Cripple Creek Railroad

This post is from the archives.  To my knowledge, the basic information about this venue hasn’t changed, but it is always best to contact the venue directly for the most up-to-date information.

Last weekend some friends of ours visited and we headed up to Cripple Creek to ride the Cripple Creek Railroad using our 50% off Living Social vouchers! If you haven’t been up in the mountains yet this fall, do it – the leaves are spectacular right now and they will probably start falling soon!  (It’s worth a drive up Highway 67 to Cripple Creek just to look at the leaves even if you don’t do anything else – unfortunately, we didn’t stop for pictures so I have no proof!)

This was our first time riding a train as a family – we’ve been to the Durango area a couple of times on vacation, but the train there, while amazing, would cost us almost $200 for our whole family to go so I was excited to be able to ride a train for much less, even if it was a shorter trip.

The train ride was about 40 minutes, which was a great length for our kiddos – not so long they got bored, but long enough that you felt like you’d done something.  The kids and I especially enjoyed the conductor’s information about the history of the region, as we’ve studied mining a little bit recently and seeing the old mines and knowing their history and seeing a modern mine from a distance was a lot of fun.  (Here’s a review of the Western Museum of Mining and Industry.)

We said in the covered car closest to the engine and got to see the conductor fueling the engine with coal, which was fun.

The train ride went for a distance, with a couple of stops along the way, and then backtracked back to the station with a couple more stops.

Overall, we had a great time.  I’m glad we had our Living Social vouchers so that we only had to pay full-price for one admission, as it would have been a little bit expensive for all of us at full price, but my kids would jump at the chance to ride again!

For more info on the railroad, visit their website.