ROCKIES BY RAIL
A look at Canada, riding the rails through the heart of the Rockies
Grizzly details of a magical journey
In celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation,
Christalee Froese is travelling across this vast land. Now she’s off to experience riding the train through the Rockies.
“Do you think we’ll see a barh?” bubbles U.K. Daily Star journalist Laura Mitchell.
I’m not sure which answer to give her — the honest one or the boldfaced lie.
“We might see a bear,” I reply quietly, deciding to go with the boldfaced lie.
Standing with Laura on the top tier of this glass-domed luxury train as we sip on wine and sail blissfully through the Canadian Rockies, I do not have the heart to tell the young British journalist the truth.
I know she’s seeking a photo of an iconic grizzly — aren’t we all? However, I lived in the Rocky Mountains for six years, so I know there’s no way on earth we’ll be seeing an elusive grizzly bear on this sunny summer day, never mind getting it to stand still long enough to take its picture.
“Barh, barh,” shouts Laura in her thick British accent as she scrambles for her iPhone and sends 13 other international journalists running in all directions for their cameras.
It’s a false alarm. Laura has spotted a tree stump.
As I sink soothingly back into my temperature-controlled leather train seat and gaze up at a clouddotted blue sky, I don’t feel too bad for Laura.
At least she has Banff ’s aqua-blue rivers, snow-encrusted mountains and glorious spruce forests to photograph today.
Just then the train’s conductor interrupts my canapé appetizer and my sun-drenched thoughts with an excited announcement. “Bear on the left, bear on the left.” I glance sideways, expecting to see another stump.
But this time, it’s a real-life bear … and it’s a grizzly.
The journalists are sent into a scramble again, but not Laura. She is gazing out of the train’s windowed dome in a state of bewildered bliss.
She looks directly into the black eyes of the majestic bear who not only stands just metres from the train, but who also bends his head one way as if to be photographed, then the other way as if to look directly into Laura’s awestruck eyes. She doesn’t get a single photo. She doesn’t care. She has the moment and a tear in her eye.
Laura and I and hundreds of other passengers are on the Rocky Mountaineer to experience B.C. and Alberta’s natural wonders by rail, placing us directly in the middle of forests, directly over rivers, right through mountains via tunnel and smack-dab in the middle of the home of grizzlies, elk, eagles, osprey and mountain goats.
This magical journey through B.C.’s interior and into Alberta’s national parks began in Vancouver two days earlier.
With the majestic Fairmont Hotel Vancouver as our home base, the Pacific Ocean provided all the salty air and oceanic bounty to leave us in a state of gastric bliss as we dined on crab legs, tuna and oysters at Granville Island’s sensational Sandbar Seafood Restaurant and on candied, poached and seared salmon at the Fairmont’s fabulous Notch 8 restaurant.
Bright and early the next morning, with our bags being conveniently fetched and transported to the Rocky Mountaineer station, we were greeted with a five-star train boarding that foreshadowed what was to come.
I envisioned a noisy train station filled with fumes and whistles, but instead was greeted by navy-vested waiters offering orange juice and coffee as a pianist tickled the ivories of his baby-grand piano in the background.
This pampered sendoff was complete with an army of Rocky Mountaineer staff waving and a bagpiper playing as we pulled out of the Vancouver station.
Our journey over the mighty Fraser River, through B.C.’s interior and onto our first overnight stop of Kamloops was highlighted by mountain goat sightings, the wind rushing through our hair as we stepped out onto the train’s back vestibule and by decadent meals of salmon benedict, Asian prawns and beef short ribs.
The quaint city of Kamloops opened its arms as we were set free to explore the shores of the Thompson River, overnight at the surprisingly luxurious Sandman Signature hotel and ready ourselves for an early morning train departure to Banff.
On this day, we travelled through Craigellachie, the site where the ceremonial last spike was driven into Canada’s transcontinental railroad on Nov. 7, 1885.
The last spike monument and tourist centre were a flash on the side of the railroad, unlike the last spike’s uniting significance in the 150-year history of Canada itself.
The Purcell and Rocky Mountains began to rise up around us when we journeyed through Mt. Revelstoke National Park, over Rogers Pass and through Glacier National Park into Golden, B.C.
Crossing into Alberta, we made our way rhythmically and smoothly to Banff, knowing when we exited the train on this day three of our four-day adventure that we would be bidding farewell to our faithful servers.
In just two short days, they became a little like family as Adam greeted me daily with my usual orange juice, and kept my mid-morning Bailey’s fresh and my afternoon wine flowing throughout the trip.
However, Banff presented equally majestic sights and gastronomical delights. A memorable beef carpaccio and bison steak with blueberry butter greeted us at the Saltlik Steakhouse, followed the next day by an upscale meal at the Rimrock hotel’s Eden restaurant where the view overlooking the town of Banff created an experience nothing short of pure magic.
As I hiked the 45 minutes up Tunnel Mountain, soaked in the rooftop pools at our cabin-like Moose Hotel & Suites and lingered in the waterfall-adorned and mountain-view hot tub at the Meadow Spa, I was sure I had been delivered to travellers paradise.
And I was grateful that I had boarded the Rocky Mountaineer in Vancouver, met Laura Mitchell and many other international travellers along the way and had chosen to commemorate the anniversary of Canada’s 150th year of Confederation in such a Canadian way — on a railroad that united our country, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and with a grizzly bear sighting to remember.