USA · Window guide
Which side of the Empire Builder should you sit on?
A window guide to the Empire Builder (about 2,200 miles / 3,550 km, 86 narrated stories), built from the same route data the Rail Journeys app uses to trigger its narration.
Operated by Amtrak. Rail Journeys of a Lifetime is an independent audio guide and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any railway operator.
The short answer
- Toward Seattle: the narrated sights are split between the two sides of the train — sit where you like and let the narration tell you which way to look for each one.
- Toward Chicago: the narrated sights are split between the two sides of the train — sit where you like and let the narration tell you which way to look for each one.
The app narrates each sight automatically as you reach it and says which side to look — this page is the same route, in order, for planning. "Left" and "right" are relative to the direction of travel.
Distances in the tables are measured along the route geometry from Chicago Union Station and are approximate; the headline distance is the operator's published figure.
Before you board
- This guide follows the Seattle section. At Spokane the train divides: the Portland section runs down the Columbia River Gorge and is not covered on this page.
- Browning is served in winter and East Glacier Park in summer; Essex is a flag stop.
Toward Seattle
| Distance from start | Sight | Look | What you'll hear about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 mi (0 km) | 🚉 Chicago Union Station | — | Station stop |
| 0 mi (0 km) | Chicago Union Station & the Empire Builder | Either side | We're pulling out of Chicago Union Station — take one last look back at that vast, skylit Great Hall. |
| 17 mi (28 km) | Riding the Empire Builder | Either side | Settle in and look around the train itself — and if you can, find the upper level, or the lounge with the big curved windows. |
| 23 mi (37 km) | The Rail Capital of America | Either side | Out the window now, a tangle of tracks, yards, and crossing signals, as we thread our way out of the city. |
| 26 mi (41 km) | Lake Michigan & the North Shore | Right side | Out to the right, beyond the suburbs, a flat blue line meets the sky — that's Lake Michigan, and for a while the train runs near its western |
| 59 mi (95 km) | Racine & Kenosha on the Lake | Right side | The lakeshore towns slipping past, Kenosha and Racine, were busy industrial cities long before the suburbs reached them. |
| 86 mi (138 km) | Milwaukee: Cream City on the Lake | Right side | Lake Michigan opens out to the east as we come into Milwaukee — and the older buildings here glow a pale, creamy yellow. |
| 130 mi (209 km) | Columbus & the Dairyland | Either side | The farms are rolling past now — red barns, tall silver silos, and, if you're lucky, the black-and-white cows that go with them. |
| 131 mi (211 km) | Watertown: The First Kindergarten | Either side | Somewhere in the farm country between Milwaukee and Madison lies the town of Watertown — and American childhood owes it a small debt. |
| 150 mi (242 km) | 🚉 Columbus | — | Station stop |
| 155 mi (249 km) | The Glacial Farm Country | Either side | Beyond Columbus the farmland rolls in long, low, whale-backed hills, all running roughly the same direction — and that pattern is a fingerpr |
| 178 mi (287 km) | Portage: The Mile Between Two Oceans | Either side | The quiet town we're passing is called Portage — and the name is the whole story. |
| 178 mi (287 km) | 🚉 Portage | — | Station stop |
| 188 mi (302 km) | The Baraboo Hills | Either side | The low, wooded ridges rising south of the line near the Wisconsin River are the Baraboo Hills — and they're far older than they look. |
| 195 mi (314 km) | The Wisconsin Dells | Either side | Beside us, the banks of the Wisconsin River are rising into walls of pale, layered sandstone — narrow, sculpted, almost canyon-like. |
| 195 mi (314 km) | 🚉 Wisconsin Dells | — | Station stop |
| 225 mi (362 km) | Central Wisconsin's Sand Country | Either side | Flat, sandy ground spreads out here, with scrubby jack pine and wide marshes — and this poor, thirsty soil has its own quiet fame. |
| 240 mi (386 km) | Tomah & the Cranberry Marshes | Either side | The low, wet ground near Tomah is laid out in an odd pattern — flat beds of red-green vines in squares, edged by ditches and dikes, sometime |
| 240 mi (386 km) | 🚉 Tomah | — | Station stop |
| 248 mi (398 km) | The Elroy–Sparta Tunnels | Either side | This pretty stretch of Wisconsin hides a piece of railroad history. |
| 257 mi (413 km) | The Driftless Area | Either side | Notice how the land has changed — no longer flat or gently rolling, but cut into steep, wooded ridges and deep, narrow valleys, with rocky b |
