The Vista Canyon was built by Pullman in 1947 for the "Super Chief" premier train of the Santa Fe. It was one of four cars; the Vista Cavern, Vista Valley, and Vista Heights being the other three. In addition ACF built an identical car, the Vista Club and the Santa Fe converted a similar, but older car, Coconino to become the Vista Plains. The cars, when delivered, were round-end observation lounge cars with one bedroom and four drawing rooms with three beds each (two lowers and an upper berth). They ran at the end of the trains until about 1954 when the Santa Fe squared off the round ends for mid train use on the "San Francisco Chief". Luggage tags found on the car indicate service on October 11, 1964 as car 29 on train 2 (San Francisco Chief) into Chicago. Last use of these cars is assumed to be in 1968 when almost two thirds of Santa Fe's passenger trains were discontinued due to loss of the mail contracts to trucks.

There is photographic evidence that some of these cars, such as the Vista Canyon, saw service on the "Texas Chief" during the Christmas season when the Dallas section of that train ran as a separate train and included one of the Vista series cars as a lounge for first class passengers. These cars did not transfer to Amtrak service and were sold by Santa Fe with several ending up in private use, such as the Vista Canyon.

The car was rebuilt in 1994-95 with full Amtrak Head End Power, generator, air conditioning and heating systems, all new electric wiring, new FRA glazing, and a 40-year truck rebuild. The car sleeps a maximum of 14; two in the bedroom and three in each drawing room. Normal occupancy is patterned after the Santa Fe practice that sold the drawing rooms as compartments, using only the lower berths with the smaller double bedroom being used as crew quarters. The lounge seats 8 in comfortable chairs, some original to the Santa Fe, and has removable tables for serving meals; four per table. A complete kitchen is located in the vestibule end of the car with refrigerator, oven and stovetop, microwave and cabinets. A shower is also located in the vestibule end. Each of the drawing rooms has a private toilet, which is piped to a holding tank for waste disposal.

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