The Great Western & Northwestern Railway 2016 Railway Adventure

I take Amtrak frequently, chugging to see my sister and brother in the Philadelphia suburbs, and they send me emails from time to time that I usually glide past—but something made me open one I received in Jan. 2026. It advertised their Railpass, usually $500 ($400 for seniors), but for the nation’s birthday they were offering ten legs in 30 days for the celebratory price of $250. I immediately bought it. When mid-March rolled around, I packed a bag, skipped through Chicago, and was on my way West.

Despite a residency in Garden City, ID and two conferences (one in Long Beach, CA, the other in Seattle), I’d never really been West. Texas, yes, and a corner of New Mexico when I was a kid, but no Grand Canyon, glorious Rockies, or mesas with precarious arches and rocks. I took the Zephyr out of Chicago, first stop Denver. My few days there were terrific. I loved the Garden of the Gods and Pike’s Peak, missed the art museum (not closed on Monday like most museums, but sadly on Thursday), but my highlight was Meow Wolf, the biggest of a handful of immersive spaces created by artists. It’s hard to explain. It’s like walking through a computer game with a nominal sci-fi narrative, but it’s the sights that bowl you over. I went back the next day, and when I hit Santa Fe, visited the first of the Meow Wolfs, this one funded and supported by George Martin.

The next break was Glenwood Springs, where I stayed in the hotel Teddy Roosevelt had been (deliciously kept, not ruined by modernization) and luxuriated in the newer of its two hot spring spots. Then off to Salt Lake City. The fascinating Bee Hive State replaced their zebra crossings with honeycomb prints, had a mall right by the temple with an actual creek running through it, and an exceptionally kind group of knowledgeable volunteers at the FamilySearch Library. Reno next (the best kung pao chicken ever, surprisingly in the casino cafe), and to Emeryville with a San Francisco stop. It IS a great city, and if “Grant Avenue” from the movie Flower Drum Song kept running through my head in Chinatown, so be it. Day trip to Muir Woods—packed with visitors but with a pure and wonderful scent, and delicious sourdough bread for breakfast after another exquisite order of kung pao chicken at Z&Y restaurant on 655 Jackson St. Wow! It’s had a Michelin star, but the staff couldn’t have been kinder and more accommodating.

Up the coast on the Starlight Express with stops in Portland (oh, the deliciousness of Powell’s Books in person), where I wanted to move into their replica of a 16th-century Chinese scholar’s home and garden—how serene, right in the city. On to Seattle, then the Cascades train to Vancouver, a new favorite. Did I see orcas, a gray whale, a bald eagle, and sea lions? I certainly did, along with a Catholic Mass whose Chinese congregants bow after the Lord’s Prayer, a flight back to Emeryville, the Starlight Express to Los Angeles. I stayed in Venice Beach, which I thought would be more far more Bohemian than it was, saw Arnold Schwarzenegger ride past on his bicycle, enjoyed the jokes of old movie stars at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and soaked in the fabulous Art Deco train station.

Final legs took me to Albuquerque and Santa Fe (must go back to the latter for a week or more), and, in a tribute to my Dad’s and grandfather’s love of cowboy movies, stopped at Dodge City, KS, and on to Chicago and Cleveland.

Inspiration hourly, from the train passengers to sights in the station and the various city. Be on the lookout for future offers—well worth it.