| 281 mi (453 km) | 🚉 La Crosse | — | Station stop |
| 281 mi (453 km) | La Crosse: Three Rivers & the Flyway | Either side | Three rivers come together here at La Crosse — wide water, green marshy islands, and great bluffs rising behind the town. |
| 297 mi (479 km) | Trempealeau: The Mountain in the River | Right side | Watch for an odd, lonely bluff standing right out in the Mississippi itself, ringed by water. |
| 308 mi (495 km) | Winona & the Lumber Mississippi | Either side | Pressed between the river and a wall of bluffs sits Winona, Minnesota, with one steep, bare-topped hill standing over it — that's Sugar Loaf |
| 308 mi (495 km) | 🚉 Winona | — | Station stop |
| 340 mi (547 km) | Wabasha & the Eagles | Right side | The river town of Wabasha is one of the best places in America to see a bald eagle. |
| 357 mi (574 km) | The Upper Mississippi & Lake Pepin | Right side | The great river beside us is swelling until it looks less like a river than a long, shining lake, walled by steep tree-covered bluffs. |
| 370 mi (595 km) | Red Wing on the River | Left side | The handsome river town tucked beneath a great bluff is Red Wing, named for a line of Dakota chiefs who lived here. |
| 370 mi (596 km) | 🚉 Red Wing | — | Station stop |
| 398 mi (640 km) | The Mississippi at the Twin Cities | Either side | The broad river the train is crossing as we leave the Twin Cities is no ordinary river — it's the Mississippi. |
| 410 mi (660 km) | 🚉 Saint Paul Union Depot | — | Station stop |
| 410 mi (660 km) | St. Paul: The Empire Builder's House | Either side | Somewhere in St. Paul, as we pass through, stands the house of the man who built this line. |
| 411 mi (661 km) | James J. Hill: The Empire Builder | Right side | This train has a name — the Empire Builder — and it isn't a poster slogan. |
| 420 mi (676 km) | Minneapolis: The Mill City | Either side | As the train works its way out of the Twin Cities, it passes the place that made Minneapolis: the only true waterfall on the whole Mississip |
| 484 mi (779 km) | St. Cloud: The Granite City | Either side | The Mississippi is close beside us again as we pass through St. Cloud — and the bedrock here has a story. |
| 484 mi (780 km) | 🚉 Saint Cloud | — | Station stop |
| 516 mi (831 km) | Minnesota's Glacial Lake Country | Either side | The country is filling with water now — lakes everywhere, large and small, ringed with woods and reeds, scattered across the land in no part |
| 550 mi (885 km) | 🚉 Staples | — | Station stop |
| 592 mi (953 km) | White Earth & the Ojibwe Homelands | Either side | This country of lakes, marshes, birch and pine is beautiful — and far older as a homeland than any town on this line. |
| 612 mi (984 km) | Detroit Lakes: The Edge of the Woods | Either side | Around the resort town of Detroit Lakes, a last cluster of lakes glints through the trees — and this may be the last of the true lake-and-wo |
| 612 mi (984 km) | 🚉 Detroit Lakes | — | Station stop |
| 634 mi (1020 km) | The Red River Valley: The Floor of a Vanished Sea | Either side | The land has gone table-flat now — not rolling, not gently level, but flat to the horizon in every direction. |
| 636 mi (1024 km) | The Bonanza Wheat Farms | Either side | The land has gone flat and vast — fields running clean to the horizon with almost nothing to interrupt them. |
| 660 mi (1063 km) | 🚉 Fargo | — | Station stop |
| 660 mi (1063 km) | Fargo: Named for the Express Man | Either side | This city on the Red River is Fargo — a name you may know from a very different place. |
| 735 mi (1183 km) | 🚉 Grand Forks | — | Station stop |
| 820 mi (1320 km) | 🚉 Devils Lake | — | Station stop |
| 820 mi (1320 km) | Devils Lake: The Lake With No Way Out | Either side | The water near Devils Lake holds a strange sight — dead trees standing in it, and roads that run straight down into it and vanish. |
| 864 mi (1390 km) | The 100th Meridian (night/transit micro-moment) | Either side | Somewhere out in the dark of the plains tonight, with no sign or fence to mark it, we cross one of the most important invisible lines in Ame |
| 877 mi (1411 km) | 🚉 Rugby | — | Station stop |
| 877 mi (1411 km) | Rugby: The Middle of a Continent | Either side | In the little town of Rugby stands a stout stone cairn by the main crossroads — and it marks something worth considering. |
| 938 mi (1510 km) | 🚉 Minot | — | Station stop |
| 938 mi (1510 km) | Minot: The Magic City | Either side | The town we're reaching, Minot, has a wonderful nickname: the Magic City. |
| 991 mi (1595 km) | 🚉 Stanley | — | Station stop |
| 994 mi (1600 km) | North Dakota: The Towns the Railroad Made | Either side | The towns out here all look oddly alike — a grid of streets, a water tower, and one tall thing: a grain elevator beside the tracks. |
