Unlike the joint UP/C&NW booklets that offered tours from Chicago, this little brochure focuses on escorted tours from Los Angeles. Since Yellowstone and southern Utah parks could be reached from L.A. exclusively on UP rails, the brochure does not need to mention the Chicago & North Western or Southern Pacific.
Click image to download a 5.8-MB PDF of this 16-page brochure.
A six-day, seven-night tour to Bryce, Zion, Cedar Breaks, and the Grand Canyon cost under $100, including all meals, lodging, and transportation. That sounds cheap, but in today’s dollars it’s more than $1,300. A similar six-day, seven-night tour to Yellowstone was under $120 (almost $1,600 today). A two-week tour that takes in Yellowstone and the southern Utah parks was under $190 (about $2,500 today).
Note that the 1930 Yellowstone tours were one day longer than in 1939. The 1939 tours saved a day by spending only 1-3/4 hours at Mammoth Hot Springs instead a day and night, as the 1930 tours had done. Yet, in today’s dollars, both tours cost about the same.
The tours all left L.A. at 8 pm and returned at 8:30 am. Based on the 1937 timetable, this means they took the Los Angeles Limited. Between Salt Lake and Yellowstone they rode the Yellowstone Special. Those going on the two-week tours took the Pacific Limited from Salt Lake to southern Utah.
The southern Utah tours left L.A. every other Saturday during the summer, while the Yellowstone tours left on alternate Saturdays. Those wanting to go on the two-week tours would start with the one-week Yellowstone tour, then take a one-week southern Utah tour. Due to the shorter distance from West Yellowstone to southern Utah vs. L.A., they ended up returning to L.A. a day earlier than the one-week tours.