ALL ABOARD FOR A PAMPERED PASSAGE THROUGH THE ROCKIES, SIERRAS.

Byline: Story and photos by Eric Noland Travel Editor

ABOARD THE AMERICAN ORIENT EXPRESS - The cottonwoods along the riverbank were ablaze with golden leaves as the train barreled into Gore Canyon in the Rocky Mountains. Steel wheels sang on the rails and the Colorado River was a constant companion.

The only companion, really. There wasn't a road in sight - because the only other way to get through this steep, picturesque cleft in the mountains of Colorado was on foot or in something that floats.

What better justification for a trip across the West on a train?

But not just any train. This wasn't a numbing slog on Amtrak, which has replaced the nostalgic romance of rail travel with an approximation of a Greyhound bus ride. Rather, it was a lap-of-luxury tour on the American Orient Express, a line that revives a bygone era of the posh private rail car - with gourmet meals, champagne receptions, tinkling piano music in the lounge car and white-gloved crew members fussing over passengers at every turn.

``This is like a land cruise,'' said Pat Barker of Fuquay-Varina, N.C., traveling with husband Bob. ``They just do everything for you.''

Indeed, it is best not to think of it merely as Point A-to-Point B transportation in the case of this ``Rockies & Sierras'' trip in October, from Denver to Oakland. This is a tour, in no particular hurry, with a high premium placed on enjoyment of the West's natural wonders.

It's important to know this in advance. Amtrak's California Zephyr makes this run in about 34 hours. To cover the same distance, the American Orient Express requires six days.

It means daytime excursions off the train to Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite, side trips that had us aboard tour buses for 21 hours during the course of the week. ``This is a train trip. Why aren't we on the train more?'' Carol Lied of Milwaukee said in mild dismay over dinner in Yosemite.

Also, in order not to miss any prime scenery during the day, the train routinely parks in a rail yard for the duration of the night - this occurred on four of the five nights we slept aboard the train. As someone who'd looked forward to rocking to sleep in the coziness of my compartment, I was disappointed in this, but I may have been in the minority. Other passengers said they welcomed the train's idleness at night, since it meant showering and dining without being tossed about - and not being kept awake by clanking metal, hissing air brakes and a lurching bunk.

Onboard, crossing 1,397 miles, there was no mistaking the essence of this trip: stunning scenery of snow-capped peaks, evergreen forests, valleys, canyons and deserts, all savored in stress-free comfort. It's a marked departure from the sardine-can existence aboard a modern jetliner, or the harrowing dance with big trucks on the interstate.

``When you drive, you see a lot, but you don't see a lot, because you have to concentrate on what you're doing,'' said passenger Linda Garnatz of Tampa, Fla., who celebrated her recent retirement by driving the length of the continent solo, from Nova Scotia to California. ``I would drive along by the mountains and see roads going up there, or trains going up there, and I thought, 'That's where I want to go.' ''

Now she gazed out a picture window from an overstuffed chair in the Seattle Club Car, taking in the vast expanses of north-central Nevada. ``I love this,'' she said. ``The food. The service. Everything.''

American Orient Express goes to great lengths to ensure that the journey is indulgent on many levels.

To begin with, the dining is first rate. Train travel in the U.S. and on some runs in Europe leans heavily to prepackaged items and employs some of the most overworked microwave ovens on rails.

Not here. At times during the day, I'd gaze into the empty galley and wonder how chef Courtney Nguyen coaxed such exotic dishes out of that tiny space: pan-seared scallop appetizers, luscious Dungeness crab cakes, and perfectly prepared filet mignon, duck breast, wild king salmon and even lobster tail. True, an oven-roasted lamb rack could have been a little more tender, and a sesame-crusted ahi entree was undercooked to the point of resembling sashimi (as it is served in many fine restaurants), but on balance the fare was remarkably good.

The train has its own pastry chef - in our case, Elisa Hindes - who brings forth from those tiny ovens an array of fresh-baked goods: breakfast breads, dinner rolls, desserts (molten lava chocolate cake, for example), and scones and bite-sized pastries for the occasional afternoon tea.

