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Happy Earth Week! TBT is hosting a series of nature-based mini-events through April 28th. Breed flower hybrids by organizing your collectible lineup, enter our nature photography contest, purchase historically dated scenery collectibles, and earn bells around the site! Read more in the Earth Week and photography contest threads.
I live in Japan and every time there's a 3-day weekend (and there are a lot of national holidays here) I go on a trip somewhere domestically! Most recently I went to Osaka and Kobe for food, Nintendo Land at USJ, an herb garden, and a bit else.
This summer I'll be going back to America for 3 weeks for the first time in 3 years! I'm prepping all of the apps I need and getting ready for that now.
These past few months my siblings and I have been trying to figure out when to visit family in Mexico. Part of the problem was because of my niece’s grades and if she was going to attend summer school this year. Her school sucks at communication as well. Even in the last month they were still determining a date to start summer school.
We can continue with the plan and travel in July, but the tickets are really expensive now. It’s either that or leave on August. However, my niece would have to miss the first week of school….
Either way, I should look up how much clothing is needed for one week.
I'm flying to Norway soon to check out the colleges there and just general living. It's gonna be a really fun trip and I get to meet a friend in person a bit earlier. So far I really want to move to Oslo. It doesn't seem to be THAT much more expensive than living anywhere else in Norway plus I really want some good public transit. Right now I need to really get on the Duolingo grind to learn Norwegian so I can go though.
I love travelling, although due to finances I haven't been able to travel any further than France for a daytrip for some years. I've visited a fair amount of countries in my life, but my favourites thus far have been Austria and Japan. When they reopen for general tourism, I'd like to save up and return to Japan with one very specific goal in mind:
Climb Mt. Fuji and witness the sunrise.
Unfortunately, I have a physical disability, so I'd need to find someone else to travel with for my own safety. I'm not having much luck though, because all of my rl friends have no interest in climbing it, and only want to visit the Pokemon Centers / anime stores (which, sure, I do too to some degree, but climbing the mountain is my priority).
That honestly sounds amazing, I really hope you're able to find someone who can do that with you! It's actually not something that crossed my mind when thinking about planning a trip to Japan (I'll admit I kind of forgot about its existence until your post), but I bet the kinds of views you can get from up there are spectacular. But first I'd have to get back in shape before I can do something like that which is easier said than done!
I live in Japan and every time there's a 3-day weekend (and there are a lot of national holidays here) I go on a trip somewhere domestically! Most recently I went to Osaka and Kobe for food, Nintendo Land at USJ, an herb garden, and a bit else.
This summer I'll be going back to America for 3 weeks for the first time in 3 years! I'm prepping all of the apps I need and getting ready for that now.
There are a lot of places like those that I'd love to visit when I get to Japan! It's unfortunate that I don't get a whole lot of vacation time from my work yet so I wouldn't be able to visit that many places in a trip there. But then I guess that would also give me more excuses to keep going back! Your upcoming trip sounds fun too, enjoy it!
These past few months my siblings and I have been trying to figure out when to visit family in Mexico. Part of the problem was because of my niece’s grades and if she was going to attend summer school this year. Her school sucks at communication as well. Even in the last month they were still determining a date to start summer school.
We can continue with the plan and travel in July, but the tickets are really expensive now. It’s either that or leave on August. However, my niece would have to miss the first week of school….
Either way, I should look up how much clothing is needed for one week.
Gotta love poor communication on such important topics, it can definitely throw a wrench into otherwise solid plans. I hope everything is able to get sorted out and you can visit your family soon!
I'm flying to Norway soon to check out the colleges there and just general living. It's gonna be a really fun trip and I get to meet a friend in person a bit earlier. So far I really want to move to Oslo. It doesn't seem to be THAT much more expensive than living anywhere else in Norway plus I really want some good public transit. Right now I need to really get on the Duolingo grind to learn Norwegian so I can go though.
In about 5 months, my then-wife and I will be going to Costa Rice for our honeymoon. First time out of the country other than Canada. Gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for sure, can't wait!
