Trip Report: Amtrak California Zephyr (Part 2)
What kind of review would this be without some photos of the very scenery that made this trip 100% worthwhile? The California Zephyr left from Chicago around 2:00pm and we had perfect weather to explore the city before we left.
Heading into Union Station in Chicago, excited to board.
Checking out the board listing all of the Amtrak and Metra arrivals and departures.
A map of all the Amtrak routes available in the States including the California Zephyr, the Empire Builder and the Southwest Chief. Is it weird that we could stare at this for a while and not get bored? Look at all of the places to explore. Oh the travel possibilities!
Here’s the entrance to the Metropolitan Lounge in Union Station.
Complimentary snacks in the lounge.
Lots of seating options available.
Passengers waiting to board a number of different trains.
All of the trains are located underground at Union Station. This is a nice option for those rainy and snowy days – no need to deal with precipitation while boarding.
About to board the Zephyr on Track 22.
One of the Amtrak employees directing people toward the correct train car.
The view of the Chicago skyline after the train emerges from the underground tracks in Union Station.
Once outside of the Chicago suburbs, the scenery quickly changes to corn and soybean fields littered with old barns and silos. We passed through many small farming towns and saw lots of tractors in the fields in Illinois and Iowa.
Crossing the Burlington Rail Bridge over the Mississippi River.
Parked at Denver’s Union Station around 7am on Day 2. We noticed a lot of passengers did the Denver to California route, cutting the trip in half while still seeing some beautiful countryside.
A shot of our train in front of Union Station in Denver.
The observation car is on the left with all of the windows on the top.
As we left Denver, we watched the train corkscrew up and into the Rocky Mountains.
We would pass through a crazy amount of tunnels on this trip particularly in Colorado. We crossed the Continental Divide and went through Moffat Tunnel (about 6 miles long). Everything went black and the glow-in-the-dark emergency signs become visible.
At this point we really started to get into the heart of the Rockies. Here’s the train stopped in Fraser-Winter Park, CO. This probably looks much different during the winter months.
One of our conductors stretching his legs.
One of the most scenic highlights of the trip was seeing the 12-mile-long Glenwood Canyon split by the Colorado River. The train slowly winds through this area, going slow enough to get lots of stunning views and some good photos even from inside the moving train.
Here’s the station in Glenwood Springs, CO.
A shot from along the way.
In Grand Junction, CO, there’s a (very) small train depot store with coffee and snacks and nearly empty shelves. The conductor gave us a 15-minute break here. The line was long and we weren’t about to miss the train, so we hopped back on without a refuel.
Around this point, we started seeing people kayaking, canoeing, paddle boarding and white water rafting down the Colorado River next to us. Mind you this was over Memorial Day weekend and it was exceptionally nice out, so Coloradans were getting their recreation on outside. It was around this time that we heard some folklore about the Colorado River also being known as Moon River, and not long after, we started seeing people drop their pants and swimsuits while turning away from the train and exposing their behinds. We lost count of the numbers of “moons” we saw but suffice it to say the number was non-trivial. We even saw a small kid doing it! Oh my gosh!
With our location at the very front of the train, when our door was open we were able to hear a lot of the informal chatter amongst the conductor and the person narrating the trip. We were lucky enough to hear him excitedly exclaim “a bald eagle!” before turning on the microphone and mentioning it to the rest of the passengers. This was our very first time seeing a bald eagle in the wild and it was pretty awesome. Take a look at the black speck perched in the center of the dead tree toward the center of the photo – that’s him (or her)!
Slowly the scenery changed from mountains to red rock cliffs and plateaus, signaling the beginning of Utah.
Some animals lounging around.
Those clouds!
The sunset at the end of our second day.
We pulled into Salt Lake City close to midnight and walked around on the platform to get some fresh air then called it a night.
When we woke up the next day, we noticed that the train was closely following I-80. We ended up traveling near the interstate for the rest of the ride into California. We thought the best places would be over, but California also had so many beautiful areas, including the Sierra Nevada Mountains where we went by Donner Pass and Donner Lake.
The scenery became more urban as we approached major California cities like Sacramento and Davis. At this point we began packing up the small items in our room and making sure our bags were ready to go once we arrived in Emeryville. Here’s one of the last photos we took as the train rounded San Pablo Bay.
We made it to San Francisco! What an adventure!
