National Parks of the Wild West
Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks; Mount Rushmore National
Memorial
July 7-19, 2010 from Seattle to Rapid City, SD
Land tour from $2999.00
Join Rail Travel Center® President Wil Doak on a great
rail and motorcoach tour to the beautiful National Parks of Montana,
Wyoming and South Dakota, the true Wild West!
We ride Amtrak’s luxurious
Superliner-equipped EMPIRE BUILDER over the legendary Great
Northern Ry. route from Seattle, traveling east along the shores of Puget
Sound, over the Cascade Mountains and then across the Montana Rockies to
Glacier Park Station. Other train rides
include Montana’s premier dinner train, the Charlie Russell Chew-Choo,
which crosses three historic trestles and passes through a half mile
tunnel. In the western mountains we ride two steam railways: the Alder Gulch
Short Line at Virginia City, Montana and the Black Hills Central from Hill
City to Keystone in the heart of South Dakota’s Black Hills.
 Sightseeing
spotlights two National Parks:
Glacier and
Yellowstone and
Mount Rushmore
National Memorial. In Glacier we cross the Continental Divide riding the
famous Red Buses on the legendary Going-to-the-Sun Road. Our exploration of Yellowstone includes
the geysers of
Old Faithful and the thundering waterfalls in the
Grand
Canyon of the Yellowstone. We also visit Lake Yellowstone and
less-familiar sights such as the former Union Pacific RR depot in West
Yellowstone, which now houses the exceptional Museum of the Yellowstone.
In the Black Hills we marvel at the
Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount
Rushmore by day and illuminated by night!
Unique sightseeing experiences include a cruise on the
Missouri River through the awesome canyon at the Gates of the Mountains, a
tour of the restored Nevada and Virginia City ghost towns, a visit to the
incomparable
Buffalo Bill Historical Center (one of the world’s greatest
museums of the old west, with wonderful galleries of western and Indian
art) and a visit to the great volcanic monolith of
Devils Tower National
Monument. Wildlife is a tour focus. We watch for bear, buffalo, elk
and moose in Yellowstone National Park. At West Yellowstone we tour the
Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, and in Custer State Park, South Dakota,
we have a jeep safari into the buffalo herds that still freely range that
area of the Black Hills. We also visit Badlands National Park, where
millions of years of wind and water erosion have created chiseled spires,
deep canyons and jagged buttes. Complete details follow. All aboard!
Day One, Wednesday, July 7 (D for sleeper passengers)
Amtrak’s EMPIRE BUILDER
over the Cascade Mountains.
We board Amtrak’s famous EMPIRE BUILDER Superliner
this afternoon at Seattle’s King Street Station and roll east. First the
line takes us directly along the shores of the Puget Sound for sweeping
vistas over the distant peaks of the Olympic Range. We turn inland at
Everett and begin a steep climb along the Skykomish River toward the
towering peaks of the Cascade Range. In early evening we traverse the 7.9
mile-long Cascade Tunnel before descending through narrow gorges to the
Columbia River at Wenatchee. We overnight in comfortable leg-rest
reclining coach seats or, at the modest additional costs noted below, in
your choice of Pullman sleeper accommodations. The diner-lounge car is
open to all passengers. Sleeper passengers enjoy included choice of the
menu dining. The EMPIRE BUILDER is the flagship of western trains.
Its diner offers fully-prepared-on-board dining from a menu of western
specialties.
The Empire Builder crosses Marias Pass
in Glacier National Park
Day
Two, Thursday, July 8 (B for sleeper passengers, L for all passengers)
 Glacier National Park.
Logan Pass by Jim Fredrickson
Dawn finds the train deep in the
mountains. Overnight, a dome-lounge was added to the train, where we can
enjoy great viewing as we climb the rugged grades in the Rockies.
Departing Whitefish, we begin the legendary assault over the Continental
Divide at Marias Pass on the supremely scenic former mainline of the Great
Northern Ry, now operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. In
mid-morning we detrain at Glacier Park Station and begin our exploration
of Glacier National Park. We drive north to the Many Glacier Hotel, where
we have lunch. Then we drive to Swift Current Lake, where we board
historic and unique “Red Bus” touring coaches for a sight seeing journey
like no other.
