America the Beautiful

Your adventure begins at Chicago's Union Station as you step aboard Amtrak's Empire Builder. Settle into your comfortable accommodation and watch as the familiar city skyline gives way to the landscapes of America's heartland.

Awaken to ever-changing scenery as the Empire Builder continues westward across the vast landscapes of the northern plains. Rolling farmland gives way to open ranch country, distant mountain ranges, and the dramatic beauty of Montana’s ‘Big Sky’ country.

Today reveals one of America's most wilderness areas. Travel along the Going-to-the-Sun Road, an engineering masterpiece carved through Glacier's rugged mountains.

Leave Glacier behind and travel through the landscapes of western Montana. Follow broad valleys, peaceful rivers, and sweeping ranchlands beneath endless skies.

Enter Yellowstone through the historic Roosevelt Arch and begin your exploration of this wilderness. Discover the wildlife-rich Lamar Valley where you can often see bison, elk, coyotes, grizzly bears, and black bears.

Today reveals the incredible forces that shaped Yellowstone. Witness the famous eruption of Old Faithful, explore the vibrant colors of Grand Prismatic Spring, and walk among the steaming landscapes of Norris Geyser Basin.

Begin the day with a peaceful float along the Snake River, surrounded by the backdrop of the Teton Range. This experience offers wonderful opportunities to observe wildlife while enjoying one of the most beautiful landscapes in America.

Enjoy time in the welcoming mountain town of Jackson, with its famous elk-antler arches, galleries, shops, and unmistakable western character. Continue south through the Snake River Valley and into Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City.

Travel through some of the Southwest's most dramatic scenery, including the Price River Canyon before arriving at Canyonlands National Park, where the Island in the Sky district offers sweeping views across a vast wilderness of canyons, cliffs, and rivers carved into the landscape below. Later continue to nearby Dead Horse Point State Park, where the sweeping panorama of the Colorado River and surrounding canyons creates one of the most views in the Southwest.

Time in Arches National Park.

Travel through the landscapes of southeastern Utah toward Monument Valley. Along the way, pass dramatic landmarks including Wilson Arch, Bluff, and Mexican Hat before arriving among the towering sandstone formations of Navajo Tribal Park.

Today brings you to the finale of your western adventure—the Grand Canyon. We enter through the quieter East Entrance and follow the South Rim, stopping at viewpoints where the canyon's immense scale and extraordinary beauty unfold before you.

After breakfast, your adventure through America's greatest landscapes comes to an end. Guests may take Amtrak's Southwest Chief home from Flagstaff, fly home from Flagstaff or take our complimentary shuttle to Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, a two-hour drive.