Vancouver to Jasper
Alan took us to the train for 8.30pm on 25 April to leave for Jasper (http://www.jasper.travel/). They left the next day for Palm Springs for a week, staying in a condo with some friends. They want some heat in their sun :).
We took the ordinary train (it still had a viewing carriage) through the Rockies and it was beautiful, and so different. HUGE lakes are still iced over, towering snow covered mountains, so many landslides/avalanche paths, trees just starting to come back into leaf and VERY fast running rivers (the snow is melting) and lots and lots of rapids! We went out for dinner last night - the train was 2-hours late, so we arrived at 6.00pm and sussed out the area. However, when I sat down for tea, even after walking for about an hour, I found I was still 'rocking' from the train.
Our view, when we drew back the bedroom curtains, is towering snow covered mountains glistening in the early morning sun :). We are in a beautiful modern self-contained unit for $110 pn. It is at the back of someone's home. Spring still hasn’t sprung here yet, apparently. There certainly aren’t any bulbs around and the grass is still very brown – hasn’t recovered from the winter onslaught yet. We wandered through the township last night (Saturday our time - dark about 10.00pm!) and will go find the Baptist Church this morning before continuing to wander - after we have had breakfast on the way to Church!
The economy train had the huge viewing windows upstairs in one section, so we were able to wander up there and look out over the top as well as see way down below! The seats in the carriage area are also recliners, not as luxurious as a lounge chair, but certainly very comfortable and we both slept quite well. All round, we feel we had a really good deal!!
We climbed stairs and then a mountain to gain a panoramic view of the area – stunning! We chose not to go up the gondola which would have taken us to the top of another mountain, mainly used for skiing. There were big horn sheep on the mountain, so was interesting to see them so close. We also saw a black bear in a filed as we wound our way up the Rockies in the train. Most bears are still hibernating as it is still too cold, so we were very fortunate.
