Trip Reports: June 24 to July 11, 2004

by Ted & Sylvia Blishak

The American Orient Express
Lewis and Clark Epic Journey

Friday, July 2, 2004

The American Orient Express (AOE) departs Portland Union Station with an Amtrak operating crew, two Amtrak Genesis locomotives, and seven sleepers with seventy-three passengers, most still asleep in deluxe sleeping carriages. But don’t let the motive power confuse you – AOE is not a division of Amtrak, it is a private company which runs land cruise tours. These take place in various parts of the US, Canada, and Mexico at different times of the year. Passengers “rail,” rather than sail, to various pre-planned destinations and detrain for “shore excursions” while the AOE waits for them as if it were a cruise ship.

The company has expanded, adding a second train set (the other is doing cross-Canada land cruises at the moment) and each has a beautifully refurbished vintage dome car.

Coffee is available here in the Budd-built former Great Northern Railroad Great Dome “New Orleans.” A continental breakfast is served in the former 20th Century Limited observation car “New York,” and in the “Rocky Mountain” mid-train lounge car. Thus begins the “Lewis and Clark Epic Journey” heading northeast on the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle Railroad (now the BNSF) through the Columbia River Gorge, on the Washington State side, to Spokane.

The steep sides of the gorge, one of America’s scenic wonders, attest to massive ancient lakes that burst through glacial dams towards the end of the Ice Age. Floods rushed through, hundreds of feet deep, carving the Gorge into its present dramatic shape. Waterfalls abound, including the often-photographed Multnomah Falls, and the ice-capped slopes of impossibly steep Mt. Hood appear.

Wind-surfers enjoy the constant breezes through the narrow funnel-shaped part of the gorge near the town of Hood River, the location of the vintage Columbia Gorge Hotel which sits atop a basaltic cliff overlooking the mighty river. As we wind through the Cascade Mountains and enter the dry, inland areas of Oregon and Washington, the rain forest suddenly changes to desert.

The Columbia makes a U-turn and we cross over it again where the Snake joins the Columbia River at Pasco, Washington. From here we roll through the strange Palouse country of steep rolling hills and dry washes. This landscape, too, was created by the ancient floods, but is now dry and dusty except where vast wheatfields are irrigated by Columbia River water delivered from Grand Coulee Dam many miles to the north.

Suddenly, there is another sudden change of scene as we are thrust from the Palouse into evergreen forests as we approach the City of Spokane.

The train is scheduled for a two-hour service stop and passengers have the opportunity to disembark for the first time since boarding last evening.

The Spokane River is well known for its downtown waterfalls, and we find a driver outside the station to drive us to a bridge for our first look at them. Although he gets lost on this one-mile trip, his dispatcher gives him direction, and it is well worth the $10.00 fare to see this unusual sight.

Leaving Spokane, we are dining on outstanding prime rib as the AOE rolls into Idaho, where the train pauses again in Sandpoint. Passengers are treated to a scene of summer perfection as bathers swim at the sandy beach and sailboats glide across the water.

Here we change railroads, from the BNSF to Montana Rail Link for our overnight trip to Missoula.

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