We followed up our Alaska Cruise with Viking’s post-cruise extension that included time in Vancouver, two days crossing the Canadian Rockies by rail, and a day in the spectacular mountains around Banff. Our previous two posts included captioned photos from Vancouver and Victoria, both in British Columbia. This post covers our two-day trip on the Rocky Mountaineer. Here are photos:
It was an early call, but here we are preparing to board our Rocky Mountaineer car for two long days of scenic travel across the Canadian Rockies. I did not have a good way to include it in this post, but as we waited in the railway station, we noticed a man preparing to play his bagpipes for the assembled passengers. When the time came to go to our assigned passenger cars, he played “When the saints come marching in.” Funny, and a nice way to get our attention and send us on our way.Here we are in our observation car. There were two levels to the car: this upper level was built for sight-seeing visibility, while the lower level held a kitchen, dining room, restrooms, and a small outdoor observation platform. Access between the two levels was by a tight spiral staircase, but the car also had a simple platform elevator so that people with mobility issues could move easily from one level to the other. We had breakfast, lunch, and a light supper on the train, along with drinks and snacks, and it was all wonderful!Rafts of logs on the Fraser River. We knew of such things, and probably saw pictures at one time or another, but it was interesting to see them first hand. And there were a LOT of logs stored on the water near the sawmills we passed. I used a polarizing filter to reduce window glare in my photos, and it worked most of the time, but there was nothing I could do to avoid the blur of the bushes close to our moving train.Looking back over our train as we roll along the Fraser River. Our car was only four or five back from the engines, so we were near the front of the train. We were in one of the taller cars, which have two levels; the other cars have only one level and large plate glass windows rather than domes. On the first day we travelled from Vancouver to Kamloops, where we spent the night in a hotel. At Kamloops this long train was split into a shorter train that we rode east the next day to go to Banff, and another train that went north to (I think) Jasper.Hells Gate on the Fraser River. This is the narrowest and probably most turbulent point on the river. A pedestrian bridge provides a close look, although our schedule was tight and we did not have time for a stop. You can see another railroad track above the river on the far side of the canyon. The Canadian Pacific Railroad owns and maintains one track and the Canadian National Railroad owns and maintains the other.Railroad bridge over the Fraser River. Our two locomotives are in the far right side of the photo, about to pass under the bridge.A rugged part of the Fraser River Canyon, with the other track on the far side of the canyon, near the bottom of the slope. Steel and concrete sheds (like snow sheds in the Sierra Nevada) provide protection from recurring rockfalls. We were told that the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National share their tracks through the canyon to expedite rail traffic; eastbound trains all use one track and westbound trains use the other.Bighorn sheep on the skyline watching our train roll by. Gray skies made the color and contrast a bit of a challenge for photography.Nice waterfall in the canyon wall, with a hint of great scenery to come in Canada’s Banff and Yoho National Parks.
