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California Zephyr is one of the world's most scenic train journeys (Chicago to San Francisco by rail); sheer heaven for the scenically minded. It covers 3,925 km (2,440 mi) from Chicago to the Pacific coast, traversing Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California, In so doing, it crosses the American Midwest before heading over the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas to California.
This luxury service was inaugurated in 1949 and has gone through various changes since those early days, though things have stabilized since Amtrak initiated the modern Superliner service (choice of roomy coach seats of private sleepers) in 1983.
Heading westwards from Chicago, the California Zephyr (CZ) crosses the Great Plains, which explains corn country where once the buffalo roamed. After reaching Denver, the scenery changes dramatically as the train climbs into the amazing Rocky Mountains. It crosses the Continental Divide via the 10-km (6-mi) Moffat Tunnel, then follows Colorado and enters Utah. There, it travels the Book Cliffs range before entering the Wasatch Mountains on Rocky's western fringe, crossing at Soldier Summit.
After Salt Lake City the CZ passes along the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, across Bonneville Flats (scene of many a land-speed-record attempt) into Nevada. It crosses the Pequot Mountains via the Flower Pass Tunnel, before following the Humboldt River across Nevada until it vanishes in the desert. The Truckee River leads to Reno and California's Sierra Nevada, which are finally created at the forbidding Donner Pass. The CZ descends to the lowlands and runs into Emeryville, a suburb of Oakland, from whence there's a bus transfer for those continuing to San Francisco Or start at Emeryville and go east, young man!
Mode of transportation
By Train
When to visit
Year-round
Duration of the journey
Roughly 51 hours and 20 minutes
Highlights
- Plainview above Denver, for a sensational view of the cities of both Denver and Boulder (and the Rocky Flats nuclear arms manufacturing plant!)
- Ruby Canyon on the Colorado River, with its towering red sandstone formations - unless you raft in, the only way to see the place is from the Zephyr.
- The amazing series of switchback turns the track takes as it descends from Soldier Summit in Utah's Wasatch Mountains.
- Cape Horn near Colfax, California - before the CZ crosses a long trestle is Cape Horn. The steepest slope on the entire route (carved out by Chinese labourers lowered in baskets).
You should know
For those who are hooked on the romance of railways, it's possible to revisit the Zephyr's 'golden age - an evocative collection of classic CZ silver rolling stock plus locomotive at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, northeastern California.
