CZ best direction??

[offroad437]

Sorry if this was discussed before, I am planning a trip and wanted advice as to the best direction for the CZ. This will be for sightseeing only. Plan to do it in a bedroom.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Your best chance to see the "good" scenery in the Rockies and Sierras is Westbound on #5.

Eastbound #6 gets into Denver late in the evening, but seeing the lights of Denver coming down the Front Range is sort of neat too.

You'll generally see the Sierras between Reno and Sacramento in daylight on both trains, unless #5 is running extremely late.

Not much to see between Denver and Chicago except corn fields. Crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa is a Highlite.

 

[Rail Freak]

Sorry if this was discussed before, I am planning a trip and wanted advice as to the best direction for the CZ. This will be for sightseeing only. Plan to do it in a bedroom.

West, IMO! Have Fun

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I've done both. Found no big difference, honestly. Yeah, mostly cornfields between Denver and Chicago. You might as well skip that part. Good if you're a railfan and like blasting through cornfields at 70+ mph, but not much else.

 

[chakk]

Done the trip many, many times in all seasons. I strongly agree that westbound is best.

 

[offroad437]

Should we fly into chi or Denver? We want rail time but also low on $$. Would we miss anything besides corn if we skip straight to Denver?

 

[jphjaxfl]

Having traveled both directions several times, West bound is a definitely the best scenery. I think it is great to travel the entire route from Chicago to Emeryville. Going west into Denver in the morning with the Front Range in the background is awesome. Of course west of Denver going west is about the best scenic rail travel in the US. I agree with others though that going east bound into Denver and viewing the lights. One of my eastbound trips in 1970 when the City of San Francisco connected with Rio Grande "California Service" at Ogden, I woke up in the morning and looked out the window from my bed as we were crossing the Great Salt Lake on the Causeway. Unfortunately, the current California Zephyr does not use that route.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Should we fly into chi or Denver? We want rail time but also low on $$. Would we miss anything besides corn if we skip straight to Denver?

I'd say fly to Denver, but you'd have to either spend the night there, or get a flight that gets into Denver really early since the Zephyr leaves Denver @ 805am.MT. heading West and the Denver Airport is a Looooong way from downtown.

 

[offroad437]

Thank you all. I know I can count on y'all for advice.

 

[jebr]

Should we fly into chi or Denver? We want rail time but also low on $$. Would we miss anything besides corn if we skip straight to Denver?

The most exciting scenery is crossing the Mississippi along the IL/IA border, but other than that it's a lot of farmland. Could be interesting if you've never seen it, but overall I'd say you're fine if you go to Denver.

However, account for the additional night in Denver and any additional cost in the flight if you go to Denver instead of Chicago. After accounting for that, it may not be much more to fly into Chicago early morning and catch the train in the afternoon out of Chicago.

 

[yarrow]

i'll be contrary i guess. i prefer eastbound. we usually board in sac at 11 in the morning. beautiful run across the sierras. next morning, you are climbing the colorado plateau running along the book cliffs with distant views of arches national park and the la sal mts. then ruby canyon and the 200+ miles run along the colorado. moffat tunnel and descent to the plains and denver around dinner time. westbound in great too. the cz,imho, is the most scenic route with the coast starlight a somewhat distant second place

 

[Rail Freak]

I agree with ya unless there is a significant delay!!! (also time of year)

 

[KmH]

Sleeper berth cars often fill up between Chicago and Denver (both ways). Book early.

In the summer 'high season' Amtrak adds a 3rd sleeper car between CHI and DEN, unhooks that extra car in Den, then hooks it up to the eastbound #6 later in the day to accommodate sleeper berth demand going back to CHI from DEN.

Sleeper berths usually open up in DEN for westbound travel.

Denver is installing a light rail system from the airport to the downtown Union Station Amtrak uses.

It will be about a 40 minute ride and it looks like one-way will cost $9 per person.

In a sleeper berth you can only look out the side of the train your sleeper berth is on. Sights worth seeing may be on the other side of the train.

So even with a sleeper berth I spend a lot of time in the Sightseer Lounge (SSL) car so I can see more. I also spend considerable time standing at the 'rail fan' window at the back of the last car in the 'consist'. In other words I move around quite a bit to do my sightseeing when I am on a long distant train that has a scenic route.

