In the first decade of the 21st century, I travelled a lot of Amtrak, mostly in California. Involvement in high speed rail, initially as an advocate, then professionally, took me into the San Joaquin Valley often, as well as Sacramento. There was also travel on the Coast Starlight to meetings in Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, and San Diego, as well as some recreational trips. By 2009, I had accumulated enough Amtrak rewards points to book a room on the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Chicago. 

I had never taken an Amtrak long-distance train other than the Coast Starlight, and this was my first trip in a Roomette. I was past the age where two nights sleeping in coach held any appeal to me. But my own room? Yes!

The first 90 minutes or so out from Emeryville were very familiar to me as I settled in to my roomette. Shore of San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, the wetlands of Grizzly Bay, and the expanse of the Sacramento Valley. But east of Sacramento was all new to me. There was light traffic climbing into the Sierra on I-80 the morning my train crossed high on a trestle.

Following lunch, crossing the summit of the Sierra, and making a stop in Truckee, the train passed along the Truckee River under the (then) new and quite elegant SR-267 bridge. The ride from Sacramento, up and over the Sierra, and then down into Reno was full of spectacular scenery and geography. The pines, granite, snowsheds, winter cabins, plunging gorges and valleys, quick mountain waterways, serene lakes, and long views add up to an astonishing, non-stop show of big and bold western scenery.

Almost to the inch, the tall trees end at the Nevada stateline. The panorama from the train changes to the landscape of the Great Basin. The Truckee River doesn’t flow to an ocean– it flows to Pyramid Lake and ends there. I made my way to the dining car around Winnemucca to sit down for Amtrak’s famous signature steak dinner as the sun began to fade on the first day of travel. There’s drama to Nevada’s endless Great Basin landscapes, punctuated by small cities and remote towns, but getting to sleep across while crossing its eastern half didn’t feel like I was really missing anything.

Morning comes as the train is traversing Utah, headed towards Colorado and its namesake river. The train had passed through Salt Lake City in the dead of the night, around 3:30am. The Zephyr’s schedule does not treat Salt Lake well, the westbound train is a bit better, with a stop around 11:30pm. For much of this second day on the train, we’ll be following the Colorado River.

The initial sections of the Colorado are full of people having summer fun on the river. Fishers, rafters, tubers, and swimmers are all right there, out your window. Some of the tubers give a special traditional greeting to the passing Zephyr, a greeting that requires dropping one’s shorts. 

Day two’s scenery soon comes to compete with the majesty of the Sierra as the train continues toward Denver.  The valley continues to contract after passing Glenwood Springs, eventually leaving just steep mountainsides, the churning river, and a very narrow ledge for the train. 

After stopping at Winter Park, serving a few of Colorado’s ski destinations, the train crosses under the Continental Divide, emerging in the twilight high above Denver. As dinner is dined upon, the train drops into the city for a break at Denver Union Station. Eventually pulling back out onto the mainline, we head into the flat expanse of eastern Colorado and southern Nebraska, back in bed and sleeping soundly to the gentle sway of the train.

After awaking for a moment from the pre-dawn lights and sounds of the Omaha station, more shut-eye is accumulated before waking somewhere in Iowa. It’ll be a day of learning to differentiate between corn and soybean and passing through sleepy farm towns, the predominant views for most of day three on the train.

But there is one spectacular geographic feature yet to enjoy, the Mississippi River. You’ll have to take my word that hte video below is actually crossing the Mississippi and not just gliding by a lake. A very wide river, crossed by a slow train on a rusty bridge.

Finally, after one last lunch on the train, we arrive in Chicago. I enjoyed this three-day adventure on the train, learning to my amazement that the on board showers are actually much more pleasant and functional than I expected. There was also the slow-motion front row seat for a slow pass across two-thirds of the country.

I’ve now taken all  the routes from the West Coast to Chicago and New Orleans, and the Zephyr is the best. Since this trip, I’ve travelled west to east again, and east to west. I’ve also gone from Portland, Oregon to Chicago on the Empire Builder, the northern-most route, and from Los Angeles to Chicago on the Southwest Chief, following Route 66. And then Los Angeles to New Orleans on the Sunset, keeping close to the Mexican border. Of all these routes, the Zephyr offers both the stunning crossings of the Sierra and Rockies, and the agricultural heartland of the country.