Salt Lake City, Utah to San Francisco, California

The Final Trip

I was despondent as I boarded my 17th and final train on my USA rail trip. The California Zephyr departed Salt Lake City precisely on time at 11:05PM and my guide book informed me that we passed the Bonneville Salt Flats shortly after departure, although it was of course too dark for me to observe the flats myself. I fell asleep soon after, before awaking in Lovelock, Nevada, the following morning. The California Zephyr then crossed the Sierra Nevada range, passing the town of Verdi and following the Truckee River which flows into Lake Tahoe. Verdi is notable as the location of the first ever train robbery in 1870. The next point of interest was Donner Lake where a blizzard in 1846 trapped 87 Illinois settlers who were on their way to California. Some of the settlers resorted to cannibalism to survive.

In addition to being my final train trip, I also spent my birthday on this segment of the California Zephyr. To mark these occasions, I decided that I would, for the first time, dine in the train’s dining carriage. On each of my previous train trips, I had chosen to instead purchase food and beverages from the cafe. I was happy with the cafe’s selection and had doubts about the quality of the train food served in the much more expensive dining carriage. I was delighted to discover, however, that the food served in the dining carriage was delicious, and immediately regretted my decision not to come earlier. I was sat with three elderly ladies, two of whom were on their way to a wedding in California, and the third – an affluent and noble Indian woman – who was returning home to California after visiting family in Chicago. One of them mentioned to the dining carriage attendant that it was my birthday and he made an announcement over the train’s PA system, describing my outfit and telling everyone on board to wish me a happy 21st birthday (it is unclear why he was under the impression that I was turning 21). As I went to pay for my meal, he informed me that Amtrak would be paying, and stated that he would have baked me a birthday cake if he had known in advance. In all the excitement, I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the dining carriage.

The rest of the trip to Emeryville (the stop for San Francisco) was pleasant enough, until it became clear that the train would be arriving approximately 50 minutes early. I was utterly disgusted and outraged by this development. I had become used to the Amtrak trains arriving hours behind schedule and felt robbed that my final train journey was ending prematurely. After alighting in Emeryville – the end of the California Zephyr’s route – I boarded a shuttle bus to downtown San Francisco.

San Francisco

San Francisco turned out to be my second favourite large city that I visited on my trip (Chicago being my favourite). I had 3.5 full days in the city and had no difficulty finding things to fill in my time. I particularly enjoyed visiting Alcatraz. I took a two hour audio tour of the prison and appreciated the views of San Francisco from the deck of the ferry which transported me to and from Alcatraz Island.

It was a cold and damp day and the prison felt suitably miserable.

Alcatraz Island

Other attractions I enjoyed in San Francisco included Lombard Street, with its eight hairpin turns which make it the crookedest street in the world, Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 with their plethora of stores and dining options, and the Lyon Street Steps which provided great views of the city.

My favourite attraction, however, was San Francisco’s Cable Cars. San Francisco is home to the world’s last manually operated cable car system and I enjoyed watching the cars be turned around on manually-powered turntables when they reached the end of the line. I had done my research prior to my cable car journey and knew that there were two lines which take passengers from downtown San Francisco to Fisherman’s Wharf: The Powell-Mason line and the Powell-Hyde line. I also knew that the latter was supposed to be a more scenic option, providing great views of Lombard Street and Alcatraz en route. As such, when I reached the front of the queue, I stepped back as the Powell-Mason car arrived first, intending to allow the other passengers to board before me as I waited for the arrival of the Powell-Hyde car. The girl behind me enquired as to why I was not boarding, and after informing her that my preference was to board the alternative cable car route, she passed this information on to an elderly couple behind her, and word quickly spread down the line. The result was that nobody boarded the Powell-Mason cable car, or the next two Powell-Mason cable cars which were all sent back empty while we waited for the Powell-Hyde car to arrive.

It was somewhat chaotic on board the cable car, with people jumping on as we travelled through the streets of San Francisco, many choosing to hang from poles on the outside of the crowded car.

An exciting and dramatic incident unfolded when a woman and her very elderly and frail parents boarded the cable car at the bottom of a hill. Once the threesome were settled, the cable car continued up the hill before the driver happened to look back down the road and noticed that the boot of the family’s car was open. He told the daughter that we would wait at the top of the hill while she ran back down to shut the boot. Her elderly parents immediately became very stressed about this situation, but the driver calmed them down, promising we would not leave without their daughter.

Mysteriously, minutes ticked past and the daughter did not reappear. At first the driver was calm and collected, informing the rest of the cable car that this was his first day on the job and although he was unsure if the current events were permissible, it seemed like the right thing to do to assist the family. After approximately five minutes, however, a line of cable cars had formed behind us and some were starting to ring their bells quite aggressively. As beads of sweat began to appear on the driver’s forehead, he jumped off the cable car and ran a little down the street, yelling that promises are meant to be kept and he was not going to leave the daughter behind.

Perhaps realising that he should not abandon his cable car and passengers for too long, he quickly returned and asked a random man on board to run all the way down the street to search for the missing woman. The man jumped off but by this point the long line of cable cars ringing their bells could no longer be ignored. The driver begged for the elderly couple’s forgiveness before screaming that he had no choice but to abandon their daughter. The man that had been sent down the street managed to jump back on board with mere seconds to spare, and we proceeded with our journey, the elderly couple yelling for their daughter to come back. Other passengers assured them that their daughter was not needed and when we reached the final stop, they assisted the elderly couple down from the cable car. We eventually arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf and I was sad to alight after such a dramatic journey.

Views from the cable car

When my time in San Francisco reached its end, I travelled on the elevated train line to the airport, before boarding my flight back to London.

Train to San Francisco Airport

Regrettably, this marks the end of my USA train blog series. Overall, I would rate the California Zephyr as the most scenic of all the train routes, followed by the first half of the Empire Builder (when travelling Seattle – Chicago). The Silver Meteor/Palmetto was the most disappointing. Of all the destinations in which I alighted, Glenwood Springs was my clear favourite. While it was an awe-inspiring adventure, the approximately 230 hours that I ended up spending on trains travelling around the USA was somehow nowhere even close to enough.