The Rocky Mountaineer - Vancouver to Kamloops

I have alluded to the Rocky Mountaineer since before we set off from Australia.
I have been a bit of a train nut since I was young, so it appealed to me, but the scenery is breath taking in parts.
It's a little bit on the expensive side, but you still have to do it once in your life.
We took the more expensive option to go with what they call the "Gold Leaf" service. What this means, is that you sit in the top of the dome top cars (pictured at the front of the train) & get waited on hand & foot the whole time. When it is time for breakfast or lunch, you head down to the lower level to the dining room. The food was awesome! Full gourmet (and I don't mean French for small) delicious and brilliantly presented, & also plenty of it. You still get a better view in the dining area than you do from a Red leaf car (single level) as the windows are bigger. Upstairs you get the full bar service along with commentary during the journey.

Harrison Lake

The Rocky Mountaineer trip starts in Vancouver (Canadian West coast). Vancouver is situated at the mouth of the Fraser River where the vast amount of water collected in the western part of the mountains meets the sea. The train first heads east, along side the Fraser River heading toward the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Slightly upriver from Vancouver, Harrison Lake (pictured) spurs off the main river. This picture only shows the branch point. The main lake actually runs way up to the north.
Not far after Harrison Lake, the train takes a left hand turn & heads north through the gorges.

Hell's Gate

Hell's gate in Fraser's Canyon is the narrowest point of the Fraser River.
The volume of water rushing through this one spot is incredible! They had to build fish ladders for the salmon after building the bridge because the current was too great for them.
As an aside, the Train slows down to "Kodak speed" for places of major interest along the way. It's great because you get to take some good shots during the trip, rather than blurry trees with a bit of feature behind.

Below is just a shot taken along the Fraser river as the train follows its path through the coastal mountain ranges in British Columbia (B.C.). The town of Cisco is a little further to the north of this spot.

Just north of Cisco at a town called Lytton, the Fraser River is joined by the Thompson River (remember we are heading upstream). The Fraser River's source is far in the north of B.C. so the train follows the Thompson River to the east towards our night stop over, Kamloops. The Thompson River runs through a much more rugged & narrow gorge for the most part (see picture). Consequently the two rail lines that follow the river have had to be a bit more ingenious about how they negotiate the gorge. If you expand the picture you will see the freight train winding its way through tunnels & over small bridges. Quite an engineering feat aside from the fantastic scenery. This shot is semi typical for nearly 100kms. The trip just seemed to get better as we went deeper into the mountains.

Black Canyon

Black Canyon's name origin is fairly obvious (see pic below). It's the far northern part of the north bound section of the journey. The Thompson River winds itself through this canyon from its head, Kamloops Lake. It's quite a spectacular part of the trip with the train crossing the river a bunch of times & going through at least as many tunnels. Notice the angry river in the foreground & the bridge we had just come across heading straight into the hillside & a into a tunnel.

One of the advantages of being on a train journey is that you can always make a fairly mundane shot a bit interesting by adding a train. This shot was taken on one of the many Thompson River bridges in Black Canyon.

Notice the standard rail cars that are the "Red Leaf" option. No domed glass tops on those ones! Believe me, it's worth the extra money to go Gold Class.

I am actually quite proud of this one. Not a great shot & I have better, but I like it all the same. It's just a pity the clouds came over & spoiled it a bit.

Kamloops Lake

The Thompson River head is Kamloops Lake (below) & is fed by the South & North Thompson Rivers. It is interesting to see how wide & calm the lake is compared to the snarling river below on its way to Vancouver. This wasn't the most exciting part of the trip, but the contrast made it worthwhile.

Kamloops is a town of about 300,000 people spread across a very wide area of land. It doesn't really matter how big the town is, you are always going to get the odd crazy that does something weird. I've seen plenty of tents in the back yards of Australia, but this one is just taking the piss!
You will also notice the pipeline & stack in the background billowing smoke. Apparently it's great for getting rid of the smoke from Kamloops, but the occupants of the neighbouring town aren't overly fussed about it.

The train stops in Kamloops over night so you don't miss any of the scenery. The town didn't impress me that much, but we didn't see any trouble, & we got a good night's sleep. It had the feel of many semi-remote towns in Australia. Nothing particularly wrong with it, but just doesn't have the feel of a place that you would go out of your way to see. This shot is the most picturesque part of town & it's right next to the railway line & I wouldn't be surprised if it's owned by Rocky Mountaineer.
The train of 31 cars was split in two over night. Our half was destined for Calgary & the other for Jasper. I don't know too much about the Jasper trip, but I imagine it was at least as good as our journey, maybe even better. We will definitely drive into some of that country during the next two years.

