Canadian Rail Tour

(Note: Clicking on any image in this travelogue will bring up an enlarged version of the image.
All photos by Mike Agranoff or Jenny Holan except as noted.)

Monday, August 27
Vancouver to Kamloops

Up once again early for a hearty complementary breakfast in the Gold Floor Lounge, and a 6:30 departure on the bus. We gathered in a huge echo-y Quonset hut shaped building for departure, and were finally ushered on board to the skirling of three pipers, who also served to drown out the bullhorns of the picketers. The train was much longer than that of the previous legs, about 20 coaches long, of which the last four were the double-decker observation type. We were told that some of this rolling stock was empty, and merely being ferried to Rocky Mounaineer's main storage yard in Kamloops.

This 2-day leg of the journey back to Banff followed the first transcontinental rail route in Canada eastwards. The right-of-way climbs gradually to 1000 feet elevation over the first day's 230 mile run to Kamloops. It then claws its way over the Great Divide at 5500 feet on the second day, arriving at Banff, some 400 miles further. The first 150 miles out of Vancouver followed our old friend the Fraser River to Lytton, where the Fraser joined us from the Lilooet in the north where we had left it on our way down from Quesnel. From Lytton, we continued eastward along the Thompson, a major tributary of the Fraser. As we climbed, the landscape became gradually drier until we were passing through semi arid country before the big climb over the Rockies. Through much of the first day's journey, we encountered the oddity of a parallel railway on the opposite bank of the river. This was originally a competing rail line before it was absorbed into the Canadian national system.

Some highlights along the way:

Some of the above pictures might be from the following day's leg of the journey. (Probably the pretty mountain shots.) I was starting to get saturated, and as I had mentioned, I didn't have the date references on the photos. We rolled into Kamloops, were bussed to a fairly ordinary, but quite satisfactory hotel, and hit the sack.

Tuesday, August 28
Kamloops to Banff

This leg took us back over the Great Divide. They removed the empty passenger cars and hooked on another engine for the climb up the Big Hill from Field to Stephen. We went through the Spiral Tunnels we had seen from the highway overlook on our first day. The journey was so spectacular that I totally forgot about taking pictures. I just sat there with my nose glued to the window and took it all in. We found ourselves back at the Fairmont Banff Springs in the early afternoon. When we arrived in our room, we found a very nice set of souvenir prints, which I later had framed and hung in my living room. There was still time to take a bit of a walk on a forest trail before dinner and bed.

Wednesday, August 29
Banff

Our last day. We decided to traipse around Banff. Rather than take the bus in we walked down to Bow Falls, and then walked along the river into town. These photos are the same ones shown in the August 20 entry, but this was when we took them.

There was a lovely public garden where we poked around for an hour or so. It was described as being unfinished, and we could see where provisions had been made to add landscaped waterways and mini-waterfalls amongst the flowers. But it was just fine without them. We walked into town for lunch. Banff is a fine place to just wander the streets and see stuff. Most of it is commercial in a very noncommercial way. That is, it's all been constructed to attract the eye, but not overloaded with glitz, neon, or obvious attention to relieving you of your money.

In the afternoon, we decided to take the gondola to the top of Sulfur Mountain. The opportunities to wander the mountain top were not so extensive as in Whistler, but were nonetheless breathtaking. Rather than alpine trails, we found a series of wooden stairways, boardwalks, and overlooks. It was more crowded than at Whistler, but not oppressively so. We wandered a bit, but it was chilly, and the altitude had me puffing from the stairs. We went back to the hotel for our last night.

And then it was over. Seemed a little anticlimactic to get up early in the morning, say good-bye, and board separate busses back to Calgary to take separate planes home. Jenny caught the bus an hour before mine, and I sat alone in the cafe with my breakfast. Oddly enough, we met again in the airport, but had little time to chat before we boarded our flights. It was a great vacation.

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