In September 2021, I took the Amtrak California Zephyr from Chicago to Emeryville (including a bus to San Francisco). It was 54 hours. It cost $50 (coach class, on sale). It was incredible. This is a liveblog/guide with photos and videos for anyone who wants to read about this experience or is considering doing the same thing!
9/12, 9:10 am, Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois
I am sitting in Chicago trying to figure out if I have packed everything for my trip. It’s a bit difficult to pack a carryon for three different environments, one of which is “train”, one of which is warm and seeing friends and starting an internship, and the last of which is hiking with my family near glaciers.
I have managed to condense things into a loosely packed suitcase and a pile of things on the floor. I have many plastic bags. At the bottom of this post is the packing list for the train part, relevant for those who want to do the same thing.
9/13, 3:24 pm, somewhere in the Illinois suburbs
There’s a group of Hindi-speaking people having a tea party and talking about the best sites out west. I am not confident enough in my Hindi to join their tea party. Some Amish teenagers are doing sudoku, frequently looking at the tea party. They speak Dutch. We pass cornfields in rural Illinois, and I see a flock of black birds in a circle right above the cornfield, fly “downward to darkness on extended wings”. I love America.
9/13, 6:25 pm, somewhere past Mount Pleasant, Iowa
We pass a junkyard in the middle of the cornfields, the cars almost indistinguishable except the remnants of paint, melded together as if a giant lava flow. Iowa is flat, but not quite as flat as I expected. I’m coming out of Chicago, after all. There are some small hills here, at least knolls.
9/13 9:24 pm, somewhere in Iowa
What I have done today, as I become tired and the train becomes quiet. We are in the middle of Iowa, with no cell service, and it is nice:
1. Successfully boarded the Amtrak
2. Done some reflecting
3. Seen some nice fields
4. Had a conversation for a few hours with a couple from Indiana about their RV vacation, show choir, car racing, cats, and others. Apparently pet turtles have personalities, which is fun. I really like meeting people on transportation since they’re often completely different from people I would meet at grad school or work. I missed the boat on being a normal American by being born outside of the US, and everything that followed thereafter. I am a little sad about this, now.
9/14 12:01 am, slightly past Omaha, Nebraska
I’m heading to bed now that the train has cleared at Omaha; sleep seems highly possible now that I have an empty seat next to me. Before I sleep, I have a water bottle malfunction: my cap falls on the ground. I ask myself if it’s better to drink disinfectant wipe residue or hand sanitizer. I decide hand sanitizer and hand sanitize the cap. I stick my water bottle in my boot to stabilize it and it’s time to sleep.
I should be up early to get a seat in the observation car for past Denver. Signing off for the night.
9/14, either 5:40 or 6:40 am, who knows, Colorado
The first rays of sunlight are peeking through the night sky. I set my alarm too early – I am not sure what state we are in, and I’m sure there are a few hours before we reach Denver. I have to decide whether getting more sleep I’ve gotten surprisingly good sleep, even had some dreams, though I don’t remember them – or guaranteed views or the sunrise today are worth it.
It’s 5:48. My phone has just updated – we’ve crossed into Colorado. I can sleep another hour, if I’d like. But… do I want to sleep? A flash of lightning goes across the night sky. We’re less than two hours out from Denver.
9/14, 6:15 am, Eastern Colorado
I’ve moved to the observation car (above, photo from California) with a bag full of my food and valuables. I’m in a single chair, leaving two seats next to me free for a couple. Hopefully they are nice. A handful of people are here, but it’s far from full. I’m sure it will be once we reach Denver.
The sun is still rising over Colorado. The train is still racing it, like an airplane, but at a much slower pace – we won’t be able to outrun it forever.
I’m glad I brought face wipes; I feel almost refreshed. I’ve also brushed my teeth, but I need to hydrate better. Later this evening I will also use them to shower in the lounge bathroom thing that is for some reason reserved for ladies.
The train is high up; the cows look small in the fields, like black birds.
Someone wants to hold his spot in the observation car; his wife says they should eat breakfast. 6:30, he says, the lady told us 6:30. He goes to eat anyway. In the sleeper cabins, meals are included – as they should be, they are not paying $50 like I am – so, apparently, most people are not like me traveling with a full bag of food. I’ll need to get at least one meal on the train, whether it’s frozen pizza or I can finagle my way into the dining car. As of now I’m happy. A whole week of food cost me $60, even with my special train purchases included.
