Sunset Highlites:
1) Huey Long Bridge across the Mississippi leaving New Orleans
2)Lake Charles: Lake and Casinos on left side of train after the quickie stop as you cross the trestle heading for the Texas Border
3)Old SP Station in Houston and Houston Skyline-(station work) inside the station there are pics and memrobilia on the walls of RRs that served Houston before Amtrak
4)San Antonio
scheduled arrival 1205am/usually early)Grand Old SP Sunset Station and SP Steam Engine on display/ the Alamo and the River Walk Tourist District are a few blocks west up Commerce Street/ Train Leaves @245am
5) Lake Amistad/Rio Grande/Devils River West of Del Rio( 1st stop heading West) after Sun is up!
6)Pecos High Bridge- crossing Pecos River on way to Alpine, highest River Bridge on this Route
7) Alpine, Texas- crew change/ nice little Mountain town/ old SP station( unmanned) with new Platform
8)20 miles West of Alpine after going through Pisano Pass, highest altitude on this route/ artist colony and setting for multiple movies
9) EL Paso-Large UP Freight yards entering City/ Red Brick Station ( similar to Portland, OR) Burrito Lady sells delicious Green Chili Burritos outside Station/ You can see Juarez in Mexico as you enter town, its only a couple of blocks from the Amtrak Station/ El Paso is surrounded by Mountains on both sides of the Rio Grande!
As you leave El Paso you'll go right along the border ( left side of train)with Mexico alongside the River and the worthless Border fence the taxpayers paid for! You'll see plenty of Border Patrol Vehicles ( Green and White) along the border fence and be able to look into peoples houses and yards till you cross into New Mexico and then are in the desert all the way to Tucson
10)Tucson- you'll see the Airplane Graveyard on both sides of the tracks as you enter town on the Eastside through the AF Base/ the Old SP Depot has an old Dispatcher unit inside that's cool/ a Convienence Store ( and Expensive Cafe/Bar)/ across the street is the Famous Congress Hotel/ Definitely worth a look see during the crew change and stop!
11)After that it gets dark crossing the desert with stops in Maricopa ( Phoenix) with a nice old zephyr Dome Car that used to be the Station, then a midnight stop in Yuma.
If you're awake in the middle of the night and theres a moon, youll see the Salton Sea to the left of the train, a failed 50s Resort, sort of a a Salt Lake Lite!
12)Then will come a quick stop in Palm Springs, usually #1 is Early, so it will still be dark as you roll into the Greater LA Basin through the miles and miles of sprawl and into Beautiful LA Union Station arriving before 600am.
Sorry its so long, this is a looooong route and you asked! It was my first LD Ride in a Sleeper as a kid so I'm biased!