| 1057 mi (1702 km) | 🚉 Williston | — | Station stop |
| 1057 mi (1702 km) | Williston & the Bakken | Either side | Out here in the far west of North Dakota, things appear that don't fit a farm landscape — flares of burning gas, nodding pumpjacks, truck af |
| 1069 mi (1720 km) | Dawn on the Badlands | Either side | If the early light wakes you, look out at how the smooth plains have begun to crack and crumble — into ravines, bare clay buttes, and stripe |
| 1080 mi (1739 km) | Fort Union: The Empire Before the Rails | Left side | Near where the Yellowstone River pours into the Missouri stand the white walls and bastions of an old fur-trading fort. |
| 1106 mi (1780 km) | The Prairie Night | Either side | If you're awake as darkness falls over the plains, look up — and out. |
| 1112 mi (1790 km) | Watch for Pronghorn | Either side | Keep an eye on the open grass out here, and watch for pronghorn — small, pale, antelope-like animals, usually in little bands, drifting acro |
| 1164 mi (1873 km) | 🚉 Wolf Point | — | Station stop |
| 1164 mi (1873 km) | Wolf Point & the Fort Peck Country | Either side | Across this stretch of eastern Montana, the country you're crossing is the Fort Peck Reservation — wide grass, and the Missouri-country hori |
| 1195 mi (1923 km) | The Missouri Breaks | Either side | This rugged, broken country to the south, where the land falls away into coulees and buttes, is the Missouri Breaks — where the great river |
| 1213 mi (1952 km) | 🚉 Glasgow | — | Station stop |
| 1213 mi (1953 km) | Glasgow & the Fort Peck Dam | Either side | The plains town of Glasgow looks like every other on the Hi-Line — but just south of here sits one of the great works of the Depression. |
| 1240 mi (1995 km) | The Milk River & the Hi-Line | Either side | The river drifting along beside the train, pale and cloudy, is the Milk — and Lewis and Clark gave it that name, writing that its water look |
| 1243 mi (2000 km) | The Great Plains: Big Sky | Either side | Look out, and just… keep looking. |
| 1258 mi (2025 km) | The American Prairie & the Bison | Either side | Somewhere south of the train, an extraordinary experiment is underway. |
| 1269 mi (2042 km) | Bowdoin & the Prairie Potholes | Either side | The shallow lakes and reedy ponds scattered across this country aren't random — they're prairie potholes, thousands of little glacier-dug ho |
| 1278 mi (2057 km) | Malta & the Dinosaurs | Either side | The small town of Malta sits in the middle of some of the richest dinosaur country on Earth. |
| 1279 mi (2058 km) | 🚉 Malta | — | Station stop |
| 1318 mi (2121 km) | The Milk River Sugar Beets | Either side | Look for fields here that are greener and more orderly than the dry range around them — rows of leafy crops fed by ditches drawing off the M |
| 1340 mi (2157 km) | The Bears Paw & Chief Joseph's Surrender | Left side | Those low, dark mountains rising alone from the plains to the south are the Bears Paw — and at their foot, in eighteen seventy-seven, one of |
| 1366 mi (2198 km) | Havre: Capital of the Hi-Line | Either side | This busy little city is Havre — the unofficial capital of the Hi-Line, and a railroad town to its core. |
| 1366 mi (2198 km) | 🚉 Havre | — | Station stop |
| 1376 mi (2215 km) | Montana Ranch Country | Either side | Out here is the working heart of Montana: black cattle scattered across the grass, big round bales of hay dotting the cut fields, a lone ran |
| 1404 mi (2260 km) | How the Hi-Line Works | Either side | This empty-looking stretch is one of the busiest freight railroads in the country — and watching it work is half the fun. |
| 1440 mi (2318 km) | The Marias & the Hard Decision | Left side | The river joining the country here is the Marias — and it once nearly ended the most famous expedition in American history. |
| 1448 mi (2330 km) | The Sweet Grass Hills | Right side | Far off to the north, three dark, isolated mountains rise alone out of the flat plain, blue with distance — the Sweet Grass Hills. |
| 1460 mi (2350 km) | The First Sight of the Rockies | Either side | Look ahead, to the west, and keep looking. |
| 1470 mi (2365 km) | 🚉 Shelby | — | Station stop |
| 1470 mi (2366 km) | Shelby: The Fight on the Prairie | Either side | The oil-and-cattle town of Shelby pulled off one of the wildest stunts in sporting history. |
| 1494 mi (2404 km) | Cut Bank: The Cold Corner | Either side | Pressed up against the mountains now filling the western sky sits Cut Bank, which likes to claim a chilly title: the coldest spot in the nat |
| 1494 mi (2404 km) | 🚉 Cut Bank | — | Station stop |
| 1527 mi (2457 km) | Browning: The Blackfeet Nation | Either side | Browning is the heart of the Blackfeet Nation — the headquarters of a people who held these plains and these mountains for centuries before |