Eastern Colorado is very flat, flatter than Iowa.
9/14, 6:41 am, outside Denver
We are passing a freighter. The freight trains are long and alternate between high and round cars, which I don’t know the technical names of. The freighters get priority over passenger trains because they own the rails, and because the United States, unlike, for example, India or Switzerland, is not a rail-oriented society. I wish it were; it’s environmentally friendly and the scenery is ripe for it. Just look at this! The prairie is covered in yellow flowers.
I finally went to the café car. I brought my own ginger tea but felt bad about only bumming hot water so I also got another caffeinated tea for $3. Tip for next time: bring my own caffeinated tea.
I am glad to be in a corner where I can type. I’ve also found a nice cozy spot for my food bag so it won’t get in anyone’s way.
9/14, 6:49 am, less than an hour out from Denver
The train is running 30 mins late now; we’ve made up time from Omaha.
For your reference, the observation car is now filling. We’re at almost 5000 feet, according to an elevation website I’ve found online.
We start going again about 15-20 mins later. I can see some mountains in the distance, perhaps part of the Front Range. It’s helpful to eavesdrop on conversations because I don’t actually know what’s going on. There’s a woman wearing a Jesus Loves You shirt talking to one of the Amish couples. She says she’s moved around a lot, she’s 24 but got mistaken for 18 yesterday. I empathise. It’s hard out here.
This is definitely the Front Range. Wow.
9/14, 8:11 am, Denver
Just talked for a bit with a chatty couple from California, who then moved to a table. They’d brought a GoPro type thing that suctions to the window and takes in the scenery.
We watched a cemetery go by and she talked about how in Okinawa, where her niece used to live, they honour the dead as a family.
9/14, 9:18 am, leaving Denver
Overheard: “We’ve neglected our rail system here in America”. Indeed.
During the Denver stop, a man walked around and washed all the windows with a roller.
9/14, 9:44 am, 30 mins outside Denver
The conductor has begun to talk about the different sights – fires are calming down for the season so it’s the first time we’ve been able to see Pike’s Peak in a while. On the right side of the train, looking north, there’s another 14,000 footer.
We outrace a truck going past a lake. I caffeinate. We are entering the mountains, and I might be out for a while.
9/14, 10:14 am, Front Range
The conductor is definitely a fan of John McPhee. He’s so excited about sandstone formations and tectonic plates! Now, we are going through metamorphic rock. The scenery changes every few minutes, although it’s difficult to tell to my untrained eye.
He also seems to be from Colorado, as he’s said: “one of the great things about Colorado is all the rivers start here, and then go into brown state muddy water like Nebraska”.
10:26
Now the conductor is talking about agricultural diversity and why it’s important for forests – how blights and infestations usually affect one species more than the others. On this side of the continental divide, the forests are quite diverse, but on the other side, they are not, which meant much of the forest was wiped out between 2008-2012.
10:28
Now we’re in an igneous rock zone – granite, all the way to the continental divide.
9/14, 10:47 am, just before the Moffat Tunnel
We’ve been warned you’re not supposed to open the inner doors in the tunnel because of diesel fumes. The conductor is telling us about how before they could build the tunnel – the first decades of the 1900s, there used to be a 24-mile railroad that reached 11,600 feet, the highest a railroad has ever reached in the continental US. But now, instead, we have the tunnel.
In the Moffat Tunnel, you’re at the highest point of the US railways: over 9200 feet, under 4000 feet of rock, and crossing the continental divide.
9/14, 11:20 am, Frasier, Colorado
Right before Frasier, if you’ve been in the viewing car they kick you off – well, if you’re polite – to give others access to the viewing. The couple next to me tells me good luck on my blog. But even in my normal seat, the views are still amazing. I’m sitting next to a train tour operator now, who is getting off with her group at Grand Junction to go take even more trains! What a fun job.
We have a brief stop at Frasier, which is the first time I get off the train for a quick break. I think I will try to go back to the viewing car after Grand Junction. Or before then? The scenery in Utah is apparently different; it looks like the surface of the moon.
