The final leg

It's been great following the Columbia River and enjoying the scenery but I am starting to anticipate our final destination, reuniting with Susan, and touring the city of Portland.
The last stop before Portland is Vancouver, WA, a nice looking town with a station located in a wye track arrangement. I see another train at the station but can't identify it. There is an Amtrak locomotive but the passenger cars have a maroon stripe and the word Cascades on them. I'll see if some online research will reveal the answer.

We leave Vancouver but are almost immediately delayed at a lift bridge that has risen to allow a tug boat to pass under. Forty minutes later we are in Portland! We pass through a yard and I can see the tower for the Portland station coming up. Bill is asking passengers if they need assistance with any luggage. He's provided us with terrific service over the two days and, like me, most passengers tip him as we disembark. Farewell Empire Builder! It was a great ride!

Portland station is busy as a freight rolls through on another track. The station's cavernous interior is nicely maintained and reminds me of the glamor of rail travel from an earlier time.
It's easy to find the baggage department (there are neon signs that say "Baggage"!) and my suitcase is one of the first placed on the counter. For all of the signs and information on my baggage claim tag about needing my ID to claim my bag the department is very casual and I simply take my suitcase and go.

Now that the journey is completed I'm feeling a bit tired from lack of sleep that first night but otherwise feel I've had a wonderful time. I would definitely do it again!!

Washington and the Columbia River Gorge

I woke up Saturday morning around 7 AM and looked out the window expecting to see classic lush Pacific Northwest fir tree scenery . Instead I saw a dessert landscape! Bill said we were near Pasco. Last night one of my dinner companions said he was from Pasco and commented that the Cascade Mountain Range blocked a lot of rain to his area and created a much different climate than in other parts of Washington. He wasn't kidding! According to the Amtrak guide Pasco is the last town on the navigable part of the Columbia river.

Between Pasco and Wishram taller buttes rise up in front of lakes and ponds. Its getting beautiful!

The scenery gradually became more green. I notice through the roomette window across from me that we are following the Columbia River. The left side of the Empire Builder definitely has the best view for this part of the trip.

I took my camera and headed downstairs to the window in the entry door.

That's Oregon on the other side of the river. The farther we went the more verdant the hills became until they were covered by the evergreens I'd expected.

I didn't want to leave the window but I was getting hungry. I had been told that the dining car would no longer with us after Spokane because it would become part of the Seattle bound train. I'm surprised that I slept through the the separation of the Empire Builder in Spokane. I figured the uncoupling and reassembling would stir me with the noise and motion. Actually I was kind of looking forward to it even though it would occur at about 2:30 AM!

Sleeper car passengers on the Portland section are entitled to a free packaged meal from the observation car's snack bar downstairs.
We were supposed to show the snack bar attendant our roomette number card that was given to us when we had our tickets checked. When I talked to the snack car lady she simply asked who sent me. I replied "Bill sent me" and she laughed and said that was the right answer. Ours was the only sleeper on the Portland segment of the train so Bill was the only one who would have told passengers to see the snack bar lady.

Breakfast consisted of a ham and cheese croissant sandwich, some yogurt, a sweet pastry/bread of some sort, and some fruit. I also hit Bill's coffee urn a couple of times.

The scenery became more and more spectacular. We passed through several short tunnels to make it even more interesting.

One of the photos shows a rock outcropping that is part of one of the upcoming tunnels. Now I wish I'd thought to stand at the back of the sleeper to get a photo of a tunnel from the rear door window.

Once in a while I caught a glimpse of the peak of Mt. Hood, Oregon's highest mountain. I was determined to get a photo of it from the train but was frustrated several times by a passing tree obscuring the view, or a curve in our route or higher hill across the river making the mountain less visible. Then ...there it was! I took the lucky shot...my favorite of the trip!

Montana Part 3

After Havre the land becomes flat again and stays that way for some time. Then, in the distance, an oddly isolated small set of significant looking mountains pops up on the horizon. Bill walks by and tells me I'm looking at the Sweetgrass Hills on the Canadian Border twenty five miles away.

