Banff to Calgary

The Banff Springs hotel is a gargantuan and labyrinthine pile that dominates the townscape: we were given careful instructions by reception to find our first floor room, including a map with red dotted lines (taped to the desk)  but still got lost and had to retrace our path to the lobby and start again. The "room"was a large bedroom with a lengthy internal corridor leading to a spacious arc-shaped lounge room. No complaints - it was a very friendly place.

The new day dawned with the haze washed away by the rain, and we saw, at last, that the mountains are inadequately described by superlatives. This was accentuated by a gondola trip to a high place, about 7500 feet above sea level, and late in the afternoon after we emerged at the east, a short helicopter ride based from grounds of a First Nations casino.

 

The Road to Banff

Our first really rainy day kept us mostly indoors until travel time. However we stopped for a "natural bridge" site which is no longer a full bridge because the water is in process of turning the rock into a gorge. Here we also found an RV assembly.

At another point we were told about getting the rail track through the mountains by spirals, a Swiss technique. The trans-Canada line was the price of British Columbia joining the Dominion instead of USA.

We were lucky enough to see a train in all three parts of the S. The pic is not clear but the look for light patches at 3 levels, the lowest and nearest at head level.

Chateau Louise

Our driver told us there was little of interest in the village, so our time at Lake Louise was spent in the magnificent hotel on the Lake. 

The Lake itself is elliptical and about 2k long; there is a good path along the right bank (ok, right when walking away from the hotel), so after check-in we strolled to the bottom, where there was a small beach, encountering many serious hikers with sticks and other gear, so the path must go on and become more strenuous.

Bees' lakeside picnic

Our meal plan gave access to any of the hotel restaurants for everything except alcohol, so we chose Walliser Stube, for Swiss German style and took the Chateau Experience of Cheese Fondue with Morels, Chteaubriand, and Dark Chocolate fondue, prior to waddling up to our well appointed room.

Morning view from our window

On the road to Lake Louise

The highway, at least in the initial stage , is reserved for sightseers- no trucks please. RVs not only permitted but ubiquitous.

Our first stop still in Jasper National Park is generically called Athabasca; first the Falls.

A mountain , Snow Dome, was pointed out to us that has a tri-continental divide. Water from it goes to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans. Too much haze for a pic.

Then on to the Athabasca Glacier. I found myself unprepared- my banana sole shoes were not fit for balance on the ice . Also it began to rain and the wind increased, so I retreated back into the Icemobile and left Wendy to explore.  

After lunch a photo stop for Bow Lake as a foretaste of our destination:

Lay Day in Jasper

A morning bus trip to Jasper National Park with a no exertion amount of viewing.  Extra wildlife - we have seen an elk and loon. 

The rest is rest at the Lodge.

Foam soufflé !

And a panorama of the Lodge

The train part 2

The first day's journey ended in Kamloops with overnight booked into a comfortable local hotel- effectively an apartment, with sitting room and kitchenette including a full size fridge and dishwasher- not that we could use those because dinner in the hotel was included in train plan and breakfast would be on the train. We enjoyed a stroll through the adjoining park. 

The second day took us to Jasper, a mountain resort town, where there are 2 nights in Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge resort. All our hotel stays except Kamloops are in Fairmont hotels, which is partnering Rocky Mountaineer. So The Empress, the Vancouver Waterfront, the Lodge, the Chateau Louise, Banff Springs and Calgary Palliser, all have the same livery.

We parted company with the train at Jasper, as our direction is eastwards, and the track from here circles north west. The rest of the land trip will be by Rocky Mountaineer coach.

Day 2 was a little less smoky, but the haze persisted in misting up the far mountainscapes, including Canada's highest, Mount Robson. Nevertheless looking at the mostly green trees has been a pleasant pastime. Mostly green - many pines are dead brown, having succumbed to a deadly insect plague.

The common sight has been the endless freight trains in both directions. The number of bogeys, often double deck containers, exceeds anything I have ever seen before. We're told that someone counted a convoy of 188 yesterday, which is well short of the record that I understand is 253, and  length can frequently approach 4 kilometres. They track priority over us and we had several long siding waits.

On the train

The Rocky Mountaineer company is efficient in moving large numbers of people, in the first stages of this trip, 750, and stuffing them with food. The views look after themselves. We have seen from our windows most of the recommended wildlife- a baby black bear, Canada geese, a heron, ospreys, and huge pole nests like those used by storks in Europe. We missed the bald eagle.

It's hard to take good photos from a moving train and two tone glass (the upper portion of the dome is light sensitive and less translucent in strong light), though it sometimes slows almost to a stop for particular opportunities.

Today's trip was along a river (Fraser) where inconsiderate maples and firs often obscured the view, then through a wilderness with saltbush or plain bare seemingly from mining and timber getting.

It's apparently been a bad bushfire season , we saw notices of closure of areas due to extreme fire danger, and smoke haze obscured the sun all day.