Posts Tagged: Western Railway Museum

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.

Wild Flower Train Excursion

Have you considered celebrating spring by taking a wild flower tour into the country on a 1906 electric train? Located on Highway 12, between Fairfield and Rio Vista is the Western Railway Museum. It’s like stepping back 100 years in time to tour the extensive collection of trains and streetcars that date from 1890 to 1960. To ride the slow moving antique train with beautiful stained glass windows, sipping lemonade and munching cookies is delightful. In April each year, the Wild flower Tour will take you 5 miles out into the countryside to view the fields of wild flowers. Many of them have unusual names that make you laugh. There are groupings of Red Owl Clover (Orthocarpus purpurascens), Butter and Eggs (Orthocarpus erianthus), Narrow-leaf Mule Ears (Wyethia angustifolia), Brass Buttons (Cotula coronopifolia), Tidy Tips (Layia chrysanthemoides), Goldfields (Lasthenia chrysotoma), and Wally Baskets (Triteleia laxa). You can also see the more common wild hollyhocks, Red-stemmed filaree, vetch, California Blue-eyed grasses, Douglas’s lupines, California Golden Violets and of course California poppies. A docent will take you back to the past as he gives you information on the flowers, the trains and history of the area.

On the ride, you will see the Shiloh Presbyterian church built in 1870. Although the church is no longer in operation, an occasional wedding is still held in this historic sanctuary. Next to the church the original cemetery is still maintained.

Shiloh Road runs parallel to the train tracks. While we were riding the train, a Model A Club  (about 12 autos) drove down this road, waving at the train. Evidence of spring is everywhere as cows are feeding their calves and baby lambs are following their mothers through the wild flowers.

For more information and for the schedule of events held at the Western Railway Museum, call (707)374-2978 or go to www.wrm.org.  

wildflower train pic

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