From the Durango Depot to Twenty-Seven Ziplines Over the Canyon
A full day up the Animas canyon in private first-class train cars, with 5.5 hours of ziplining and lunch served in the trees.
The ranch sits on 120 acres inside the San Juan National Forest, and no road goes there. Guests arrive the way everything else does, on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, in private first-class cars held for this trip. The outbound run climbs the Animas canyon on a ledge with a two-hundred-foot drop to the river below.
Denny Beggrow bought this land in 1969, at nineteen. Tall Timber Resort opened here in 1972, reachable only by train or helicopter, and ran that way for more than forty years. The zipline course came later, in 2004.
Check-in does not happen at the railroad ticket window. Look for the red car named Tall Timber Legend and for the Soaring attendant standing beside it.
The season runs from late May to the second week of October, Tuesday through Saturday, with no departures on Sunday or Monday. One fare covers the round-trip rail, the guides, the eco-tour, the equipment, and lunch.
All-Day Guided Zipline Tour with Train Ride and Lunch in DurangoSoaring Tree Top Adventures · 8.5 hours · Round-trip narrow-gauge rail, 27 spans, four-course lunchwww.viator.comTwenty-Seven Spans, and the Shortest Is Fifty-Six Feet
The course holds 27 spans. They range from 56 feet to 1,400 feet, which is a wide enough spread that no two feel alike. Guides here are called Sky Rangers, and one stays with your group all day, clipping you in at one tree and catching you at the next.
The first several spans run alongside a level footpath, which is where anyone not ziplining can stand and watch. After that the route moves into deeper woods. Soaring puts the ziplining itself at five and a half hours; the rest of the day belongs to the train, the lunch, and the walking between trees.
Lunch Arrives on a Platform Above the River
Four courses, cooked on site, served on a suspended platform that looks down at the Animas. There is a vegetarian option and a children's menu, and the kitchen handles allergies when you flag them at checkout.
The guides in the other uniform are Eco Rangers. Their subject is the old-growth ponderosa stand the course runs through, and the ecology tour happens out among the spans, between rides.
Four to Ninety-Four, and Everyone Pays the Same
Soaring writes that the course works for ages 4 to 94. A child is priced exactly as an adult here, 600 dollars either way, which is worth knowing before you count heads.
The listing flags the day as unsuitable for travelers who are pregnant, who have spinal injuries, or who have poor cardiovascular health, and asks for at least a moderate level of fitness. Anyone under eighteen books with an adult. Soaring also sells a Day Guest place for someone who plans to skip the ziplining and ride out for the train and the lunch, though this listing books the ziplining day itself.
The Day Runs Long, and the Train Sets the Clock
Boarding is 8:15 in the morning. The train reaches Soaring at 10:01, pulls out again at 3:34, and is back in Durango at 5:20 in the evening. That schedule does not bend, because one train carries everyone in and everyone out.
Soaring also runs the day from Rockwood, farther up the line, which trims a little over two hours off the round trip; this listing boards in Durango. Booking closes 20 hours before departure, and confirmation is immediate.
Check in beside the red Tall Timber Legend car at the Durango & Silverton depot, 479 Main Avenue.
The Viator booking refunds in full if you cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure. Soaring's own house policy, which governs anything arranged direct with the company, draws its line at seven days and turns a later cancellation into a transferable credit toward another date.
The train is back on Main Avenue at 5:20, which leaves the evening in Durango wide open.