Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway Company
Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway Company
Manitou Springs, Colorado
cograilway.com Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad
Mineral, Washington
mtrainierrailroad.com
This rail company has been providing excursions to the mountain’s
summit since 1891. As students take the three-hour-plus ride from the
station in Manitou Springs to the 14,115-foot peak and back, they will
go through dense forests that include Englemann spruce, Colorado
blue spruce and Ponderosa pine trees. The last three miles of the
trip up are above timberline, and passengers will see wildflowers and
animals such as Bighorn sheep and yellow-bellied marmot, depending
on the season. Once the cog railway reaches the top, riders have 30
to 40 minutes to explore the summit and to take in panoramic views of
the mountainous area.
To learn more, contact Whitney Hedgpeth at [email protected]. Student groups visiting west-central Washington can ride the rails
with Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad between the rural mountain towns
of Elbe and Mineral. The company’s 14-mile tour, offered from May
to October, goes through thick forests in the foothills south of Mount
Rainier and over the glacial-fed Upper Nisqually River before making a
stop at the logging museum in Mineral. During a visit to the museum,
students can see one of the most comprehensive collections of steam-
powered logging locomotives in North America and view exhibits that
tell the stories of the men and women who called railroad logging
camps home in the early to mid-1900s.
To learn more, contact Wayne Rankin, [email protected].
NTAonline.com
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