The California Zephyr is an Amtrak train that is famous for having beautiful scenery, and was on Nick and I’s list. When we decided to visit San Francisco for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, it was a perfect time to take the train from San Francisco to Denver.
Normally, the train takes 33 hours for the trip. Ours was delayed 11 hours total, with 5 hours of an up-front delay leaving late due to weather, and another 5ish hours of delays from letting freight trains pass or staff board the train. Delays seem pretty common with Amtrak, so it’s definitely not the way to go if you are in any rush. However, our delay did seem to be unusually long, so us coach passengers got free Jimmy Johns and a nice credit from Amtrak. The staff was in the same boat as us and super nice.
You have a few options for seating. We went with coach because the sleeper car (roomette) was significantly more expensive and we thought we’d only sleep on the train one night (but that turned into two). The sleeper car includes meals in the dining car, and coach only has a snack car, so keep this in mind when deciding what to book. I’d probably do the roomette for any more than one night.
Day 1: San Francisco to Nevada
January 1, 2023, we woke up at the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco, which was only a 15 minute walk to the bus stop for Amtrak at 555 Mission Street. We arrived early and found the bus stop. A very nice charter type bus showed up and we left pretty promptly a few minutes after 8, so definitely get there a bit early.
Of course our last day in San Francisco was sunny, so the ride over the Bay Bridge to Emeryville was beautiful. Stunning views of the city and Golden Gate Bridge.
Nick had gotten some notifications of a delay. We walked to the train station and found out we had at least several hours. Amtrak offered to check our bags – keep in mind if you do this you won’t access anything in those bags the whole ride. But it was worthwhile to not drag our bags around. The staff notified us that all the rain in San Francisco translated to heavy snow in the mountains, which had delayed the previous train. Staff are required to rest 8 hours between trips, hence the delay.
There are a few things walkable from the Emeryville Train Station. We went to Doyle Street Cafe for a nice breakfast and then a coffee shop. We were going to perhaps walk to the marina, but that was not very walkable, so we waited at the train station. It was a gorgeous day so we sat outside and read. The train station has bathrooms, a little coffee shop, and books.
Tip: If you ride Amtrak, get the app. It has really updated information on delays.
Finally, at around 2:15, we were instructed to line up at different signs depending on our car. Coach was in D and E. We were checked in and told we needed assigned seats because the train would be full at Sacramento.
The lower car is for passengers who cannot manage stairs and the bathrooms are on the lower level. The upper car is where we were. Seats are way more spacious than an airplane with foot rests and tables, and lean back far. There are outlets at the window.
There is an observation or sightseer car with seats that face large windows and some booths, as well as more outlets. Below that is a snack car with items for purchase. Coffee, tea, soda, and some alcohol like beer and liquor is sold, as well as snacks like chips, cheese plates, sandwiches, and salads.
Once we got going, we were along the water for quite some time, which was gorgeous. We immediately settled into a relaxing ride. You can see why this is a kind of addicting way to see America. There are beautiful natural scenes, nice houses, and junkyards and power plants.
Part of the scenery we were hoping to see was the Sierras and Truckee/Tahoe, but in Sacramento, we were stopped for an hour waiting for a crew change.
We watched the sun set and learned to play a fun game, Tree Lined Avenue (definitely recommend as a portable, relaxing travel game).
You really can’t see anything in the dark, so we did not see much more scenery. The train carries on and staff wake people up at their stops. We put on our slippers, blanket scarf, and AirPods and slept reasonably.
Day 2: Nevada to Colorado
We got up for the sunrise from the observation car and were not as far as we hoped. We were still in Nevada. Because of the delays we got free hot drinks, so we enjoyed coffee and got some snacks for breakfast. There was some snowy scenery along towns I’d never heard of and a beautiful river.
There was plenty of space in the observation car, and we enjoyed very cold but beautiful scenery.
As we passed into Utah, we saw the famous Bonneville Salt Flats, which have a surreal look to them.
Next up was the Great Salt Lake before Salt Lake City. It was frozen and mostly snow-covered, with more snow coming down. We thought we might see if we could get off the train and get some lunch at the longer SLC stop, but the train station really had nothing nearby. As it turns out, because of all the delays, we got free Jimmy Johns lunch boxes. We have never been as excited in our life for Jimmy Johns as we were when we got called in to grab our boxes.
Near Provo, we saw some kids sledding who waved to us, which felt very magical. We then headed through a beautiful canyon riverside on the way to Helper, Utah.
We saw a lot of deer here and the train got away from the road a bit, which was really beautiful.
The sun was setting after Helper, and so we would not make it to Colorado before dark.
. We ended up seeing the exact opposite scenery to what we expected – typically we would have been in the dark for Nevada and Utah. We were definitely disappointed to miss Colorado, especially Glenwood Canyon and Winter Park.
We played some more Tree Lined Avenues. As we laid back our seats to attempt to sleep, a grandma and child behind us were extremely loud. I had my AirPods and sleep mask. It was past 10 pm at this point, but they were laughing and talking so loudly multiple people asked them to be quiet. The child also kicked my seat nonstop. A man in front of us also talked on the phone around ten to midnight. The train conductors stop making announcements for stops to allow people to sleep, so it is definitely frustrating. If we’d known it would be two nights instead of one, we might have sprang for the sleeper car.
Luckily, the loud group departed at snowy Glenwood Springs, and it quieted down. We saw now we would arrive in Denver in early morning, and both needing to work that day, we tried to get as much sleep as possible.
We arrived around 5:45 am on Tuesday, January 3rd (instead of around 6 pm the previous day). We had to get our checked baggage at the Amtrak area inside Union Station. We only live a short walk from the Station, so we headed home and got right into working.
We definitely enjoyed the journey despite all of the delays. I hope sometime we can get redemption and do the journey again to see the scenery we missed. Perhaps in summer so that there are also longer days with more scenery. We are going to take the special Winter Park Amtrak to the resort in February, which is supposed to be along one of the most stunning parts of the journey, so we are looking forward to that.
