p&sr
OBS Chief
Here's another brief trip my wife and I enjoyed last fall. We wanted to cover the route of the Coast Starlight south from the Bay Area, but not have to miss out on the coastal scenery after dark if the train was late. Here is our solution.
Getting up before dawn, we walked to the nearest bus stop for Golden Gate Transit (commuter bus to San Francisco). We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and arrived downtown just before daybreak. From the Embarcadero Station we caught the new T-Third Street Light Rail south as far as the King Street Depot, enjoying a dramatic sunrise over the Bay. Then we caught the CalTrain to San Jose. (This is the only way to catch the southbound Starlight by public transportation starting the same day from our home.)
It turns out that the Starlight was a few hours late, so we had time to right the new Valley Light Rail from the Amtrak Depot through San Jose Downtown and north all the way to Mountain View, and back again. The Mountain View station is also on the CalTrain line, so there is a lot of train activity there. The route is interesting, passing a lot of Silicon Valley industrial parks and the Moffett Field (now part of NASA) with its huge hangers for dirigibles. (The dirigibles themselves seem no longer to exist, sad to say.)
We enjoyed a scenic afternoon ride on the CS... through the Garlic Fields of Gilroy, down the forested Pajaro River (in Santa Cruz County), across the wetlands at Elkhorn Slough, and through the extensive farmlands of the Salinas Valley. We descended from the Mountains into San Luis Obispo just before Sunset, with great views, some horseshoe curves, and crossing the famous Stenner Creek Trestle Bridge. (The bridge was built back east, disassembled and shipped around Cape Horn, then installed on site in 1894.)
I found some pictures of the Bridge on-line here:
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php...Creek%20Trestle
We arrived in San Luis Obispo just after dark, so we would have lost all the scenery along the coast except for the fact that we got off the train to spend the night in town. From the Station, we walked downtown and had a great dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen, part of a pleasant new development including a movie theatre and lots of shops. We had reservations for a motel just north of the RailRoad Tracks, also within walking distance.
The next morning, we returned to the Station at Daybreak, and caught the morning run of the Surfliner to Los Angeles. Excellent travelling and excellent views of the coast, all the way from Vandenberg AFB through Santa Barbara and Ventura.
Arriving in Los Angeles, there would actually have been time to catch the bus to Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Train to Martinez that same day. As it happens, we had some business in the area and took that route north a couple of days later, enjoying the L.A. Light-Rail system in the meantime. From Martinez, the Amtrak Bus brought us back to our hometown, within a reasonable walking distance from home.
While we did not have the chance to ride the L.A. Metro-Link (commuter rail) on this trip, on an earlier trip we did, and I can highly recommend the line to Antelope Valley (Lancaster and Palmdale, via Santa Clarita). Description to follow separately.
To Summarize, the Rail Route along the Coast of Southern California is an exceptionally beautiful trip, but the best scenery commonly occurs after dark for the southbound Coast Starlight. The solution is to spend the night in San Luis Obispo, and continue the next morning on the Surfliner.
Getting up before dawn, we walked to the nearest bus stop for Golden Gate Transit (commuter bus to San Francisco). We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and arrived downtown just before daybreak. From the Embarcadero Station we caught the new T-Third Street Light Rail south as far as the King Street Depot, enjoying a dramatic sunrise over the Bay. Then we caught the CalTrain to San Jose. (This is the only way to catch the southbound Starlight by public transportation starting the same day from our home.)
It turns out that the Starlight was a few hours late, so we had time to right the new Valley Light Rail from the Amtrak Depot through San Jose Downtown and north all the way to Mountain View, and back again. The Mountain View station is also on the CalTrain line, so there is a lot of train activity there. The route is interesting, passing a lot of Silicon Valley industrial parks and the Moffett Field (now part of NASA) with its huge hangers for dirigibles. (The dirigibles themselves seem no longer to exist, sad to say.)
We enjoyed a scenic afternoon ride on the CS... through the Garlic Fields of Gilroy, down the forested Pajaro River (in Santa Cruz County), across the wetlands at Elkhorn Slough, and through the extensive farmlands of the Salinas Valley. We descended from the Mountains into San Luis Obispo just before Sunset, with great views, some horseshoe curves, and crossing the famous Stenner Creek Trestle Bridge. (The bridge was built back east, disassembled and shipped around Cape Horn, then installed on site in 1894.)
I found some pictures of the Bridge on-line here:
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php...Creek%20Trestle
We arrived in San Luis Obispo just after dark, so we would have lost all the scenery along the coast except for the fact that we got off the train to spend the night in town. From the Station, we walked downtown and had a great dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen, part of a pleasant new development including a movie theatre and lots of shops. We had reservations for a motel just north of the RailRoad Tracks, also within walking distance.
The next morning, we returned to the Station at Daybreak, and caught the morning run of the Surfliner to Los Angeles. Excellent travelling and excellent views of the coast, all the way from Vandenberg AFB through Santa Barbara and Ventura.
Arriving in Los Angeles, there would actually have been time to catch the bus to Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Train to Martinez that same day. As it happens, we had some business in the area and took that route north a couple of days later, enjoying the L.A. Light-Rail system in the meantime. From Martinez, the Amtrak Bus brought us back to our hometown, within a reasonable walking distance from home.
While we did not have the chance to ride the L.A. Metro-Link (commuter rail) on this trip, on an earlier trip we did, and I can highly recommend the line to Antelope Valley (Lancaster and Palmdale, via Santa Clarita). Description to follow separately.
To Summarize, the Rail Route along the Coast of Southern California is an exceptionally beautiful trip, but the best scenery commonly occurs after dark for the southbound Coast Starlight. The solution is to spend the night in San Luis Obispo, and continue the next morning on the Surfliner.