In about 5 months, my then-wife and I will be going to Costa Rice for our honeymoon. First time out of the country other than Canada. Gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for sure, can't wait!
Congratulations! That sounds like it will be a great trip, even more so because of the reason behind it. I hope you both have the time of your lives there!
Since we're now down to the last day before I begin my rail vacation, I decided I'd share a small sampling of pictures from my previous attempt at a vacation which unfortunately did not work out too well.
This was the view I had from my hotel room in Denver, with the Colorado Convention Center in the foreground and the Colorado Rocky Mountains in the distance. At the time there was a large amount of smog over the city so the mountains were barely visible. It was a lot better than the previous day though where I couldn't even see the mountains at all!
The train was huge compared to the local regional trains I've taken before. I took these pictures while I was waiting to board the car my room was on. The layout front to back behind the 2 locomotives includes a baggage car, staff sleeper car, 2 passenger sleepers, the dining car, the observation car (easily noticed by the giant windows and the windows climbing the top of the car), and two passenger coach cars at the back.
Even though the train ended up being canceled, they still served breakfast as the train didn't actually get canceled until after breakfast hours. After boarding I was told I could head to the dining car for breakfast and ordered Amtrak's signature "Railroad French Toast" which was surprisingly good, way better than I would've expected for food on a train. But then I'm accustomed to their normal Cafe car offerings which include things like microwave burgers or breakfast sandwiches and packaged cold foods and things like that. The Dining Car on long distance trains (or at least, on the Western ones anyway) have an actual kitchen on board where actual food is prepared and served to passengers and it was a pleasant surprise. Assuming everything works out this time, I'm really looking forward to the other menu offerings! The dining car picture was taken after service while I was making my way to the observation car, shortly after departing the station and about 10 minutes before the train was canceled and had to return to the station.
I know they aren't exactly anything exciting or whatever, but then I was fully expecting to be taking way more pictures on the trip as we went through the Rockies, and later the Sierra Nevadas, so I kind of held back to save on camera space (which isn't a problem now since I bought a 256 GB microSD card). I do have a few other pictures from this trip, but they are mostly just pictures I took of views from the plane on the flights there and home. I didn't take nearly as many pictures on the way back as I did on the way there, but that's because I was still incredibly frustrated at having the whole thing fall apart in front of me.
I just realized I never posted about my Amtrak trip back. I really need to take more photos inside the actual train. Maybe I’ll do so on my next train trip.
I ended up passing the White Sox Stadium while I was in the observation car. I snapped a picture. I thought it was cool because the Dodgers were playing there at around the time that picture was taking.
I actually find train rides very enjoyable and spend most of my time gazing out the window anyway. Unfortunately, my throat was dry the entire ride back but I feel a lot better now, so that’s good. I drank a lot of Sprite and sucked on some lifesavers. I couldn’t find throat lozenges anywhere.
I just had to admire this desert view. I love the heat and I love the desert. Long live summer, the best season. There’s a reason I spent the polar vortex in Arizona.
And FYI: We got it, too. It just wasn’t cold enough to become snow, so it was non-stop rain. It was coming down HARD.
@Croconaw - Great pictures! I kind of did the opposite, I'm pretty sure I took way too many pictures on this trip! I probably have almost as many pictures just from the last two days as I do from the rest of the time I've had this phone combined. And that's just one trip, I still have two more coming up!
After yesterday I'd have to agree with your statement on your second picture, it was quite a bit more comfortable than I had expected and the ever-changing scenery is hard to beat! I feel the same way about rail travel too, most of my time is spent just watching everything go by. I find it to be a very relaxing and enjoyable way to travel, and the trip over the last couple days was no exception. If anything, it actually exceeded my expectations.
That last shot you posted is a great one. The deserts of the US can definitely offer a lot of unique and incredible scenery.
