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Published: September 1st 2022
Onboarding the train
Western Railroad MuseumThis trip was planned around the Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir. Everything was added to make Dunsmuir happen. It was one of the hardest trips to plan because there are limited options between home and Dunsmuir. In the end, I had to put some long drives in the plan but V and Y took it like a champ đŞ
Sun: Welcome aboard, hello 100 degrees After breakfast at 7:30 am, I knew we had to be on go-go mode if we wanted to leave at 9 am. Yep, out the door at 9 am on the button. Loading, loading, and more loading. Still manage to feel like we left something behind đ
We arrived at Western Railroad Museum in Suisun City at 10:30 am. The door just opened. We wouldâve had 10 minutes to spare but the museum had no sign and the turn was almost invisible. A missed turn led to an extra 10-min detour because there is no cross street at all! We picked up the will-call tickets at the visitor center. The train was leaving shortly at 11 am from the station which was a short walk from the visitor center. Before hitting the train,
Checking out the depot
Western Railroad Museum there was a depot with rows of retired trains. A friendly conductor came around to hang out and made an early âall aboardâ announcement. We got on and the train started to fill up. It was an electric street car. It was reversible(?) meaning that the engineer seats are at both ends of the car and the passenger seats flip. It went along what was the real route to Sacramento. The conductor gave us more interesting facts and history. Jackrabbits were crossing the railroad along the way. And today, a few cows got out of the fence and were on the railroad side. The train stopped but still freaked them out, they jumped over the barbed wireâŚouch âš There was a mini break at Pantano station while the seats were being flipped. Back at the yard, people got off at Depot3 for the tour inside. It was way too close to lunchtime and we opted to picnic instead. We couldâve caught the next tour at 1:30 pm but Y looked worn out. Instead, we cooled off at the visitor center while Y played with the train table.
We left the museum at 2 pm and drove straight to Redding
Train ride
Western Railroad Museum until 4:30 pm. Y napped through 1hr of them. Y woke up and the first thing he said was âwhy is it getting dark?â Yep, it was getting smokey. The AQI seemed to be ok. Maybe the smoke from the McKinney fire is up high. But the more disturbing thing was that the car thermometer was registering 107F đ Why leave pleasant 80s weather for this? Trains my friends. We checked in, ate, and stayed in for the rest of the night. Playing games and reading with AC on sounded good to all of us.
Mon: An epic day at Burney Falls and the caboose hotel We left Redding shortly after 8 am. Weâre taking a detour to Burney Falls on our way to Dunsmuir. At 9:30 am, there werenât too many cars in the parking lot. We were treated to the awe-inspiring view right off the bat as the overlook was right next to the parking lot. From there, a paved trail/stairs took us zigzag down to the base of the waterfall. Amazing! Itâs like a big-screen movie of ever-changing waterfall sights and sounds. I think Y was in awe too. We started taking the rocks down
All aboard!
Western Railroad Museum even closer. There was just one party that was on the rocks. It seemed rugged but Y took it well with V on close watch. The water was icy cold and absolutely clear! Y wanted to go rock scrambling again but he was also curious about the bridge nearby. Rainbow bridge was a short hike downstream. From the bridge, the trail took uphill all the way upstream. Y was tired but he pushed on. After seeing the fall from the other side, Fishermanâs bridge wasnât too far. Y was done there. Wow, good job! That was a nice loop. V piggybacked Y back to the car and it was the perfect time for lunch.
We finished much-needed lunch at 12:30 pm. Y wanted to go back to the fall. We went down to the base again. There was mass by this time and we couldnât get an unobstructed view of the fall anymore unless you hopped over some rocks. Y went a little closer this time too and now he wanted to scramble the rocks back up to the road! That was definitely steeper and longer than earlier. There were some loose rocks, eeks. But Y scrambled so well!
He pretty much made it to the top on his own, woot! It wouldâve been a good time to head back to the car but noooo. Y wanted to go again! He was sooo tired from the heat and all the walks. I thought he was already wobbly getting here after lunch. On the third round, he protested to that being the last one but heâd been running on fumes already. Surprisingly, he was just as steady and that was a wrap at Burney Falls.
