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Amtrak California Zephyr and Yosemite waterfalls

Amtrak California Zephyr and Yosemite waterfalls

Old May 22nd, 2017, 11:53 AM
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Amtrak California Zephyr and Yosemite waterfalls

Forty-three years ago I first got into backcountry wilderness travel and mountaineering in Yosemite Valley and the surrounding Sierra high country. I have not been back to the Valley since 1975 and my wife has never been there. Hoping to catch the waterfalls at a high flow we booked four nights there for the first week of May.

The waterfalls delivered big time!

For something different we traveled on the Amtrak California Zephyr from Denver to Sacramento. This was my wife's idea, partially for the fun of it, but also because she is extremely sensitive to motion sickness and thought the train would be a safer bet than flying.

That didn't quite work out.

We have ridden overnight or long-distance trains in Asia, South America, Mexico and Europe without a problem. But the particular rocking cadence of the upper deck of an Amtrak Superliner was a trigger. Unfortunately she spent much of the train journey lying down fighting nausea.

However she did have a bed to lay in since we had splurged for a superliner bedroom. The irony is that she might have been fine in a lower level seat or roomette, which doesn't rock as much, but the bedrooms are all on the upper deck.

I note all this in case someone has a similar problem. My wife's situation is extreme due to a vestibular injury, but if you are prone to motion sickness and are getting on the train, then be prepared!

We boarded at Denver's Union Station. With an 8:05 AM departure we decided to spend one night in The Crawford Hotel, right in Union Station. The Crawford isn't cheap, but I got 25% off the normal rate by keeping an eye on their website as the date approached. In any case it was worth it, we really enjoyed our stay.

A highlight was a historical tour of Union Station given by Crawford staff. You don't need to stay at the hotel for the tour. My wife and I were the only ones signed up on a Monday afternoon, so we got a private tour.

The two guides were full of fascinating facts about Union Station and it's history: why there are ripples in the marble floor; how the original glass windows were discovered and the huge chandeliers were reproduced; how they found original blueprints rolled up in the basement, now framed and hung on a stairway wall, alongside a great deal of interesting art hanging throughout the hotel.

They showed us the old scrolling train timetables used prior to the days of mechanical clackers and electronic monitors, also framed and hung. Near those were numerous framed trinkets that had fallen from people's pockets and were found in the old benches during the station remodel.

There were plenty of other factoids, sadly gone from my memory, but it was great tour. Highly recommended.

Another factoid: Union Station sits exactly on the 105th meridian, which is just an interesting coincidence. There is a sign on the wall near the station entrance discussing this.

The Zephyr pulled out of Union station like Swiss clockwork at 8:05 AM, as scheduled. We were settled in our bedroom after a bit of minor confusion. Although we each had only a airline carry-on sized bag both wouldn't quite fit in the room, so after removing some toiletries I took one back downstairs to the luggage rack.

We were seated in the dining room for breakfast with two Japanese women as the train started climbing into the Colorado Front Range. My wife quickly realized that she had a vertigo problem, but thought (or perhaps hoped) that it would pass. But after finishing breakfast she returned to our room, rarely to emerge for the next 24 hours.

Our breakfast companions were returning to San Francisco for their flight back to Tokyo. Amtrak meals and the observation car visits are social events and we mingled with people from four continents during the journey.

Many of the Americans were railroad aficionados, who were traveling the great Amtrak routes, "Empire Builder", "Sunset Limited", "Coast Starlight", names that meant nothing to me before the trip. Among many other things I learned why train wheels are now beveled instead of flat, and how the town of Dotsero, Colorado got its name. (So they don't screech when the car is turning, and because it was the zero mile marker at the junction of Denver & Rio Grande and Denver & Salt Lake railroads.)

I divided my time between checking in on my wife, visiting the observation car, and wandering around the train. I slightly wondered if alcohol laws changed when we crossed into Utah, but as expected they hadn't and I purchased a gin & tonic before dinner.