@skweegee - I very much enjoyed those train photos you posted on the “What are you happy about today?” thread. I find trains themselves very intriguing, especially the Amtrak. It’s a shame I couldn’t enjoy my return trip fully due to my throat being so dry. I still found the views beautiful, though.
I look forward to hearing reading about your upcoming trip. I’ll have to make sure to enjoy the scenery more in the future. I spend a lot of time on my phone during the trips. It’ll be nice to just enjoy the views.
Well, I'm finally at home again, and what a trip that was! Now that I have access to my computer again I can start going through my pictures and videos to find a few to post here. Later on I'll do a bit of a breakdown of my experiences on each of the 3 Amtrak routes I took (Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, and California Zephyr), but for now I'm just going to do a general review of the routes as a whole. The room I booked on each route was the "roomette," the smallest sleeper room Amtrak offers. It seems like it might be a little cramped with two passengers, but as a solo traveler it was easily enough space for me. The chairs could be folded down together and topped with a mattress to form a bed, which was actually quite comfortable. The rocking of the train also helped the comfort factor and to me made sleeping on the train even easier. It's not an exaggeration to say that sleeping on the train was some of the best sleep I had gotten in years. The food from the dining car was great too, and is included in the cost for your ticket when you book a sleeper room. At the moment only sleeper car passengers can use the dining car, though on the Coast Starlight business class can use it as well if there is any room left (they have to pay for their meals though). The lower level of the dining car has an actual kitchen where they prepare much better food than you can get from the café car's typical offerings of prepackaged and prepared foods. Being on the train for as long as I was gave me the opportunity to try every single item on the menu (except the breakfast quesadilla, that one managed to slip by on accident!). My favorites have to be the French toast for breakfast, either the angus burger or the baked potato with vegan chili for lunch, the coconut shrimp for the dinner appetizer, the flat-iron steak for mains, and the cheesecake for dessert. But honestly, you can't go wrong with any of their menu options and I really enjoyed everything I had.
The staff on each train was generally great, and you could tell that a lot of them had a good amount of passion for their jobs. Many of them were going out of their way to make sure everyone had a great experience and providing help wherever it was needed. The passengers I met in the dining car (when it gets busy they often do community dining, so unless you're a party of 3 or 4 you'll likely find yourself dining with other passengers unless you place your order to be delivered to your room) and the lounge were also really nice. Some of them were riding just to ride (like I was), others heading somewhere for vacation and deciding to expand on it with a train ride, and some were just using it as a means to get from A to B. But many of them had great stories to share from their own rail experiences, while others were experiencing it for the first time and were relaying their own experiences with the trip so far. Even a simple interaction as me looking for an open seat with an open plug in the observation car to charge my phone led to me meeting two other awesome passengers who were riding coach and we ended up spending most of the rest of the trip hanging out together in the lounge car, helping each other find photo ops in the scenery as it passed us by (I knew a lot about the route from research so I was able to point out some major landmarks before we approached them so they could be ready with their cameras), pointing out wildlife as we passed it, and just sharing stories about where we were from (one of them was from the UK and had a lot of interesting things to share about it!). Now, I've never exactly been the most social person (if anything, I honestly kind of preferred to avoid it in real life in most circumstances), but I actually very much enjoyed my time interacting with the other passengers on the train, even if it did leave me feeling quite drained afterward. But one great thing about having my own room in the sleeper car though is that at the end of the day or as needed I could just retreat into my own private space to rest and recharge by myself, no one else around me.