| 1527 mi (2458 km) | 🚉 Browning | — | Station stop (winter only) |
| 1527 mi (2458 km) | Blackfeet Country at the Edge of Glacier | Either side | We're at the exact line where the endless plains run up against the wall of the Rockies — and for thousands of years, this has been the coun |
| 1539 mi (2477 km) | The Two Medicine Trestle | Either side | The ground is about to fall away. |
| 1541 mi (2479 km) | 🚉 East Glacier Park | — | Station stop (summer only) |
| 1541 mi (2479 km) | Glacier Park Lodge: The Forest Indoors | Either side | If you glimpse the great lodge at East Glacier, look at its porch — those aren't ordinary posts. |
| 1552 mi (2498 km) | Marias Pass: The Gateway Everyone Forgot | Left side | Notice how gentle this crossing of the Rocky Mountains is — no dizzying climb, just a broad, open valley easing us over the spine of the con |
| 1570 mi (2527 km) | 🚉 Essex | — | Request stop (flag stop) |
| 1570 mi (2527 km) | Essex: Where They Push the Trains | Either side | At the tiny mountain settlement of Essex, on the edge of Glacier, look for extra locomotives idling in the yard, waiting. |
| 1571 mi (2529 km) | The Walton Goat Lick | Either side | Keep a sharp eye on the steep slopes and the gravel bars by the river here — this is the Walton Goat Lick, one of the few places in America |
| 1597 mi (2570 km) | 🚉 West Glacier | — | Station stop |
| 1597 mi (2570 km) | Glacier: The Park the Railroad Built | Either side | Look north, to the wall of jagged, ice-carved peaks they call the Crown of the Continent. |
| 1607 mi (2586 km) | The Flathead & Bad Rock Canyon | Either side | If there's still light as we come down the west side of the mountains, watch for a green river swinging in beside us and a narrow gap in the |
| 1619 mi (2606 km) | 🚉 Whitefish | — | Station stop |
| 1619 mi (2606 km) | Whitefish: A Town on the Timetable | Either side | This trim mountain town with its handsome timber depot is Whitefish, Montana. |
| 1721 mi (2770 km) | Libby & the Kootenai | Either side | Deep in the forests of Montana's far northwest, if you're still awake, the train threads the timber town of Libby — walled in by the Cabinet |
| 1721 mi (2770 km) | 🚉 Libby | — | Station stop |
| 1805 mi (2905 km) | The Bridge Over Lake Pend Oreille | Right side | If you're awake as we reach the Idaho panhandle, watch the train roll onto a long, low bridge that seems to run straight across open water. |
| 1871 mi (3012 km) | 🚉 Spokane | — | Station stop |
| 1871 mi (3012 km) | Spokane & the Run to the Sea | Either side | In the small hours at Spokane, the train does something unusual: it splits in two. |
| 1991 mi (3203 km) | 🚉 Ephrata | — | Station stop |
| 2041 mi (3284 km) | The Columbia River Crossing | Either side | At first light, the train comes down to a truly great river — the Columbia, the largest river flowing into the Pacific from North America, a |
| 2043 mi (3287 km) | 🚉 Wenatchee | — | Station stop |
| 2043 mi (3287 km) | Wenatchee: The Apple Capital | Either side | As we come down to the Columbia near Wenatchee, the hillsides fill with row after row of fruit trees — an ocean of orchards in the dry mount |
| 2065 mi (3323 km) | 🚉 Leavenworth | — | Station stop |
| 2065 mi (3323 km) | Leavenworth: The Town that Became Bavaria | Either side | On the western slope of the Cascades you may glimpse Leavenworth — and do a double-take, because it looks like an Alpine village in Germany. |
| 2067 mi (3326 km) | Tumwater Canyon | Either side | Climbing toward the crest of the Cascades, the train and the Wenatchee River squeeze together into a tight, roaring gorge: Tumwater Canyon. |
| 2088 mi (3360 km) | The Climb into the Cascades | Either side | Notice the country greening and rising as we climb. |
| 2097 mi (3375 km) | The Cascade Tunnel & the Wellington Avalanche | Right side | We're about to pass through a tunnel almost eight miles long — the longest railroad tunnel in the United States. |
| 2110 mi (3395 km) | The Skykomish & the Cascade Forests | Either side | Out of the long darkness of the Cascade Tunnel, the world has utterly changed — gone are the dry plains, and suddenly the train is dropping |
| 2113 mi (3401 km) | Skykomish: The Mountain Railroad | Either side | The tiny town of Skykomish, deep in the firs, lived and breathed the railroad's hardest miles. |
| 2127 mi (3423 km) | Index & the Wild Sky | Either side | As we drop through the forest, look up — sheer walls of pale granite leap straight out of the trees above the little town of Index. |
| 2155 mi (3469 km) | The Snohomish Valley to the Sea | Either side | The mountains release us at last into a wide, green river valley — the Snohomish — patchworked with dairy farms and berry fields, the land f |
