Tehachapi Loop

When we left Yosemite, we headed south and I identified Tehachapi (Tay-HA-chu-pee) as a good stop for the night.

I looked on Trip Advisor to see what might be interesting to see in the area, and immediately stumbled upon the Tehachapi Loop on many, many blogs and websites.  For those who are train fans, it's an important trip.  For the rest of us, we just thought it would be cool to see.

The Loop was built in 1874 and sits amid pretty scenery.  It was built to lessen the angle of the grade that the train would have to climb.  About 40 trains come past daily, so we took a chance that we'd see one.  We only had to wait a few minutes for a train to come.

Brennan took a lot of photos so I'm going to use his primarily in this post.  He does a great job!

We're in Central California at this point - look at the snow!



Here's the Loop before the trains come.  It's cool to see how the tracks wrap around itself, but it's hard to get the picture until a train comes.

And here it comes - through a tunnel down below and then winds it's way up and around.



Then it wraps around itself as it continues to climb.

And then we could see the end of the train come out of the tunnel and head up the Loop.

It was fun to see The Loop in action!  As we left the area, we met back up again with the same train and rode alongside it for quite a ways. 

We always like it when we "discover" something off the beaten path!