But the best part of the trip by far was the views. I knew going into the trip that it was going to be scenic, but I had no idea just how many incredible views there would be. It was almost too much to try to take in in just 8 days! I had been spoiled to some of them in the various videos I had watched on each of the routes, even though in the end they did the views no justice compared to viewing them in person. But the videos couldn't cover everything, and there was just so much to see, even on the more frequently recorded and reviewed routes like the California Zephyr had plenty of amazing and expansive areas that every single video on the route seemed to miss entirely, not even a mention in passing. But to someone who has lived in the same place their entire life and spent very little of their time out of the area, even the more mundane areas of the country such as the flatlands of eastern Montana or the plains of Iowa were new to me and had their own kind of charm to them that made even those areas very enjoyable to pass through. And even the reactions by people outside the train are different too. When on the corridor routes that run multiple times a day where I live, I've noticed that many people seem to treat the passing Amtrak trains as an inconvenience, blocking them from getting wherever it is they're trying to get. But on the long distance ones I never seemed to see that from anyone. Whether it's pedestrians or drivers waiting for the train to pass, I've never seen so many people smile and wave at the train as it goes by. Perhaps it's the fact that trains on most of those routes only run once a day in each direction so seeing them is more of an excitement, but it certainly helps set a brighter mood especially to those of us on board, many of which would also wave back and were having a great time doing so. It's the little things!
All in all, this trip was the experience of a lifetime and while I'm sad to see it come to an end, I'm also extremely grateful that I finally had the opportunity to take such a trip in the first place. I'd like to end by including two of my favorite pictures I took from each of the routes, for a total of 6, plus an explanation for each one. I'll post a few more shots later in my detailed breakdowns once I figure out how I'm going to do those!
I know, the picture itself isn't all that impressive, but the meaning it holds to me makes it that much better. But the feeling of waking up early in the morning and opening my room's curtains to see a snow-covered Mount Shasta straight ahead after having fallen asleep in the San Francisco Bay area was incredible, and that alone was enough to make that leg of the trip worth everything I paid and then some.
So the route is the "Coast Starlight" and yet neither of the favorites I post include the coast. But I managed to grab this shot of what I assume to be Mount Rainier somewhere near the Oregon/Washington border among many attempts to capture it, and I really liked how this particular one worked out, even being almost perfectly framed in the gap between the trees. The little circular cloud perched on top of the mountain remained in place for almost the entire remainder of the trip into Seattle. This picture was zoomed way in and was actually a frame I grabbed while recording a video on my phone, which is why it's so grainy.
If you can't tell by now, I have a bit of a thing for snow-capped mountains and I can't exactly place why. This shot was taken while going through Glacier National Park in Montana. Long before we had even finished passing by the park I had already decided that I need to take a trip to Glacier one of these days and stay over for a while. It really is a beautiful area, and this picture in particular turned out way better than most, if not all, of the others I took on the trip. In my opinion anyway.
And now, for a shot that doesn't include snow or mountains! This is a bit of an odd one I took when the conductors let everyone off the train for a fresh-air break out in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. The train had been delayed back West of here at the town of Staples, Minnesota for a few hours due to flooding in a town ahead (Randall, Minnesota), and we had to wait for track inspections to make sure it was safe for us to continue. We were stopped again after leaving the station for what I assume was a second round of inspections which is when they let us off for a bit until we received word of whether we could continue moving forward or not. I wanted to get a picture from the very front of the train to get everything in view (there was another locomotive in front of this one) but the engineer advised against it since he didn't know how long it would take to get clearance and he wanted to be ready to leave just in case clearance was given quickly (we received it no more than a few minutes after this picture). I just thought it was neat that we were able to get off the train in such a random spot, and the fact that we stopped on a gentle curve made for a better shot of the train.
One of many pictures I took from an often overlooked and vastly underrated part of the train, the rear window! I loved that spot since you could stand and watch the track receding into the distance behind the train, and you also got pretty good views on both sides of the tracks. This was my go-to spot whenever the good seats were taken in the sightseer lounge car (also called the "observation car"). This was on approach to the Frazier/Winter Park stop in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. A bit of snow remained on the mountains in the background in a streaking pattern that I really liked for some reason. Plus, seeing the track we were just on disappearing around the corner is nice as well.