It was already 2 pm by the time we left the fall. The road to Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir was perfect for Yâs nap. The whole place is cute with a bunch of colorful cabooses lined up with the mountain in the backdrop. Caboose #1 was our home for the next few nights. Inside was even cuter! I was set on the car with Coppola and that was the right decision. Sitting up high in Coppola was actually pretty comfortable (in a cool weather because it gets hot up there). Y wanted to scope out the area dispute the heat. It was really hot because he voluntarily took frequent water breaks in the
caboose. At 5 pm, we got on the choo choo I discovered and impulsively got tickets for at the check-in. Y was the only kid and other people seemed to be the restaurant guests. The choo choo ride was given by one of the owners who told us stories while it went through the park ground which consisted of campsites and a big open field. Iâve also heard an important point that there is a button to make that model train run through the mountain. Y had been mesmerized by that model train running (or not). This was probably the single most critical information for our stay.
We went back outside after dinner as it was cooling down. Y really got a kick out of making the model train go with the red button. He also liked the mini-train playground. We had too much fun on a pleasantly cool evening and it was a late turn-in at 9 pm. Y was so wired up that he finally fell asleep at 9:45!
Tue: Dunsmuir away from the caboose Itâs 6 am. Itâs time to wake up! Breakfast and out the door at 8 am. There was no particular
plan today and we took a stroll around the Railroad Park. The playground train was bee-infested. Besides pushing that red button to death, there wasnât much we could do here. Y was being difficult this morning and getting him out of here was a struggle. He didnât want to accept the fact that he couldnât be pressing the red button all morning.
We dragged a grouchy toddler to Mount Shasta City Park. Boy, was it a Hippie central. Snack on the bench at the Sacramento River head water made Yâs mood slightly better. We didnât think much of the people filling up jugs with the river water at that point. We strolled around while the playground was getting sprinkled on, booo. A creek is running through the park and it wouldâve made a pleasant hike. We noticed more and more people showing up with bottles to fill at the headwater. When this guy showed up with like six 5-gallon jugs, I had to ask âCan you drink that water?â. Then he looked at me like I just landed from the moon. He said âOh, the best water ever. This is the only water Iâve drunk in 5 years.â What
what? Wow. We dumped out whatever we had and tried it. Wowza! Zero aftertastes! Super clean taste!!
We moved onto Wagon Creek Bridge. We braved the heat, parked the car at Lake Siskiyou trailhead, and walked to the bridge. The path was pretty doable with a stroller. It was a nice walk with some shade. The bridge is pedestrian-only. Itâs small but scenic. We found an open spot just below the east end of the bridge. Only V can lead the toddler down that slippery steep path. We laid out a blanket there and had a nice lunch with a view. A kid and his grandparents joined us and they all went swimming under the bridge. How cool! Y had a blast playing with his construction toys until 1:30 pm. There were a lot of boaters and paddlers passing by. A boat sheriff sailed by twice while we were there so they keep this place pretty clean. We made it back to the scorching car at 2 pm and boom, Y passed out đ´
Needless to say, it was still burning hot by the time Y woke up back at the caboose. But the heat didnât stop Y
from going back to the red button. Thatâs where he saw that the choo choo was out again today. At 4:45 pm, Y started to say he wants to get on it. The train departs at 5 pm and at the last minute, I got the tickets from the store and got V to get the history lesson of the park this time. V and Y hopped on it last but snagged the coveted red caboose, yay. Come to think of it, neither the choo choo nor the restaurant were supposed to be operating on Monday or Tuesday so we were lucky đ
It started to cool down after 6 pm. After dinner, we walked in the creek thatâs running right through the park. Good times. We checked out the playground but it was still heavily guarded by bees. So guess what, more red buttons.
