At the beginning of the 19th century, people crossed the U.S. by rivers, canals and horse-drawn wagons. With the advent of passenger trains in the 1830s, a months-long journey took just days and promised comfortable rides free of the perils of rough and dangerous terrain. Today, railroads allow travelers to explore the U.S. slowly and attentively.
Debuting in 1905, this historic railroad transported Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, Clark Gable, Doris Day and other notable Americans to the Grand Canyon's South Rim. The 4 1/2-hour round-trip tour departs each morning from Williams, Arizona, 36 miles west of Flagstaff. Aboard the steam-engine train, you'll witness a panorama of landscapes, from Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forests to open high deserts. In the forests, keep an eye out for mountain lions, elk and mule deer. In the desert, look for ravens, horned owls, California condors and bald eagles.
On the train, actors in period costumes retell the area's fact and folklore, while musicians stroll through the cars playing nostalgic tunes. Food service on the train includes pastries, fresh fruit, coffee, juice, soft drinks, cocktails and snacks. An optional vacation package includes a stay at the extravagant Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, just two blocks from Route 66.
Grand Canyon Railway
233 N. Grand Canyon Blvd.
Williams, Arizona 86046
303-843-8724
thetrain.com
Two- and four-hour narrated excursions take passengers through northern Oregon's Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area--an 80-mile-long river canyon that slices a twisting, sea-level route through the Cascade Mountains. The steam locomotive barrels through the Hood River Valley amid meadows, forests, and cherry and pear orchards to either the town of Odell or Parkdale.
During dinner or Sunday brunch tours, you'll be served dishes such as skillet-roasted eggs with potato hash and bacon, beef roast au jus and Dutch gold potato purée, and mixed-berry crisp with Chantilly cream. On certain dates you can take in on-board murder mystery shows, and once a month the railroad offers Western Train Robbery tours, in which bandits attempt to bring the locomotive to a halt in search for loot.
Mount Hood Railroad
110 Railroad Ave.
Hood River, OR 97031
541-386-3556
mthoodrr.com
On July 29, 1900, during the Klondike Gold Rush, the driving of a golden spike marked the completion of the 110-mile White Pass and Yukon Route Rail. Today this International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark offers trips within Alaska and into Canada's Yukon Territory. On the U.S. White Pass excursion, the train climbs nearly 3,000 feet in just 20 miles and makes hairpin turns alongside 1,000-foot-deep gorges.
On the three-hour tour, you'll relax in a vintage parlor car as the diesel locomotive chugs across towering bridges and wooden trestles. You'll see glaciers; the 120-foot, 22-cataract Bridal Veil Falls; and the infamous Dead Horse Gulch, named for the 3,000 pack animals that starved to death or plummeted into the ravine as workers laid tracks around White Pass Summit. Operating May through September, the excursion departs from the Panhandle town of Skagway, which appears in a pivotal scene in Jack London's 1903 adventure novel "The Call of the Wild."
White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad
231 Second Ave.
Skagway, AK 99840
800-343-7373
wpyr.com
