Oregon and Northern California Hybrid Road Trip-Day 5

Castle Crags State Park

www.dennismook.com

Before I recap the highlights of today's journey, I wanted to provide you with a bit of advice if you ever decide to take a long distance train trip on Amtrak.

First, get a superliner bedroom.  I can't say enough about having a bathroom, shower, sink and toilet right in your room.  Also, the room is large enough for 2 people, albeit a bit crowded, but better than in a coach seat or a roomette.

The bedroom had a couch and a chair facing it so you can vary your seating and position.  The superliner bedrooms are also upstairs toward the center of the car so the ride is a bit smoother than downstairs on the ends.

Second, if you are a large person, you won't fit in the shower.  I am 6' 1" and weigh about 210 and just could shower.  My shoulders didn't quite touch the sides.  However, if I dropped the soap on the floor, I would have had to open the door and stick my bare behind out the door in order to bend down to retrieve the soap from the floor.  That--believe me--would not have been a pretty sight!  There is a larger shower on the first floor of the sleeper which would help those larger individuals.

Third, plan on placing your luggage in the downstairs storage area of the sleeper.  You can fit one bag in the bedroom, but no more without a real hassle.  Just no room.  The room is built to maximize efficiency as it is, and one bag won't cause you too much problems, but more than one will.  We brought a small, cloth duffel-type bag and put changes of clothes, toiletries and medicine in it.  We kept that in the room and left our luggage downstairs in the sleeper.  Travel light!

Fourth, bring snacks if you want to eat stuff you like at odd hours.  There is a café car with sundries you can buy, but they are expensive and limited in scope.  We brought a couple of bags of mixed nuts we put together.  We mixed walnuts, almonds and peanuts and snacked on those. Also, we brought some protein bars.  Coffee and water are always available at no charge.

Fifth, plan on tipping good service.  Your car attendant is your person who will see to all your needs.  Take car of him or her.  Each day the car attendant makes up your beds and then puts everything away each morning.  He or she is a wealth of information that can assist you on your trip and make it more pleasant. Tip the server who takes your orders and brings your meals.  Even though the meal is included with the price of your ticket, these people work really hard to feed so many travelers promptly and efficiently.  Reward them for good service.

If I think of more, I'll post them in the future.

Phase II; Sacramento California to Oregon Coast via a Good Old Automobile-Day 1; Sacramento to Medford, OR

We were quite tired last night and went to bed early in our hotel room in Sacramento.  Still kind of on east coast time. We arose early this morning, ate breakfast at the hotel, then caught the hotel shuttle to the airport and picked up our rental car.  After that, we returned to the hotel, got all of our stuff together, checked out and headed north on I-5.

Now, I don't particularly like driving on an interstate highway, but today was about "getting there."  We wanted to reach Medford, Oregon at a decent time so a long, roundabout through the countryside was out of the question.  Medford was a 315 mile drive and we thought that was enough for one day.

The "plains" as I will call them around and north of Sacramento are really a visual wasteland.  There was nothing I saw of interest.  Dry, flat, parched, and brown, brown, brown.  Once we reached Redding California, the scenery changed for the better.  We had reached the lower Cascades and the interstate climbed, wound around the mountains, fell, climbed, wound, etc., etc.  The flat brown countryside gave way to beautiful pine forests and mountain ridges.  A couple of lakes were within view and we crossed over the Sacramento River and a couple of others.

As we proceeded north, we saw some really spectacular pinnacles to the west.  As we got a glance here and there, we saw a sign for Castle Crags State Park.  We exited the highway and made our way to the state park to get a better look at the craggy rocks and maybe make some interesting images.  We self-checked in, paid our fee, and started up a narrow, one-lane paved road up and up and up.  If one meets another car, one of he drivers has to back up to a wider spot in order to pass each other.  This little road was just cut into the hillsides between the trees and paved over.  Not much to it and straight down on the sides--a few hundred feet.  Driving over the edge would not have been good!

Once at the top there was a parking lot but no view.  We found a trail and hiked about 1/4 mile to the vista. That short hike paid off with some spectacular views of not only Castle Crags but also of Mt. Shasta off in the distance.  I made some images and we headed back to the car and back down the mountain.

An image of those craggy rocks are at the top of this post.

Several miles later, we stopped in Mt. Shasta City for lunch. We looked for a local eatery, as I always like to do when I wander around this country, and we found a delightful little burger place on the main street.  Additionally, the proprietor, a young lady in her 40s, made us feel welcome and engaged in some interesting conversation about the area.  Our meals were very good.

After lunch, I made some images of the town and, as we were getting ready to get in the car in the parking lot behind the restaurant, a Union Pacific freight train came roaring by! A nice desert for me!  See image below.

We left Mt. Shasta City and headed back north on I-5.  The road was still curvy, up and down and around.  A very nice and scenic drive.  Traffic was not bad at all during the drive today.  The one thing that made things worse than they had to be is that the speed limit for cars and small trucks is either 65 or 70, depending up on whether it is flat land or the mountainous region, but the speed limit for trucks and vehicles towing trailers or any kind is 55.  That differential in speed caused the trucks to often "whip out" in front of the much faster approaching cars so they could get around another truck.  Could be rather dangerous.  I think it would work better if the speed limits were as they are in most other states-equal for all vehicles.

We arrived Medford and checked into our hotel.  I am using Marriott points for this trip and I have always liked Marriot and Hilton properties as well as Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Inn and Suites.  I have had good luck with those and they are my first choice when I travel.  I have accumulated hundreds of thousands of points in the past many years, so cashing them in for free lodging is gratifying.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, we either head up to Crater Lake, as I heard the west road is still open which is unusual for this time of year, or we head directly for the coast.  You will find out tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook


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