California-bound emigrants traveled through this same country, apart from later towns and ranch meadows, but at a far slower pace, taking as much as a month to reach California while pressing on day after day through thick alkali dust and sand in search of gold or a new life. The California Trail began at several points along the Missouri River and followed several variant routes across the Great Basin and over the Sierra Nevada mountains into California. After the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, most travelers made the journey by rail.