CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR - a journey to remember with Amtrak

Buffalo - bit of a surprise package 

We left Toronto on the 8:20 am train & after the trip to the border near Niagara Falls & almost two hours spent getting the passengers & train cleared through US customs we finally left the border control area and were on our way to Buffalo.

For some unknown reason the main Amtrak station is way out of town so we caught a taxi into the city & buses back later in the evening. The Fire Station was first job as it was easy to find in the heart of the city then we found the tourist information office. They offered a short film on the architectural highlights of the city which are more extensive than we ever imagined, then we headed off on a suggest walk round the downtown area.

Entrance to the Tourist Information Office

Buffalo has been a huge boomtown in the late 19th & early 20th centuries so there are some outstanding examples of buildings designed & constructed by America's most famous architects as well as a wonderful city layout with parks lining the main accessways. In more recent years they have introduced a free city tram that runs up & down the main pedestrian street which not surprisingly, is called Main Street.



Main Street, downtown Buffalo



Lovely 4-faced cast iron clock

When it started to sprinkle we were more than happy to go into one of the city's most famous buildings for a bit of a squizz. It was the City Hall, very grand looking art deco structure completed in 1931, it has the most magnificent foyer with murals, brass door decorations, carved door frames (each one completely different), marble floors with brass inlays & vaulted ceiling with mosaic decorations. On the 28th floor there is an observation level with both indoor & exterior viewing areas, since it was raining we naturally stayed inside & contented ourselves with seeing Lake Eirie & the Niagara River through the glass.

City Hall, we went to the top floor lookout



Close-up of the top section of City Hall,
Can you see us?

One section of the wonderful view, you can see Lake Erie & the mouth
of Niagara River, despite the miserable weather, still marvelous

Once it got dark it was time for us to 'grab some chow' & get back to the railway station to await our midnight departure. We had chosen to sit up for this overnight section of the trip, not only to save money but also because it was really only half a night with the late boarding time & we felt that was manageable. The seats proved to be quite comfortable with miles of leg room & a foot rest like a Lazy-boy chair. 

Next stopover was just four hours in Chicago....

Chicago - named after a stinky marsh weed, how inspiring is that?

We had a bit of a plan for Chicago which fortunately for us worked like a charm. Firstly, the train needed to be on time at 9:45am.......fantastic, that happened, in fact we were even a few minutes early. Secondly, we needed to find baggage storage or luggage lockers quick smart, done! Next we needed to get out of the Union Station complex & up onto street level then cross the river & find our way to the bottom of the Sear's Tower (now known as Willis Tower) to catch a tour bus which was due to depart at 10:00am.

Our first view of the tallest building in the
world from outside Union Station, Chicago

Made it easily, only because the tour bus was running a bit behind schedule!! The tour was expected to last about two hours but actually took two & a quarter hours which didn't leave much time for the other things we needed to do. 

A small section of the city skyline



Theatre made famous by Frank Sanatra

On our tour we were pleasantly surprised at how pretty the city was, I have always imagined Chicago to be a bit 'industrial' but it is so much more than that. Being on the banks of Lake Michigan probably adds to its reputation as the windy city but also gives it great sandy beaches, lots of marinas & water sports in the summer & very expensive apartments with views to Canada.

Lakeside view with a bit of the skyline too



The El, elevated railway line that runs through the city

The word skyscraper was first coined in Chicago in 1885 when the first one was built, you get a crick in your neck just looking at the different architectural styles. After the big fire of the late 1800s there were only a few of the original structures left standing, these had been built of limestone (a couple of churches & the water pumping station to name some pointed out on the tour) so needless to say withstood the inferno which burned for two days. After that there was a construction boom & once Mr Otis perfected his elevator & they designed buildings with non-loadbearing walls there was no stopping the height to which structures could soar.

Gives you a nose bleed just looking up

One amazing thing they did here was to reverse the flow of the Chicago River in 1900 so that the water flowed into the Mississippi drainage basin rather than Lake Michigan. The pollution pouring into the river & subsequently into the lake was causing disease as all the city's drinking water came & still does come out of the lake.