| 2163 mi (3480 km) | 🚉 Everett | — | Station stop |
| 2163 mi (3480 km) | Everett: Hill's Door to the Pacific | Either side | We're coming down to the waters of Puget Sound near Everett — the salt water this whole railroad was reaching for. |
| 2176 mi (3502 km) | Puget Sound & the Arrival in Seattle | Either side | The salt water spreads wide now, dotted with islands and crossed by white ferries — this is Puget Sound, and we run right along its edge for |
| 2179 mi (3507 km) | 🚉 Edmonds | — | Station stop |
| 2197 mi (3535 km) | 🚉 Seattle King Street | — | Station stop |
Toward Chicago
| Distance from start | Sight | Look | What you'll hear about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 mi (0 km) | 🚉 Seattle King Street | — | Station stop |
| 17 mi (28 km) | 🚉 Edmonds | — | Station stop |
| 20 mi (33 km) | Puget Sound & the Arrival in Seattle | Either side | The salt water spreads wide now, dotted with islands and crossed by white ferries — this is Puget Sound, and we run right along its edge for |
| 34 mi (55 km) | Everett: Hill's Door to the Pacific | Either side | We're coming down to the waters of Puget Sound near Everett — the salt water this whole railroad was reaching for. |
| 34 mi (55 km) | 🚉 Everett | — | Station stop |
| 41 mi (66 km) | The Snohomish Valley to the Sea | Either side | The mountains release us at last into a wide, green river valley — the Snohomish — patchworked with dairy farms and berry fields, the land f |
| 69 mi (112 km) | Index & the Wild Sky | Either side | As we drop through the forest, look up — sheer walls of pale granite leap straight out of the trees above the little town of Index. |
| 83 mi (134 km) | Skykomish: The Mountain Railroad | Either side | The tiny town of Skykomish, deep in the firs, lived and breathed the railroad's hardest miles. |
| 87 mi (140 km) | The Skykomish & the Cascade Forests | Either side | Out of the long darkness of the Cascade Tunnel, the world has utterly changed — gone are the dry plains, and suddenly the train is dropping |
| 100 mi (160 km) | The Cascade Tunnel & the Wellington Avalanche | Left side | We're about to pass through a tunnel almost eight miles long — the longest railroad tunnel in the United States. |
| 109 mi (175 km) | The Climb into the Cascades | Either side | Notice the country greening and rising as we climb. |
| 130 mi (209 km) | Tumwater Canyon | Either side | Climbing toward the crest of the Cascades, the train and the Wenatchee River squeeze together into a tight, roaring gorge: Tumwater Canyon. |
| 132 mi (212 km) | Leavenworth: The Town that Became Bavaria | Either side | On the western slope of the Cascades you may glimpse Leavenworth — and do a double-take, because it looks like an Alpine village in Germany. |
| 132 mi (212 km) | 🚉 Leavenworth | — | Station stop |
| 154 mi (248 km) | Wenatchee: The Apple Capital | Either side | As we come down to the Columbia near Wenatchee, the hillsides fill with row after row of fruit trees — an ocean of orchards in the dry mount |
| 154 mi (248 km) | 🚉 Wenatchee | — | Station stop |
| 156 mi (251 km) | The Columbia River Crossing | Either side | At first light, the train comes down to a truly great river — the Columbia, the largest river flowing into the Pacific from North America, a |
| 206 mi (332 km) | 🚉 Ephrata | — | Station stop |
| 325 mi (523 km) | Spokane & the Run to the Sea | Either side | In the small hours at Spokane, the train does something unusual: it splits in two. |
| 325 mi (523 km) | 🚉 Spokane | — | Station stop |
| 392 mi (630 km) | The Bridge Over Lake Pend Oreille | Left side | If you're awake as we reach the Idaho panhandle, watch the train roll onto a long, low bridge that seems to run straight across open water. |
| 476 mi (765 km) | 🚉 Libby | — | Station stop |
| 476 mi (766 km) | Libby & the Kootenai | Either side | Deep in the forests of Montana's far northwest, if you're still awake, the train threads the timber town of Libby — walled in by the Cabinet |
| 577 mi (929 km) | Whitefish: A Town on the Timetable | Either side | This trim mountain town with its handsome timber depot is Whitefish, Montana. |
| 577 mi (929 km) | 🚉 Whitefish | — | Station stop |
| 589 mi (949 km) | The Flathead & Bad Rock Canyon | Either side | If there's still light as we come down the west side of the mountains, watch for a green river swinging in beside us and a narrow gap in the |
| 600 mi (965 km) | Glacier: The Park the Railroad Built | Either side | Look north, to the wall of jagged, ice-carved peaks they call the Crown of the Continent. |
| 600 mi (965 km) | 🚉 West Glacier | — | Station stop |
| 625 mi (1006 km) | The Walton Goat Lick | Either side | Keep a sharp eye on the steep slopes and the gravel bars by the river here — this is the Walton Goat Lick, one of the few places in America |
