Rocky Mountaineer Journey Through The Clouds

Although advertised as a train ride through the Canadian Rockies, this is actually a moving cocktail party and marvelous buffet with good scenery.

But first, I walked a short block in the drizzle to Tim Horton’s for coffee and a couple of Tim Bits. I must not have spoken distinctly because I ended up with a couple of doughnuts. Which Grant and I ate to tide us over to boarding the train across the street from our hotel.

While we waited in the train station’s lobby, a First Nation woman told stories and sang, accompanying herself on a small deerskin drum the shape of a tambourine. She also showed us a picture of Brutus, the huge local grizzly, which, if I’d known about, probably would have discouraged me from taking our walk in the woods behind town. 

Once on board, we settled in to watch gorgeous scenery as we rode. We had opted for the Gold Leaf level, with raised glass domed train cars with the dining room below. My thought was this was a once in a life time trip, *so I was going big. Peg had discovered we could combine that with Silver Leaf hotels to save some money. Seemed like a good compromise. 

A day of food, except I forgot to take a picture of the pastries at breakfast and a couple of the drinks:

Fruit and coffee, pastries (not pictured), scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, greens, potatoes, and toast for breakfast.

One of my Steller Jay Méthode Brut. I quite liked this bubbly, and will be looking for it in Central Florida.

Shrimp and veggies appetizer for lunch.

Alberta beef stew over polenta with an Okanagan cabernet 

Chocolate torte for dessert.

The two days of our trip were quite different. The first was through the lush conifer forest between Jasper and Kamloops. Although the clouds prevented us from seeing the top of Mount Robson, the streams and waterfalls made up for that. Not many birds except for a few crows, and we missed seeing the only bear because we were down in the dining car when it was spotted high on the mountainside.

We did spy several mountain goats or female big horned sheep when we were on the bus to our hotel in Kamloops. Since it was near a road sign which said “Watch for Big Horn Sheep”, we’re going with the latter. Kamlops is the tournament capital of Canada, since it has sun 250+ days a year. Almost guarantees no rainouts, which explains why I had seen many gorgeous ball fields (baseball, soccer, football), on our way into town.

The second day, we rode along rivers through drier desert, which is eagle country. All day long, we’d spot them either sitting in trees or flying over the river bank. There were also supposed to be ospreys, but I only saw one. The guide pointed out a famous osprey nest, allegedly more than 100 years old, on the Wallachian Bridge top that has some sort of colored tape or rope woven into it. Peg, Betsy, and I agreed we’d never seen anything in osprey nests except twigs and branches. When I showed my picture to Patten, he suggested fishing nets. That seems more reasonable. Still, Florida birds don’t add decorations that we’ve noticed.

The lady sitting in front of me, visiting from England, was especially keen to see ospreys because, she said, they are struggling in the UK, due to shooting and egg collecting. I invited her to visit us where the species has made a remarkable recovery from the DDT debacle a few decades ago. Note: Orange Audubon’s last Bird Chat for the year featured “Return of the Osprey” by Mike Drew, explaining a water management’s successful reintroduction of ospreys to southeast England by moving young birds down from Scotland. They are now spreading to the south coast. 

I was partially interested where the South Thompson and the Frazier Rivers joined, because for a long time, their waters flowed side by side, rather than mixing. The guide said this was because there is a 1° temperature difference. I was reminded of seeing where the Pacific Ocean and Tasmanian Sea meet at the top of New Zealand’s North Island. Even after millions of years, you can see where the two waters meet. They are even different colors. I encouraged Peg to be sure to get to see it when she’s in NZ. I think it is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.

Eventually, we’d eaten and drunk our way to Vancouver., and were bussed to our hotel. Peg and Betsy were flying out at 7:00 the next morning, so we said good bye and happy 69th birthday to Betsy that evening. 

* I’d consider doing another train trip on one of the other routes, but skip any bus trips before. Interesting, however not as much as the train.