As we twisted, turned and climbed through canyons, river valleys, and mountainsides I marveled at the engineering and labor involved to build a track like this.

We went to sleep after Salt Lake City and apparently we lost an hour outside of Reno, but we slept through that. My wife was feeling somewhat better by morning and we had breakfast delivered to the room. As we ate we passed through Truckee and looked out our window as views of Donner Lake unfolded below. In the Sierra the train passes through several long snow sheds, protecting the tracks from avalanches.

By lunchtime my wife was feeling good enough to eat in the dining car as we came out of the mountains and followed the American River into the Sacramento Valley.

In the end it was an enjoyable ride, although next time my wife would be proactive in applying her transderm scope patch!

It's a challenge to take photographs through the dusty train windows with their reflections, but I have some shots here, with captions borrowed from Arlo Guthrie's City of New Orleans:
http://nelsonchenkin.zenfolio.com/zephyr
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 07:18 PM
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Sorry your wife had problems! I hadn't noticed that the upper deck swayed, but then I'm not subject to motion sickness.

They cleaned the windows in Denver when I took the California Zephyr (from Chicago), but that doesn't help with telegraph poles!

So, why are there ripples in the marble?
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 06:37 AM
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Thanks thursdayd, I noticed the upper deck swaying, but I'm tuned in to the things that might bother her. I think most people would not particularly notice it.

The attendant told us they usually clean the windows in Denver didn't do it for our train. The weather was cold, blustery and rainy that day. My wife had read about the dirty windows and actually brought some glass cleaning cloths to do the inside!

Ripples in the Union Station marble: the floor had to be installed no later than 1914, possibly as early as 1881. The benches were aligned in parallel rows, photo here:
https://cbsdenver.files.wordpress.co...-station-2.jpg

The foot traffic of people walking through the aisles between the benches wore away the marble over decades of use. During the remodel of the last few years they decided not to sand the marble down to match the low points. You can see the ripples if you look at the floor from a low angle at one end of the station.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 06:44 AM
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Interesting, thanks! I'm used to worn treads in European cathedrals and colleges, but would have thought it took longer.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 06:57 AM
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I would have thought it took longer also. Maybe it depends on how soft or hard the marble is?

Also, during the remodel they intentionally put the new seating in different areas so the wear would not continue in the same places.

If you compare to my photo you can imagine where the ripples are:
http://nelsonchenkin.zenfolio.com/ze...4d15#h8ad74d15
vs.
https://cbsdenver.files.wordpress.co...-station-2.jpg

On the tour they had an iPad with many old photos of the station, probably including that one.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 07:03 AM
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Yes, very likely it wasn't suited to a station! Great photos. That's a really good looking station - I didn't get off in Denver to have a look as it was a bit early.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 07:24 AM
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Hi Nelson,

How awful that your wife was suffering from motion sickness on that iconic (possibly my favorite?)train ride. Glenwood Canyon and the area of the Sierra Nevada around Donner Lake I particularly found absolutely breathtaking. Glad you enjoyed and hope your wife had moments where she was able to admire the sometimes otherworldly beauty of the North American continent (sounds like she might have been doing better by Donner Lake).

Thanks for your photos! Brought back memories--I can't believe it's been 11 years since I took the California Zephyr last!

Best wishes, Daniel
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 11:47 AM
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Thanks Daniel, much appreciated, glad you liked the photos! Yes, she was doing better by Donner Lake and really enjoyed that part of the trip. As mentioned, we'd do it again.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 01:33 PM
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Looking forward to more of your trip report.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 03:29 PM
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Sorry about the motion sickness -- that must have been awful knowing she couldn't get off

Now . . . the BIG question is . . . did you arrive in Sacramento on time

Looking forward to the rest of your TR. (Just drove through Truckee this morning on my way back from a few days at Tahoe.)
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 04:40 PM
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I was in a roomette from Chicago to Emeryville, and it also triggers motion sickness. I get sick so easily, always carry with me ginger and Bonine. Ginger was enough on the train.

