The Royal Gorge Route Railroad is featured in Ever After in the Woods’ “Hop Aboard This Colorado Train For A Three-Course Dinner With Unforgettable Canyon Views,” by Owen Briscoe.
The article opens with a simple idea: dinner gets a lot more interesting when the scenery refuses to sit still. Instead of watching traffic from a restaurant window, guests settle in for a meal while canyon walls, river bends, and historic railroad scenery roll past outside. Briscoe notes that the train moves at a sightseeing pace, which is exactly the point, and that “the ride itself is doing half the entertaining.”
The story begins at the historic Santa Fe Depot in Cañon City, where passengers board a working scenic railroad, not a themed dining room pretending to be a train. From there, the route follows the Arkansas River into the Royal Gorge. The article touches on the history behind the tracks, from the intense railroad competition of the late 1870s to the modern Royal Gorge Route Railroad, which began passenger service in 1999, adding a layer of story to the evening without turning dinner into a lesson.
At the center of the experience is the three-course dinner, with a starter, a choice of entrée, and dessert. The article mentions menu favorites such as slow-roasted prime rib, salmon, herb-roasted chicken, and braised buffalo short ribs, finished with crème brûlée or panna cotta. Courses are timed around a ride of about two hours, so the meal has room to unfold while the canyon changes outside.
Ever After in the Woods also spotlights the railroad’s restored passenger cars, including the Vista Dome cars, whose overhead glass makes looking up at the towering canyon walls part of the meal. Dining cars offer large windows, and open-air observation areas give passengers a clearer look at the river and rock walls. The article suggests choosing a car class based on what matters most to you, whether that’s dinner comfort or the widest possible canyon view.
The guide notes that the dinner train works for almost any kind of traveler. Couples get a built-in date night, families get a memorable outing with real tracks and moving scenery, and solo travelers get a couple of hours to put the phone away and let the canyon take over. For planning, Briscoe recommends arriving with enough time to park and check in, bringing a light jacket for the open-air car as the canyon cools after sunset, and making the train the main event of the evening.
As the article concludes, the Royal Gorge Route Railroad is most rewarding when approached as a complete experience rather than simply a meal served on rails, turning a short stretch of track into a story worth retelling.
Read the full story: https://everafterinthewoods.com/hop-aboard-this-colorado-train-for-a-three-course-dinner-with-unforgettable-canyon-views-49bd6a1c/