In restored 1930s White Motor Company
open-topped touring cars, we re-cross the Continental Divide on the
soaring loops of the Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass. The views at
the summit of the eternally snow-capped peaks of the Rockies are
unforgettable. We end our Red Bus tour at Lake McDonald Lodge and transfer
by private motorcoach to our overnight this evening at the Red Lion Hotel
in Kalispell, Montana.
Day Three, Friday, July 9 (L) Scenic Swan Lake Valley;
cruise the Missouri at
Gates of the Mountains. We drive south this morning in the shadow of the
towering peaks of the Continental Divide, passing lovely Swan Lake enroute
to a lunch stop in remote Lincoln. This afternoon we follow the route of
Lewis and Clark as we cruise the Missouri River through its deep canyon at
the Gates of the Mountains. We overnight in Montana’s capital city,
Helena, at the new
Great Northern Hotel, which is decorated to commemorate
the heritage of the Great Northern Ry.
Day
Four, Saturday, July 10 (CB,L,D) Tour
Helena; dine on the Charlie Russell Chew-Choo train.
This
morning we visit the superb museum of the Montana Historical Society, then
tour Helena on the Last Chance Tour Train. We drive north to Great Falls
and visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, then enjoy an included
lunch at a local cafe. After lunch we drive southeast to Lewistown, where
we overnight at the Yogo Inn.
 This
evening we travel through the mountains and prairies of central Montana,
while dining on fine gourmet cuisine on board the Charlie Russell Chew-Choo.
The train follows the former Milwaukee Road line to Great Falls, passing
over high trestles as we cross the foothills of the Rockies while enjoying
dinner in the diner.
Dinner in the diner on the CHARLIE RUSSELL CHEW-CHOO under "The Big
Sky" of Montana
Day Five, Sunday, July 11 (L)
Livingston Depot;
Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs.
We drive south to
Livingston, Montana for a visit to the historic depot built in 1902 as the
Northern Pacific Railroad’s original access to Yellowstone National Park.
Its majestic row of pillars and ornamental architecture greeted travelers
until 1979, when Amtrak suspended passenger service. We have lunch at the
Northern Pacific Beanery located at the depot. After lunch we drive into
Yellowstone National Park for a visit to Mammoth Hot Springs. Our hotel
for the next three nights is the Holiday Inn Sun Spree Resort, located
just outside the park in West Yellowstone, Montana, the one-time Union
Pacific RR gateway.
Day Six, Monday, July 12 Nevada City; Bovey
Restorations; Virginia City; Alder Gulch Shortline (steam).
We follow the route of the pioneers to the restored mining
camps of Nevada City and Virginia City. First we explore the Bovey
Restorations at Nevada City, a collection of original historic buildings
brought in from all over Montana. This interesting “town” has been used in
several movies.
We
then ride to Virginia City on the usually steam-powered narrow gauge
Alder
Gulch Shortline Railway. After an included lunch at Virginia City’s Star
Bakery, there is free time to explore the restored silver-rush camp before
returning to our hotel for the evening.
Day Seven, Tuesday, July 13 (L) Museum of the Yellowstone; Grizzly and Wolf Discovery
Center; Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful. We begin with a
visit to the
Museum of the Yellowstone, housed in the beautifully restored
terminal of the former Union Pacific RR
 Yellowstone
Branch. The railways opened up Yellowstone National Park, and the U.P.
built a beautiful combined station and restaurant here to serve its summer
park tours. The center contains wonderful exhibits about the early days in
the park during the era of railway touring. U.P. passenger service
directly to West Yellowstone ended in the early 1960s.
Next we visit the
Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center,
which not only tells the life-story of the great bears, but also serves as
an animal rehabilitation center for grizzly bears and other native animals
such as wolves. This is a most unique wildlife park!
