Coast to Coast Amtrak 2017

Hogarth Ferguson

Hogarth Ferguson

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Last year, the wife and I did a coast to coast, San Francisco to Chicago to Baltimore, which you can read about here. We decided, after the Trans-Mongolian we did this year that we would do another Amtrak trip. We opted for the southern route, Baltimore-New Orleans-LA-Seattle with stops for Joshua Tree and Crater Lake. Hurricanes changed our routes, though. I wrote all about it if you'd like to read it.

Here ya go All together it was just around 4000 miles on the rails between 3 trains, 17 hours, 65 hours, and the last was 28 hours.

I brought along my Hasselblad 501cm and Fuji GF670w

.... by Hogarth Ferguson, on Flickr
.... by Hogarth Ferguson, on Flickr
.... by Hogarth Ferguson, on Flickr
.... by Hogarth Ferguson, on Flickr
.... by Hogarth Ferguson, on Flickr
 
Brad Bireley said:
Nice! Looks like fun. What's a trip like this cost?
Click to expand...


So, tough to say exactly. I flew from Seattle to Alaska at the end of the trip to go fishing with my dad, gramps, and brother, so the flight there and then back home was 600 extra bucks, my wife's flight home was about 175 or so.

We had to change trains the day before we left, so they honored our price from one leg (New Orleans to LA) for our change (Chicago to LA). That train was $584 and it included our room. When you get a room you get meals with the room, which is awesome. LAX to Klamath falls with a room was $384, and then from Klamath Falls to Seattle without a room was $116

Rental cars were 35 bucks (Los Angeles) and 75 bucks (Klamath Falls) for the day each.

We had National Parks pass, so those were taken care of.

Hotel were 130 bucks in LA and 120 in Klamath Falls. In Seattle for the night it was at a friends.

So, if we added the actual price of the points trip, would be around 1500 dollars for both of us, and 350 or so for hotel and cars. Then plane home at say 200 each. Total around $2100 for both of us.
 
Hogarth Ferguson said:
So, tough to say exactly. I flew from Seattle to Alaska at the end of the trip to go fishing with my dad, gramps, and brother, so the flight there and then back home was 600 extra bucks, my wife's flight home was about 175 or so.

We had to change trains the day before we left, so they honored our price from one leg (New Orleans to LA) for our change (Chicago to LA). That train was $584 and it included our room. When you get a room you get meals with the room, which is awesome. LAX to Klamath falls with a room was $384, and then from Klamath Falls to Seattle without a room was $116

Rental cars were 35 bucks (Los Angeles) and 75 bucks (Klamath Falls) for the day each.

We had National Parks pass, so those were taken care of.

Hotel were 130 bucks in LA and 120 in Klamath Falls. In Seattle for the night it was at a friends.

So, if we added the actual price of the points trip, would be around 1500 dollars for both of us, and 350 or so for hotel and cars. Then plane home at say 200 each. Total around $2100 for both of us.
Click to expand...

For what you did I would say that was a bargain. Not that everyone would want to spend that much these days.
 
Hogarth--great photos! Thanks for sharing!
I particularly liked number four in the third set--the fellow walking between the cars--and the interior shot of the diner. And 2100.00 for ALL that adventure sounds reasonable to me! Thanks again!
Paul
 
Only bummer about Amtrak is that Congress found out how much they were losing on the snack car and they had to raise the beer prices -:(. Still a lot cheaper than the airlines though.
 
Paulbe said:
Hogarth--great photos! Thanks for sharing!
I particularly liked number four in the third set--the fellow walking between the cars--and the interior shot of the diner. And 2100.00 for ALL that adventure sounds reasonable to me! Thanks again!
Paul
Click to expand...

Thank you so much, that is actually my favorite photo, too.
 
I enjoyed reading about and seeing the images from your trip. I've often thought of taking a cross country trip on Amtrak to visit my relatives on the East Coast. I may actually get to go Glacier National Park next September taking Amtrak from Portland, OR to Glacier.

I'm curious, how did you find the sleeping accommodations?

Thanks for sharing.

Ellen
 
Great to see some train travel photos from US. It does not show up very often. It is probably explained by the fact that trains are not very popular mean of transport in US compared to Europe. I have read some a bit outdated statistics:

"European railways served 426 billion passenger kilometres in 2013, compared to America’s 27.6 billion passenger-kilometres (one passenger-kilometre is one passenger travelling one kilometre by rail)."

Anyway - it's great and would love to see more...
 
A wonderful series of photographs. I travel on Amtrak between St. Louis and Chicago frequently, my wife and I have been talking about doing a trip like this for a while, this shows we should just get on and do it!
 
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