From Denver to Sacramento is the best part of the ride. Good choice, Nelson!
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Old May 24th, 2017, 06:58 AM
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Dayenu, interesting that you felt motion sickness on the train as well. The attendant said it does happen to some people, so we are not alone! Transderm scope seems to be the only thing that woks for my wife. She may have tried ginger, I'm not sure but will ask.

janis, I actually suggested that we get off the train in Glenwood Springs or Grand Junction and continue onward in a rental car. We still could have made it to Yosemite in time for our reservations but my wife said to hang in with the train. I'm glad we did. But the transit part of traveling is not necessarily why we travel!

We arrived in Sacramento a bit after 3:00 PM, only about an hour late, not bad considering all the warnings we had received about Amtrak's track record (pun intended). It was hot, hot in Sacramento, 95 degrees on May 3, a major change from the 30's we left in Denver.

Initially I had booked a room at the Delta King, but at the 11th hour I changed to the Vagabond Inn for several reasons, mostly of convenience. Maybe I had premonition, but the Delta King is docked in the river at a slight list. We went there to have a drink and look around and that slight angle was throwing my wife's balance off. She was not yet fully recovered from the vertiginous train ride. But we asked them to see a room and it looked like a great and unique place to stay.

After checking in at Vagabond we had dinner in a family-run Mediterranean restaurant on K street, the Crest Cafe. Plain decor but quite tasty food, it hit the spot. It was next door to a vegetarian restaurant that had been recommended to us by a passerby, called Mother, but that was closed.

With the temperature dropping slightly we walked to the Capitol Park rose garden, which was in full bloom and lovely. Another passerby kindly informed us that every native tree in California is represented in the park, and we spent an enjoyable hour or so there.

On the way back to our hotel we chanced upon the excellent little Wells Fargo History Museum on Capitol Mall. The website says the museum is open from 10:00-4:00, but it was after definitely after 7:00 PM when we walked in. The museum is in the building's lobby, maybe the lobby is open but the museum is officially closed? In any case, we could see all the exhibits including a beautiful 1866 stagecoach and several gold nuggets from the early days of the discovery and many signed displays. Lots if good information about the gold rush and Wells Fargo's place transporting the gold and people to and from the mines. As I recall it said there were about 350 stage robberies from roughly 1855-1875, the stuff of Western movies, and over 200 thieves were apprehended.

The next morning we stretched our legs with a walk along the Sacramento River bike path. At the Matsui Waterfront Park we were surprised to see a sea lion surface not far from us, chewing on what appeared to be a large salmon! He happily floated downstream occasionally tearing chunks of presumably sushi grade flesh off the fish.

After wandering around Old Sac for a while we spent much of the day in the fantastic California State Railroad museum. We had just ridden the Zephyr, recently binge-watched Hell on Wheels, and I'm about to start a railroad history book, so this museum was a great stop. They have 19 steam engines on display including the amazing Southern Pacific Cab-Forward #4294 and the exquisite little No. 1 C.P. Huntington. There are also numerous train cars, both passenger and freight, that span nearly 100 years of history, a huge collection of train models, artwork, photography. Highly recommended, they were turning off the lights and finally we had to leave.
https://www.californiarailroad.museum/

We started walking towards the Fox & Goose pub for dinner, recommended on Fodors, but stopped in at the Sacramento Visitor Center for some information. It turned out they were having an open house for a remodel completion with a nice spread of food, wine, and beer. Free food, free wine and beer, nice people, can't be beat! So we hung out there and the Fox and Goose will have to be for another trip.

The next morning Hertz picked us up at the hotel and took us to the downtown office to pick up our rental car. Our plan had been to go to the Crocker Museum before heading out of town, but yesterday at the Visitor Center we learned about the Leland Stanford Mansion. Since we were in railroad mode we decided to go there first. Actually, we got a parking spot around the block from the mansion and that was a deciding factor. We were the only ones there for the first tour of the day at 10:00 AM, so that was our second private tour in three days, the first being the one at Union Station.

