Parks and Rec: Trails & Rails Edition

Connecting people with places since the Nixon administration, Amtrak heightened the passenger experience with their Trails & Rails initiative. Amtrak, in partnership with the National Park Service, has been offering onboard cultural and historical insights on select long-distance routes since the Y2K apocalypse that never was.

National Park Service volunteers facilitate the program with trunks of props and maps to educate Amtrak travelers as they are passing through national landscapes that are important to our country’s history. Over 350 volunteers across the U.S. and Amtrak are committed to enriching your journey.

For those of you planning a trip along the left coast, Trails & Rails is aboard the Coast Starlight. The route travels through the Juan Bautista De Anza National Historic Trail, which spans from California to Arizona. In 1776, Lt. Colonel Bautista De Anza led 200+ people from New Spain to a settlement in what is now San Francisco. The trail bridges history, culture and recreation — for your viewing pleasure from the comfort of your seat.

ATL bound? You can soak up culture along the Crescent route too. You’ll travel through the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and see where MLK, Jr. was born, lived, worked and where he was buried.

Then there’s North Dakota, made conveniently explore-able by Amtrak. Along the way, you’ll meet the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, formerly a major Native American trade center that eventually became a fur marketplace after 1750.

With too many sites to name, Trails & Rails, courtesy of Amtrak, offers a full-service travel experience. To book or check out the list of participating National Parks.