A Detour Through Wyoming

We once took the California Zephyr from Chicago to Sacramento. The best section of the journey (that many people ride, just for the experience) is from Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado.

We were told by the crew on our train, that due to a landslide up ahead, we would be traveling through Wyoming, instead of Colorado. This is something that happens quite often, according to them and the route is actually faster than the Colorado leg.

We left Denver and found the trip brought us to buffalo grazing areas, at the north east corner of Colorado. Shortly thereafter, we crossed into Wyoming. This area of the state was just beautiful and I will have to update my memories of this state. I remember driving through it in 1974 with my family and it was just miles and miles of dead grass. Well, yes, there is grass (which was still alive at this point) but the big thing that made Wyoming so spectacular, were the rock outcropings. I couldn't stop watching the scenery going by our window. Look at this photo of the Table Rock Wyoming area. Doesn't it look like a painting? It was truly so beautiful.

As we found out from the staff, this area was where the original Transcontinental Railroad tracks were laid. There are still some right of way areas where you can see the old track relics. I did not see any, but we were pointed in the direction of a hill just to the south of us and told that is where some relics were. As we got closer to the Nevada area of the journey, we ended up traveling right on it, so I wasn't too upset that I couldn't see what the man was talking about on the loud speaker, the day before.

Speaking of Nevada, we reconnected with the main line in Salt Lake City, Utah and then eventually wandered into Reno, Nevada. This is Reno station, which is down way below street level. After that the train assends up into the Donnor Pass.

So even though we still need to take that section of Colorado, we had some very unusual experiences that you can't book in advance. You just get to live it.

Train travel, an always surprising experience.