ROCKY MOUNTAINEER
Rocky Mountaineer
en route to Banff
Above right: Morning
mimosas on board
THE TRAIN SLOWLY ROLLS OUT of Rocky Mountaineer’s
Vancouver Station. We begin travelling away from the
Pacific and through the city toward the lush Fraser
Valley. As we settle into our seats—stretching our legs,
readying books to read and saying hello to fellow passengers across the aisle—the urban landscape turns
into flat green farmland. The train picks up speed.
One of the smiling young hosts picks up the microphone to point out Washington’s Mount Baker,
located in the Cascade mountain range, 65 kilometres to the south. The Australians, Americans and
Europeans on board jump up to snap photos of the
snow-capped peak in the distance. Those of us who’ve
driven through the Rockies exchange smiles, having
passed by these views many times before.
We know what’s coming.
We’re on a two-day, five-star trip aboard the Rocky
Mountaineer from Vancouver to Banff.
We will climb to 1,626 metres above sea level,
winding our way through the spectacular Rocky
Mountains, a tall, rugged and relatively young
range of peaks that haven’t yet been weathered by
thousands of years of wear and tear.
Though we don’t know it yet, we’ll see bighorn
sheep, elk, eagles and a bear. Our luxury train will
make stops on the tracks to allow rumbling freight
trains full of potash and grain to pass. We’ll learn
about First Nations people who’ve lived here for
millennia and those who came later, including
infamous fur traders, train robbers, gold miners
and train builders. »
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