CROSS- COUNTRY Traversing the Rockies by rail BY LOUISA KASDON SIDELL

IDYLLThe idea of taking a journey by rail sprang from an urge for life at the slower, simpler pace of the 19th century, when travel was as much about the journey as the destination. The serenity to take in the entire landscape of Western Canada—the rolling prairies, the dense forests, the soaring peaks of the Rockies—as well as the chance to read a book, sip a glass of wine, and fantasize that I was among the elite and unhurried, the kind of traveller with time and money to spare. And anyway, I’d never seen the Canadian Rockies. • Typically, I am a hurry-up-and-get-there type of trav- eller. Get in the car, catch a plane, and be where you want to be in a time frame that is measured in hours, not days. But there was something seductive for me—a hint of Old World grandeur—about the idea of an overnight train journey. My own cozy little berth. An elegant dinner in the club car. A tall guy in a uniform, tipping his hat and bellowing “all aboard!” Maybe Alfred Hitchcock would be on the platform too, with his cello case, just like he was in Strangers on a Train. • The railroad has always been important in this country. Arguably, the completion of the transcontinental railway system was the impetus for the founding of the Dominion of Canada. When the British Empire seized control of Hong Kong in 1843, visionaries realized that a railway, energized by the new steam-powered locomotives, could be the way to transport the riches of the Orient—tea, porcelain and silk—to the lucrative markets in the West. >>> Rounding a bend in the Rockies WWW.TRAVELCANADA.CA PURECANADA 65 comforts, transforming train travel from mere transporta- tion into a marvellous trip. Like Canada itself, the creators of the passenger rail system knew how to Think Big. In the late 1880s luxuri- ous dining cars and private sleepers were added to the boxcars, and finished with Pulling into the Jasper station brass fixtures, mahogany panelling, bright white linens, and banquettes upholstered For centuries, Europeans had tried to find the in sumptuous velvets. Soon after the cushy rail cars Northwest Passage, the shortest sea route between came the idea to build a coast-to-coast necklace of East and West—in the process stranding countless magnificent, French château–style resort hotels such as men, vessels and cargo in the frozen clutch of the The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, The Fairmont Banff Arctic Circle. With the completion of the Canadian Springs Hotel, The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, rail system, a fast, efficient and dependable trade and The Fairmont Hotel MacDonald in Edmonton— route came of age. And as a result, Canada came the chain continued all the way east to the Fairmont together as a transcontinental power. Provinces were persuaded to join the emerging nation instead of remaining independent

Athabasca R. or annexing themselves to the United States of Yellowhead Pass Hinton America. The comple- Mt. Robson Edson tion of the Canadian BRITISH Carvel COLUMBIA Valemount Jasper Pacific Railway (CPR), Edmonton linking the Atlantic to Blue River Ashcroft the Pacific—the last spike was famously driven in Lytton Kamloops Lake Louise 1885 at Craigellachie in Vancouver Boston Bar Eagle Pass—meant that not only could freight be moved C U A N N A easily from China to Britain, I T D E D A but the people and products S WASHINGTON T A 160 km of Canada could also move T E S (100 mi) seamlessly from coast to coast. IDAHO MONTANA Once the obvious economic advantages had been addressed, the early sages of the Canadian railway Bedtime on the Royal Canadian Pacific system quickly realized that they might be on the cusp of a second gold rush. The magnifi- cence of the Canadian landscape—a magnetic draw Château Frontenac in Québec City, allowing the rail- for artists, nature lovers and sightseers—could prove to ways to provide a comprehensive luxury travel experi- be as lucrative a market for the CPR as logging, ship- ence for affluent passengers. The CPR branded the ping and farming. After all, the tracks were already cross-Canada journey as the “New Highway to the built. Compared to blasting through the Rockies and Orient,” inviting tourists to come to Canada to “climb, building bridges over rivers and mountain passes, it hike, fish, and hunt in the Switzerland of America.” was a relatively simple matter to upgrade the creature One hundred and twenty-five years later, the ostenta- The views are so bracing that it is hard to know whether to press our noses to the glass on the right side or the left.