Even kicked off the observation car, the views are wonderful; this is all wonderful. It’s mid-September and the trees are starting to turn to gold. We are riding alongside the Frasier River, twinkling in the valley. Evidently moose and antelope live here. I can’t believe I’ve been on a train for almost 24 hours; it doesn’t feel like that at all.
After this, you hit the Colorado River.
9/14, 2:56 pm, Colorado
I took a nice nap for about an hour and a half and surprisingly, dreamed. Right now a very slow coal train is trucking through and delaying the journey as they do. It’s okay, though; the light is nice.
I met a semi-retired couple from Kansas who worked in real estate and were going on a vacation with the woman’s brother-in-law, just through Colorado.
9/14, 3:18 pm, canyon
Conductor: “Humans have only been around for the top 4 inches of this canyon, the top 2/3 are when life has flourished on earth, and the bottom 1/3 predates life on this planet… I have no idea whether any of this is true or not but it sounds cool.”
The canyon has been ravaged by mudslides and fires.
9/14, Glenwood Springs
I met a couple from Maryland celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. We talked a bit about Hawaii. I have managed to get a spot on the right side of the car – going into the canyon, ensure to be on the right side of the car! The rocks are pretty cool but seeing the Colorado river in addition to the rocks is much cooler.
9/14, 5:11 pm, before Grand Junction
I met another retired couple, originally from the UK but having lived in Canada and the US for thirty years. They gave me travel tips – stay in Austin, drive to Baylor; go around Zion national park, it’ll take a week and looks like the moon.
They also said Dundee, where I was born, was pretty, which is the first time I’ve heard this.
Their daughter travels a lot like me, cheap and uncomfortable. I recommended she look for fire sales in Amtrak coach.
The tour guide lead next to me speaks quickly and efficiently. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “Well, I am grown up…” “Nonsense, none of us are grown up, I’m 59 years old and still growing up!”
Overheard: “to me scotch tastes like kerosene”
9/14, 5:50 pm, Grand Junction
They allow us to get out here for ten minutes to stretch our legs and pick up food at the store. The store is called “Store” and has snacks, and also sandwiches and salads that are not very vegetarian-friendly. I get overwhelmed and don’t buy anything, but at least I have the chance to stretch my legs. It’s surprisingly hot here compared to the last time I got off the train in the mountains.
Looks like I have no one next to me for the evening; it’ll be another relatively good night.
9/14 7:02 pm, Eastern Utah
We pass a settlement in the middle of the – desert? – I’m not quite sure what to call this place, except that angular red-brown hills rise from the scrubby grass. It is desolately beautiful. The settlement is falling apart; everything is the colour of dust. There are three sticks in the centre of the settlement, and a few rainbow flags attached to trailers.
9/14, around 8:53 pm, somewhere in Utah
I discover, to my chagrin, that the exciting ladie’s lounge space is not actually lockable and thus I have to do my makeshift shower in the bathroom, which has far less space.
Doing a bath with moisturizing wipes in the bathroom is doable but tough – they’re larger than airplane bathrooms but not by much. What the women’s lounge thing does work for is shampooing. I am excited to try out my dry shampoo, the one indulgence I bought for this trip, knowing I won’t be able to take it past San Francisco. I sit on the stool and spray it. It smells nice. My hair looks nice. I am content.
9/15, 8:10 am/7:10 am, central Nevada
I’m awake again and surprisingly well-rested. I had some unmemorable yet pleasant dreams, and feel great aside from the roughly hour-long period in the middle of the night where I questioned my life choices.
Buying a blanket before the trip was an excellent decision. Scenery is nice, although does look a lot again like the Great Plains except for the mountains in the distance. Flat, lots of shrubberies, and oh, it looks like we might be rising into some mountains again. How beautiful!
With less than 12 hours left on the train – how time has flown! I could stay on this train forever – my anxieties of actual life seem to have overtaken me again, although I think I am still more relaxed than I was when I began.
There is a railway track running almost parallel to us, but at such an angle that perhaps it will join at some point. Three deer hop over it, their white tails bouncing.