After a short drive into Yellowstone National Park,
there is time to purchase lunch at
Old Faithful (there are several
restaurants adjacent to the geysers) and enjoy several hours viewing the
active geysers. An Old Faithful eruption is certain, but there also is
time to take the easy boardwalk paths to view other geothermal wonders,
including hot springs, thermal pools and less-well-known geysers. On the
return to West Yellowstone, we follow the Madison River and stop at
additional geothermal sites for photography of the hot spring wonders.
Day Eight, Wednesday, July 14 (L)
 Grand
Canyon of the Yellowstone; Lake Yellowstone; Buffalo Bill Historical
Center. We take a different route through Yellowstone for most of the
day today. Our first stop is the awesome gorge at the
Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone. Here we marvel at the spectacle of the yellow and gray walls
of the canyon and the thundering Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.
As we motor south to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, we pass through one of
the best areas in the park to see bear, elk and especially buffalo. Lunch
is included at the restored Lake Yellowstone Hotel, overlooking the vast
blue waters of Yellowstone Lake, the highest large natural lake in the
Rockies.
We leave the park through the East Gate and descend a
deep canyon to the “wild west” town of Cody, Wyoming. This was home to the
legendary scout and showman Buffalo Bill Cody. His collections became the
nucleus of one of the world’s great museums of the west, the
Buffalo Bill
Historical Center, which we tour this afternoon. The collections here
include one of the most comprehensive collections of western firearms,
Cody’s personal “kit”, American Indian artifacts, and an incomparable
collection of paintings and sculptures. Treasures include Bierstadt
landscapes, Remington paintings and sculptures, saddles, Native American
art, blankets and much more. We enjoy dinner this evening at what was once
Buffalo Bill’s own hotel, the Irma. We overnight at the Holiday Inn at
Buffalo Bill Village Resort.
Day Nine, Thursday, July 15 (L) Drive the Big Horn Range; Sheridan; Bradford Brinton
Memorial and Museum. The Indians called the Big Horn Range rising to the east of Cody the “Great Shining Mountains”. These peaks
were sacred to the Sioux and still are a place of great natural beauty. We
drive across these glorious yet little-known ridges this morning to
Sheridan, Wyoming. Lunch is included here at the newly restored historic
Sheridan Inn before touring a restored
cattle-barons’ ranch, the
Bradford Brinton Memorial and Museum.
Later we stop at the site
of Fort Phil Kearney. The fort was abandoned by the US Army in 1868 when
the Sioux Indians actually won the Bozeman Trail War. We overnight
in the “black gold” coal mining town of Gillette, Wyoming at the Holiday
Inn Express.
 Day
Ten, Friday, July 16 (CB,L) Devils Tower National Monument; Homestake
Mine; Deadwood. This morning we stop to visit the
remarkable mass of columnar volcanic rock that forms
Devils Tower National
Monument.
We drive into South Dakota, stopping for an included lunch in
Spearfish. After lunch we drive the beautiful
Spearfish Canyon Road, which follows the grade of a former Burlington Route narrow
gauge line. We visit the historic town of Lead and visit the
Homestake
Mine Visitor Center. Before its closing in 2002, Homestake Gold Mine was
the oldest, largest and deepest mine in the western hemisphere. We
continue to the gold-rush town of Deadwood, located in the rugged Black
Hills, for free time to view historic sites related to the lives of Wild
Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. There also is a spectacular model railroad
which can be viewed during our time here. We continue south to Hill City
and overnight for two nights at the railway-themed Best Western Golden
Spike Inn.
Day
Eleven, Saturday, July 17 (D) Crazy Horse Memorial; Mount
Rushmore National Memorial; Black Hills Central steam railway.
Monumental sculpture is a theme today. This morning we
visit “the Shrine of Democracy”,
Mount Rushmore National Park.
We see the awesome carvings of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln
and (Teddy) Roosevelt in the ideal morning light that is best for
photography.