Whew. Before we set out on this trip, tour leader Jeff Bennett joked in a passenger briefing, ``Those of you who have traveled with us before know that AOE stands for 'another opportunity to eat.' ''

Hors d'oeuvres, for example. They're laid out during the cocktail hour in the Seattle Club Car, which is outfitted with a baby grand piano.

Debra McKinnon was at the keyboard during this time and again after dinner, mixing pop standards and Broadway tunes with classical pieces. It provided a fitting soundtrack for the elegant setting, and I marveled at her ability to play a haunting Chopin nocturne on a rocking train without missing a note.

On our trip, there were nine sleeper cars for the passenger list of 54, plus three lounge cars and two dining cars. All are vintage stock, restored to their 1940s and 1950s glory. That means oceans of mahogany paneling, plush swivel chairs, floral fabrics, ceiling paintings and some finely detailed wood marquetry in the dining cars - images of birds in cages constructed from highly polished pieces of red oak, white oak, rosewood, walnut, bird's eye maple and poplar.

The train's sleeping cars are outfitted for comfort, with robes, plush towels and Aveda toiletries. But these compartments were faithfully restored to their original configurations, which means compact spaces that threaten to take your breath away at first encounter.

I had one of the smallest cabins on the train, a vintage Pullman, which measured 7 feet by 5 feet, with a sink, mirror and attached toilet/shower enclosure. By day, there was a sofa along one wall. By night, it converted into a stack of two bunks. This proved perfectly comfortable for a solo traveler, but for a couple?

``I was in there 10 or 15 minutes and I said, 'Jay, there's no way,' '' said Jo Ann Butaud of Shawnee, Kan. ``I was getting claustrophobic.''

Said boyfriend Jay Butler: ``We got moved to a parlor suite - for a fee. They were cutting deals left and right.''

For those who require some elbow room, there are plenty of parlor suites, presidential suites and grand suites, though the fares climb with the square footage, obviously.

In any accommodation, however, it takes time to get used to moving about, cleaning up and getting dressed on a hurtling train. Our speed exceeded 80 mph in some stretches.

A spirit of adventure had me try the shower in my cabin's enclosure - which would have meant standing under the water's stream in a space that was 23 1/2 inches by 35 inches, dominated by a toilet. But the water pressure was just a weak trickle, so I donned a robe and flip-flops and padded down the hall to the car's public shower.

It was spacious, by contrast, and the water stream healthy. A couple of pinball collisions with its walls had me adopting a defensive stance, though - feet apart, knees slightly bent. Later, back in the cabin, it was probably a minor miracle that I shaved with a razor without opening a carotid artery.

It was oddly satisfying to dress up a bit and join fellow passengers in the dining car, there to sip wine from a stemmed glass and deliberate over the choices among five courses on the menu.

The parallels with the modern sea cruise are unmistakable. This trip, offered four times in the fall, isn't cheap - from $3,990 per person, double occupancy, with an early booking. But at least this train line doesn't nickel and dime you with a lot of add-on charges, as most cruise ships do. The fare includes all of the sightseeing excursions off the train, lodging and meals in Yosemite, plus soft drinks, bottled water and even house wines on the train.

The trip attracts travelers who want to experience the sights of the West at an unhurried pace, leaving all the pesky particulars to someone else. Our passenger list comprised mature travelers, some of whom couldn't easily get around; nostalgic baby boomers who recalled crossing these landscapes on Santa Fe trains in the early 1960s; and, of course, train buffs.

The latter continually compared notes with Steve Patterson, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe employee who moonlights as a lecturer on these runs. He's been everything from an engineer to a station clerk, and he knows this route like you know your drive home from work.

With Patterson and Bennett alternately providing commentary over the public-address system, we plunged through 30 tunnels while climbing into the mountains west of Denver, including the six-mile Moffat Tunnel, which cuts beneath the Continental Divide at an elevation of more than 9,000 feet.