The landscape is not Great Plains-esque. My sleepy self lied, although, I do believe I might get better sleep in coach class than on actual beds. Who knew! Mountains rise above the plains, beautiful, so different from the mountains we first rose into in the Front Range. They are smaller and look like volcanoes, or the moon. Every settlement we pass looks like it is dying. I would like to explore America, I would like to get to know these small places, these stops on the railroad that no one really gets off at. The scrub-brush is at points growing yellow flowers.
9/15, 8:38/7:38 am, before Winnemucca, Nevada
We’re going along very fast. One track converged with us, but the other, once parallel, now appears to be further away. There is a giant junkyard, it looks like, of trucks, but I’m not sure if it is a junkyard or a settlement, and this is sobering.
It hasn’t felt like I’ve been on a train for over 40 hours. It has been a wonderful 40 hours; I feel relaxed and very, very human, able to, as one article about the train I read said, just be.
The houses in Winnemucca are arranged perfectly rectangularly. The West is like all I’ve seen in pictures, and I’m surprised it hews so regularly to historical photographs, but so unlike anything I’ve seen in real life before. As with the Delhi metro, I want to get off all of these stops one day. There is not enough to explore in one lifetime.
9/15, 10:31 am, before Reno, Nevada
We pass some wild horses. Sadly I don’t get a photo.
I’ve had a nice conversation with a UChicago fourth year. It reminds me of my everyday life, which is fast approaching again.
9/15, 11:22 am, leaving Reno, Nevada
The vibe of the train has changed since coming out West. We’re going into the Sierra Nevada range for the next two hours and the guides say stay on the right side of the train.
9/15, 12:03 pm, 40 mins after Reno, Nevada
Foothills of the Sierras, lots of pine.
Spoke with a couple, I think, from Seattle for a bit.
9/15, 4:51 pm, between Sacramento and Emeryville
It’s back to farmland, and it feels like the trip is over. I’ve spent part of the day making my San Francisco plans and it’s nice to feel back to non-train life, although I do feel like I could spend a couple more days on the train. Next time, maybe, I’ll train across all America.
I didn’t expect this would be a wholly positive experience, honestly, but I can’t think of anything negative. I even think I slept better on the train than I do in a bed, which may say something about me… Maybe it’s the lack of stressors? As the girl from UChicago said, it’s easy for your problems to seem small when you’re looking at such a vast landscape.
9/15, 5:49 pm, the Bay
THE PACIFIC OCEAN!
I’ve found all the young people on the train. We’re catching up.
9/15, 6:35 pm, bus over Bay
I am full of joy.
Here is my train packing list from Day 1, for those of you who are thinking of embarking on this endeavour. I highly recommend it! Also, if you’re looking to take luggage and/or a bike, I now have a post on my second trip.
Clothing
Three shirts
Two sports bras
One pair of pants – I can wear one pair of pants for 2.5 days, right? Nevertheless I have also packed a pair of athletic shorts
Many masks – got some of the ones that are more breathable
Two pairs of socks
Lots of underwear, one never knows
Hiking boots
Rubber slippers
Two large scarves, to use as blankets – but maybe I will purchase a blanket
Toiletries
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Mini floss
PPE wipes for train
Hand sanitizer – 2
Plant-based wipes -the plant based ones were on sale
Face wash
Lotion
Chapstick
Sunscreen
Deodorant
Medicine
Menstrual things
Toilet paper
Dry shampoo – who knows how to use this? Will be an adventure
Many plastic bags – do these count as a toiletry
Food
Trail mix – two types
Bread – really good sourdough, top quality
Almond butter
Raspberry jam
Coconut almond chocolates
Dried mangoes
Fruit – plumcots, never heard of them before
Plantain chips
Apple sauce
Water bottle
Tomorrow I’m going to buy a salad for dinner also. I’ve been eating salad for two days now and also exercising a lot, worried about the idea of going days without vegetables and exercise.
They say you should eat at least one meal on the dining car, too, to meet people. Since I don’t necessarily need to spend 52 hours becoming acquainted with myself, this seems like a good idea.
Misc
Ear plugs
Eye mask
Phone
Laptop – with lots of books
Chargers
Bike lock for luggage and luggage lock also for luggage
Plates and plastic utensils
Turtle pillow pet for sleep and company
All in all, I have one carryon suitcase, one backpack, one grocery bag of food, one small bag of day clothes that can hopefully be condensed into something else, and my purse.