We boarded around 8:30 AM to start the journey to Moab, settled into Coach 3, our home base for all three days. We had the same seats, same crew, and same fellow passengers the entire trip. It's a nice touch, you actually get to know your crew, which includes 2 servers and a chef making everything fresh from the galley.
Before boarding, we dropped our bags at the Guest Center and didn't see them again until they showed up in our hotel room in Moab. That kind of door-to-door handoff was amazing and made the train travel easy.
The scenery from Salt Lake City to Moab is a lot of dry, high desert mountain landscape, and the ride itself was surprisingly smooth. Each coach has 2 bathrooms (one ADA compliant), an open viewing area at the back, and an ice water pitcher available all day.
Now the food was something to talk about! They keep you well fed on this train. Breakfast came not long after departure, followed a few hours later by a "light" lunch that was really the same amount (or more) than I typically eat for dinner. There was also carrot cake for dessert that didn't even make it into a photo, which should tell you something.
Once we reached the Thompson Springs station, a bus was waiting to take us to our hotel (guests who'd pre-booked an excursion were routed there instead). Our luggage was already in the room when we arrived, we simply picked up our keys from our Canyon Spirit rep and walked in.
After some downtime, we caught the Canyon Spirit shuttle into town to explore, though the heat sent us back to the hotel to cool off for the evening.
Next stop: Glenwood Springs, where we'll be celebrating the 4th of July. Happy and safe holiday to all of you!