The chug-chug and urgent whistle call of an approaching train is always exciting, especially when a vintage steam engine leads the charge. How can you hear it and see it and not want to be on it? Several family-friendly excursion trains in California welcome dogs as well as parents, grandparents and youngsters aboard. Here’s a rundown.
Read more.Hop On A Houseboat With Your Pup
Water, sun, stars, memories. A houseboating vacation provides them all, plus a lot of novelty for first-timers.
While Shasta Lake is justly known as the house-boating capital of California, it’s not the only body of water where you can herd your friends and family (including your pup, of course) aboard and say “anchors aweigh” on a slow-moving, waterborne vacation. Read more.
Time out for Tuolumne County (Yosemite north entrance)
Photo by Daniel Lee.
The rugged country leading up to Yosemite’s Big Oak Flat (North) entrance boasts a pioneer history as rough-hewn as the landscape itself. Tuolumne County towns along the Highway 120/49 corridors—Oakdale, Columbia, Jamestown, Twain Hart, Groveland—still have a boomtown feel, and with it, a relaxed attitude toward dogs.
Columbia, “the Gold Rush town that refused to die,” is engagingly preserved as a state historic park, its 1850s ambience captured in an array of historic buildings. Read more.
All aboard (dogs, too)!
Excursion-train rides are fun for the whole family, and several lines in Northern California allow dogs to ride along, too. Our pick for a fall rail outing: Pumpkin Trains at the Western Railway Museum in Solano County.
Read more.Woofin’ It Up in Tuolumne County
Like other parts of Gold Country, Tuolumne County is rich in history, rugged scenery and recreational opportunities. You can get some of both and soak up some local color too at First Friday Jamestown Art Walk-Wine-Dine & Music events, continuing through October, or 2nd Saturday Art Nights held year-round in historic downtown Sonora. Either town makes a great base for jumping off into a weekend of hiking, history and off-the-beaten path exploring. Read more.