During dinner, sometime after 7 PM we reach Cutbank where we first see the Rockies. By 8:30 we are in Browning, MT which according to the Amtrak guide is the site of the largest Native American pow wow in North America and home of the Blackfeet Nation. There is an enormous conical saw dust burner there but I have trouble getting a good picture of this unusual structure.

Since the train is about three hours behind schedule it will be dark soon and I'll miss a lot of the scenery of Glacier Park. I take a few pictures of the approaching mountains through my window but miss the more dramatic photo ops later.

The last picture is Glacier Park Inn.

After that the sun hid behind the mountains and I figured photos wouldn't turn out well. There was enough light for me to appreciate the beauty of tall fir covered slopes and rocky peaks with snow caps.

The ride was thrilling at times when rock walls and outcroppings seemed very close to the tracks as we zipped by.

The train follows the so called "Mystery route" passage through the Rockies sought by Lewis and Clark and later established by John Stevens for the Great Northern. We cross the Continental Divide at the lowest point between Mexico and Canada.

At 9:40 we pass on the outside of a former tunnel. The tracks were rerouted around the outer edge of it. As we go by I can see into the portals that have been partially filled. Even though its getting dark Glacier Park is still beautiful as clusters of black silhouette trees and a silver ribbon river illuminated by a half moon.

At least three trains rip by us in the other direction as we travel through Glacier Park. They are on the opposite side of the train so I don't see them coming. One catches my attention because of repeated high pitched whistles that sound much like bottle rockets that shoot in the air but fail to explode. I look out a window on the left side of the Empire Builder and see the dark shapes of a container train. Our combined speeds must make the cars pass each other at well over a 100 miles an hour. I'm not sure what about the container cars create that whistle but its beautifully eerie at night.

Eventually I can no longer see anything outside so I try to sleep but leave the window curtain open. I doze but wake up to a different sound. We have entered Flathead Tunnel which, at some seven miles long, is the third longest tunnel in North America. I can make out the tunnel wall and every 20 seconds or so a light flashes by. Then, suddenly, we are out and seem to be racing faster then we have anytime before. I feel a little nervous about this speed, perhaps because of my fatigue, but it seems the car is rocking more and feeling every bump of track switches than anytime on the trip. Its unsettling. Looking out the glass while lying down I notice the stars of the Big Dipper perfectly framed in my window. I find this comforting, renew my trust in the train, and fall asleep.

How do you pronounce Havre?

Havre is a service stop (and smoke stop) for the Empire Builder.
A note regarding timing here:
We rolled into town during the early reserved dinner times. The guy in charge of the dining car warned people over the intercom that if they had a reservation at this time but went out to smoke instead of showing up to be seated they would lose their reservation. He ran a tight ship!

Those of us having later reservations and not needing to respond to the dining car Sargent were able to step out to stretch our legs for about 20 minutes. The must-see item at Havre's station is a Great Northern S-2 steam locomotive on display near the platform. I took the obligatory shot above partly because my friend Jim told me about seeing it earlier this year when he took the Empire Builder part of the way. His story prompted me to look for it when we arrived in Havre.

By the way Havre is pronounced "Have-er" and supposedly got its name from a local love triangle involving early residents of the area. According to a plaque at the station one of two men competing for the affections of the same woman decide to quit and told his opponent that he could "have her". It's a good story. :)

Montana Part 2

Between Malta and Havre, MT the landscape changes again. Some stretches are very attractive with neat cattle ranches or untouched rolling hills of green. Some of these hills have scattered deteriorating houses with junk littered all around them. Everything sticks out...shacks, barrels, tires, broken farm machinery, rusting tanks...you can see the clutter a mile away because nothing hides it. Rusted cars are common but some junk piles even include a helicopter and a small plane body along with that old Chevy.

