Chicago to Reno on the California Zephyr....

The final leg of the train portion of our adventure may well turn out to be one of the best, Chicago to Reno aboard the California Zephyr.

In the course of my research into all things Amtrak, I came across many articles which rated some of the scenery on this route amongst some of the finest rail scenery in the world, particularly the section from Denver, as the train makes it's climb up and thru the mighty Rockies.

This is another Superliner sleeper and we have roomette 6...

Leaving Chicago at 14:00 on Sunday 27th Feb, we make our way across the state of Illinois before entering Iowa at sunset. Sometime before midnight we cross into Nebraska where we travel thru the night before crossing the border into Colorado a few hours before sunrise. The train arrives at Denver at 07:15 for a 50 minute stopover. At 08:05 the train pulls out of Denver Station for the long slow climb up the Rockies.

I have my plan of attack all mapped out for the day. I intend getting up early and attending the dining car for the first breakfast sitting, before we pull into Denver. From the dining car, straight to the Sightseer Car and put my ample backside on a prime positioned viewing seat. And there I will stay as we head thru the Rockies, passing ski resorts as we go.

We leave Colorado and enter Utah late in the afternoon. After dinner I will keep myself amused until we pull into Salt Lake City at 23:05. I don't really know why, but for some reason I just want to be awake when we get to SLC. We leave SLC at 23:30 and head out of Utah and into Nevada, arriving at our destination in Reno at 08:36 on Tuesday 1st March.

Time: 44hrs 36min
States: 6
Kilometres: 3523

Total time: 163hrs 55mins
Total states: 31
Total Kilometres: 12845

Clive and Lorraine fly into Reno from LAX at 09:30 where we hope to meet up if all connections work out, before hopping a shuttle for the 90min trip to Harvey's Casino on the shores of South Lake Tahoe. We will then spend the next 7 days skiing Heavenly Ski Resort, with a day trip planned for Squaw Valley on the Friday.

That's all for now, I hope I haven't bored you too much, but it has been a way to help me countdown the days until we leave. At this stage we are probably leaving on Thursday 3rd Feb, but that is about the only thing I can't plan ahead for.