66 PURECANADA WWW.TRAVELCANADA.CA PHOTO, PREVIOUS PAGES: CORBIS; THIS PAGE, TOP RIGHT: MASTERFILE track Options for stars train travel For more information on passenger tious wealth and vision of the CPR—its train has started to leave the station. When I hear the rail throughout Canada, contact excursions, its hotels, the immutable natural conductor call “all aboard!” my smile spreads so one of the operators below or visit beauty of the country—is every bit as enticing for wide that it makes my cheeks hurt. www.travelcanada.ca cyber-age travellers as it was for our Victorian As the train hits its cruising speed, Edmonton forebears, travelling (in my imagination) with and urban life begin receding rapidly. Within Canada steamer trunks, two poodles and a valet. minutes we are out of the city limits and into the (888-VIA RAIL or www.viarail.com ) My mother, an intrepid voyager who does not prairie. At Mile 32, we pass the little village of is the national passenger railway seem to register the fact that she is over eighty, Carvel, a blink of an encampment with a general service. In addition to The Canadian has decided to join me on the trip. Overall, a store and the silver dome of the Eastern which travels between Toronto and scenic rail journey seemed like the perfect recipe Orthodox Church. This part of Alberta is home Vancouver, other VIA Rail signature for mother-daughter bonding. Lots to see, time to a huge ethnically Ukrainian population. Our Silver & Blue excursions include The to talk, and a minimum of walking and schlep- first oooh & aaah moment is coming up: Mink Chaleur, travelling from Montréal ping suitcases. Although the six-day, 4467-kilo- Lake. As the train curves around the lakeshore, across the Gaspé Peninsula, The metre (2776-mile) trip on The Canadian departs Paul, our service attendant and new best friend, Ocean, from Montréal through New from Toronto, we’ve decided to board in tells us to pull out our cameras so that we can Brunswick and Nova Scotia, The Edmonton, which will allow us to stay overnight photograph the tail of our train as it rounds the Skeena through the Rockies from at the Fairmont Macdonald, see the West bend. The scenery is getting gorgeous. We pass Jasper to Prince Rupert, and the Edmonton Mall and Fort Edmonton, and still Wabamun Lake, Chip Lake, countless creeks and Bras D’Or, a Nova Scotia idyll from meet the train early the next morning. rivers, and then the surprising sea-foam green of Halifax to Sydney. There is a big whoosh as the stainless steel the Athabasca River, bordered on both sides by an Railtours (800-665- Dinner is served in the dining car 7245 or www.rockymountaineer.com) is North America’s largest privately owned rail company, and specializes in spectacular vacation packages (with accommodations, meals and guides). Rocky Mountaineer Railtours runs between Vancouver, British Columbia, Jasper, Banff and Calgary.

Canadian Pacific Railway is the second rail system in Canada, its Royal Canadian Pacific (877-665-3044 or www.cprtours.com) tourism arm recaptures the glory days of rail travel through the Canadian Rockies.

BC Rail (800-663-8238 or www.bcrail.com) offers the luxurious three-day Whistler Northwind, the art deco Pacific Starlight Dinner Train, Bighorn sheep in Banff National Park and the Cariboo Prospector.

Rail Travel Tours (866-704-3528 or locomotive of the train pulls into the rail station. ancient boreal forest thick with aspen and cedar. www.railtraveltours.com) has A tall cheery guy in a uniform—Paul Clement, The views are so bracing that it is hard to know complete packages that include the our service attendant—shows us to Car 25, whether to press our noses to the glass on the Hudson Bay Buggies and Bears, the Double Bedroom F. It’s all just plain adorable. right side or the left. Trappers Train through Manitoba, and Murphy beds—I choose the upper berth—that I am excited about the prospect of eating the Northern Manitoba Explorer. Rail drop down from the ceiling and wall at bedtime. lunch in the dining car. It’s not the food; it’s the Travel Tours provides guided Two big armchairs on either side of a table whole idea of sitting at a table, using silverware destination tours as well as a mile-by- (complete with a rose in a bud vase), a and cloth napkins while the world whisks by. We mile self-guide for the train journey. panoramic window, and our tiny private toilet are seated at a table for four, joined by two single The packages include all excursions and hand sink with an “amenity basket”: little travellers: a music teacher from Heathrow, and accommodations at any major bottles of shampoo, tiny soaps, the whole fancy England, and a man from Winnipeg, now retired stops along the route. hotel suite package—except that the hotel room continued on page 84

