Rocky Mountain Railroad

It seems I am slightly better at sleeping on trains than Grant – he insists he heard me sleeping at times.  Even so, we woke pretty early and decided that we were up to the challenge of showering on a moving train.  And we were right, nothing to it.  The fact that the water started out freezing cold hardly counts as a hurdle.  Breakfast on the train is on a first come, first served basis so we were initially put at a holding table while we waited for a proper table. The elderly couple already seated there turned out to be from Havelock North!  If not for the immensity of the scenery around us, I would be tempted to say it is a small world.

 After breakfast we sat in our cabin (slightly more spacious now that the bunks have been put away) and enjoyed the passing scenery.  It really hasn’t quite become spring yet here in the Rocky Mountains, and the passing snow clad mountains and forests are so beautiful.  The train is running a bit ahead of schedule so we had a short stop at Blue River which gave us a chance to get some fresh air and some photos not taken through glass.

After another short spell in our cabin, we went exploring a bit and found a second lounge car with a dome.  While it doesn’t have free coffee and tea, it does have a whole heap more space and the octogenarians aren’t hogging the dome car.  So we have had some spectacular views and hopefully got a few usable photos.  Grant was lucky enough to see a big brown bear sitting beside the tracks, but by the time I got back (I had been taking photos further forward), the bear had ambled off into the forest.  I have my fingers crossed for the next sighting!

We arrived in Jasper ahead of schedule, about 3.15.  We were offered the chance to go into town as the train wouldn’t be leaving until 5.30pm.  This seemed like a fine idea as Jasper is very pretty.  We headed into Jasper and got some great shots of the snow covered mountains that surround Jasper.  We wandered the streets, walked past every shop in the place, stopped in a number of them, and were finished by 4pm.  However, on returning to the train, we discovered that the crew take this opportunity to take a break from dealing with all of us.  They’d effectively locked us out as we had to wait for the boarding call at 5pm.  So, another lap of Jasper, a coffee that wasn’t awful (see, no beer this time) and we got back to the train just before 5.  A crowd had gathered all getting quite keen to get back on the train as the wind that comes down from the snow-covered mountains was pretty cold.  Not long after 5 we were all allowed back on and everything continued as if nothing had happened.

After warming up again, we headed back up to the dome car to watch the scenery go past.  One of the guys there was saying that there was so much wildlife out the window, and if you looked closely he was right.  We saw countless elk, a number of deer, some mountain goats, more geese and ducks than we’d care to count, and a bald eagle perched on a tree stump by the river.  So no more bears today, but a bountiful haul of wildlife anyway.

Prior to dinner we had a lovely chat with the steward on our car, who lives in Winnipeg.  She told us some fascinating tales about coping with the extreme winter weather on the Great Plains in Canada before sending us of slightly early to the dining car so she could set up our cabin for the evening.  The dining car staff, who were trying to get everything set up for us (we were in the third sitting of dinner), were very good-natured about this.  At dinner we were seated with a lovely Japanese couple from Vancouver.  They have lived in Vancouver for many years but this is their first trip east; they were as impressed as we are with the glorious Rocky Mountains.

 After dinner we returned to our cabin to find our steward had thoughtfully put down the bottom bunk like a sofa for us, as we were disembarking at Edmonton at about 11pm.  We dozed a little while trying to watch the scenery in the dark, and were woken by the lights of Edmonton.  We were very grateful to finally arrive at our motel and get a quiet night’s sleep.