Trains and Grizzly Bears, A Canadian Roadtrip - Rocky Mountaineer Day 2

Tuesday, September 32 – Kamloops to Banff

Another early morning for us, the alarm went off at 5:00 AM and after getting ready and everything packed up, we made our way down to the hotel lobby to catch the bus to the train station.  As I have said, this train is a large one with 815 passengers and 25 cars so we had many buses converging on the train station at once, but it was very well organized. 

We could hear a woman over the bus radio giving instructions to the buses like an air traffic controller.  She would call out a bus number and driver and tell them to follow so and so and then say who was next in line and then the next one; she never missed a beat and everything went like clockwork.  We all ended up in front of our train cars and were quickly on the train.  It all went off without a hitch and I have to say, I was very impressed.

We had our same seats today and settled in for the long ride to Banff.  Since we were in the first seating for breakfast and lunch yesterday, we were in the second seating today, which meant breakfast wouldn’t be for a while.  We didn’t go hungry though as we were served cinnamon scones and choice of coffee, tea, juice or water to drink to tide us over while the first group ate.

This is not a rainbow reflection, it's distortion from taking pictures through the window.

After eating our snack, Val and I went out on the platform to watch the scenery go by.  It was much cooler this morning and we were glad to have something warm on.  It was a beautiful morning as we followed the South Thompson River towards the Rockies.  We will actually be following seven different rivers today, but I probably won’t remember their names.

Soon it was our time for breakfast and like yesterday, we sat across from nice couple and had an interesting conversation during our meal.  I have to say that we have met quite a few people, but with my poor memory for people, they are all starting to blend together, but everyone we’ve met has been very nice and we have really enjoyed talking to them.  Since I had enjoyed my breakfast so much yesterday, I ordered the same thing today and Val decided to have that too.  They only difference today was they served sticky buns instead of croissants.

After breakfast, it was back out on the platform for a while before we returned to our seats and relaxed.  After our early morning and the motion of the train, it was hard to keep our eyes open.  I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned it or not, but all through our journey, our car attendants have provided a commentary on what we are seeing and added many of their own personal experiences, which made it even more interesting.  They didn’t do this constantly, but only when it was relevant and we found it added a lot to our journey.

This is the spot where the last spike was driven to complete the first Canadian East / West rail line.

 

We spent the rest of the morning either relaxing in our seats or out on the platform trying to take pictures.  It warmed up and was very pleasant outside so the viewing platform was a very nice place to watch the scenery go by.  While I was down there, the first seating was called for lunch and they served wine or another drink and cheese for a snack to tide us over while we waited for our seating to be called.  I actually missed it as I was out on the platform, but Val was in her seat and said it was good.  I didn’t really need it anyway as I was still full from breakfast.

The scenery got more spectacular as we started to make our way up into the Rocky Mountains.  The first lunch service ended and we were looking forward to our turn as by now, we were getting hungry.  There is usually an hour or so gap between when the first seating ends and the second seating is called, but today it seemed like it was taking forever.  Val and I actually started wondering if we’d missed an announcement, but finally lunch was called and we made our way down to the dining room.

We met another nice couple who were from South Carolina and were taking the trip for their 35^th wedding anniversary.  They had a gourmet hamburger on the menu today and Val and I both opted for that and it was delicious, I have certainly had no complaints of the food we’ve been served on the train.  Each of the Gold Leaf cars has its own kitchen and staff so everything is made to order.  The scenery was getting better and better while we were eating lunch and we were disappointed we were missing some great photo opportunities, but we weren’t disappointed enough to skip having a great meal.

After lunch it was back out on the platform for a while, but it got pretty crowded so me made our way back to our seats.  One of the highlights of the afternoon was going through an area called the Spiral Tunnels which were a series of tunnels that allowed trains to go across the mountain at a reasonable grade.  Originally, it was an almost 5% grade which was very difficult and dangerous so they built this series of tunnels in a spiral to reduce the grade.  At one point, as we left the tunnel we could look down and see where we entered it below.  We were told that when a very long freight trains comes through you can see the rear of the train as the front part emerges.  We spent a long time out on the platform while we were going through that section as it was very interesting and also very scenic.

The afternoon flew by and as evening neared, we drew closer and closer to Banff.  We entered into the Mountain Time Zone in the late afternoon so it got even later.  We had to make a stop in Lake Louise to let a few passengers off, but the majority of us were going on to Banff.  This was the end of the first segment of our trip so as we neared Banff the car attendants said their good-byes and everyone thanked them for everything they did for us.  They were four young ladies who worked very hard to make our journey so wonderful.  When they weren’t pointing out the various points of interest and telling us stories about the area we were going through, they were serving us drinks and snacks throughout the day.  The Rocky Mountaineer has a stellar reputation and the staff that takes care of you on the train is one of the reasons why.  We will not see them again as there will be a different crew when we board the train in Jasper for the last segment of our journey but one of the young ladies said she would actually be on that train so maybe we’ll be in her car, we hope so.

The wrap around dome gave us a 180 degree view.

Time for late afternoon snacks.

It was after 7:30 when we arrived in Banff and there were a lot of tired people on the train.  We still had a bus ride ahead of us to our hotel so we made the walk to find our bus and also get a room key so at least we didn’t have to go through check-in when we got there.  We were staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel which is a very historic and beautiful hotel.  It is not in the village of Banff itself, but set off by itself and the first sight of it is very impressive.

We finally made our way to our room which was a little confusing as it is a very large hotel, but after only one wrong turn we were in our room.  Considering the age of the hotel, the room was very nice, but we were very disappointed by the view.  When we looked out our window all we saw was the top of the lower floors of the hotel, but we could see the mountains in the distance. Oh well, that’s just the luck of the draw I guess and at this point we didn’t really care as it had been a very long day and all we wanted was to get some sleep.

We were in bed before 10:00 as we had an 8:00 tour scheduled for tomorrow so there would be no sleeping in for us.  What a wonderful day we had for our last day on the train until we get on it again in Jasper.