Welcome to Jasper: Banff's cool little brother At Yellowhead Pass, just before the Alberta border, we crossed the continental divide, where water flows either west to the Pacific or east to the Atlantic. We were deep into the Rockies, passing the highest peak in the range, Mt Robson, as well as the frozen wonders of Pyramid Falls and Moose Lake. The train powered through a heavy snowfall, reaching an altitude of about 5000ft before we descended into a valley, snaking along iced-over rivers and streams. I saw jagged snowy peaks, plunging valleys, frozen lakes, granite ravines and dense stands of lodgepole pines and pale-white birch. I sipped coffee in the Dome until the first muted rays of morning opened up a landscape that hardly looked real. I awoke at 5am to see the sunrise – only to remember that in northern winter day breaks much later. Winter on Medicine Lake © Marcia DeSanctis I slept well as the train trundled south, intermittently awakening to the soothing rumble of wheels on the track. I returned to see my sitting room transformed to a cozy bedroom. Darkness fell soon after we left the station, so I chose the early dinner seating, and was placed at a table with three other travelers. My class of service gave me access to a lounge and the Dome, an elevated car enclosed in glass offering 360-degree views of the landscape. “It’s a rolling museum,” said service coordinator Sean Pidgeon. The train, built in the 1950s, retains a romantic authenticity: stainless-steel fixtures, etched glass, worn leather chairs and a handsome, old-world dining car. With adventure on the brain, I boarded at Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station to complete the first leg of the route Via Rail Canada has branded the Canadian (it crosses the continent, all the way to Toronto).įor my night on board, I secured a Sleeper Plus Cabin for two (even though I was solo). “If we can’t export the scenery, then we’ll have to import the tourists,” declared Canadian Pacific Railway President William Cornelius Van Horne in 1880. The plush dining car on board The Canadian © Via Rail Departure
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