Honestly probably my favorite picture from the entire trip, and that's saying a lot! This one was taken on approach to the station at Green River, Utah. We had been getting rain off and on all day, and ended up seeing rainbows 3 separate times. This one though was by far the brightest of the three and I was able to get a lot of pictures of it. This one was a random frame grab while I was recording video of this though and in my opinion it couldn't have turned out better. I love the contrast between the sunlit hill and the interesting rock formation in the foreground versus the areas behind still shaded by cloud cover, the streaks of heavy rain visible behind and below the rainbow, and the fact that the left origin of the rainbow is seemingly almost centered right in the rock formation. If I hadn't been convinced to come down to the lower level of the observation car to get some pictures by a passenger I had met the day before, I likely would've missed this shot (and probably the rainbow itself) since until that point I was sitting facing the opposite side of the train on the upper level. If the train hadn't been running 40 minutes late at the time as well I doubt if I'd have gotten an opportunity to take a picture like this at all.
@skweegee - I really like that last picture with the rainbow. Everything about that view is just beautiful. I do agree that the passengers on the train are extremely friendly! I actually got into some deep conversations with an Amish family. I learned about an Amish community in Florida called Pinecraft, and they are very accepting towards outsiders for the most part. I actually want to visit that community and see what it’s like. I became very intrigued with the Amish after many conversations with families on the Amtrak. I have seen a few on Greyhound as well, but those groups are likely mennonites.
I can honestly say I’ve learned more by traveling and seeing small towns than I ever did in school. I value experience over education. My personal saying is “I visit the places you read about in school.”
I prefer the emptier trains as opposed to the ones that are fully booked. Although, even in fully booked trains, they still seem pretty roomy. I still haven’t gotten the chance to try a sleeper car, but that is definitely on my bucket list. I’m personally just trying to move first, so it may be a bit before the sleeper car is a reality.
I used to go down to Laughlin quite a bit, but the last trip I went to was Disneyland back in march for my birthday. I’m going back in October for Halloween time and I’m super excited for it. Other than that, I think I’ll wait until everything is good in our financial lives to actually travel to different countries.
Finally, a week later I actually have some time to begin my writeups of each major leg of my trip! I spent all this time trying to figure out how I was going to write up my experiences for each of the 3 routes. As it turns out, I had a lot to say about them, perhaps too much! After writing a novel's worth of text multiple times over and deleting it because it felt like I was giving way too much (mostly useless) information, I decided I'd just let the pictures do the talking instead. Each picture will be accompanied by a small description. Up first, Amtrak's Coast Starlight!
Train: Coast Starlight (Los Angeles, California to Seattle, Washington) Scheduled trip time: 34 hours, 0 minutes
If you're not sure if you'd enjoy Amtrak's overnight offerings, this route is an excellent starter choice. It has a large variety of great views including ocean, mountain, forest, and farmland to name a few, and it's only a single night. Plus, if you aren't ready to spring for a sleeper room (I highly recommend doing so if you can), business class isn't too much more expensive than coach and allows access to the dining car where you can have some real food prepared in an actual kitchen rather than relying on the microwaved and packaged offerings of the on-board cafe. The meals are a bit pricey if you choose this option though, if you book early enough a sleeper room can be had for a reasonably low price and all dining car meals en route are included at no extra charge.
I had a great time on this one, and it more or less confirmed for me that I'd be enjoying the rest of my trip on the other two routes. We arrived only slightly behind schedule (within 20 minutes of scheduled arrival), which given the on-time performance of most long-distance routes was a bit of a surprise. That moment of waking up, opening my room's curtain, and seeing the snow-covered Mount Shasta right in front of me in the distance is still one of my favorite moments from the entire trip and that moment alone made the whole thing worth it. A picture of that moment is included in my previous post here. Speaking of pictures...
The views start very early on in the trip, almost as soon as you pass through Oxnard station, and they don't let up for a long while. At some points the train is so close to the beach that it almost looks as though it's riding right on the ocean. I ended up having lunch while we were riding along the beach. Talk about a meal with a view! But I'll get more into the food later on, most likely in a later reply.
