Roaring Camp Railroad - Labor Day 2003

Labor Day morning we were sitting around trying to figure out what to do. Randy suggested that we go on the Roaring Camp Railroad. We checked online and found that there was a redwood train leaving at 2:45. We hopped in the car, put the top down and headed up Highway 9. It was a gorgeous day, around 80°, not a cloud in the sky. There weren't too many cars out, which made the drive much nicer. Randy had a great time testing out the new car on the mountain roads, Rick seemed to enjoy the winding and twisting roads as well. It took us about an hour to Felton, where the railroad starts. We walked down to the station and got tickets, then boarded an open car with benches down the side.

The ride is about half an hour to the top of Bear Mountain, then an hour back. The railroad was built in the 60's as a way to get up close to the giant redwoods. They were some of the tallest we've seen! The steam engine was a Shea "geared" locomotive, which enabled it to climb grades up to 10%! (Normal trains can climb up to 3%, highways are at most 6%). They were used in the 1800's to pull logging trains through the forest. The track is narrow gauge and goes over a curved trestle and up through a couple of switchbacks to get to the top.

At the top we watched a re-enactment of a train hold-up, complete with very loud guns and smoke. Kinda cheesy, but it was actually pretty fun. Then we made a much faster descent of the mountain, and back to the station. On the way back in the car we decided to take Highway 17, which was faster, but had more weekend traffic.

Definitely a fun way to spend the day!