Grouse Mountain

On the day we had to explore Vancouver, we took the Sky-Train, Sea-Bus & regular bus to Grouse Mountain. The Train is very slick (more on that later) & the Sea bus is the most incredibly efficient ferry service I have ever seen. Very slick!

In winter Grouse Mountain is a ski park with 4 cable cars (pictured) that run up to the top of the mountain. In summer they have other activities & shows to keep Joe tourist occupies & charge them $32 for the lift ticket.
It occurred to me that the cable car looked a lot like one I rode up to the summit of Mt Pilatus in Switzerland some years ago. I stepped into the car & saw a sign saying "Made in Switzerland". Funny that!

This is the view from Grouse Mountain. This picture was taken from the cable car just after clearing the support poles at the top.

One of the attractions at Grouse Mountain is the Grizzly Bear exhibit. It is actually an experiment the Canadian wildlife protection group are trying to rehabilitate & eventually release orphaned bears. It just happens to be a great way for the public to see the bears, These two males are about 5 years old now & even hibernate in the enclosure which is rare for captive bears.
Our first wild bear sighting will have to wait.

Grouse Mountain also has a lumberjack show. It is really quite entertaining, but a bit touristy.
They had two lumberjacks competing against each other in events such as the climb & chop (pictured), axe throw, log saw, Pole climb (next entry) and log roll. (I'm actually not too sure of the name of some of the events.) All the standard stuff, but worth a giggle.
Grouse Mountain also has a lumberjack show. It is really quite entertaining, but a bit touristy.
They had two lumberjacks competing against each other in events such as the climb & chop (pictured), axe throw, log saw, Pole climb (next entry) and log roll. (I'm actually not too sure of the name of some of the events.) All the standard stuff, but worth a giggle.

These guys are nutty! That is a long way up & they were motoring!

The other attraction on the mountain showed off their birds of prey. If you are into birds of prey it was pretty good. Kerri wasn't so keen. Each to their own. I enjoyed it.

I threw this one in for mum, who has a special interest in owls.

Stanley Park

After the Grouse Mountain visit, we had a bit of a wonder around the Downtown shoreline. It's actually a very relaxing spot. There are parks that run alongside the river that you can just sit & relax or there are bike tracks & walk tracks if you feel a bit more energetic.
The backdrop is really quite nice. (See pic). Stanley park is in the foreground. It is a huge patch of parkland with all sorts of things to do & see. We only scratched the surface. It's something we'll do one time we go back to see B.C. properly. Pictured behind Stanley Park is Grouse mountain (right of picture) & the ranges. If you expand the photo & look closely, you will see the summit & the cable car that runs middle to top right of picture.
Vancouver is a pretty place, but the city has become too big for its surroundings. There are 2.5 mil people there now. The problem is the river takes up a heap of area & the mountains jag up so sharply that you can't build anywhere anymore.

I'm not too sure about this ...... piece of art, I guess you call it. I thought it was amusing so I took a pic of it. It sits between the Vancouver Downtown & the river front.
These Canadians are claisey! (Not really, they are nice folk over here).

The tourist shops are just as bad as anywhere else in the world. Check out this merchandising ploy.
They have an obsession with killing animals & sticking them on their heads over here. (I guess we do in Australia as well.)

No, you can't take him with us!
Kerri took a liking to this bear at the front of one of the tourist shops. She wanted to take him with us & then send it back to her mum. Fortunately he wasn't for sale. The freight costs would have been horrendous! It would have been a great gag having him sit next to us on the train trip over to Calgary.

Vancouver Skytrain

Before I leave Vancouver behind & start on about the Rocky Mountaineer, I mentioned the Vancouver Skytrain before. These run about every 3-4 minutes around Vancouver, & they're fast! The freaky thing about these trains is that they don't have a driver!!! They're all controlled by a central control room. It must be like running a gigantic model train set. Bad news if you get it wrong!

As for most major cities around the world, they look much nicer at night. The photo below was taken around 11pm from our hotel. Bloody twilight near the Arctic Circle! Doesn't make it easy to sleep! I'm sure we will learn to live with it. The 6 hrs of daylight in the middle if winter could be less of a novelty.