Here we are at what quickly became my favorite spot on the train, the rear window! This window was not intended as a viewing window, since it's just a door that would be used to go between cars but is locked because obviously there isn't a car there! I enjoyed watching the tracks we just went over gradually sliding into the distance, and it offered a pretty decent view radius too. This became my go-to spot whenever I couldn't find a seat in the observation car that was facing the correct direction for the best views. This happened a lot too, since it was a sold out train.
Here's a view of the train from the outside! We actually arrived at the station in San Luis Obispo, CA just after the Southbound Coast Starlight did, so I was able to get a picture of both of them at the same time. The trains were each 9 cars long, set up as such behind the locomotives: baggage car, staff sleeper, 2 passenger sleepers, dining car, business class, observation car (tall windows in the picture), a second business class, coach.
This picture was taken in the early morning of the second day on board, looking on the opposite side of the train as the mountains were on. The picture does not do it justice, it looked incredible in the early morning light. Unfortunately the seats on the opposite side of the car were taken already, so I had to make do with a zoom-in shot from the opposite side of the car to get this one. Apparently everyone had decided to wake up early on the second morning, but I don't blame them in the least after seeing the kinds of scenery the train was taking us through!
Another shot taken from the back of the train. This time I was back here because I wanted to watch as we climbed through the mountains and went through the tunnels and I figured it would look better watching down the tracks. Turns out I was right! I couldn't tell you where this picture was taken aside from somewhere between Klamath Falls and Eugene, Oregon (I think after the station at Chemult), but this shot turned out way better than I had expected. There was a surprising amount of snow left alongside the tracks (not in this picture though, unfortunately), but nothing at all like there is on that mountain in the background.
One of a couple of lakes we passed on our way through Oregon. I'm not sure which one it is, though my guess is Lookout Point Lake since I remember the tracks running alongside a highway when I took this picture. Having had little knowledge of the exact routing the train took, this lake caught me entirely by surprise and I spent quite a bit of time glued to the window watching it before I remembered to start taking pictures. Honestly though, that happened to me quite a lot across my entire trip. It caused me to miss out on a lot of great photo opportunities, but these views are much better when experienced in person anyway rather than through a picture. Maybe if (or rather, when) I take these routes again perhaps I'll be better prepared to take pictures of the areas I missed. Or not...
Hey, wait a minute... this one isn't from the train! I know, but I had to include it anyway. I tried to get a picture of the Seattle Skyline as we were entering the city, but it is only visible for a few moments and I wasn't able to get any good pictures of it before it went out of view. This one was taken from my hotel room. The room itself was actually given to me as a complementary upgrade from my original booking without me even asking for it and it was an amazing room. The room itself was a corner one, with windows on two sides of it, and was just one floor below the top. It offered sweeping views of Seattle's Puget Sound and great views of the city as well. All in all it was the perfect way to end an amazing and scenic first Amtrak overnight trip.
So it turns out I didn't have many pictures taken in Washington. It's not because the trip wasn't scenic there, because it most definitely was. Part of it stems from the fact that the Washington portion is the shortest part of the trip, and a fair amount of that is spent in the Tacoma/Seattle city area which is light in viewing opportunities. But the main part is that as mentioned under the lake picture, I kept getting sucked into the views here and kept forgetting to get pictures as we went through!
Pictures were split into 3 spoilers only because I've had TBT try to automatically split spoilers into multiple ones if I put too many pictures into a single one.
My ultimate travel destination at the moment is Kyoto, Japan. Not because I want to see the temples or scenery but because that's where Kichi-Kichi Washoku-ya is and it's my life goal to try their Omurice.
The one with the super flowy egg and demiglace sauce.... I want to go before he retires.
I'd also like to go back to Tokyo and spend some more quality time browsing the CDs at Tower Records Shibuya. Maybe spend some more time at KiddyLand, Loft, DonQui, Hands, and Parco. Basically I'd just like to spend more time shopping/browsing :')
My best friend and I are planning a trip to London in 2 1/2- 3 years from now. It's gonna take awhile to save money and get passports, and research everything which is why it's gonna take a couple years before we can actually go. I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been outside the US before. I've been to and lived in multiple states here but that's it
I would love to visit Japan, Ireland, and Italy someday as well
Those photos are absolutely stunning! That lake one is especially beautiful. I don't blame you for soaking in the scene before you took snapshots - I would (and have) done the same thing.
