Posts Tagged: wildflowers

Western Railway Museum Wildflower Tour

Don’t you just love spring? It’s such a colorful, happy time with so many things to see and do. One of my favorite trips is to the Western Railway Museum on Highway 12, between Fairfield and Rio Vista. During the month of April you can take a peaceful, short train ride out into the country to see the wildflowers. I recommend going near the end of the month when you will see the most blooms.

As a small child, I lived in San Rafael with my grandparents. They loved riding the train and we would travel from San Rafael to Santa Rosa and back. They celebrated my 5th birthday on a train, so that is probably my fascination with old trains. The electric trains at the Western Railway Museum date back to 1890 (before I was born, for sure), and have red velvet covered seats and stained glass windows. This year there will be two special trains, the Scenic Limited and the Vintage Comet. For a few extra dollars you can have lemonade and cookies during the train trip.

And the wildflowers will knock your socks off. There are California poppies, California Golden Violets, Douglas’s lupines, wild hollyhocks, Red Owl Clover (Orthocarpus purpurascens), Brass Buttons (Cotula coronopifolia)and Tidy Tips (Layia chrysanthemoides). Masses of color swaying in the wind will keep you taking photos.
The train ride is 5 miles out into the countryside and 5 miles back. You will see wind turbines, livestock, butterflies, dragonflies, native wildflowers and the Shiloh Presbyterian Church built in 1870. It is a fun and relaxing event so mark your April calendar.

For Additional information refer to www.wrm.org or call (707)374-2978.

Passengers on the Western Railway. photos by Sharon Rico

Bouquet of wildflowers from train trip.

Where the Wildflowers Are

I love traveling along Highway 12 past Suisun City in Solano County, especially days after a good, hard rain which turns the landscape into undulating verdant hills and pastures where livestock graze peacefully.  Hidden amongst this bucolic scenery, is a local gem known as the Western Railway Museum in Suisun City, which I discovered by happenstance some years earlier.  During April of each year, the Museum hosts a wonderful event where, for a nominal entrance fee, wildflower enthusiasts can take an hour-long, 10-mile trip on one of the Museum’s vintage trains, to catch views of native wildflowers (e.g., consisting primarily of poppies, goldfields, brass buttons, butter and eggs, clover, and sheep’s sorrel) that blanket the hillsides and fields of Solano County.  The tours are docent-led and views change weekly, depending upon what is in bloom.  My past experience on this tour has been that the train will stop at an appropriate juncture to allow visitors to exit and wander alongside the fields to take photographs and to examine the wildflowers up-close.  The window to catch this glorious display of wildflowers is short-lived, as the tours begin on April 3, 2013 and run until April 28, 2013.  I recently visited the general vicinity in which these tours take place, and at least as of the posting of this blog entry, there did not seem to be many wildflowers yet on display, but that will quickly change, so consider making your plans now.  For additional information about the various tours, times, and ticket prices, please visit (http://www.wrm.org/).

 

Some flowers in bloom along the roadside by these pastures which will soon be covered with a multitude of blooming California native wildflowers. photos by Betty Homer

In a few short days or weeks, pastures such as these in Solano County, will be blanketed with glorious displays of California native wildflowers, some of which are coming into bloom, even if it is not obvious from the photograph.

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