Fortunately the closer we get to Havre the more natural beauty predominates as we follow the Milk River. The Bear Paw Mountains are in the distance. It was in these mountains, the Amtrak guide reminds me, that Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe surrendered to the army and uttered the famous line, "From where the sun now stands I will fight now more forever".

It was also near this area in 1901 that Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Kid Curry robbed the Great Northern Oriental Limited and blew up an express car to steal $68, 000!

Oh! Almost forgot! The Eastbound Empire Builder whips past on my side of the train!

Entering the yard at Havre I see large locomotive and industrial facilities but can't seem to get a good shot. I do take photos of a Blue and Yellow BNSF locomotive and a caboose in BN green.

Montana , Part 1

I forgot to mention that Amtrak provides a magazine in its sleeper car rooms that includes a description of the various station stops and other points of interest along the route. I was intrigued to learn that the last part of North Dakota between Williston ND and Wolf Point, Montana was an area noted by Lewis and Clark and known to Sitting Bull. That, at least, provided some flavor to otherwise boring landscape. It was also around this area that I first saw some small buttes and hills, desert like and wild westy.


This was more like it! I put down my book and started paying attention to my window again. Some of these hills grew larger but eventually the plains became flat again for a while.

I also enjoy a little railroad excitement as the Empire Builder stops at a siding and waits for a hot grain train to pass in the opposite direction. My room was on the right side of the train so other tracks and train movements tended to be on the opposite side. Sometimes I'd leave my room and go downstairs to look out the entry door window if it was likely I'd see other trains or railroad facilities.

The grain train was fast and a bit of a thrill as my window was only a few feet away from the
racing train. I'd hoped to capture a photo of the lead locomotive but it came out as a blur. In my roomette I was at just the right height to be able to (very briefly) see into the locomotive cab as it roared by. Railroad fans may wish to remember to spend time on the left side of the train to see more action like this.

The observation car with its domed windows would be an ideal location for viewing trains and scenery but I found the seats there were always taken and seemed to be permanently commandeered by the same people. I had a couple of meals on the left side of the train and had good views during those times so that's an opportunity to get a different perspective.

North Dakota

I didn't take any photos of North Dakota scenery through my window. Let's face it....its not all that interesting. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of touring the State it is mostly flat plains that never seem to end. The family from Kentucky I joined for breakfast were headed to Glacier Park, the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. They looked at North Dakota's boring landscape with dismay. Low hanging rolling thunderclouds helped break up the monotony for a while but it cleared up later and became brightly sunny. I have to say though it was very green country after a lot of rain this season.

Highlights of the passage through North Dakota:

1. The train stops at Rugby, ND, the geographic epicenter of North America. No kidding. Apparently there is a plaque somewhere in town noting this remarkable distinction.

2. The train stopped after passing a detector that reported we were dragging something. I overheard some talk about a deer carcass being found behind the second unit (locomotive) and the baggage car. This stop took some time and contributed to our now being three hours behind schedule. I saw live deer in the fields and wished them safe passage over the tracks and hoped they'd avoid the fate of their comrade.

3. Approaching Minot, ND we pass a town that reminds me of a model railroad with all kinds of industries right next to each other by the tracks. It had stock yard pens, oil tanks, a lumber company, and a grain elevator, all in close proximity; a switching railroad dream plan in real life.

4. Minot. This is a service stop where we are permitted to get off the train for about 20 minutes. I learn that these stops are "smoking breaks" since no smoking is allowed on the train. Amtrak recognizes some passengers will want to take such breaks and arranged the schedule to allow at least a few along the way. Some of my fellow passengers express obvious relief when these stops are announced. :)

5. I observe small communities that may make great Witness Relocation Program options. :)

6. I feel very comfortable taking time to read the book I brought with me and also take a little nap without fear of missing much outside.

7. We start seeing oil rigs right near the tracks. Apparently a a big oil discovery was made in this region in the 1950s.

Next: We enter Montana and I start taking more photos.