PURECANADA 67 cross-country idyll CONTINUED FROM PAGE 67 from the railroad. She is on the trip keep it that way. They agree that carved a masterpiece of sculpture, think of as the symbol of the of a lifetime, crossing Canada by the delights of living in a national upending mountain ranges and Canadian Rockies. When go in for rail. He has been on the route so park more than compensate for gouging the peaks, waterfalls and tea at The Fairmont Chateau Lake many times that he knows which the scarcity of commercial serv- lakes that make the region one of Louise, my mother toasts me, sunny ridges the mountain goats ices, and are not about to let an the earth’s most remarkable places. announcing that this is one of her (we eventually see dozens) like to influx of awestruck outsiders spoil On our last day in Jasper, we best trips in a lifetime of spectacu- use as tanning salons. Mom goes their paradise. A couple of rent a car and drive past Maligne lar trips. And she hasn’t even seen for the chicken pot pie; I experi- souvenir shops, a few hotels and Falls through to Lake Louise, Vancouver yet. ment with the salmon burger. (I restaurants, a grocery store, a crossing over the Columbia We board the train the next made the better choice.) saloon. Add a church or two, and Icefields and into Banff National day for Vancouver. This time we’ll Jasper’s train station looks like the camera store, and you’ve pretty Park. Along the way, we are star- be staying on the train overnight. a movie set for a train station in much done the circuit. tled to see three huge bighorn I’m dying to see what the beds the Rockies. It’s made out of Everyone in town is an sheep, standing nonchalantly by look and feel like, but I suppress stone, logs and stucco, with a amateur geologist at the very least. the side of the road as if hired to the urge to ask Paul to make up huge totem pole dominating the Even the guy at the sandwich shop advertise Canadian wildlife. the berths right away. There are entrance. As the train pulls in, a wants to explain pre-Cambrian Slamming on the brakes, we stop still hours of daylight and vistas to family of elk—a big alpha male striations to me. I suppose that if I the car for the classic photo op. behold. I’ve been told to make and his multiple mates—is walk- spent my time looking up at these Even when we creep up close sure to be on the right side of the ing the other way along the tracks. majestic peaks, I too would want enough to focus, the bighorn look Skyline’s private dome car—it has Someone on the platform says to figure out what had caused all right through us with the bored a glass roof and panoramic that grizzlies tend to waddle down the stripes and folds. Over the blindness of glazed commuters windows—to get the best view of the tracks closer to nightfall. next few days, our guides explain waiting for a bus. Mount Robson, the highest peak The town of Jasper is a tiny that in prehistory, this part of the Lake Louise blows us away. It is in the Canadian Rockies. I lurch human outpost in the middle of Rockies was one huge glacial lake; a phenomenal setting, even though through the cars and buy myself a stupendous scenery. We see all of one of them shows us fossilized it is frozen this time of year and we glass of wine to swill delicately as it in the first half-hour. It’s a two- salamanders, snails and trilobites. can’t see the lake’s unusual aqua- the alpine scenery unfolds. street town and the locals aim to As the glaciers receded, they marine colour, which many people Anticipation rises to a fever pitch

84 PURECANADA WWW.TRAVELCANADA.CA in the dome car as the steward obstruction and we will continue gives the five-minute, two-minute on our way. There is no damage to and one-minute warnings to get the equipment. At once it dawns ready for the best shot. Everyone on all of us passengers that we can pulls out his or her camera on just amble back to our beds and cue. Mount Robson obliges by put on our PJs. We are on a train being tall, cloudless and lit by late that goes to Vancouver, the end of afternoon sun. the line before falling into the Paul has brought us a bottle of Pacific Ocean. No connections to champagne and two flutes—a bon be made or missed. We might as voyage gift. After one glass of wine well all go to bed. and two sips of bubbly, the When we get back, our berths motion of the train puts me to are all ready for us. White with a sleep until dinner. Paul knocks at fluffy duvet and good pillows, and 6:30 to remind us that it’s second high-intensity reading lamps. call for dinner, and to tell us “the Mom and I giggle a little from the prime rib is the best.” Mom and I sanctity of our respective berths, are seated at a table with a mother and one or both of us fall asleep and her adult son. She is from mid-sentence. Sometime during Lyon, France, and he is a graduate the night, the boulders are cleared student at Concordia University in and the engine starts to chug. But QUEBEC NATIONAL Montréal. We cluck about the come morning, I have no recollec- PARKS—SEPAQ beauty of Canada in a strained tion of either. version of bilingualism made more We will only be a few hours 1/2 pg vertical challenging by the fact that it is a late getting into Vancouver. little hard to hear over the train During the night, the scenery has wheels. Suddenly, as the cheese changed dramatically. Out of the plate comes to the table, the lights Rockies and approaching the go off and the train comes to a Pacific coast, we begin to see the dead stop. Glasses are caught mid- buildings of Vancouver. Was it air, and the nimble wait staff gets a only yesterday that we were in spontaneous round of applause. Jasper? Everyone is buzzing: What’s “Half-hour to Vancouver … happening? Engine trouble? A Fifteen minutes to Vancouver,” moose on the rails? Speculation is the conductor announces as he the new specialty of the evening. It lopes through the dining car. turns out there has been a rock- Wearing our slippers, we hastily slide, a genuine mini-avalanche— return to the compartment—the an exceedingly rare occurrence, we beds have magically vanished into are told—and a crew from the the ceiling—and pack up our next station up the line is being belongings. Paul comes by to offer dispatched to clear two-and-a-half help with the luggage. We accept, metre (eight-foot) boulders from but wish that he were coming the track. Paul says that this is the with us on the next leg of the first time in his experience that journey. At the train station, we The Canadian has been stopped feel slightly disoriented, as if dead in its tracks by rockslide. unused to the pace of modern Like travellers made suddenly urban life. Maybe the train trip amiable by a blizzard, the entire was more than a trip through dining car becomes a village. space. Maybe it was a trip Everyone is peering out the through space and time, taking windows—the sky is darkening by me temporarily back to the lush, the second—to see what they can slow travel of the late 1880s. Why see, and to offer up theories and else would I feel such a strong reminiscences. Ultimately we get urge to buy a steamer trunk? • the word: It will be several hours before the crew arrives from down Louisa Kasdon Sidell is managing the line. They will clear the editor of Pure Canada.

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