It was actually a chain of events that led to this. My Greyhound trip got severely delayed, like I had previously mentioned, and I ended up catching a flight. The flight ended up also being delayed, and I dislike flights as it is. Still, this was pretty entertaining. I haven’t witnessed anything like this before.
It was actually a chain of events that led to this. My Greyhound trip got severely delayed, like I had previously mentioned, and I ended up catching a flight. The flight ended up also being delayed, and I dislike flights as it is. Still, this was pretty entertaining. I haven’t witnessed anything like this before.
That's a great shot of the front. I have to agree with you on that first part, I loved looking out the window as we went around a curve and seeing that kind of view of the front of the train. Whenever I ride the regional trains I always try to sit in the last car simply so I could get views like that. Unfortunately the sleepers on the long-distance trains I took were all toward the front and the observation car is in the middle so I didn't get the best front views like that, though I did make my way to the rear car of the train often enough that I could still experience ones like that on occasion. It's just one of the many things I love about rail travel. Aside from the not-so-stellar on time performance of the long-distance routes, Amtrak almost always provides a pretty good experience in general.
I've never seen anything like that on any of my flights either! I don't do a whole lot of flying though, but the ones I have taken were typically uneventful. That certainly sounds like it would've been interesting to witness. I wonder what that was all about! But aside from the delays, I'm glad to hear that your trip went well!
Part 2 of my vacation writeup! Up this time, Amtrak's Empire Builder.
Train: Empire Builder (Seattle, Washington to Chicago, Illinois) Scheduled trip time: 44 hours, 20 minutes Actual trip time: 52 hours, 31 minutes (8 hours, 11 minutes late)
As you can see we had a bit of a delay on this train, but more on that in a bit.
This is another great route with some amazing scenery that rivals that of the California Zephyr's segment through the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The route starts off with a short ride along Washington's Puget Sound before turning inland to cross the Cascades on its way to Spokane to join with a second segment of the train that started in Portland, Oregon. The views here are spectacular, but are nothing compared to what's next as the train makes its way through Montana's Glacier National Park the next morning. However, if this is your first ever overnight Amtrak trip you might find that most of the trip afterward leaves a lot to be desired, as within minutes of leaving the East Glacier station the scenery abruptly changes from mountains and snow to just flat, and it will be that way all the way through that day and part of the next until Minnesota. I'm not saying that this route is bad or anything, it just might not be the best choice for a first overnight Amtrak trip if you're looking for consistent scenery.
That all being said, I enjoyed every second of the trip, even taking into account the delay. Most of my life I've been more or less stuck in an area whose views are little more than farms, fields, and dead grass, so even the flatlands of Montana provided a new type of scenery to me and I found it to be quite scenic in its own way. The highlight of the trip was clearly Glacier National Park, and I've already added that to my ever-growing list of places to visit some day. The attendant we had for the sleeper car I was in mentioned at the start that this trip was her first ever trip as a sleeper attendant, but honestly if she had never said that I never would've known. She did an absolutely amazing job especially when the going got tough, and overall helped keep the overall mood of the trip positive even in spite of the 8 hour delay (she said the delay was actually helpful, it allowed time to catch up with her tasks and take a bit of a well-earned breather). The trip was running pretty smoothly in the first half, with very little interference from freight trains (aside from one that broke down in front of us and set us back a half hour), but the second half is where the real problem began.
