A steam train climbs out of Antonito and over a 10,000-foot pass

Each summer a coal-fired steam locomotive pulls out of Antonito and starts climbing. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad runs 64 miles from this small Colorado town to Chama, New Mexico, on track laid in 1880 as the Denver & Rio Grande’s narrow-gauge San Juan Extension. “Narrow gauge” means the rails sit just three feet apart instead of the usual four-foot-eight-and-a-half, which let the old builders thread the line through tight mountain country.

The route crosses the Colorado–New Mexico line repeatedly as it works its way up to Cumbres Pass at 10,015 feet, which the railroad describes as the highest pass reached by rail in the United States. Between the depots you pass the Toltec Gorge and a stretch of mountains that cars never see. Colorado and New Mexico jointly bought the line in 1970 and began carrying visitors the next year; in 2012 it was named a National Historic Landmark as one of the most complete examples of early narrow-gauge steam railroading left in the country.

It is the marquee day-trip in Conejos County, and the altitude keeps the season short, running roughly late spring into mid-fall. Trips and dates shift year to year, so check the schedule and book ahead at cumbrestoltec.com before you plan around it.