July 9-10 Along the Colorado and over the intercontinental divide

Drugged by lost sleep yet reluctant to close my eyes in case I missed something as we travelled through the Grand Valley along the Colorado River (historically known as the Grand River). Then on through Ruby Canyon a 40 km canyon accessible only by raft or Union Pacific Railroad - that’s us! Here and there the air was filled with scraps of cotton candy from - willow, birch or ? 

Ruby canyon named for its red sandstone walls.





The river was a swirling brown torrent of almost continuous rapids, category 5 in places! The banks, swollen where canyons allowed, were dotted with campers canoeing and/or fishing





This section of the river is called Moon River. Why? Rafters, like these guys, give the ‘moonie’ salute as the train passes.

We seemed to climb from canyon to canyon twisting around sharp bends hugging the rocky walks as we ascended the Rockies. All the while the mighty Colorado River raced away from us tumbling down through those same rocky canyons.

Up on the high plains the river spread out in a lazy dawdle.



The train had 9 carriages inc observation and dining cars plus a private carriage right at the back. No idea if it was occupied.

We didn’t reach the roof of the Rockies! Instead we travelled through the Moffat Tunnel, a railroad and water tunnel built in the early 1900s that cuts through the Rockies for 10km. It cut the distance across the mountains by over 100 km. At its highest point the tunnel is almost 3000m above sea level.

Once on the other side of this great dividing mountain range, the Continental Divide, the rivers flowed eastward - surprise surprise!  And we began the gradual descent into Denver, the mile high city. 

From there the land was lush green with lots of trees and acres of corn. Not far out of Denver we spent an interesting night on the train surrounded by an amazing lightning storm. Quite spectacular! In the dead of night, or so it seemed to me, I peaked out the window and saw tiny lights flashing all around - fire flies everywhere. Quite beautiful. 

Throughout the trip land, except for the desert, was sodden and the rivers swollen after a very wet winter and spring. Lots of farming land still flooded, but we were to cross even larger bodies of water - the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. In a word? Voluminous - in the extreme. 

There was a large family of Amish board.

Lots of water still lying around after months.



The Missouri River. Would have liked to have stopped for a while.

The mighty Mississippi River. I had no idea it started way up here but then I guess the Cajun (or Arcadian) people originally from France, came to Louisiana from Canada via this river I believe.

We experienced lots of delays on the way to Chicago, the first major stop on our coast to coast journey, for all sorts of reasons the most bizarre of which was an escaped alpaca on the lines! End result? We arrived in Chicago - ~4000 km and 7 States after we left the west coast, seven hours late. Wouldn’t happen in Russia! Ah the joys of travel! 

July 8-9 over mountains and through deserts

What an amazing train ride! Very soon after leaving the Bay Area we started to climb the fir-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada. This mountain range is part of an almost continuous chain of mountain ranges running through North, Central and South America to Antarctica! We climbed slowly higher to travel through the Donner Pass so named for the ill-fated Donner party of settlers who were forced to spend the winter here. Of the 80 odd settlers who set out only 45 survived to reach California; some of them resorted to cannibalism to survive. 

The tidal flats of the Bay





The little mountain town of Truckee







All the rivers were raging after a very wet winter and spring. Quite magnificent!

Then we were skimming across the arid wastes of Nevada - old river plains or sea bed eroded over eons. Such a contrast from the rocky tree-covered mountains we’d just traversed but rather magnificent in their vastness. 

Some distance east of Reno



And we were into the Moab desert.


We hit Utah and Salt Lake City in the dead of night. Come sun up the next day we rode the open plains of the Wild West of Utah with its buttes and mesa - even saw antelope along the track. And yes it was like traveling through a Cowboy Western - any moment you expected to see John Wayne or Lee Marvin galloping by. The place names conjured up lots of images from movies and cowboy westerns. All the while we were crossing the deserts we could see snow encrusted peaks looming on the horizon. All too soon we were crossing into Colorado and following the river back to its source in the Rockies. 

July 8 Setting out on our coast to coast journey

You learn as you go!  The city of Chicago also burned in the 1800s. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 raged for 3 days killing about 300 people, burning streets and building, melting metal and destroyed roughly 6 sq Km leaving more than 100,000 residents homeless. For now I’ll leave you with two words - The Rookery! I’ll come back to that because we’re about to board the mighty Californian Zephyr eastward bound for Chicago, the first stage of our 4000 Km coast to coast train journey across the US. That was actually 5 days ago but who’s counting .....

We had to take a bus from downtown San Francisco to Emeryville (via the 14 Km Bay Bridge) where we would board the Californian Zephyr.

The train pulled into the station with great fanfare - the driver was hanging out the window yelling and waving!

