Get a Rocky Mountains high on spectacular train journey

Comfortably ensconced in my reclinable seat surrounded by glass dome windows, we leave the snow-tipped La Sal Mountains (Utah's second highest range) and Arches National Park (home to 2000-plus natural rock arches) behind us. My tray table gets dressed up for lunch.

Baked chicken breast with steamed broccolini and carrots are delivered with grace and charm. Garnishing the windows are the dizzyingly beautiful sandstone walls of 25-mile-long Ruby Canyon. Magnificent hoodoos exhibit themselves with confidence, while more covert are the carved handhold and foothold impressions of the Moqui Steps that the ancestral Ute people skilfully scaled.

"Look up to your left!" announces Janet, our host. Giant white words, UTAH COLORADO, paint the canyon wall as our train crosses the state border.

Being in SilverLeaf Plus class offers exclusive access to the lounge car. It's where snacks are snuck and cocktails concocted. Through its picture windows is

Grand Valley, a major winegrowing region since George Crawford sowed the first vineyard in Palisade in 1890. Today, 27 wineries complement the renowned peach orchards making the region Colorado's fruit bowl.

Above the town, 200-mile-long Book Cliffs is a spectacle. Cretaceous sandstone butts along the mountain range resemble shelves of books, with 6,765-ft Mount Garfield claiming the highest point.

Dinner delivers pork rib and quinoa-stuffed pepper, before we overnight where the likes of Al Capone and Buffalo Bill once frequented. The one-time frontier town of Glenwood Springs is today a wellness destination.

Directly opposite the prettiest of stations, I check into Hotel Denver. Quickly slipping into my swimwear, I skip across the pedestrian bridge to Glenwood Hot Springs: the world's largest geothermal pool. Its 104°F waters are a therapy on this chilly night. I wallow until closing time, absorbing its healing minerals. Sleep runs deep...

Edging out after dawn, we breakfast on scrambled eggs, hickory smoked bacon, and grilled pepper and onions, to a slideshow of Glenwood Canyon's 16 miles of disarmingly dramatic topography and 1300ft-tall cliffs.

Snaking through Gore Canyon and Byers Canyon we marvel at kayakers and rafters slaloming the raging rapids, while families fish, picnic and camp along the calmer river bends. A mule deer appears, with its giant donkey-like ears and rack of antlers.

Boring beneath the ancient curved spine of the Rocky Mountains, we cross the Continental Divide through the 1928-completed Moffat Tunnel. Mass raucous elation erupts.

Having entered the tunnel under blue sky and sunshine, we emerge to thick snowfall. I rush to the wind-blasted vestibule. It's freezing leaning out, and I shiver comically. But feeling the icy snowflakes pebbledash my face is exhilarating. We went from midsummer to midwinter in just 6.2 miles.

After a lunch of pork shoulder with apple rosemary cider reduction, rice and seasonal vegetables, we ride the Big Ten Curve, with its radius of 10 degrees. Our train arcs around the track at an impressive 270 degrees, before straightening towards Denver's greener flatter plains until at 6:15pm we come to a jerking halt. My camera is exhausted. But I am exhilarated.

All-inclusive prices for the two-day/one-night journey start at $2050. For various itineraries and package options see www.rockymountaineer.com

The writer was a guest of The Rocky Mountaineer.