| 627 mi (1008 km) | Essex: Where They Push the Trains | Either side | At the tiny mountain settlement of Essex, on the edge of Glacier, look for extra locomotives idling in the yard, waiting. |
| 627 mi (1008 km) | 🚉 Essex | — | Request stop (flag stop) |
| 644 mi (1037 km) | Marias Pass: The Gateway Everyone Forgot | Right side | Notice how gentle this crossing of the Rocky Mountains is — no dizzying climb, just a broad, open valley easing us over the spine of the con |
| 656 mi (1056 km) | Glacier Park Lodge: The Forest Indoors | Either side | If you glimpse the great lodge at East Glacier, look at its porch — those aren't ordinary posts. |
| 656 mi (1056 km) | 🚉 East Glacier Park | — | Station stop (summer only) |
| 658 mi (1059 km) | The Two Medicine Trestle | Either side | The ground is about to fall away. |
| 669 mi (1077 km) | Blackfeet Country at the Edge of Glacier | Either side | We're at the exact line where the endless plains run up against the wall of the Rockies — and for thousands of years, this has been the coun |
| 669 mi (1077 km) | 🚉 Browning | — | Station stop (winter only) |
| 670 mi (1078 km) | Browning: The Blackfeet Nation | Either side | Browning is the heart of the Blackfeet Nation — the headquarters of a people who held these plains and these mountains for centuries before |
| 703 mi (1131 km) | 🚉 Cut Bank | — | Station stop |
| 703 mi (1131 km) | Cut Bank: The Cold Corner | Either side | Pressed up against the mountains now filling the western sky sits Cut Bank, which likes to claim a chilly title: the coldest spot in the nat |
| 727 mi (1169 km) | Shelby: The Fight on the Prairie | Either side | The oil-and-cattle town of Shelby pulled off one of the wildest stunts in sporting history. |
| 727 mi (1170 km) | 🚉 Shelby | — | Station stop |
| 736 mi (1185 km) | The First Sight of the Rockies | Either side | Look ahead, to the west, and keep looking. |
| 749 mi (1205 km) | The Sweet Grass Hills | Left side | Far off to the north, three dark, isolated mountains rise alone out of the flat plain, blue with distance — the Sweet Grass Hills. |
| 756 mi (1217 km) | The Marias & the Hard Decision | Right side | The river joining the country here is the Marias — and it once nearly ended the most famous expedition in American history. |
| 792 mi (1275 km) | How the Hi-Line Works | Either side | This empty-looking stretch is one of the busiest freight railroads in the country — and watching it work is half the fun. |
| 820 mi (1320 km) | Montana Ranch Country | Either side | Out here is the working heart of Montana: black cattle scattered across the grass, big round bales of hay dotting the cut fields, a lone ran |
| 831 mi (1337 km) | 🚉 Havre | — | Station stop |
| 831 mi (1337 km) | Havre: Capital of the Hi-Line | Either side | This busy little city is Havre — the unofficial capital of the Hi-Line, and a railroad town to its core. |
| 856 mi (1378 km) | The Bears Paw & Chief Joseph's Surrender | Right side | Those low, dark mountains rising alone from the plains to the south are the Bears Paw — and at their foot, in eighteen seventy-seven, one of |
| 879 mi (1414 km) | The Milk River Sugar Beets | Either side | Look for fields here that are greener and more orderly than the dry range around them — rows of leafy crops fed by ditches drawing off the M |
| 918 mi (1477 km) | 🚉 Malta | — | Station stop |
| 918 mi (1478 km) | Malta & the Dinosaurs | Either side | The small town of Malta sits in the middle of some of the richest dinosaur country on Earth. |
| 928 mi (1493 km) | Bowdoin & the Prairie Potholes | Either side | The shallow lakes and reedy ponds scattered across this country aren't random — they're prairie potholes, thousands of little glacier-dug ho |
| 938 mi (1510 km) | The American Prairie & the Bison | Either side | Somewhere south of the train, an extraordinary experiment is underway. |
| 954 mi (1535 km) | The Great Plains: Big Sky | Either side | Look out, and just… keep looking. |
| 957 mi (1540 km) | The Milk River & the Hi-Line | Either side | The river drifting along beside the train, pale and cloudy, is the Milk — and Lewis and Clark gave it that name, writing that its water look |
| 983 mi (1582 km) | Glasgow & the Fort Peck Dam | Either side | The plains town of Glasgow looks like every other on the Hi-Line — but just south of here sits one of the great works of the Depression. |
| 983 mi (1583 km) | 🚉 Glasgow | — | Station stop |
| 1002 mi (1612 km) | The Missouri Breaks | Either side | This rugged, broken country to the south, where the land falls away into coulees and buttes, is the Missouri Breaks — where the great river |
