Travel - Chicago to Emeryville on the California Zephyr

Hi everyone!  My name is David and this is my first post on the Opera Fantastique blog.  It is also the first post I know of that doesn’t have anything to do with opera, but hopefully it is no less fantastic than any of Thomas’.  My focus will be more on food and travel, as I have little knowledge about opera.  I am without a doubt a major foodie, but am also an enthusiastic traveler to places both old and new – 58 countries and counting! 

I’m currently based in Chicago, and since I was young, one of my dreams was to ride the train across the continental United States, and I was recently finally able to fulfill that dream. 

(As an aside, my first post is about 6 months late.  I was meant to write about another trip I made to Jordan, but things got in the way, and so my first post will be about a trip that’s only 1 month old, rather than 6 months old.  Sorry Thomas.  Better late than never, as they say.)

In any case, one of the most famous train rides in America is run by Amtrak and runs from Chicago to Emeryville (which is a town near San Francisco, on the other side of the bay).  It’s called the California Zephyr, and from the moment I heard the name, I knew that it was a train ride I wanted to do, not least because the train traverses some of the best scenery the continent has to offer. 

I bought the tickets about 2 weeks ahead of time from Amtrak’s website, and selected the Superliner Roomette option.  There are three options on a multi-day journey such as this one – a standard train car seat, the Superliner Roomette and the Superliner Bedroom.  The Superliner Roomette and Bedroom both include meals in the ticket and a lot more privacy, with the difference being the Roomette offers space for only two people, while the Bedroom can fit four and has its own private shower.  Since I was travelling by myself for 52 hours, the Roomette seemed like the best option.  Gotta treat yo’self once in a while. 

The dining car, which is surprisingly nice.  Food was decent as well - big hit were the crab cakes and American breakfast.  It's communal seating, so a solo traveller like myself gets lumped in with other strangers.  

I boarded the train in Chicago on Thursday afternoon and made my way to my car.  Each cabin has its own attendant whose job is to take care of any emergencies you have and to turn down the bed in the evening when you sleep.  The room was about 4 feet wide, so it was actually difficult to sit and fit my carryon in the space provided – the attendant took one look at my suitcase and asked me, “First time, huh?  I can tell.”  Thankfully, as I was travelling by myself, the space constraints weren’t that bad. 

On Thursday, the train makes its way through Illinois, Iowa, and arrives in Nebraska in the evening.  In terms of scenery, here is what you need to know:  there is none.  Let’s move on. 

(Just kidding.  But it’s mostly farmland.  I think I read a book in the car most of the afternoon.  We did pass the Continental Divide somewhere in Illinois, which is quite interesting.) 

Typical view from the train on Friday.

On Friday morning, we arrived in Denver and after picking up more passengers, we made our way up the Rockies, with the train coursing its way through canyon after canyon and following the Colorado River as the train makes it way up to 9,000 feet in elevation.  It was spectacular to say the least.  And this was only the morning scenery.  I highly recommend making the trip in the winter if you like snow as part of the scenery – I’m sure it looks amazing in the summer too with all the lushness of the forest, but there’s something magical about winter scenery for me. 

Making its way up the Rockies.

On these long train rides, there is a single car that is devoted to “sightseeing” – the lounge car.  It boasts floor to ceiling windows so you can see outside and appreciate the vastness and scale of the mountains and rivers around you.  I pretty much parked myself here all Friday.  There’s no wifi on the California Zephyr, and since you are in the mountains there’s no cell phone service either, but it hardly matters on a trip like this.  I was able to get over my lack of Instagramming abilities reasonably quickly. 

The train tracks are to the right, following the snow-covered Colorado River.

After lunch, the train then heads down the mountains and into Utah, which is where the scenery shifts dramatically and quickly from mountains to desert.  The train made its way through Ruby Canyon, which is just as spectacular as the Rockies but in a completely different way.  There’s something about the Western United States that is just magical.  In the afternoon, the conductor also came into the lounge car and started pointing landmarks to us along the way – without him, I wouldn’t have been able to spot Monument Valley and Arches National Park way in the distance.  Another time, perhaps. 

Typical view from Ruby Canyon.

By the evening, the train arrives in Salt Lake City, and I set myself down for the second night on the train.  The Roomette consists of two seats facing each other, which at night flatten to make a single bed that is for one person.  And I mean one person.  Like, don’t even try.  The room does fit two, though, because above the seats is a platform that can be pulled down to serve as the top bunk.  Feel sorry for that guy though. 

Also, bring an extension cord because there's only one plug in the entire Roomette.

When I woke up Saturday morning, we are already in Nevada, and stopping in Reno in the morning.  After that the scenery quickly shifted back from desert to mountains as the train made its way up the Sierra Nevadas, following the Truckee River.  It’s honestly hard to say which I found prettier – the Sierra Nevadas or the Rockies - but they are indeed different types of vistas and landscapes.  Whereas the train basically has 2 feet of space on either side while going through the Rockies, it hugs the cliffside for most of its trip through the Sierra Nevadas, and in that sense there is more open space to appreciate the vastness of the landscape.  There is no right or wrong in that sense, but just heaps and heaps of natural beauty. 

One of the best views I ever woke up to.  This is from my bedroom window.

By lunch, we had started descending the mountains and I arrived in Emeryville by 3 pm – 1 hour ahead of schedule.

Making our way up to the Sierra Nevadas, following the Truckee River.

The view near Donner Lake.

In retrospect, those looking for a shorter journey would do well to start in Denver instead, because that's when the scenery really starts.  But those who enjoy spending nights on trains should definitely do it end to end starting in Chicago.  52 hours on a train isn’t for everyone, but I definitely caught the train bug, and look forward to the next long-distance trip on Amtrak.