Beyond Winter Park Resort on the other side, the tracks coursed through the Fraser Valley, Gore Canyon and Glenwood Canyon before reaching the ``banana belt'' of western Colorado, planted thickly with orchards and even wine grapes.

Though we rumbled through eastern Utah and swung around the Great Salt Lake at night, the train soon picked up the original route of the transcontinental railroad at Wells, Nev., and followed the California Emigrant Trail into the Donner Pass and over the Sierra Nevada.

The scenery was best enjoyed during the day, either from the dome car or any of the vestibules between the sleeping cars - where you could peek out the open half-door and breathe in the crisp air of the Rockies or the salt scents of San Francisco Bay.

But on the one night when we were moving, I also enjoyed waking to peer out on the featureless landscape of the Great Salt Lake Desert in northwestern Utah, softly lit by a quarter moon.

From this setting, a passenger could rise up on an elbow, savor it for a moment, then lie back down, to be gently rocked back to sleep by the reassuring rhythm of the rails.

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: American Orient Express will offer its ``Rockies & Sierras'' tour four times in 2006, twice in each direction. The Oakland-to-Denver trip is scheduled for Sept. 6-12 and Sept. 20-26, the Denver-to-Oakland trip Sept. 13-19 and Sept. 27-Oct. 3. (On the California end, the train actually uses Emeryville station, just north of Oakland.) Early booking fares start at $3,990 per person, double occupancy. Fare includes meals, house wine, bottled water, soft drinks and snacks, as well as three guided sightseeing excursions off the train - Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah; Lake Tahoe, where the group is taken on a boat tour of the north shore; and Yosemite National Park, with overnight lodging, all dining and sightseeing tours covered. Solo travelers can book a single sleeper compartment for $4,990. Information: www.americanorientexpress.com; [phone].

OTHER TOURS: AOE offers a number of train trips in the U.S., among them ``Antebellum South,'' ``Great Transcontinental Rail Journey'' (Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.) and ``Coastal Culinary Adventure.'' The latter is a trip from Los Angeles to Seattle (or the reverse), with a visit to the Napa Valley wine country, a progressive lunch in San Francisco and a cooking demonstration in Portland, Ore., among other offerings. Priced from $2,990 per person with an early booking, it will be offered May 2-8 and Nov. 14-20 from Los Angeles to Seattle, May 9-15 from Seattle to Los Angeles.

ALTERNATIVE: To see the same Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada scenery by train, another option is Amtrak's California Zephyr, which travels the identical tracks between Emeryville and Denver (and continues on to Chicago). The Emeryville-Denver trip, scheduled for 33 hours, departs at 9:15 a.m. and is scheduled for arrival the following evening at 7. The Denver-Emeryville itinerary also involves a morning departure and evening arrival one day later. On Amtrak's Web site, the fare for these trips ranges from $538 to $941 for a sleeper compartment for two people, depending on dates of travel; meals not included. Be advised that Amtrak's Web site currently lists a service alert of ``possible train delays'' on this run. www.amtrak.com; [phone].

CAPTION(S):

9 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) Porter Javier Garza, top, calls passengers aboard the American Orient Express, an upscale train that rolls through picturesque Rocky Mountain canyons on its way west, center. Onboard life is easy, which is outfitted with a baby grand piano. At left, the train passes through Thompson, Utah, at twilight.

(5) The American Orient Express' Rockies/Sierras trip includes an excursion to Arches National Park in Utah.

(6) Restored train cars with elegant wood paneling, fresh flowers and fine tableware complement the gourmet cuisine available on the American Orient Express.

(7) White-gloved porter Javier Garcia helps a passenger off the train in Emeryville at the end of the Rockies/Sierras journey.

(8) Rocky Mountain views and grapevines can be seen from the train near Grand Junction, Colo.

(9) It's not your average train trip - not when formal afternoon tea is served with fresh pastries baked on board.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

Box:

IF YOU GO (see text)

Map:

no caption (American Orient Express train route)

Not to scale