SKI TRAIN Route
Winter Park | Moffat | Tolland | Pine Cliff | Crescent | Plainview | Clay | Rocky | Leyden | Utah Junction | Denver StationSCENERY YOU'LL NEVER SEE ANY OTHER WAY
UNION STATIONLocate Union Station, home to The Ski Train, in the lower right hand corner of the map. The current depot was built in 1914 and refurbished in recent years. Once the train departs, we are headed into the mountains for some breathtaking scenery and colorful historic points of interest. The next stop is Winter Park, the destination of The Ski Train for over 50 years! As we leave Denver and slowly wind our way through the suburbs of Arvada and Wheat Ridge, we are following the trail of the former Denver Northwestern and Pacific Lines. UTAH JUNCTION - Milepost 3Utah Junction is the location of the " Denver North Yards," the Rio Grande’s freight classification yard. To the North, you’ll see the metal water tower - the only structure remaining at this former site of the Moffat Shops. As we cross Wadsworth Boulevard and approach the Denver suburb of Arvada straight ahead, note the tall peak to the left. This is Mt. Evans, 14,264 ft. The large lake on the right is Stanley Lake. TopLEYDEN JUNCTION - Milepost 12
Notice the long stretches of "ribbon rail" - track welded into continuous 1,000 ft. Sections. While it takes away from the romantic clickity-clack of conventional rail, it results in a much smoother, quieter ride. TopROCKY - Milepost 18
At Rocky, we start to climb out of the valley and begin a serious attack on the Rockies. To gain entrance to the canyon ahead, the railroad engineers cleverly laid a huge horseshoe around a bluff between Rocky and Clay: the Big Ten and Little Ten curves. This is a wonderful opportunity to take pictures of the train as it winds up the 2% grade. TopCLAY - Milepost 21
Coal Creek Canyon is to the left as the train crosses over a small bridge and we thread our way through the first tunnel. Watch for deer and elk in this region! TopPLAINVIEW - Milepost 24
Between tunnels 8-17 the track is clinging to
the side of the canyon,
TopCRESCENT - Milepost 31
Along the chasm of South Boulder Creek, the challenging terrain gives us respect for Colorado’s adventuresome railroad pioneers. On the other side of Crescent are Tunnels 19-27
in rapid succession. The creek rapidly rises in the canyon and at Pine Cliff
the rails are just a few feet above the water.
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Leyden
Junction was the departure point for the Inter-urban Electric Line which served
the Leyden coalmines, supplying Denver with home heating coal prior to World
War II. 
Several
hopper cars are located on the West side of the track before Clay. They serve
as a wind-break against occasional hurricane-force winds. The railroad
permanently filled the cars with dirt and welded the wheels to the rails. 
Plainview
lives up to its name: the seeping vistas of plains below include one quarter of
the entire state of Colorado. It’s possible to see Rocky Flats off to the east,
and the city of Boulder to the North. Behind Boulder, note the jagged, angled
escarpments known as the Flatirons. The red roofed buildings of the University
of Colorado can also be seen. Beyond Denver to the east stretch the Great
Plains. 
We
will pass through 27 tunnels in the next 25 miles - nowhere else in the western
hemisphere are there this many tunnels in this short a distance. In the summer
of 1903, over a thousand men were at work on the tunnels and cuts of the
canyon. Most of the tunnels were drilled by hand as it was too difficult to
bring in machinery. There are 31 tunnels between Denver and Winter Park. The
shortest is 78 feet and the longest - the Moffat Tunnel - measures an amazing
32,789 feet or 6.2 miles. Tunnel numbers are shown on metal flags at the right
side of the track or cast into the concrete portals. The railroad gained
altitude by carving into the side of the Front Range. Between Clay and
Plainview, this "side-hill" construction wasn’t too difficult - it
required only the drilling of Tunnel 1. Immediately west of Plainview, however,
the topography got tougher, requiring the construction of Tunnels 2-7 to enable
the railroad to get through the immense rock buttresses tilting steeply out of
the plains. 
After
Tunnel 8, we find ourselves perched on a ledge over a thousand feet above South
Boulder Creek. Look for traces of the wooded flume on the north canyon wall
below; it sent logs to the Eldorado sawmill at the turn of the century. 
curving
constantly in a series of 10 degree curves through tunnels 10-16. Tunnel 10 is
one of the longest ones. At tunnel 16 the track horseshoes out of a side canyon
in an 11 degree curve; it reverses to reach Tunnel 17, which passes under a
long ridge and back into the main canyon. Tunnel 17 is one of the rare straight
tunnels; nearly all of them are on a curve. 
Just
before Crescent, we enter Roosevelt National Forest. After Tunnel 12, to the
northwest is South Boulder Canyon and Gross Reservoir, which supplies Denver
with 14 billion gallons of water per year. You may even see a few ice
fishermen. 
Pine
Cliff was once a popular resort community served largely by "fish
train" - special runs operated by the railroad to bring fishermen up from
Denver. 
The
sharpest curve east of the Moffat Tunnel and the shortest tunnel on the Moffat
line are encountered just below Pine Cliff. The track makes a twelve degree
horseshoe to follow a bend in the canyon, then it burrows just 78 feet through
a narrow rock spur in Tunnel 29. Back in the middle of the curve a large scar
reveals the location of Tunnel 28, which was removed in 1951. 
Beyond
Rollinsville, the valley broadens further into a high mountain "park"
at Tolland. A major division pint early in the railroad’s history, crews who
stayed here made the trip over Rollins Pass (a locomotive fireman would have
shoveled 15 tons of coal into the engine on a single 23 mile trip over
"Hell Hill"). There was a water tower, a coal tipple, a telephone,
and a "wye" for turning engines. A picnic pavilion was located here,
and Tolland became the focus of many special outings. Here you can see the
mountains to the northwest three winding spiral lines that form traces of
"Giants Ladder." This former roadbed of Moffat’s Denver and Salt Lake
Railway wound its way over the summit from 1904 until the opening of the Moffat
Tunnel in 1928. In fact, the hardship of operating this high mountain railway
was the incentive for construction of the Moffat Tunnel. 
Fifty
miles west of Denver we encounter the East Portal to the Moffat Tunnel - named
after Colorado railroad pioneer David Moffat. The route the train has taken
from Denver into the Front Range follows the right-of-way laid out by Moffat
back in 1902 while he was seeking a better and shorter route to Salt Lake City.
We
emerge out the West Portal beneath lofty James Peak at Winter Park. The Ski
Train originated in 1940 as transportation to newly-opened Winter Park for
Denver youth, who skied for a full day for only one dollar. Through the
decades, both the train and Winter Park flourished, becoming the proud, popular
Denver traditions they are today. Whether you travel to tackle the more than
1,300 acres of ski terrain, take the free shuttle into town, or cuddle up and
take a heated snow cat ride – there’s always something going on in Winter Park.
Get set for a great day of fun! 