Some answers: The trip was scheduled to take 51 hours total, leaving at approx 10am Monday from Seattle and arriving in Grand Junction near 11am on Wednesday.
As you can tell from the above the train has a regular stop in Grand Junction -- and another one in Glewood Springs as it travels west to east across CO from Utah. Long story but I bought a new to me Audi Q5 in GJ for my CO transportation. Had arranged the purchase before the trip started. Salesman picked me up at the station which was nice.
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The first leg was overnight from Seattle to Sacramento Station (Emeryville, CA?) where I got on the Zephyr for the rest of the trip, the second overnight from somewhere in Nevada to Salt Lake City.
The train stopped for a few minutes in Reno at about 4:30pm, just long enough to let some riders off and some get on. I waived at Trish and Phil but I don't think they saw me.
Yes I'd do it again and will probably return to WA via the same route.
There are two classes on the trains, coach and sleeping compartment. The coach riders do not have access to the dining car, though there is a facility where they can buy some food and drink, etc. Sleeping compartment passengers fares include 3 meals a day and all are served in the dining car. Food was quite acceptable, but I was only on the train 48 hours and as the menu didn't have many choices a longer ride could have made the food less appealing.
Pros and cons: I had a roomette and it was small (as am I) but private. Sleeping, as I just slept in my in my clothes, wasn't comfortable. More money would have put me in a bedroom which would have given me more room. Even enough room to take off some clothes for sleeping.The stations in Seattle and Sacramento were clean and well maintained. The station and train crews were all doing a good job and kept us well informed as to what was going on, where we were, and even gave us some history lessons.
Finally, the picture of the ski area was taken the morning of Nov. 11, 2022, not Nov. 10th.