Stanford was president of the Central Pacific Railroad, who had originally built the track on which we had just crossed the Sierra Nevada. Of course, he and his wife Jane founded Stanford University, dedicated to their son who had died at age 15 of typhoid fever in Italy. The building had a lot of historic, architectural, decorative and artistic interest, and touring the mansion was a nice finale to the railroad part of our trip.

Then we had a decision to make: Crocker Museum or Leonardo Da Vinci? "Da Vinci?", you might ask. Before leaving home we learned that the Aerospace Museum of California had a temporary exhibit titled "Machines in Motion", hands-on replicas of machines that Da Vinci's drew in his notebooks.

This sounded interesting, and since it was temporary and sort of on-the-way to Plymouth, our destination for the evening, we decided to go there. We briefly considered doing both, but that would be pushing too hard for us. So the Crocker is a Sacramento missed opportunity, and at the top of the list for next time.

But the Aerospace Museum was really excellent, and an interesting counterpoint to the Railroad Museum. Both are full of amazingly intricate, massive, powerful yet delicate pieces of machinery, full of complex webs of tubes, pipes, wires, valves, levers, instruments, all designed for moving people around the planet. In both museums you can get up close, on board, touch stuff. Fascinating. And the Da Vinci exhibit was great fun.
https://aerospaceca.org/

Before leaving the metro area we stopped at a Whole Paycheck to stock up on a few grocery items for the coming week, including several bottles of Belching Beaver beer which I have grown to love on our recent California visits. It is completely unavailable in Colorado.

Then we headed east to the gold rush country and Yosemite.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 07:24 AM
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Great start to your TR, I'm sorry your DW had motion sickness on the train, but it sounds like she's a trouper and coped well.

Keep it up I'll be interested in her impression of Yosemite.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 08:49 AM
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Glad you enjoyed Sacramento. I have never been to a few of your stops. I will need to check them out.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 04:09 PM
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Can you get the Amtrak bus to Stockton to connect with the San Joaquin as far as Merced? The YARTS bus will take you into Yosemite.
We will be on the CZ 5/31-6/2 from Chicago to Winnemucca.
Our car is parked in WNN.
I still have some peanuts that I got in Dave's Depot in Grand Junction.
My favorite lodging spot in SAC is the HI hostel on the NW corner of 10th & H. It is a Victorian mansion.
Another thing to add to the Sacramento list is the Leyland Stanford house.
The old governors mansion is a few blocks east of the hostel on H street. The last governor that spent his whole term there was Jerry Brown's father Edmund.
The Reagans' spent part of Ronnie's term there as well.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 04:23 PM
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Can you get the Amtrak bus to Stockton to connect with the San Joaquin to Merced? The YARTS bus will take you into Yosemite from Merced.
My favorite lodging in SAC is the HI hostel on the NW corner of 10th & H. It is a Victorian mansion.
Two other mansions to visit in SAC are the governors mansion and the Leyland Stanford mansion.
We will be on the CZ 5/31 - 6/2 from Chicago to Winnemucca NV. We have our car parked in WNN.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 04:50 PM
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>>Can you get the Amtrak bus to Stockton to connect with the San Joaquin as far as Merced? The YARTS bus will take you into Yosemite.trip report. They have been to Sacramento and Yosemite

>>The last governor that spent his whole term there was Jerry Brown's father Edmund.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 05:56 PM
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I doubt Amtrak sells tix starting with a bus, I think it must be train first - am I wrong?
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Old May 24th, 2017, 06:07 PM
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If you leave from San Francisco you take an Amtrak bus to Emeryville to catch the train, so certainly you can start with a bus. I believe Vancouver to Seattle is sometimes entirely bus. Besides, if it is train to bus one way, it would be bus to train the other.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 06:38 PM
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There has to be a leg with a train connection. Tried getting an Amtrak bus all the way for getting daughter to college in SLO. They always required a train portion for this itinerary.
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