Summer Tours–1927 Season

This embossed-cover booklet offers tours to Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain national parks (“Y tours”), to Zion and Grand Canyon national parks (“Z tours”–Bryce Canyon was not designated a national park until 1928), and to California (“C tours”). The booklet is adorned with nearly a dozen color and more than two-dozen black-and-white photos. Instead of showing a scene from one of the destinations, like the other embossed books, this one has the C&NW and UP heralds embossed on the cover.


Click image to download a 30.3-MB PDF of this 52-page booklet.

The Y tour lasted 14 days, including five days in Yellowstone, three in Rocky Mountain, a day in Salt Lake City, and afternoons in Salt Lake and Ogden. There is an optional two-day extension to Colorado Springs. The total cost of the tour, for people using a lower berth and staying in the fancier hotels in Yellowstone, was about $220 (multiply by 11 to get today’s dollars), and about $28 more for the Colorado Springs extension.

The Z tours were also 14 days, including 6 in southern Utah, a day in Salt Lake City, and a one-day side-trip to Colorado Springs (the remaining days being en route from and to Chicago). The cost was about $250. All prices were all-inclusive, meaning they covered hotels and meals, plus an escort to personally guide each tour (wouldn’t that have been a great job?).

The C tours required 21 days, including six days in Southern California, three in Yosemite, three in San Francisco, and a day at Lake Tahoe. The cost was $380, more than $4,000 in today’s money. Passengers could save a little if two were traveling together and willing to share a lower berth.

All of the Z tours started on Saturdays from June 11 to September 10. Y tours started on Thursdays, Saturdays, or Mondays from June 16 through September 10. Only three C tours were offered all summer, leaving Saturdays June 25, July 16, and August 6.


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