It’s a mighty beast. Our carriage attendant, Machlin  was waiting to welcome us on board. Lovely guy who insisted on calling me Miss Candy throughout the trip - no idea?!



The popular observation car. It was always full - surprise surprise!

Dining car ok and the meals were fine - you could even have meals brought to your cabin.

24 hour coffee station.

We had a sleeper plus toilet and shower - and enough space for us AND our luggage.

July 8 Californian Earthquakes!!

A series of quakes around magnitude 7 on the San Andreas Fault but we’re pretty safe it seems as they were centred 100s km from where we are - and San Francisco is not on the San Andreas Fault.  But still we experienced a tiny thrill of fear and excitement. Walking down to the bus which would deposit us at our east-bound train this morning we passed a construction site where workers were being given an earthquake drill. Brought the awful, raw power of the earth home to us in a very immediate sense. 

Perched on the eastern rim of the Pacific Ring of Fire, earthquakes are not something new to San Francisco area. Since the 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake (magnitude 7.8) which liquified many blocks of houses south of Market, there have been seven with magnitudes over 5.1. That biggie in 1906 destroyed over 80% of San Francisco, up to 3000 people died and fires raged for many days. The buildings on one side of Van Ness (the street) were deliberately demolished to act as a fire break - it worked. It was one of the deadliest earthquake in the history of the US. 

The city also has a horrendous history of fires. Remember the fire scene in ‘Gone with the Wind’? That was set around the time of some of the greatest fires in San Francisco history. The Coit Memorial Tower in the Telegraph Hill neighbourhood was dedicated to the volunteer firemen who died in San Francisco's five major fires of the mid 1800s. 

Today the city is still extremely fire-shy and there’s evidence of that everywhere. 

After the devastating fires around the 1850s all buildings had to have Standpipes to facilitate delivering water in case of fires. Some are quite elaborate.





So many building have external fire escapes.



Even on the water the Fire Department is very visible.

A fire hydrant on the waters edge!

July 7 A day by the Bay

Where to start? Food of course!

Today a stroll along The Embarcadero on the edge of the Bay. A glorious day taking in the sights from the towering supports of the Bay Bridge to brown pelicans cruising overhead to honey bees and humming birds feasting on the nectar of the many flowers along the water front. We checked out the San Francisco Ferry building and ‘food hall’ and then flopping down in a quiet restaurant for bubbles, fresh fruit juice and grilled peach panzanella for a very late lunch.  Our body clocks are totally out of whack so eating and sleeping are still completely random. 

The mighty expanse of Bay Bridge

Built in 1898 the San Francisco Ferry building survived both the 1906 and the 1989 earthquakes with little damage except the famous clock stopped!  Until the completion of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges in the 1930s, the Ferry Building was the second busiest transit terminal in the world, second only to London's Charing Cross Station. 

Today there is a marketplace and restaurants on the ground floor in former baggage handling area.

A spotty teenage Californian gull waiting on the make!

No significance just pretty

This little guy wasn’t lifting his head out of this tiny flower for anyone. Happy creature! Among the stattice. 

Poor shot but this is a wee humming bird (Anna’s humming bird Lindsay tells me). I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and thought it was a large insect whirring around these flowers - yes gorgeous yellow WA kangaroo paws! It was gone on a trice but it was quite a thrill to see the darling little thing.

Yummy food with a view

Perfect for lunch!

Yesterday we made the mistake of taking the Hop on-Hop off bus. It’s the 4 July holiday weekend here! and the city streets and ‘attractions’ are chockers. Say no more BUT I did get to have clam chowder on Fisherman’s Wharf and we then rode the quaint street cars back downtown. 

The view from Cafe 8 Fisherman’s Wharf.

Clam chowder. Sadly not as good as I remembered it. Very little seafood in it but it’s all about the experience right?!

Everyone is after the seafood along the Wharf

Many of the cafes had huge cauldrons of clam chowder bubbling and streaming outside. A real touristy thing.

Once the streets and wharf areas of San Francisco echoed with the clangour of the street cars and cable cars producing a kind of contrapuntal symphony in the growing metropolis. 

Historic Street cars follow two routes. The cars come from all over the US and other countries including a green rattler tram from Melbourne.

Market street street car. They are all different but rather gorgeous. Very retro.

The once busy street car routes went underground decades ago but they seem to have a terrific bus system plus trolley cars.

The iconic cable cars of San Francisco. This is at turning circle at the Market Street end of the Route which runs down to the Wharf area.

Couldn’t resist this shot. The guy is completely lost in a world of sound and rhythm he is creating from his various pots and pans.

And so this journey begins. Tomorrow we board the Californian Zephyr bound for Chicago but before we do ..........