Which Direction? (traveling on western trains)

[TiBike]

Not exactly. Elkhorn Slough, between Salinas and Pajaro, is very pretty, particularly at sunset. It's an estuary just off Monterey Bay, and has incredible wildlife that you might be lucky enough to see. It's a unique wetland habitat, and the few minutes you're in it are special.

The route also more or less follows the Salinas River between Paso Robles and Soledad - in winter, when you're coming north as the sun is setting, it can be magic. And as you're passing the airstrip outside of Greenfield, there are times when you can even see a full moon .

There is no bay or any waterside running between SLO and San Jose. There is a bit of unscenic view of the Oakland Bay between San Jose and Emeryville. There is more scenic view of the Oakland Bay between Emeryville and Martinez. But none of that is ocean and nowhere as scenic as between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

 

[zephyr17]

The former SP Coast Line turns inland a few miles north of Surf at Narlon, goes up Casmalia Canyon and then through Guadalupe. It ducks out close to the coast again briefly around Pismo Beach, then up Price Canyon to SLO. So when we say "SLO" it is very much an approximation in terms of station stops and the coast running is actually considerably short of SLO.

From SLO north it goes over Cuesta Grade into the Salinas Valley. The whole Santa Lucia Range of the Coast Mountains are between the tracks and the Pacific. And the west side of that range is difficult for roads and railroads, the cliffs of Big Sur dropping into the sea. There is a reason SP elected not to build a railroad through there. Caltrans has enough problems just keeping Highway 1 open. A huge landslide closed it for a couple of years recently and they only recently got it open again. They pretty much had to rebuild the affected stretch of highway from scratch.