Section of Chicago River as it flows through the city

Some of the iconic places we recognised were: Seare's Tower which was renamed in recent years to Willis Tower, John Hancock Building, Trump Tower, Soldier Stadium (home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team), LSD (Lake Shore Drive, the tour guide said that joke was funnier in the '70s), Wrigley Building & Wrigley Field.

Gigantic Marilyn Monroe fibreglass public art piece & in the glass building
behind you can see a reflection of another building

Old combined with new - the original stadium with its spaceship addition on top

Our time was nearly up on the locker so I went back to the station to get our luggage & Grant zipped off to the fire station he had found in the centre of the city. All went very smoothly & we got to the departure lounge for our train just as they started calling the train number. Because this part of the trip involved two nights we chose to pay the extra & to have a sleeping compartment. This ticket included meals & a few extras but most importantly a small room with two armchairs & a table which converted into double bunks, such a gentleman - Grant took the top bunk.

Enjoying a bit of late lunch in our cabin
after our busy stop-over in Chicago

Last stage of the journey

Our little sleeper compartment on the train is so cute & really comfortable, we also had access to the skyliner lounge with its glass roof. The food which was included in the ticket price were delicious & we had quite a good choice too. The staff were lovely & really helpful, they couldn't do enough for you, coffee, juice & iced water on tap in our carriage, daily newspapers slipped under our door. What surprised us was that the cost was virtually the same as the cost of a flight!

Sightseer Lounge, enjoying the view

We passed lots of great scenery of course but it's worth mentioning was that we crossed the Mississippi River as we moved from Illinois to Iowa & then the Missouri River as we progressed from Iowa to Nebraska. We travelled through four time zones & the first change came at the Colorado State Line.

Ice flows in the Mississippi River

Denver was one of the refuelling stops, it is known as the Mile-High City because it is one mile high when measured at the 13th step of the capitol building. The altitude caused many a 'popping' ear on this trip as we went up & down several times. Outside Denver we negotiated 'Big 10 Curve' a spot where the winds are so strong that they have welded rail cars to an adjoining track & filled them with sand to act as a windbreak. As we rise up the plateau we got great views back over Denver.

As you can see we climbed to 9,000 ft, an ear-popping experience

We went through Moffat Tunnel which is 6.2 miles long & cut 176 miles off the journey & as we came out the other side we were greeted with a beautiful snowy vista, Winter Park Ski Resort. This spot is considered to be the 'Icebox of America' with winter temperatures down to -50 degrees Farenheight. But very pretty never the less!

Winter Park, beautiful sight

The next section of our journey took us through the Rocky Mountain National Park with its steep, inaccessible gorges, magnificent vistas, raging rivers & isolated towns with rich histories.  We went through towns with such history as:  Butch Cassidy & the Hole in the Wall gang robbed the bank, gold rushes, home of Caterpillar, Hog Capital of the World, home of the Amazon Distribution Centre, underground coal seams that have been burning since 1888, passed glacial lakes, Reno the divorce capital of the world, so many interesting things it is impossible to mention them all.

 

Checking out Fraser Canyon through the roof



Gore Canyon, absolutely lovely, you cannot see this area unless you
are on a train or a kayak - no road access - Class V whitewater,
the wildest available in the state



Cannot miss the wonderful Mesa formations near Grand Junction



Ruby Gorge, the colour was really amazing & the strata very noticeable

We also crossed the high plains of Nevada but that was at night so we didn't see much of that 'boring; scenery which was good. We did see Salt Lake City in the dark though, it was quite pretty really, very big place with a wall of mountains forming a back drop.

Reno was the next really big town & we crossed the border from Nevada into California.  Donner Lake has a sad history with a wagon train of people travelling west in 1846 being stranded by a blizzard. Of 87 who started out on the journey only 48 survived after several people walked out for help.



Donner Lake, a wild & inhospitable area I'm sure 150 years ago but now
a popular resort & holiday destination

Then on to the Sierra Nevada Ranges (that's funny I thought they were in Spain) & the trip to Sacramento, the capital of California.  The last stage was to Emeryville the station 45 minutes outside of San Francisco where you pick up a bus for the last little step.  It was great to cross the Bay Bridge skirting round the edges of the bay to bring us into the centre of the city.

The Bay Bridge from the original road looking at the new one they are building
which will run parallel

San Francisco we're here!!