I’ll agree. While perhaps not pertinent to this thread, I’ll add that if you find yourself in southern Alberta, a trip to Waterton Lakes National Park should be in order. Many hiking trails, ranging from “short and easy” to “extremely challenging; for experienced hikers only.” Wildlife are abundant; I’ve seen grizzly bears on the road to Cameron Lake (from the safety of my car, of course), and bighorn sheep wandering through the town. Our OP should not be surprised to find the same things in Glacier NP—after all, animals ignore national boundaries.
As for the Prince of Wales Hotel, here it is:
It’s a unique structure. Walk through the front doors (on the other side of the photo), and the lobby stretches all the way up to the roof. Every room has a view. There is a pleasant lounge with great views of the lake and town (I’ve had a few lunches in there), and a dining room where you can enjoy afternoon tea, then dinner. Everywhere in the building, the emphasis is on the view. Well worth visiting if you’re in the area.
Okay, let’s end this hijack. However, OP, I hope this gives you a reason to return someday, and take the Red Bus tour that takes you to the Prince of Wales.
So I am writing this from the Crowne Plaza hotel in Portland. Today’s Coast Starlight was over two hours behind schedule, so I missed my connection to the Empire Builder (or its bus replacement).
I am rebooked on the Empire Builder for tomorrow. Unfortunately this means I will miss the Big Sky Circle tour since I’m arriving a day late. I tried to reschedule it but it’s sold out the other days I’ll be there. Maybe I’ll try to see if I can get on standby for one of the tours in case there are any last minute cancellations.
On the plus side, Amtrak puts you up in a pretty decent hotel when you miss your connection. And they gave me a to go meal from the dining car before we got to Portland.
Oh, and I found out why the bus replacement for the train. According to our hotel shuttle driver a building caught fire near the tracks, and they are afraid it could collapse onto the tracks. Therefore those tracks are closed and the trains that use them are cancelled.
When I took the train from San Diego to the Tri-Cities in 2002 to meet a girl I’d fallen for online, the Coast Starlight was running two hours behind by morning, so in Klamath Falls they had those of us catching the Empire Builder disembark and get on a bus which got us to Portland on time to make the connection. I’m surprised they didn’t do anything similar for you, but at least they’re taking care of you.
If you have time tomorrow, there’s an arcade called Ground Kontrol a few blocks from the train station that’s got lots of vintage and modern games and a huge pinball collection. Good way to spend an hour.
I kinda chuckle at this. The one time I took the Coast Starlight north from SLO to Salinas from the end of a bike trip thru Big Sur, I noticed out the window that vehicles on Hwy 101 were generally going faster than the train we were on - it was a bit frustrating at times. I since learned that riding Amtrak’s connector bus from SLO to San Jose is much, much quicker than taking the Coast Starlight train, and there are more departures northbound each day as well - much more convenient and efficient, and have done that instead of the train since.
At Klamath Falls they did announce that for people taking the bus to Medford, they were holding the bus. I guess either they don’t have the connector bus to Portland anymore, or at that point we were so far behind even the next available bus wouldn’t have gotten us there in time. IIRC at that point we were over three hours behind and made up some time on the way to Portland, but obviously not enough.
ETA Yeah, I just checked Amtrak’s schedule from Klamath Falls to Portland, and the only option it shows is the Coast Starlight. So I guess that bus service doesn’t exist anymore.
This really depends on the track. On a straight section the train can go ~80 mph — when I took the Zephyr a few years ago we were flying along across the Nevada desert faster than the traffic on I-80. But on curvy mountain sections like the one north of SLO the train has to go quite slow, which probably cancels it out.
Sorry for the triple post, but it appears I’ve been upgraded to a full bedroom. Score! Presumably there were no more roomettes available. But unfortunately still the bus service to Spokane, so I don’t get to actually use the bedroom until we get there around midnight.
And @Smapti, thanks for the tip about Ground Kontrol. I’m hanging out there now with a beer and nachos. Turns out I suck at space invaders. I’m decent at Tetris.
I don’t think it was a scheduled route so much as a bespoke bus they set up specifically so we could make our transfer. This was 25 years ago, of course, so I can’t check.
The last time I was there I won so many free replays on Terminator 2 that I had to walk away because I was getting tired of playjng it.
On this note, they just delivered a bunch of meals to the Metropolitan Lounge for us sleeper passengers who are going to be on the bus. It’s just stuff like packaged deli sandwiches and salads, not like dining car fare, but we do get food.
Sometimes when I’m going from Emeryville to Riverside in southern California I find it more convenient to take the San Juaquins (now called Gold Runner) to Bakersfield then the connector bus to Riverside over the Grapevine. A couple of weeks ago on the return journey the bus got stuck in traffic over the hill and was too late for the last train for Emeryville, so they put be on the train to Sacramento and had me get off in Stockton and then they drove me the hour and a half right to my door in Oakland in the crew shuttle!
My route was actually somewhat convoluted. I took the Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to LA, but instead of getting on the Starlight there, I took a bus to Bakersfield, then the San Joaquins to Sacramento, and got on the Starlight there.
At that time the San Joaquins had a full service dining car, but it was “flexible dining” like the east coast trains use (I.e. premade meals that the crew just heat and serve) instead of being made to order like the west coast trains have, and you got a table to yourself instead of having to share with strangers. I had stuffed shells in marinara sauce.
From looking at the Gold Runner website, I see they no longer have that but are currently serving free snacks and drinks onboard and are eventually going to be serving hot meals to passengers at their seats.
I was on one of the San Juaquins that had a rack of free snacks, but the rack was unsupervised. I was one of the first ones on the train, so I got my single bag of potato chips, but – some people being what they are – the rack was pretty quickly emptied, and never refilled by any staff. Arggh.
It’s in the same area as the arcade and the train station. It originally advertised a Chinese restaurant that closed decades ago. It means “red flower restaurant” in Cantonese. It stayed in place long after the restaurant went under, and the community eventually restored it and maintains it because everybody loves fourth-grade humor.
I had to look up where you might be referring to. I know you’re generally in Portland OR now, but this was then. I gathered your destination was probably in one of CA, OR, or WA.
Anyhow, Tri-Cities - Wikipedia says there’s three areas going by that moniker in California, one in Oregon, and one in Washington. And there’s a bunch more by that or similar names scattered across the country. I bet you meant the one in Washington.
But I had fun exploring them all. Thanks for opening that rabbit trail.
Washington is the correct one, yes. Nice little middling-sized metro area in eastern WA where three rivers meet, where a big part of the Manhattan Project was based back in the day.
