Below are LINKS to listings of available photos to view and/or download
Tom has included comments that describe all the photos.
Click the tiny icon in the lower right corner of each picture.
KREX video about the train crash
MY LETTER TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Good morning,
About a year ago, W and M, J and N, and I planned a train ride.
Our train ride traveled from Denver to Salt Lake City with stops along the way.
We also added extra days before Denver and after Salt Lake City.
It didn’t go well for the four of us in the mid-80s, but it will be a unique memory.
Two weeks before the trip, I fell off my bicycle.
It resulted in bruises on my left arm and leg, a swollen knee, and an injured shoulder.
I was slightly crippled, but I was not going to miss this trip.
A week before the trip, M’s cardiologist advised that she should not take our Denver excursion to Pike’s Peak.
We accepted his advice and revised our plans in Denver.
Five days before the trip, M's cardiologist advised her to cancel the entire trip.
W and M canceled the trip, and I changed my airline flights - No extra day in Denver or Salt Lake City.
Two days before the trip, continuing to feel bad, M was admitted to the hospital and had a cardioversion.
At the same time, the friend whom J planned to meet in Denver canceled due to illness.
While in Denver before our train took off, cyclists walking in Union Station caused J to fall.
They called 911 and wanted J to go to the hospital, but he refused. He wanted to go on the train ride. Unknowingly, he fractured a rib.
On the day our train left Denver, the temperature dropped 30 degrees, and Denver got 4 inches of snow.
Our mountain pass got 20 inches of snow.
We dodged the snow the day before they shut down our train tracks due to heavy snow. We arrived safety to our first stop in Glenwood Springs.
An hour after leaving Glenwood Springs, CO, in Rifle, CO, our train hit a semi-truck on our track. Six train cars were derailed but remained upright.
Nobody was injured, but our train ride was over.
Our 310 passengers were now on six coaches to Moab and Salt Lake City.
In Moab, J was in pain due to his Denver fall. He called 911, and they took him to the hospital.
He continued to Salt Lake City
We arrived in Salt Lake City safely.
My auxiliary train rides via trams in Denver and Salt Lake City were safe.
Our train company, the Canyon Spirit, is refunding our trip money.
Sister S was following me daily via text messages and hourly on Life360 and informed my famlly about the train accident.
Once at home, L just called to make sure I was okay. She said she is terrified about my traveling. She also said that my traveling friends aren’t the safest.
She had reason to be concerned.
My history was not too promising.
Prior to this trip, I fell and got injured in my bike ride to Bentonville.
I had heart problems in Portugal and the Tauck people canceled my bike ride.
A month later, I got pneumonia leaving Germany and was laid up for three weeks.
Then, I was in a train crash.
I am afraid my friends would want to avoid travelling with me.
I told L other than the train crash, my health did fine.
I didn't have my past “brain fog” and damaged brain problems.
Unfortunately, my elderly traveling buddies, not so much.
Nevertheless, she had reasons to be concerned. These same four friends will be with me in Iceland, Norway, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
But I don’t plan to stay sequestered at home. My elderly friends and I love to travel.
Tom
From: No Reply CS <no-reply@canyonspirit.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 7, 2026 10:08 PM
Subject: Canyon Spirit - Thank you for your patience
Dear valued guest,
On behalf of all of us at Canyon Spirit, thank you again for your patience and understanding as we worked through the challenge to your journey. This was not the journey we had planned for you, and we are deeply disappointed we were unable to provide our usual world-class experience on our train.
The safety of our guests and our team is our highest priority, and with that in mind we did everything we could to get you to your destination as quickly and comfortably as possible.
As an expression of our appreciation and acknowledgment of the disruption to our train service, we will be providing you with a gesture of goodwill of $2,298 USD per guest and making a payment for the value of missed portions of the rail journey. We will process this to your original form of payment within 3-5 business days.
We truly hope you will choose to travel with us again, so you can experience the full train journey as intended. In addition to the above, we would like to share an offer to travel again with $1,000 USD off per guest on our Canyon Spirit route, or $1,000 CAD off per guest on our sister train experience in Canada, Rocky Mountaineer. This is valid for travel in our 2026, 2027 or 2028 seasons.
To book using this offer please call our Vacation Consultants on one of the numbers listed here or email travelagain@thearmstrongcollective.com and quote code CS2601REDISCOVER.
Alternatively, if you booked through a travel agent, please contact them to redeem this offer. As proof of eligibility please provide your previous booking reference number at the time of booking.
We wish you all the best with your onward travel and again, appreciate your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Your Canyon Spirit Team