Later we board the “1880s Train” of
the steam-powered Black Hills Central
RR for a trip from Hill City to Keystone. This line was built as a
three-foot narrow gauge line, then rebuilt by the Burlington RR as
standard gauge track in the early 20th century. The trip
features extremely steep grades and offers sweeping vistas of the peaks
enroute. The train frequently has been featured in Hollywood movies and
television shows. 
In the afternoon we visit the
Crazy Horse Memorial,
in the process of being carved from the entire peak
of a rugged mountain. When finished, this will be the largest single
carving in the world. It depicts the great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse
astride his horse, pointing across the Black Hills range held sacred by
the Sioux. Already much of the face is visible. This evening we return to
Mount Rushmore for dinner in the newly renovated Carver’s Café with views
of the Presidential sculptures and the twilight “Sound and Light Show”
illuminations.
Day Twelve, Sunday, July 18 (L) Wildlife jeep safari in Custer State Park, Badlands
National Park. We
have a wonderful final tour event this morning, a wildlife jeep photo
safari through the open range country of
Custer State Park.
Here in the heart of the Black Hills is one of the largest free-ranging
buffalo herds. Our jeep driver-guides provide commentary as we seek these
great animals out for photos. We also enjoy an included lunch at the
historic State Game Lodge.
After lunch, we visit
Badlands
National Park.  The
tortured buttes and mesas here contain the world’s richest Oligocene epoch
fossil beds, some over 28 million years old. The forces of deposition and
erosion have shaped this stunning and foreboding landscape. We then drive
to Rapid City for a final night at the downtown
Radisson Hotel.
Badlands National Park
Day Twelve, Monday, July 19 Tour
ends. The
“City View Trolley” serves the hotel twice every hour and offers an
optional informal city tour if you have an afternoon flight. The fare is
only $2.00 for the day and allows unlimited stops. The tour offers a
recorded narration and visits all the major museums, neighborhoods and
landmarks. Our tour ends with independent departures from Rapid City today.
The Radisson offers a shuttle bus to the
airport for $12 per person. Reservations can be made at the front
desk. Taxis also are available. Plan to leave for the airport at least two
hours prior to your flight departure time.
TOUR PRICES include all rail and boat fares, hotels,
attractions and meals noted as included above, Tour Manager services, and
luggage handling during the tour. Not included are other meals, alcoholic
beverages, and items of a personal nature such as souvenirs. One night is
spent on Amtrak. All other nights are in hotels. The basic tour price
includes leg-rest reclining seat coach accommodation on the train. As
noted, Pullman sleepers are available from Portland only for the additional cost noted below.
$2999.00 per person, double occupancy
$3699.00 single occupancy
Optional Pullman sleeper upgrade on
Amtrak on Day One
This price includes a light dinner on
Day One, a full dining car breakfast on Day Two, and your choice of
Pullman sleeper room on the night of Day One.
$ 46.00 per person, double occupancy
using a Roomette on Amtrak
$ 92.00 single occupancy, using a
Roomette on Amtrak
$304.00 per person, double occupancy
in a Deluxe Bedroom
$608.00 single occupancy in a Deluxe
Bedroom
Amtrak Roomettes (also called Economy
Bedrooms) provide two arm chairs by day and an upper and lower berth at
night. Roomette passengers have access to toilets and shower rooms on the
lower level of each car. Deluxe Bedrooms provide a sofa and arm chair by
day and an upper and larger lower berth at night. Deluxe Bedrooms have a
compact private toilet and shower in each room. 
A Note About Connecting Air
Travel:
Participants connecting to this tour
by air need to book what the airlines call a “Multi-city” or “Open Jaw”
air ticket. The computer web sites for the major airlines make this very
confusing to do. You do NOT want to book two one-way tickets, as this
results in a very high fare. Instead select “Multi-city”, which allows the
trip to be priced correctly as an “Open Jaw” round-trip. Under “Open Jaw”
rules you pay half the round trip fare from your home to Seattle and half
the return fare from Rapid City back to your home. This is almost always
much cheaper than purchasing two one-way fares. If you have any questions
call us, or your travel agent for help with these reservations.
Conditions and Booking Information (the fine
print)
 
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