Page 38 - The Magazine of AAA Ohio Auto Club – November 2020

Riding the Rails
Visit America’s national parks, and popular cities, with Amtrak Vacations
By John T. Garcia
Usually, it takes a harsh winter for us to yearn
for travel, but with the state of the world as it is, that yearning has arrived long before the leaves
even had a chance to change colors.
And because of the pandemic, restrictions on travel
outside our country’s borders seem to change on a weekly basis. That being said, I’m sure there are plenty of places that you have yet to discover in the United States, with the national parks being high on that list.
National parks must be recognized by an act of Congress and the first was Yellowstone National Park in 1872. It would take another 44 years for the establishment of the National Park Service, which today operates
62 national parks throughout the United States.
Many people don’t realize that America’s early railroad companies were instrumental in creating our national parks. Because of their energetic public relations efforts, the Northern Pacific Railroad aided in the national park designation of Yellowstone. The Southern Pacific
Photo: Amtrak Vacations
Railroad worked diligently behind the scenes to help Yosemite (California) and Crater Lake (Oregon) obtain their national park statuses in 1890 and 1902, respectively. Also, the Great Northern Railway paved the way for the creation of Glacier National Park (Montana) in 1910.
Today, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., otherwise known as Amtrak, offers plenty of trips to visit the national parks through its Amtrak Vacations program, which has packages for everyone, and all include tours of the national parks.
The Grand Canyon Getaway takes you to, you guessed it, the Grand Canyon, in a four-day package which includes a trip on the Grand Canyon Railway. The Rails to the Grand Canyon also features the Grand Canyon Railway and national park tour but also includes roundtrip on Amtrak from Los Angeles in a five-day package.
The Glacier National Park Getaway takes you to Montana to experience Big Sky Country in a four-day
36 | AAA MAGAZINE