Good morning everyone, here is the last part of my California Zephyr Amtrak trip.  I will put together a summary post with links to all previous parts in a few minutes.  In this post, I will show you pictures of the lounge car, the snack bar, and some stunning views of Mother Nature from the train.

The lounge car is the place to be.  If you enjoy staring out the window at the beauty of nature, then you will definitely want to get to the lounge car early to secure a table.  The tables comfortable seat 4 adults, but I saw a few tables with a few more people squished together.  The tables are open to all passengers on the train, including coach, roomette, and bedroom passengers.  Like I said, get there early before all the tables fill up.

On our table, there was a brochure that showed all the “scheduled” station stops and times along with routes of the thruway bus service.  The bus service is used to connect passengers to certain cities that do not have Amtrak train service.  We lucked out because we did not experience any major delays onboard.  We were either on time or a few minutes early for every stop but 1.  We made a long stop near Reno to add 2 more coach train cars since we were picking up 200+ passengers.  Who knew Reno was so popular… it is after the “biggest little city in the world” (Reno 911 reference).

If you take the stairs down from the second level of the lounge car, you will be in the snack bar.  Meals and beverages are available for purchase throughout the day.  The snack bar attendant will make several announcements when the snack bar is open and closed (the snack bar attendant needs meal and restroom breaks too).  I didn’t buy anything from the snack bar since breakfast, lunch, and dinner were included, but most coach passengers bought a few meals and drinks on board.

Near the snack bar, there are a few tables.  I never saw anyone using them, but if the lounge car is completely full, you can check to see if the tables by the snack bar are available.

Photos cannot do justice to how stunning the views are from the train.  Our journey started bright cloudy and early at Denver’s Union Station (located near downtown Denver).

Denver Union Station was not very busy when we arrived (around 7:30am) since there was only 1 training leaving at 8:05am.  The thruway bus service listed is for passengers arriving in Denver on the California Zephyr.

After walking to track 4, the Amtrak employee scanned our boarding pass train ticket and told us to walk down to train car 531 (sleeping car).  All roomettes and bedrooms are located on the second level, while suitcases and large items were located on the first level.  There were several restrooms and 1-2 showers located on the first level.

As we pulled away from Denver, we started to see some amazing views.  As we climbed the Rockies, we looked back at Denver and could only see a handful of tall buildings sticking out of the clouds.  I wish I had a more high res image, it was pretty spectacular.  I really enjoyed all the views for the first 2 hours of the train ride.

As we slowly ascended the Rockies, jagged snow-covered cliffs flanked us on both sides (view from glass ceiling in the lounge car).

Here are some pics from the first few stops in the Rockies.  We passed by several ski resorts and it looked like a perfect day for snowboarding and skiing.

Full disclosure: the journey through Utah and Nevada is pretty boring.  The landscapes are different shades of red and brown, but luckily it was nighttime and I slept through most of the “boring parts.”  I forgot how colorless that part of the country is.  But, I will say that there are definitely beautiful parts of Utah and Nevada, but the California Zephyr Amtrak train did not go through any of those parts :/

Fast forward to the second day and we climbing through the Sierra Nevada mountains.  We passed by a huge lake and evergreen forests near Tahoe.

We passed by a few more ski resorts as we made our way down the mountains.

The train rolled into Sacramento and Davis before pulling into the final station of Emeryville.  There are no good ways to get to Oakland or San Francisco other than Uber/Lyft.  We took Lyft over the bay Bridge to get to San Francisco.  Presidents’ Day Weekend had amazing weather in the Bay Area and my friends from Denver greatly appreciated the sunshine.

As we pulled into Emeryville, I took this picture from my bedroom.  I am happy to report that we are all still friends even after spending the last ~33 hours on a train together :)

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Safe travels everyone!

P.S. Here is the view from the back window on the last coach train car.  Choo choo!