As we were making our way through Montana I had my eyes (and camera) on some storms I saw in the distance. We managed to miss most of the weather, though we did catch the tail end of one of the storms when we had to stop for the broken down freight train. It turns out that another storm system was working its way through Minnesota, which we reached the following morning. I guess one of the storms was bad enough that a river in a town East of Staples, MN had breached its banks and caused flooding of parts of the town and the tracks ahead. We had to stop for a few hours in Staples while the railroad conducted inspections of the tracks ahead to make sure it was safe to continue, and because of the delay the train crew ended up timing out so they had to bring in new crew. We finally started moving, but then got stopped again a few miles later for one final inspection. We finally started moving once again and creeped our way through the flooded section which was way worse than I thought it would be. At some points, the water was sitting an inch or two above the rails. We made it through though and were able to carry on without issue the rest of the way to Chicago. We finally pulled into Chicago just past 11pm (we were supposed to be there at 3pm), and just to rub it in a little harder we were stopped one last time just outside of Chicago for a Metra transit train to pass by. They provided an extra dinner service to the sleeper passengers, and broke out their famous emergency stash of beef stew which was served for dinner to everyone in coach free of charge. I wasn't too bothered by the delay though, as far as I was concerned that was just 8 bonus hours on board!
Enough of all that though, here are some pictures!
The views start early on this trip, no sooner do we leave Seattle Station (and go through a tunnel under the city) before finding ourselves right by Puget Sound.
We ride right alongside the water for a short while before turning inland. I personally feel that this segment of the route is best done in the summer, as in the winter months it's already dark by the time the train leaves.
After turning inland and passing some farms, we approach the Cascade mountains. In this shot you can actually see a waterfall on the mountain. A second one came into view not too far after this one, but was so far up you could barely see it and the picture I got of that one is incredibly grainy because it's so zoomed. I tried to take more pictures in the Cascades, but my phone messed up and many of them weren't saved. Thankfully the videos that I had pulled the frames from survived! At some point through the Cascades we enter the Cascades tunnel, the longest rail tunnel in the US. At the 30 mph speed limit, it took us a full 15 minutes to pass through! We had a volunteer from the National Parks service on board at the time though, and they helped pass that time with a lot of interesting facts about the tunnel and the route itself.
Words can't even begin to describe how incredible the scenery is when riding Amtrak through Glacier National Park.
This lake was very calm and incredibly reflective. I'm glad I woke up as early as I did each day of the trip (I was up by 6am each day, which is unheard of for me!), I would've missed so much amazing scenery if I hadn't!
What would a collection of pictures from Glacier National Park be without a direct shot of some of the snow-covered mountains found there?
Like I said earlier, there is no transition whatsoever between the mountains of Glacier National Park and the flats of central and Eastern Montana. The flatness is all you'll really be seeing the rest of the day. Because of the sudden flatness though, you are able to see the mountains for a very long time after passing them!
Crossing the Mississippi River into Wisconsin! What a sight for sore eyes, since we were supposed to be across it hours before. Quite the skip I know, from West Montana to Wisconsin with nothing in between. But that's because I didn't take a whole lot of pictures between the two locations aside from the flooding in Minnesota, and the ones I did take aren't exactly what most would consider noteworthy.
The flooding was a lot worse than I was expecting it to be. It very quickly became apparent as to...
...why the train had to be delayed as long as it was.
Edit: I was honestly not expecting the site to allow me to include this many pictures in a single post.
@skweegee - I always say, when you’re flying, your vacation starts when you get your baggage. On Amtrak, it begins when you step foot on the train. I think those pictures are very indicative of that.
Wow. I would’ve never expected there to be a flood big enough to delay a train. The most delay I’ve had on a train was when a boulder got stuck in the engine in Colorado. That happened a year or two ago on one of my trips, and it was only delayed two hours.
The only routes I’ve ever seen are the Texas Eagle and the Capitol Limited, which is my primary route. I have used the California Zephyr a few times. I really like the Texas Eagle because as far as I know, it’s the only train with Dr. Pepper on board. I wonder if that’s because Dr. Pepper is made in Plano, Texas, lol? I always bring my own drinks on board anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. I’ll definitely have to see more routes. I’ve always been curious about taking a southbound train. Maybe, I’ll use it when I visit Florida eventually.
