is one of the reasons this ride works so well even now. The railroad still feels like it belongs to the original problem. It still feels like it is squeezing through. That's especially true when the train approaches the famous section beneath the Royal Gorge Bridge. By the time you get there, the canyon has already done most of the work. The scale is in your head. The walls feel serious.

[00:03:36]Then you look up, and there is the bridge hanging high above the river and the train, and the whole scene becomes even more dramatic. It is one of those places where everything stacks together at once. River below, train in the canyon, bridge overhead, rock walls on both sides.

[00:04:13]And because the track is still active, the moment doesn't feel like a static historic site. It feels alive. The train is moving through the same narrow space the old railroad builders had to solve.

[00:04:22]That makes the experience much stronger than simply looking at the canyon from an overlook.

[00:04:27]You're not just seeing the gorge, you're moving through the railroad's answer to it.

[00:04:33]Now, before we go too far into the scenic side of things, it helps to remember that this route was once part of a larger working railroad system. The line connected to Colorado's broader mountain rail network and served real transportation needs. Freight mattered, passenger movement mattered. The canyon was not famous because it was pretty. It became important because it was useful.

[00:04:55]That matters because it changes the whole feeling of the route. The train today is about experience, yes, but the line itself came from practical railroad logic. That is one reason it still feels authentic.

[00:05:07]The route was not invented later for tourists.

[00:05:09]Tourists came later because the original railroad was dramatic enough to survive in memory.

[00:05:14]And honestly, that is usually the best kind of heritage railroad story.

[00:05:18]A real line, a real problem, a real route.

[00:05:23]Then, after the working era changes, the survival of the line gives later generations something to experience directly.

[00:05:30]That is what the Royal Gorge Route Railroad does so well now. It keeps the canyon rail experience alive without pretending the line was always meant to be scenic.

[00:05:41]It wasn't. It just happens to be one of the most scenic railroad routes in the country because the original railroad had to go through one of the most dramatic canyons in the country.

[00:05:50]That's a big difference.

[00:05:52]As the train moves deeper into the gorge, another thing starts to stand out. The route feels narrow, but it never feels random. The line follows the river because the river created the passage. The railroad uses the space the canyon allows even when that space is tight.

[00:06:08]That is what makes canyon railroading different from big open country railroading. In open country, a railroad can often choose broad alignments, easier curves, and straighter routes. In a place like this, the land makes most of the decisions. The railroad adapts.

[00:06:21]That is why this route feels so focused.

[00:06:23]It is not wandering through scenery. It is locked into the shape of the canyon.

[00:06:29]And maybe that is the best thing about riding it. The line still teaches you the geography. You understand the gorge better because of the railroad.

[00:06:36]You understand why the canyon mattered, why the route mattered, and why controlling it mattered.

[00:06:42]The train does not just show you the landscape. It explains the landscape by the way it moves through it. That's a rare strength in a historic route.

[00:06:49]A lot of old lines need a lot of imagination. Here, the canyon is doing half the explaining for you. The Royal Gorge route also works well because it has not lost the feeling of railroad motion. Some heritage lines are enjoyable, but they can feel a little too separated from the harder history of transportation.

[00:07:06]This line does not have that problem.

[00:07:08]The canyon keeps enough seriousness in the experience that the ride never turns completely soft. Even with comfortable cars and sightseeing passengers, the route still feels like railroad country.

[00:07:19]And then there is the simple visual power of the place. The Arkansas River, the steep stone, the bridge overhead, the changing light inside the canyon, all of it makes the route easy to remember.

[00:07:30]But what makes it better than just a pretty train ride is that the beauty and the history are tied to the same thing.

[00:07:36]Now, over time, railroad use in the canyon changed, like it always does.

[00:07:42]The age of fierce railroad competition passed. Freight patterns changed.

[00:07:46]Passenger service changed. The line no longer had the same place in Western railroading that it once did.

[00:07:52]But the road itself stayed too distinctive to disappear completely.

[00:07:55]That is one reason it survived into its modern life as the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. People recognize that the canyon, the track, and the history together were too strong to lose, and they were right. [music] Because this is one of those routes where the attraction is not separate from the old purpose. The attraction is the old purpose, just seen through a different lens.

[00:08:16]What people come to admire now is exactly what the original railroad men had to solve then. That is always a good sign in a heritage railroad. It means the history is still visible.

[00:08:26]You're following one of the West's most dramatic railroad answers to a very hard piece of country, and that answer still works. Thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up, consider subscribing, and I'll see you next time.