| 1033 mi (1662 km) | Wolf Point & the Fort Peck Country | Either side | Across this stretch of eastern Montana, the country you're crossing is the Fort Peck Reservation — wide grass, and the Missouri-country hori |
| 1033 mi (1662 km) | 🚉 Wolf Point | — | Station stop |
| 1084 mi (1745 km) | Watch for Pronghorn | Either side | Keep an eye on the open grass out here, and watch for pronghorn — small, pale, antelope-like animals, usually in little bands, drifting acro |
| 1091 mi (1755 km) | The Prairie Night | Either side | If you're awake as darkness falls over the plains, look up — and out. |
| 1116 mi (1796 km) | Fort Union: The Empire Before the Rails | Right side | Near where the Yellowstone River pours into the Missouri stand the white walls and bastions of an old fur-trading fort. |
| 1128 mi (1815 km) | Dawn on the Badlands | Either side | If the early light wakes you, look out at how the smooth plains have begun to crack and crumble — into ravines, bare clay buttes, and stripe |
| 1139 mi (1833 km) | Williston & the Bakken | Either side | Out here in the far west of North Dakota, things appear that don't fit a farm landscape — flares of burning gas, nodding pumpjacks, truck af |
| 1139 mi (1833 km) | 🚉 Williston | — | Station stop |
| 1202 mi (1935 km) | North Dakota: The Towns the Railroad Made | Either side | The towns out here all look oddly alike — a grid of streets, a water tower, and one tall thing: a grain elevator beside the tracks. |
| 1205 mi (1940 km) | 🚉 Stanley | — | Station stop |
| 1259 mi (2025 km) | Minot: The Magic City | Either side | The town we're reaching, Minot, has a wonderful nickname: the Magic City. |
| 1259 mi (2025 km) | 🚉 Minot | — | Station stop |
| 1320 mi (2124 km) | Rugby: The Middle of a Continent | Either side | In the little town of Rugby stands a stout stone cairn by the main crossroads — and it marks something worth considering. |
| 1320 mi (2124 km) | 🚉 Rugby | — | Station stop |
| 1333 mi (2145 km) | The 100th Meridian (night/transit micro-moment) | Either side | Somewhere out in the dark of the plains tonight, with no sign or fence to mark it, we cross one of the most important invisible lines in Ame |
| 1377 mi (2216 km) | Devils Lake: The Lake With No Way Out | Either side | The water near Devils Lake holds a strange sight — dead trees standing in it, and roads that run straight down into it and vanish. |
| 1377 mi (2216 km) | 🚉 Devils Lake | — | Station stop |
| 1462 mi (2352 km) | 🚉 Grand Forks | — | Station stop |
| 1536 mi (2472 km) | Fargo: Named for the Express Man | Either side | This city on the Red River is Fargo — a name you may know from a very different place. |
| 1536 mi (2472 km) | 🚉 Fargo | — | Station stop |
| 1561 mi (2512 km) | The Bonanza Wheat Farms | Either side | The land has gone flat and vast — fields running clean to the horizon with almost nothing to interrupt them. |
| 1563 mi (2515 km) | The Red River Valley: The Floor of a Vanished Sea | Either side | The land has gone table-flat now — not rolling, not gently level, but flat to the horizon in every direction. |
| 1585 mi (2551 km) | 🚉 Detroit Lakes | — | Station stop |
| 1585 mi (2551 km) | Detroit Lakes: The Edge of the Woods | Either side | Around the resort town of Detroit Lakes, a last cluster of lakes glints through the trees — and this may be the last of the true lake-and-wo |
| 1605 mi (2582 km) | White Earth & the Ojibwe Homelands | Either side | This country of lakes, marshes, birch and pine is beautiful — and far older as a homeland than any town on this line. |
| 1647 mi (2650 km) | 🚉 Staples | — | Station stop |
| 1680 mi (2704 km) | Minnesota's Glacial Lake Country | Either side | The country is filling with water now — lakes everywhere, large and small, ringed with woods and reeds, scattered across the land in no part |
| 1712 mi (2755 km) | 🚉 Saint Cloud | — | Station stop |
| 1712 mi (2756 km) | St. Cloud: The Granite City | Either side | The Mississippi is close beside us again as we pass through St. Cloud — and the bedrock here has a story. |
| 1776 mi (2859 km) | Minneapolis: The Mill City | Either side | As the train works its way out of the Twin Cities, it passes the place that made Minneapolis: the only true waterfall on the whole Mississip |
| 1786 mi (2874 km) | James J. Hill: The Empire Builder | Left side | This train has a name — the Empire Builder — and it isn't a poster slogan. |
| 1787 mi (2875 km) | St. Paul: The Empire Builder's House | Either side | Somewhere in St. Paul, as we pass through, stands the house of the man who built this line. |
| 1787 mi (2875 km) | 🚉 Saint Paul Union Depot | — | Station stop |
| 1799 mi (2895 km) | The Mississippi at the Twin Cities | Either side | The broad river the train is crossing as we leave the Twin Cities is no ordinary river — it's the Mississippi. |
