Amtrak Train Travel Advisory: before arriving, call Amtrak Railroad Customer Service or the Amtrak railroad station. CALL 1800 USA-RAIL (872-7245) and ask if the train has left the previous stop yet!

Chugging along through the desert in New Mexico, with a thunderstorm over the mountains

Why and How to reform Amtrak * Politics of Amtrak / What to Expect on Board

California Coast Starlight -- Los Angeles to Seattle

The Best Coastal California Train Trip

There are many highlights and destinations along the Coast Starlight route. HERE's the BEST part: Between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo the Coast Starlight (and Surfliner) trains follow the coast west of Gaviota. Whereas we drivers must turn inland on 101 to avoid Hollister Ranch and Vandenberg, the train still has the right of way.

There are only four ways to see this coastline from land*:
1) Ride the Coast Starlight 2) Ride the Surfliner 3) Join the military and get stationed at Vandenberg 4) Be so stinkin' rich that you can buy one of the minimum 100-acre Hollister Ranch properties that have been mostly preserved from development. You can't drive in here, there's a private gate. The beaches in this area are basically the US's biggest prize in the public-access beach-rights battle.

*For drivers, there are a couple exceptions. While driving 101 north of Gaviota, by taking Highway 1 west approx. 10-20 miles there's a turnoff for Jalama County Park. Then you have to drive 14? miles of road that can't be any fun for RV's -- twisty, windy, but beautiful scenery.

This is an RV-style campground, with the locally famous Jalama burger! I've heard good things from locals, but the one time in my life I drove there was just after 9/11 and the Jalama campground was closed for a Vandenberg satellite launch. I have yet to taste a Jalama Burger.

The only other public coastal access is via Lompoc to Surf, a small section of beach, but not so interesting.

Back to the train trip, when the Coast Starlight leaves San Luis Obispo, the train needs to climb a few thousand feet to get to Paso Robles. There is Amtrak Thruway Bus service on 101 but you would be doing yourself a disservice to take the bus there. I think the once-a-day Coast Starlight is the only train that ascends this pass -- I believe the Surfliner only goes to SLO where you get on the bus.

Because the pass is so high, the train must travel several miles west toward Morro Bay before curving back northeast for the climb to Paso Robles. From Paso, the Coast Starlight then travels north through the Salinas Valley of John Steinbeck fame.

California Zephyr -- San Francisco (Emeryville) to Chicago

The California Zephyr is a historic name for the revived service between Emeryville and Chicago. Emeryville is just across the bay from San Francisco, between Berkely and Oakland. This is the end of the line for the California Zephyr, it turns around the next day and heads back to Chicago. Amtrak has a shuttle/bus to take passengers across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Check with Amtrak, this should be a "guaranteed connection" that will be available no matter how late the train is.

In the other direction, the California Zephyr traverses some incredible scenery. The California Sierra Nevada mountains. Donner Lake and Truckee. Downtown Reno, Sparks. Then across the Nevada desert, through Salt Lake City, onto Grand Junction, Colorado. Here the trip gets very interesting as the train route follows the Colorado River via Glenwood Hot Springs, Gore Pass/Kremmling (no stop), then Winter Park amd Frasier before climbing down the Front Range into Denver.

This site is from the old californianevada.com. Please be sure to see my other websites, the old atmypace.com and trackandtrain.com