Note: in 'low season' Amtrak moves the sleeper berth cars from the back end of the CZ consist to right behind the Transition Dormitory car towards the front of the train.

Engine, engine, baggage car, transition dorm, sleeper, sleeper, dining car, SSL, coach, coach.

The regular/high season consist is : Engine, engine, baggage car, transition dorm, coach, coach, coach, SSL, dining car, sleeper, sleeper, (CHI/DEN/CHI) sleeper.

 

[Sauve850]

Have done around 10 trips or so during the months of March thru September. I like both directions without a preference.

The overall scenery on this route is excellent. As opposed to some others I really enjoy the Illinois/Iowa portion of the trip. Its not all "corn". Its lots of farmland, red barns, white barns, farmers working the fields, small interesting Midwest towns , deer watching the train go by, rolling hills and even bald eagles on the east side of the Mississippi. That too is good scenery.

Enjoy your journey!

 

[D.P. Roberts]

I've never seen the corn fields on the California Zephyr route- are they drastically different than the fields one sees on the Southwest Chief?

Second question - which train has the best scenery (if any) between Chicago and the Rocky Mountains? Personally, I found the Chief's cornfields to be really boring, but most of the scenery on that portion of the Empire Builder's route to be quite interesting. Aside from the Dells and the long run along the Mississippi, rangelands in eastern Montana / North Dakota is often flooded and full of wildlife. I like watching the scenery on the EB, don't mind snoozing through the Chief's endless cornfields.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

I've never seen the corn fields on the California Zephyr route- are they drastically different than the fields one sees on the Southwest Chief?.

Yes, actually. Sometimes, Iowa cornfields are really soybean fields. Crop rotation, you know. But it doesn't have the same ring to it. Can you imagine Ray Kinsella saying, "These are my soybeans. You are guests in my soybeans".?

 

[KmH]

And the occasional field of alfalfa.

At least from spring (planting) till about now (harvest) you'll see crops in the fields.

If you know what to look for, you can tell if the corn/soybeans/alfalfa you're currently looking at were planted before, after, or at about the same time as the previous field you looked at.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

I've never seen the corn fields on the California Zephyr route- are they drastically different than the fields one sees on the Southwest Chief?.

Yes, actually. Sometimes, Iowa cornfields are really soybean fields. Crop rotation, you know. But it doesn't have the same ring to it. Can you imagine Ray Kinsella saying, "These are my soybeans. You are guests in my soybeans".?

Or that horror movie, "Children of the Beans". It also wouldn't have been nearly as scary since the beans are only two feet tall...

 

[chakk]

And then there's those soybeans as high as an elephant's eye, and it looks like they're climbing clear up to the sky.

 

[cirdan]

I'd say do the route end to end.

There's something very relaxing about being on a train and knowing that you'll be there for something like two days.

I find I don't get to relax quite as deeply on single night trips.

 

[RPC]

For a first time experience I'd recommend westbound (#5). You'll get to climb the Front Range and cross the Sierra Nevada in daylight even if the train is delayed.

 

[railiner]

I agree with those in favor of going west, for the first time CZ passenger, for the reasons others have mentioned. I don't know where the OP is from, but if the OP has not been to the western U.S. before, the crossing of the prairies and plains, with the first distant sighting of the front range in the early dawn (are those clouds or snow-capped peaks?).....is very dramatic. And more so when the train begins its assault on the front range and plunges into the first tunnel, best viewed from the SSL...

There is no better way to appreciate the greatness of our land, then to ride the entire route. The plains have charms of their own...passing the small towns along the way, to the music of the horn blowing for the grade crossings, as well as the dinging warning bells; and sweeping past the traffic on parallel US-34, the neat rows of giant grain elevators, and (with apologies to the late Steve Goodman)..."passing trains that have no name".....

Another advantage of travelling westward, is you turn back your watch each night and gain an hour, rather than lose an hour as you do eastward....

The best part is once you have done it....you can do it the other way for a different perspective.

To paraphrase the old Cunard Line slogan ..."Getting there is half the fun"......I say "Coming back is the other half"......