Wed: Goodbye caboose Last call. Checkout day. After breakfast at 8 am, we thought Y wanted to go out but instead, he chose to read in Coppola and this lasted until 9:50 am đą Wow. Either way, we were determined to take as much time as necessary to say goodbye to the
caboose. I returned the keys with 30 min to spare until the checkout time at 11 am while Y slowly stepped out of the caboose. He told V âI know I have to go, Papa. But I donât want to leaveâ and looked sad đ˘ We sat by the red button and played with the $25k train set. We saw the cleaning crew go into the caboose. The train must have run the most mileage today. Finally, finally, we said goodbye to the Railroad Park at 11:45 am! Definitely more than Iâd ever anticipated but there were no tears and it was all worth it.
It was already noon by the time we got to Mount Shasta City Park. Weâre making a detour to load up on water! The park was going strong on Wednesday at noon with vanlifers. Playground even had kids today. V filled up the bottles for lunch and put down the blanket on the other side of the field as all the shades were taken. After lunch, Y looked pretty tired but he got to sneak in a little slide action. People were flocking to the headwater area. We got ours filled for the road.
Y got to dip his feet in the headwater, see the long train pass by, and we hit the road at 1:45 pm.
We were going to make Redding a break point to Sacramento (Sac) but it didnât work out with Yâs nap. By the time he woke up, we were in Red Bluff. Besides a pit stop at a rest area, we powered through it to Sac. The traffic markedly got heavy near the city. All of that put us after 6 pm when we finally got to the hotel.
Thu: Folsom So why the heck are we in Sac? Good question. If you asked me 10 years ago if Iâd ever visit Sac, 3 nights at that, Iâd also be like âwhy?â. Itâs a no-brainer these days. Yep, trains.
We kicked off the morning with a stop at Mahoroba bakery. Then off to the destination of the day: Folsom for Folsom Valley Railroad. We got there an entire hour before opening. This was sort of on purpose in case there are prep activities to look at. There was nothing going on at the little station so we walked over to the engine house where
we could see the train in the left door and the passenger cars on the right. We were greeted by the engineer. Is this the diesel thatâs running today? Yeah, I just got this oneâŚitâs just too hot for the steamâŚoh are you a Nikon or a Canon? Ooo, havenât got that question for while đ Turns out, he was teaching photography for 9 years. In the next 10min, he showed me the revolutionary trick that would take my portrait game up by many many notches! Apparently, he owns the railroad, ha! He worked at Disneyland for years and told us some stories about that too. The early bird got lots of worms. The train departed early with just us on it and we were back at the station by 10 am.
Near the station, there was a zoo with a very friendly entrance fee as well as a playground with lots of picnic tables. We took a snack break and busted out the buns from earlier. We had Anpanman, simple anpan, and a cream pan. What did a 3-year-old pick? The simplest-looking anpan, ha! But itâs the most filling and authentic! He didnât care for the other two
at all. This guy knew something. Y played in the sandbox while I made a quick grocery run.
At 11:30 am, we headed to Folsom Lake for a picnic. We found American River Water Education Center. They had a cute little garden and shaded picnic tables. We didnât know that it was an educational center. The attendants invited us to check out the inside when they saw us eating. Y also wanted to check it out. Why not? There were a lot of cool interactive guides about Folsom Lake, the dam, and their roles and purposes. I definitely learned new things and Y enjoyed it too.
Back in Sac at 1:45 pm, we went to William Land Park. The park is huge with a zoo and other setups. We parked by Peace Pond and snacked on a bench. There were flocks and flocks of ducks and geese. There was even a feeding party going on. Y was creeped out so we took it across the street. There, Y got into playing with his construction toys, just building with branches and digging dirt. He had so much fun we finally got Y to leave at 5:30 pm!
Fri: The kid who closed the museum
Anpan round #2 at Mahoroba bakery! This time, we cut to the chase and got 3 anpans. We got to the Old Sacramento Waterfront shortly before 9 am. It was still very pleasant outside. The railroad museum wasnât going to open until 10 am but there was a lot to see. Right along the water was the railroad that was running from the turntable at the museum. There was the depot that housed a bunch of big trains and some passenger cars that were parked at the station. Aside from the trains, we enjoyed the stroll along the Sacramento River. There was a line seal barking on the pier out on the river. We also went down to the Delta King ship. I actually looked into staying here but it didnât work out for a party of three. Back on the street level, we even walked across Tower Bridge. Y did surprisingly well with walking. We returned to the depot and decided to take an anpan break at the shaded picnic table.