| 1827 mi (2939 km) | 🚉 Red Wing | — | Station stop |
| 1827 mi (2940 km) | Red Wing on the River | Right side | The handsome river town tucked beneath a great bluff is Red Wing, named for a line of Dakota chiefs who lived here. |
| 1840 mi (2961 km) | The Upper Mississippi & Lake Pepin | Left side | The great river beside us is swelling until it looks less like a river than a long, shining lake, walled by steep tree-covered bluffs. |
| 1857 mi (2988 km) | Wabasha & the Eagles | Left side | The river town of Wabasha is one of the best places in America to see a bald eagle. |
| 1889 mi (3040 km) | 🚉 Winona | — | Station stop |
| 1889 mi (3040 km) | Winona & the Lumber Mississippi | Either side | Pressed between the river and a wall of bluffs sits Winona, Minnesota, with one steep, bare-topped hill standing over it — that's Sugar Loaf |
| 1899 mi (3056 km) | Trempealeau: The Mountain in the River | Left side | Watch for an odd, lonely bluff standing right out in the Mississippi itself, ringed by water. |
| 1915 mi (3082 km) | La Crosse: Three Rivers & the Flyway | Either side | Three rivers come together here at La Crosse — wide water, green marshy islands, and great bluffs rising behind the town. |
| 1915 mi (3083 km) | 🚉 La Crosse | — | Station stop |
| 1940 mi (3122 km) | The Driftless Area | Either side | Notice how the land has changed — no longer flat or gently rolling, but cut into steep, wooded ridges and deep, narrow valleys, with rocky b |
| 1949 mi (3137 km) | The Elroy–Sparta Tunnels | Either side | This pretty stretch of Wisconsin hides a piece of railroad history. |
| 1956 mi (3149 km) | 🚉 Tomah | — | Station stop |
| 1957 mi (3149 km) | Tomah & the Cranberry Marshes | Either side | The low, wet ground near Tomah is laid out in an odd pattern — flat beds of red-green vines in squares, edged by ditches and dikes, sometime |
| 1972 mi (3173 km) | Central Wisconsin's Sand Country | Either side | Flat, sandy ground spreads out here, with scrubby jack pine and wide marshes — and this poor, thirsty soil has its own quiet fame. |
| 2001 mi (3221 km) | 🚉 Wisconsin Dells | — | Station stop |
| 2002 mi (3221 km) | The Wisconsin Dells | Either side | Beside us, the banks of the Wisconsin River are rising into walls of pale, layered sandstone — narrow, sculpted, almost canyon-like. |
| 2009 mi (3233 km) | The Baraboo Hills | Either side | The low, wooded ridges rising south of the line near the Wisconsin River are the Baraboo Hills — and they're far older than they look. |
| 2018 mi (3248 km) | 🚉 Portage | — | Station stop |
| 2018 mi (3248 km) | Portage: The Mile Between Two Oceans | Either side | The quiet town we're passing is called Portage — and the name is the whole story. |
| 2042 mi (3286 km) | The Glacial Farm Country | Either side | Beyond Columbus the farmland rolls in long, low, whale-backed hills, all running roughly the same direction — and that pattern is a fingerpr |
| 2046 mi (3293 km) | 🚉 Columbus | — | Station stop |
| 2065 mi (3324 km) | Watertown: The First Kindergarten | Either side | Somewhere in the farm country between Milwaukee and Madison lies the town of Watertown — and American childhood owes it a small debt. |
| 2066 mi (3326 km) | Columbus & the Dairyland | Either side | The farms are rolling past now — red barns, tall silver silos, and, if you're lucky, the black-and-white cows that go with them. |
| 2111 mi (3397 km) | Milwaukee: Cream City on the Lake | Left side | Lake Michigan opens out to the east as we come into Milwaukee — and the older buildings here glow a pale, creamy yellow. |
| 2137 mi (3440 km) | Racine & Kenosha on the Lake | Left side | The lakeshore towns slipping past, Kenosha and Racine, were busy industrial cities long before the suburbs reached them. |
| 2171 mi (3494 km) | Lake Michigan & the North Shore | Left side | Out to the right, beyond the suburbs, a flat blue line meets the sky — that's Lake Michigan, and for a while the train runs near its western |
| 2173 mi (3498 km) | The Rail Capital of America | Either side | Out the window now, a tangle of tracks, yards, and crossing signals, as we thread our way out of the city. |
| 2179 mi (3507 km) | Riding the Empire Builder | Either side | Settle in and look around the train itself — and if you can, find the upper level, or the lounge with the big curved windows. |
| 2197 mi (3535 km) | Chicago Union Station & the Empire Builder | Either side | We're pulling out of Chicago Union Station — take one last look back at that vast, skylit Great Hall. |
| 2197 mi (3535 km) | 🚉 Chicago Union Station | — | Station stop |
Hear it as you pass
Every sight above has a fully narrated, source-checked story in the Rail Journeys app, triggered by GPS at the right moment — and it works with no signal. Get the Empire Builder guide