A Staged Train Robbery Hits the Georgetown Loop Two August Weekends

Picture it. You are riding a narrow-gauge train up through the pines, the trestle curling out over the canyon below you, and then a guy on horseback pulls up alongside and the whole thing turns into a train robbery.

That is the pitch for Wild West Days on the Georgetown Loop Railroad, and honestly it is one of the better family day trips coming out of the mountains next summer. Two weekends only. August 22 and 23, then August 29 and 30, 2026. Trains run 10 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.

Here is the part people miss about the Georgetown Loop. This is not a theme-park ride pretending to be old. The railroad is the real thing, a genuine historic narrow-gauge line that climbs the grade between Georgetown and Silver Plume. You go through the towering evergreens, over those iconic trestles, along the mountain vistas that people drive two hours to sit in traffic for. The Wild West show just gets layered on top of a train that already earns the ticket.

What actually happens on the train

So you board, and you are not just watching scenery go by. Wild West reenactors are working the cars. At some point the staged train robbery goes down, which is the whole reason the kids will still be talking about it in the car on the way home. And then there is a saloon element where you can try a game of Faro.

Quick side note on Faro, because most people have never heard of it. It was the card game of the Old West. Bigger than poker back then, played in every mining camp saloon from here to Deadwood. It basically vanished. So getting to sit down at a Faro table is a weirdly specific slice of history you almost never get to touch.

Every guest also walks away with a custom 2026 Wild West Days Faro Chip. That is the kind of thing that ends up on a shelf in the house for years, if you ask me.

Now, the pricing. This is where I have to be straight with you. Wild West Day train pricing and the tour activities vary, and they are asking guests to RSVP to reserve a spot rather than just show up. So do not roll up to Georgetown that Saturday expecting to grab a seat. Check the Georgetown Loop Railroad's events page and lock it in ahead of time. These are two weekends, four days total, and Georgetown fills up fast in late August anyway.

Why 2026 is the year they are doing this

Here is the bigger thing happening, and it is worth your attention. The Wild West trains are not a random one-off. They are listed among History Colorado's statewide partner programming for Colorado's Sesquicentennial in 2026.

Colorado turns 150 next year. And the story of how we got the name Centennial State is a good one. The paperwork admitting Colorado to the Union landed on President Grant's desk on August 1, 1876. That was the country's 100th birthday year, the centennial, so Colorado came in riding that wave and grabbed the nickname.

But 2026 is doing something that basically never happens. Colorado's 150th lines up with America's 250th, the Semiquincentennial. Two milestones stacking on the same year. History Colorado is calling the mashup the Sesquisemiquincentennial, which is a mouthful and I am not going to try to say it out loud, but the point stands. This is a once-in-a-generation overlap. Your grandkids do not get to see the numbers line up like this again.

So a lot of stuff is getting built around it. History Colorado is inviting communities all across the state to mark Colorado Day on Saturday, August 1, 2026, with free events. The Georgetown Loop robbery trains are one piece of that statewide push, just a more fun piece than most, because it comes with reenactors and a train that gets robbed.

Make a real day out of it

Look, if you are coming up I-70 anyway, Georgetown is worth slowing down for. The town itself is one of the best-preserved Victorian silver-mining towns in the state, and it is right there off the interstate. You can do the train, walk the historic district, eat, and be back down the hill before dark.

And the timing is the move here. The trains run those two late-August weekends, right on the tail of Colorado Day on August 1. So if you want to turn the 150th birthday into something the whole family actually remembers instead of a plaque you read for ten seconds, this is how you do it. Kids get a train robbery. You get the real narrow-gauge history and the trestles. Everybody gets a Faro chip.

RSVP early, watch the events page for the pricing details, and pick your weekend. August 22 and 23, or August 29 and 30. Buckle up, because a moving train getting robbed on the side of a mountain is exactly the kind of Radically Colorado adventure that makes a random Saturday one you talk about for years.