My Great American Rail Journey - Part 14 - Colorado - Visiting 3 National Parks and more!!!

In the summer of 2024, I took advantage of Amtrak's USA Rail Pass, where you get 10 trips on the train for $499. One catch is, all 10 legs have to be completed within 30 days. Another catch is all of your travel has to be done in coach. That means even sleeping on the train, I would have to do it sitting in a coach seat. For months I studied different Amtrak routes, planned which ones I wanted to ride, and what places I wanted to see along the way. Finally, I put together an itinerary I was happy with. One that would put me on 10 different Amtrak routes, take me through 36 states, allow me to see things I had never seen and go to places I have never been.

In this video, I travel around southern Colorado. My journey starts after leaving the Four Corners Monument and spend the night camping in Mesa Verde National Park. The next morning I took the Balcony House tour, led by a park ranger. When I left Mesa Verde, I drove to Silverton and caught the Durango and Silverton Scenic Railroad back to Durango. I was going to include that in this video, but there was so much amazing footage, and this video was already getting long, so I am making a separate video just for that! I camped one night in Silverton, then drove north to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. From there, drove south to camp in Durango. The next day I continued east to my third national park in as many days in Colorado, Great Sand Dunes NP. That is where this video ends, I hope you enjoy it!