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RailroadXing


Trails & Rails

Climb aboard the Amtrak Sunset Limited for
an educational experience to remember! 
Click on photos to enlarge.
RailroadXing

Trails & Rails Volunteers
Trails & Rails Volunteers
NPS Photo

Amistad National Recreation Area teamed up with Amtrak to provide train passengers on-board educational programs as they travel through southwest Texas. Amistad NRA, located just west of Del Rio, initiated its Trails & Rails program in August 1999.
Twice a week Trails & Rails volunteers and National Park Service employees board the westbound "Sunset Limited" in Del Rio and detrain in either Sanderson or Alpine.

Volunteers Board the Amtrak Train
Boarding the Train
NPS Photo

T & R Volunteer
Trails & Rails volunteer with passenger
NPS Photo

During our on-board presentation, Trails & Rails staff share information on Lake Amistad, the Chihuahuan Desert, geology, plants and animals, history of the railroad through west Texas, and historic and prehistoric people of the area.

This volunteer is talking about modern-day uses of the prickly pear cactus in food preparation. The fruit can be made into jelly, and the leaves can be sliced, pickled and made into what we know in west Texas as "nopalitos."

Prickly Pear
Prickly Pear Cactus
NPS Photo

Yucca
Torrrey Yucca
NPS Photo

Sotol
Sotol
NPS Photo


Desert vegetation you can see along the Sunset route in Southwest Texas.

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Train Divider Line


Amistad Webmaster
http://www.nps.gov/trails.htm
 Train Route & Schedule