The California Zephyr - Part III

And now the continuation of my journey. This covers roughly from western Utah until Emeryville (near San Francisco). This is my favorite part of the California Zephyr and is what made the trip worth it. The portion that follows is the part that covers the Sierra Nevadas. If you are going to take one train trip in the United States but don't want to spend a couple days on the train, I would recommend catching it in Emeryville and getting off in Reno. That is roughly 1 day. Anyways.....

I don't remember if this was western Utah or Eastern Nevada but at any rate, I liked the shot, so here it is.

I didn't take too many pictures of Nevada this time as that is pretty much desert and I figured I would get some similar shots when I would take the Southwest Chief back. This is as we were getting closer to the Sierra Nevadas.

You can definately see the snow capped mountains.

This is Truckee, CA which is also the stop for Lake Tahoe. This is at the eastern end of California and the Sierra Nevadas. I was amazed to still see quite a bit of snow given that it was almost June.

This is just outside of Truckee. You can see the snow on the trees still which means it just fell.

A portion of Donner Lake which was named after the famed group of settlers that ended up eating each other. This was probably the highlight of the route.

Another portion of Donner Lake.

I already posted this shot before, but I liked it so much that here it is again. It is kind of hard to compete with beauty like this.

My last shot of Donner Lake as we were pulling away.

Some of the moutains.

Another portion of the mountains. I am happy that I was passing through this on a train, I can't imagine what it would be like to do this in a covered wagon. I'm also glad that I was passing through on a modern train because there were a few cases of trains getting stuck up here.

Another one of the mountains.

I'm not sure what highway that is below us, but the trucks give you an idea of just how high we are.

It took me long enough but I finally got a shot of the train. I think the train was a couple cars shorter this year, so I wasn't in a good spot to get a picture of it.

Seeing this picture makes me want to go back already. Maybe this time, I'll stay here and get a few pictures up close.

I'm not sure what lake this is, but I liked the picture.

We were getting out of the Sierra Nevadas. I think we had just passed Colfax at this point.

Back on the ground and passing a Union Pacific Railyard.

The Davis Train station.

The area as we were approaching Emeryville. It is amazing how much farmland is in this country.

One of the things I was waiting for...the Naval Boneyard.

Another shot of the boneyard.

A tanker offloading.

It is pretty cool to pass some of the train stations because they have what I call gate guardians.

I'm not sure what bridges these are but I kind of like the effect.

Another tanker.

We were getting closer to Emeryville. This is the Golden Gate Bridge. I think we are far enough out that it doesn't look like it.