After checking out the roundhouse from outside, we began our day at the museum at around 10:30 am. We went
through the first floor in about 1 hour. There were a lot of large trains on display. They did a great job and it was really enjoyable for a 3-year-old. We could go onto some trains and the attendants made it come alive.
It was a good time to break for lunch. We went back to the depot. Just when we were finishing up, one of the engines in the depot suddenly turned on. The engineer opened the gate, walked over to the turntable and opened its gate, went even further for who knows what and to who knows how far, and came back to start up the little black diesel. We had high hopes of it getting turned on the turntable and ran to it but it just poked its head in the turntable just so it can switch and went right back toward the depot. Y chased it but the train was too fast. It was out of sight in no time. Y was concerned and he wanted to chase it forever, aww. It didnât come back but Y had to use the restroom and we went back to the museum.
The afternoon session started by
going up! Y wanted to hit the third floor first. Did Y know there wasnât much on the Second floor and the fun was on the third floor? After displays of impressive toy trains, there was a large enclosed setup where multiple trains were running. It turned into nights and everything. Y chased the trains for some time. At 1:30 pm, we discovered the kidâs area. A slide, model trains, and 4 train tables! Heaven! 1 hour passed. People came and left. 2 hours passed. Y didnât care for snacks or notice me being gone. I guess weâll be closing the museum.
At ~4 pm, upon realizing that the museum will close soon, Y ran to the toy trains and chased that back and forth for a while. He was also keen on seeing other things he hadnât seen, like the section on the model trains and the second floor. He kept his interest and attention after all that focus time without a nap. After weâd gone through the entire museum, we went one last round on the first floor to say goodbye. At the ginormous steam engine, he asked again why the boiler is behind the engineer seat
to which I had no response. He is right, thatâs odd! I asked the attendant the last question of the day. He was super happy to answer that question he thought V asked and the answer was surprising!
One last thing. Y wanted to see if the diesel came back to the depot. Is it back? Yes! But where did it go?? The engineer was a matter-of-fact-ish and didnât care for the spectators. It wasnât a joyride. Hmm. Y walked all the way and was still pretty high back at the hotel. This visit was so worth it đ
Sat: Before we go One last thing to do in Sac was to ride the train! We pretty much extended the trip one night just to be able to ride the excursion ride since it only ran on the weekends. We got to the waterfront way early at 8:30 am. The early bird gets the worm again! We got to see the diesel come out of the depot, score! The workhorse for the day was Amtrack 281 from the 70s. That behemoth started snail pace toward the turntable and switched back to the station to dock with the
passenger cars. Cool sight.
We got the tickets at 9:15 am, first in line. While we were checking out inside the depot and having snacks, people started to line up to get on board. We too joined the party. At 10:45 am, we boarded and Y picked the coach seat that was closest to the diesel â¤ď¸ That was the 100-year-old car with plush seats and a womenâs bathroom (not in service). The train took off fairly promptly at 10 am. It went extra snail pace today because of the railroad work thatâs just been done. Still, we got to the turnaround point just past I-5 (near Land Park?) shortly after 10:30. But the train pushed back for a bit and it stopped for the diesel to go to the front. That procedure took 20 min! Itâs one thing if we could see the action but another with the closed-top car in front blocking the view. Y was getting bored. Maybe because of the whole new railroad deal, the trip went over by 25 min and it was already 11:15 am by the time we got back to the station. Y asked for a potty but the diesel was
just about to connect on the other side. Y had to see the action he missed earlier. This put us at 11:30 am for lunch back near the depot.
Well, thatâs a wrap. Bye-bye Sacramento at 12:30 pm! A 2+ hours journey home went ok with Y napping some of it. It was a whirlwind train full of a trip I hope Y took a lot away from.
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