Introduction to the Coast Starlight
I can understand why the Coast Starlight frequently appears on lists of the world’s greatest train journeys. In Southern California, we rode right alongside the Pacific Ocean, passing numerous palm-lined beaches and seaside towns, from Santa Barbara to San Jose. In Northern California and Oregon, we travelled past snow-capped mountains (at the end of summer!)
One point of interest en route was Salinas, California—called ’the centre of America’s salad bowl’ by my guidebook—which is known for its huge crops of lettuce and other vegetables.
On day two of the train journey, I awoke just in time to see Mount Shasta, the Cascades’ highest peak.
I spent the first day of this trip in the observation lounge, where I spoke to a mathematics academic from California who was returning home after spending 6 years working in South Korea. We spoke for many hours about academia and life in South Korea, and he was interested to hear what my guidebook had to say about the various stops and towns we passed along the route. Points of interest included Castroville, known for its artichokes, where Marilyn Monroe was once crowned the town’s first ‘artichoke queen’, and half an hour later, Gilroy, known for its garlic, where Marilyn Monroe was once crowned the town’s ‘garlic queen’. I left the observation lounge to retire for the night just as we were arriving at Emeryville (the stop for San Francisco). I did not alight here as I will be spending four days in San Francisco at the end of the California Zephyr route.
I had read in my guidebook that a ‘party atmosphere’ often develops on this route, and indeed it did. On the second day of the trip, three guides joined the train during the four hour stretch between Klamath Falls and Eugene in Southern Oregon as part of the ‘Trails and Rails’ program (a partnership between the National Park Service and Amtrak). The guides provided commentary in the observation lounge about the sites we were passing, and had a wealth of information to share about the flora and fauna in the region. As the train passed waterfalls and lakes, the surrounding Cascade Mountains also visible, everybody in the observation lounge would run from one side of the train to the other, ready to take pictures when the guides told us what was coming around the next corner. There was much laughter and joy, particularly amongst the middle-aged folk.
Portland
After nearly 30 hours, the Coast Starlight pulled into Portland’s Union Station.
I spent 3 days in Portland. This was a city that I have always wanted to visit, however, my expectations may have been too high. Whilst I did enjoy my time there, it was certainly not one of the most exciting places I’ve ever been. I had heard that Portland was a quirky city, and the ‘Keep Portland Weird’ mural in the picture below seemed to confirm this. However, the only quirky thing I saw was Mill Ends Park—the world’s smallest park (which is also pictured below). Mill Ends Park was created by journalist Dick Fagan. Fagan would write about the park in his Oregon Journal column, often sharing stories about the leprechauns who apparently live there. In 2011, a man was arrested for refusing to leave the park during a protest.
I spent a number of hours in Powell’s City of Books, the world’s largest independent bookstore which covered an entire city block. I also took a 2-hour walking tour of the city, and enjoyed learning about the Oregon trail that led people from Missouri and the future state of Kansas to Oregon. However, the guide struggled to find anything particularly interesting to show us in the city itself. To be fair, there was one thing that was especially weird about Portland: the utter lack of people. This is a city with 650,000 residents and 29 million visitors per year, however, it seemed almost completely empty, and I still do not understand where everybody was.
The famous Voodoo Donuts shop was the one place in Portland where I did actually see people. I also visited the Multnomah County Library where the Decemberists sing about paying their overdue fines in ‘California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade’.
I also took a day trip to Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. The falls are the tallest in Oregon, at 189 meters. I hiked to the top of the falls, although the view from below was much more impressive.
