The California Zephyr Begins!
Over 3,922km, the California Zephyr traverses farmland, desert, rivers, and mountains. I divided the journey of 51 hours and 20 minutes into four segments. The first was from Chicago, Illinois to Denver, Colorado. Like the Southwest Chief, the California Zephyr crossed the Mississippi river from Illinois into Iowa. We then passed through Mount Pleasant which my guide book described as a ‘typical Midwestern town’. As I watched the train roll by Iowa’s cornfields, my guide book directed me to keep an eye out for roving coyotes. In Nebraska, the train followed the Platte River. This river was once followed by the Mormons travelling west, and later by settlers on the Oregon Trail. About five hours after Mount Pleasant, the train stopped in Omaha, Nebraska, the birthplace of Fred Astaire. We arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska just after midnight. I alighted in Denver, Colorado around 7am the following morning. Overall, this first segment of the California Zephyr’s route was far from noteworthy. The scenery only really began to get interesting about 10 minutes prior to the train’s arrival in Denver, at which point the Rocky Mountains slowly started to come into view.
Denver
I found Denver to be a pleasant city. It reminded me somewhat of Portland (once again, where were all the people?) but with more attractions to keep one occupied.
Highlights of Denver included Larimer Square (a historic part of the city), and the State Capitol Building with its gold leaf dome. I took a guided tour of the latter and the elderly gentleman leading the tour was the most passionate guide I have ever encountered. He wept as he told us stories which had nothing to do with the Capitol Building, but which were interesting nonetheless. In addition to his old age, he was profoundly deaf and somehow came to be under the impression that I had travelled all the way to the USA just to take his tour of the Colorado State Capitol Building – a story which he excitedly repeated to the rest of the tour group three times. One of the women in the tour group tried her best to convince me that I was seriously ill, or would soon become so, because of Denver’s high altitude. The pictures below show the view from the Capitol Building’s dome observation deck which provided great views of the Rocky Mountains, as well as the steps leading up to the building where text marks the spot that is apparently exactly one mile above sea level. However, disagreement abounds in the Mile High City, with the gold markers in the picture below showing other spots that experts have claimed lie exactly one mile above sea level.
