My trip to Crater Lake by Amtrak

- Joined Ravi, Anagha and Tushar last minute on Friday morning when we were expected to start same evening. Anita was excited about this trip and Sahadev was only for TRAINS (gigi).
- Booked Amtrak tickets online with hotel and rental car.
- Reached station 2 hours before train departure (asmentioned on the website) but I don’t see any reason to be there so early. You can be there 1 hour before which is pretty safe considering you need to collect tickets and check in baggage. They need photo ID to issue ticket for which you will be carrying confirmation printout.- Started at 8.30 PM from San Jose and reached 8.00 AM Klamath Falls. Small place, asked station counter guy to call cab to drop us to Airport for rental car pickup.- Cab charged $16 and carried all 6 of us and we reached in 10 mins. Got rental car (don’t forget to carry AAA or Costco if you have). We got GMC Yukon in budget for $43 per day.- Went to hotel (early check ins are possible if they have vacant rooms). Started for Crater lake at 12 in noon and did the tracking till water level. It takes 1.5 hours to come back with hiking.

- Booked shuttle to pick us up from Santa Clara and drop us on Diridon station in San Jose downtown. Lalji : 408 636 8093 ...charging $29 one way...he will get a 6 seater van.

- Went to diamond lake and did boating, came back around 6.30 to crater lake for dusk photography. Started back and reached at dinner time. Lots of restaurant so no issues in Klamath Falls.- Stayed in Holiday Inn Express ($111 per day). Left next morning (Sunday) for Lava beds (south of Klamath falls - around 1 hour journey). Good place to see. Don’t ever stop at the wild life habitat in between. Mosquitoes will bombard you the moment you will stop your car.- Caves and its trips (info is available at visitor center) is worth seeing. I got some lava rocks with me :)

- Came back to see downtown and boarded train back at 10 pm after dinner.

- Reached back at 9.45 am to San Jose and back to office.

Remember: Train is not as smooth as in Europe or India. Kids can’t walk while train is moving.
- Amtrak stops a lot. But not many people so kinda safe.Lot of power plugs so easy for games, laptops and cell phones.No blankets (you will have to buy crappy blanket from them), so carry your own.They give pillows. Chair car is like business seats of flight.Lounge car and dinning car is good, snacks bar is awesome too.Carry cards to play and camera to take pictures.

More pictures can be seen on Picasa GalleryNice pictures can be seen on Flickr Gallery