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| Kremmling, Colorado |
From San Francisco, our next stop was Chicago. When we were planning our trip, it seemed silly to cross the country and miss everything in between so Bella and I went an unconventional route and decided to take an AMTRAK instead of flying. The California Zephyr is a 51 hour train journey that crosses 7 states - California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
Seeing as the train ride was so long, we rode the Zephyr from Emeryville (near SF) to Denver and got a sleeper carriage (30 hour ride). We got off and spent a couple of days in Denver before resuming our journey to Chicago in coach (another 20 hour ride).
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| Emeryville |
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| Emeryville |
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| Dutch Flat, California |
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| Alta, California |
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| Viewing Carriage |
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| Tahoe National Forest, Emigrant Gap |
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| Tahoe National Forest, Soda Springs |
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| Tahoe National Forest, Soda Springs |
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| Tahoe National Forest, Soda Springs |
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| Tahoe National Forest, Truckee |
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| Floriston, California |
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| Virginia City, Nevada |
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| Green River, Utah |
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| Green River, Utah |
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| Thompson, Utah |
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| Thompson, Utah |
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| De Beque, Colorado |
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| De Beque, Colorado |
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| De Beque, Colorado |
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| De Beque, Colorado |
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| Parachute, Colorado |
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| Rifle, Colorado |
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| Glenwood Springs, Colorado |
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| White River National Forest, Glenwood Springs, Colorado |
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| Gypsum, Colorado |
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| Dotsero, Colorado |
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| Gypsum, Colorado |
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| Gypsum, Colorado |
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| Gypsum, Colorado |
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| Gypsum, Colorado |
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| Mc Coy, Colorado |
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| Kremmling, Colorado |
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| Kremmling, Colorado |
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| Kremmling, Colorado |
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| Kremmling, Colorado |
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| Kremmling, Colorado |
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| Kremmling, Colorado |
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| Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado |
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| Coal Creek, Colorado |
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| Boulder, Colorado |
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| Denver, Colorado |
This train ride was such a magnificent experience and one of my top favourite things that we did on this trip.
It was an amazing seeing how the landscape changes, from forest to desert to huge rocks to valleys to mountains. The scenery is so different to anything in Australia and so much of it was untouched. It looks like Narnia! There would have been no other way to see the panoramas except on this train. There was no wifi on the train but I really enjoyed this down time just chatting with Bella, taking in the view, listening to music and reading.
I loved our little sleeper carriage, it was really cozy. During the day, when our seats were upright, they faced each other. We always spent the day in the viewing carriage though, where we can see more through the big glass windows. At night, our seats converted into the bed on the lower bunk and you fold down the top bunk from the wall. We pretty much slept through Nevada into Utah and I remember the train gently rocking me to sleep like a baby. We had a carriage attendant who helped us with the beds and schedule what time we want to eat. Our 3 meals a day were included as part of our ticket. They try and fill up all the booths in the dining carriage at every meal, so we always sat with different people. We had a lot of interesting conversations with a couple who were celebrating their anniversary, a mum who was travelling for work, students who were going home for thanksgiving, and Americans who simply wanted to see more of their country. We spotted animals like bald eagles and antelopes.
I hardly took any photos of the second part of our train ride because we boarded late at night and arrived the next day. I will say though, the seats in coach were a lot more cushion-y than I expected. We thought we would be "roughing it" on the last leg of the journey but the seats were spacious, comfortable and we were able to recline our seats into a semi-bed. The next travel post I will be sharing will be Denver.
chloé
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