General Impressions of My Trip

I have finished posting the pictures of my trip so now it is time for a little bit of reflection. Once again, I had some reservations about taking this trip and I don't know why as I had a blast last year. Maybe I was afraid that I would be bored on the Southwest Chief or maybe I was afraid that I wouldn't have as easy of a time of sleeping this year as I did last year. I don't know but my fears were soon proved to be false.

Between this year and last year, I have now taken the Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, California Zephyr (twice) and the Southwest Chief. As far as scenery goes the California Zephyr is a definate first but not by much. I think each of these routes have something to offer.

The Empire Builder offers a nice scenic trip through the northern Rockies and the Glacier Mountains. It also offers nice scenery as you pass through Washington into Seattle. I am glad that I took that trip last year as it would have proved difficult this year as there was some serious flooding.

As I have said repeatedly, if you are going to take only one train trip, I would highly recommend the California Zephyr. Of the train routes out west, it was probably the most beautiful. First there was Western Colorado but that was nothing compared to the Sierra Nevadas. I wish I would have thought about how I was going to store more pictures before that because I would have taken more pictures of it. Oh well, I think I got some nice shots.

Now that I have seen the whole Coast Starlight, I would like to take it northbound now. I think that if I did that, I would have a chance to see some of the mountains in Northern California because it was dark when I did it last year. I can definately see what it has the Coast name though as we were right on the coast as we got south of San Jose.

I think I had low expectations for the Southwest Chief but I was pleasantly surprised by the trip. It was not as scenic as the other lines but it did have something different to offer. It would be nice if I could swing work to send me to California on that but that is not likely.

Anyways, I hope that you all enjoyed my little travelogue.