It’s a crisp spring morning in Vancouver; the distant North Shore Mountains are purple shadows in a sparkling blue sky when I arrive at the train station. My luggage is whisked away from me and I’m promptly led to my seat aboard the Rocky Mountaineer, Canada’s most acclaimed train. Ground crew gather on the platform and wave us off as we slip out of the station, slowly treading the tracks on a journey that will end nearly 900 kilometres northeast of here in Jasper, within the largest national park in the Rockies.
The Rocky Mountaineer offers four spectacular journeys across western Canada. I’ve opted for the “Journey through the Clouds,” which will take me across three massive mountain ranges – the Coast Mountains, Cascades and Canadian Rockies – over two days, with an overnight stop in the sprawling desert town of Kamloops.
Urban Vancouver slips away, gradually replaced by the lush spring foliage of the Fraser Valley. Snow-clad Mount Cheam looms more than 2,000 metres above me as breakfast is served: a feast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and good, strong coffee. I leave my seat in the dining carriage on more than one occasion to dash out to a vestibule and take photo after photo of the magnificent countryside. Much of this scenery can be enjoyed from the comfort of my seat: the train’s premium GoldLeaf class features a bi-level custom-made carriage topped by a dome of glass.
After around 60 kilometres, the train veers north as the Fraser River, which we’ve been following, begins to breach the Cascades, a magnificent mountain range which extends all the way down to northern California. We’re travelling well above the water on a ledge that was blasted and dug out of the valley in 1882. The rock face was (and still is) so steep that workers at the time were lowered down from above to drill holes for dynamite.
Work began on the line in 1880 with the support of then Prime Minister John Macdonald, keen to persuade the independent state of British Columbia to become part of Canada and not the U.S. By 1883, the track extended to Calgary from the east, but crossing the Rockies was proving an incredibly difficult task – hundreds of square kilometres of wilderness had to be surveyed to find a route. Thousands of Chinese workers were brought in to help complete the project, and the last spike connecting rails from east and west was driven home in November 1885.
I begin to get a feel for just how treacherous the terrain is as we reach Hells Gate, a huge canyon where towering rock walls squeeze the river into turbulent rapids. The train edges east at the small town of Lytton, where the crystal-clear waters of the Thompson River merge with the muddy flow of the Fraser.
The rest of the day passes by in a blur of waterfalls, river rapids and majestic mountains. Late in the afternoon, we finally near Kamloops, where we will alight from the train to spend the night in a hotel. As we pull into town, our attention is called to some of the city’s hairiest residents: a colony of beavers clustered around a pontoon. It gives us a taste for wild Canadian fauna, for which we’ll get a deeper appreciation, thankfully, on day two.
Another clear blue sky heralds our departure the next day. This is our Rockies-crossing day but before we get there, we have to gain some altitude, following the North Thompson River. After lunch, we slip beneath the awe-inspiring Albreda Glacier, some 3,000 metres above us, yet still dwarfed by 3,954-metre-high Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.
Thirty kilometres on and we reach Yellowhead Pass. There’s a buzz around the carriage, not just for the fact that we’re crossing the border between British Columbia and Alberta but because someone has spotted a black bear ambling alongside the forest edge. Then another wildlife sighting: this time, it’s a moose. Our attendant tells us that this is her first moose sighting in the two seasons she’s been working on the train.
After two days, it’s time to say goodbye to the Rocky Mountaineer, but our adventure isn’t over yet. We’ll spend the next two days in Jasper before moving on to Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary by bus.
Jasper is a paradise for adventure-seekers. Some of my fellow travellers enjoy a game of golf at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, which has a splendid course made all the more exhilarating by animal sightings: bears and elk have all been spotted on the green.
Accommodation at the lodge is extremely comfortable, with rooms offering shimmering views over a mirror-surfaced lake, mountains forming a dramatic backdrop. The property is noted for its fine dining and I try the bison, the establishment’s signature dish.
When it’s time to depart, we pile aboard the bus and make our way to the dramatic Icefields Parkway. Flanked by saw-toothed mountains, lakes and glaciers, this road connects Jasper with Lake Louise, 230-odd kilometres to the south. Along with California’s Highway 1 and Australia’s Great Ocean Road, this has to be one of the greatest scenic drives in the world. We stop to ogle waterfalls and distant avalanches of snow and another bear before we reach Athabasca glacier – a huge tongue of ice and part of the vast Columbia Icefield, which covers some 325 square kilometres.
If the Rockies are Canada’s crowning glory, Lake Louise is the jewel. Scooped from the earth by glaciers and filled with crystal-clear water, this beautiful body of water is hemmed by mountains that create a picture-perfect setting for The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise resort hotel.
The dramatic scenery continues on our final day as we leave the Rockies for a helicopter ride en route to Calgary. From the ground, it’s hard to appreciate the scale and sheer majesty of this mountain range. It’s only when I’m in the air, skimming over snow-laden ridges and deep valleys slashed with raging rivers, that I begin to understand the countryside and the significance of the rail line and the Rocky Mountaineer. •
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