Canadian Rockies

Manicured perfection inadequately but nevertheless accurately describes the horticultural splendour that enveloped us at Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island.

Welcome to Butchart Gardens

The gardens were created over 100 years ago out of an exhausted limestone quarry and adjoining cement works at Tod Inlet, on Vancouver Island. This multi-themed wonderland could easily have been Lewis Carroll's inspiration penning Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Chapter 8: The Queen's Croquet Ground. (You may recall that in this chapter, prior to being "invited" to play a game of croquet with the Queen of Hearts, Alice meets three playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red). Not a hint of a weed, not a single petal out of place and every blade of grass facing the right way. Petals that even begin to look like they'd seen better days were immediately dispatched to the prettiest pile of trimmings you could imagine.

Ross Fountain

Ross Fountain - Butchard Gardens

At its most basic our Rocky Mountaineer "Journey through the Clouds" connects Vancouver, British Columbia and Jasper, Alberta by rail however the two day railway trip spent on our luxurious double deck custom-built glass dome coach will no doubt be a contender in the top ten experiences of this 200 day adventure.

Rocky Mountaineer Deck Double Luxury Coaches

The landscape ranged from fertile farmland as we climbed out of the coastal floodplain, rainforests with deep gorges and fast flowing snow and glacier fed streams.

Fraser River and the Columbia Mountains

Lakes of various shades and lots of waterfalls. 

The railroad engineering was also fascinating also contributed to the spectacular scenery with tall bridges spanning massive gorges, sections of track where the line seems to be clinging to the valley walls and tunnels connecting sections of the line where it was impractical to excavate a shelf wide enough for a railroad along the side of the valley.

We passed through/under plenty of snow sheds used to reduce the risk and disruption caused by avalanches. In some locations snow sheds were replaced by a type of bare trellis arrangement that doesn't actually prevent the avalanches covering the track but alerts train controllers that part of the trellis has been damaged and there's a significant chance the line is blocked by snow and other debris.

Snow shed and tunnel

For most of the trip through the Columbia Mountains to Kamloops we followed the Fraser River. Hell's Gate is the Fraser Canyon's most renowned tourist attraction where the river squeezes through a 34 metre gap. Although not widely known, Hell's Gate was the site of one of engineering's more humiliating environmental incidents.

Hells Gate

Tens of millions of Pacific salmon returned annually to spawn in the main stem Fraser River and tributaries that include all six species of salmon, Sockeye, Pink, Chum, Chinook, Coho and Steelhead. Some salmon, which migrate upriver to spawn in northern tributaries, swim as far as 1000 miles from the ocean to the gravel beds where they were born, to complete their life cycle.

Devastation to the Fraser River salmon run occurred on February 23, 1914, when a huge rock cliff above a newly blasted (CNR) railway tunnel collapsed into the river at Hell's Gate. More than 75,000 cu. metres of rocks as big as houses filled every embayment and projected on to the bed of the river. The slide material narrowed the canyon at that point from about 90 to 20 metres and formed a cascade of water dropping more than 6 metres over a distance of less than 25 metres. With such a catastrophe, it was soon clear that the salmon runs expected to arrive the following summer would not make it upriver.

Hells Gate, 1915, turbulent flow conditions after rock slide

Construction of Fish Passage Structures at Hell's Gate finally helped to repair the impact of this devastating rockslide. 

Temporary fishway to aid adult salmon migrating upstream

Main fishway on east bank completed in 1946

Climbing out of the semi-arid Fraser plateau surrounding Kamloops, the second part of the two day train trip takes us from 345 to over 1,000 metres above sea level and we enter the alpine scenery of the Canadian Rockies passing Mt Robson (3,953m) and crossing from BC into Alberta.

British Columbia and Alberta

Our rail destination is Jasper at the centre of Jasper National Park. Being summer holidays here in North America the place was buzzing with (mostly Alberta) families seeking outdoors adventure. The town nestles in a rugged unspoilt wilderness where the surrounding mountain landscape is quite spectacular.

View from downtown Jasper

Having been treated with such amazing scenery on our luxury train, the next segment of the Rockies experience (a small group road trip down the Icefields Parkway to Banff following the Athabasca River) was going to be hard to top. We're pleased to report dear reader, that it did and with highlights included our only black bear in the wild sighting, viewing the impressive and picturesque Athabasca falls and stepping out of a snow coach onto Athabasca Glacier.

Our only bear sighting

Athabasca Falls is in Jasper National Park on the upper Athabasca River, just 30k south of Jasper. A powerful, picturesque waterfall, these falls are not known so much for the height of the falls (23 m), as it is known for its force due to the large quantity of water falling into the gorge.

Athabasca Falls

Helen enjoying the sights and sounds of Athabasca Falls

Athabasca Falls

Athabasca Glacier is one of the six 'toes' of the Columbia Icefield. The glacier has receded more than 1.5 km in the past 125 years (losing over half of its volume). The glacier moves several centimetres per day. Due to its close proximity to Banff and Jasper, it is the most visited glacier in North America.

Athabasca Glacier

Ice Explorer Transport on Athabasca Glacier

Stepping out on Athabasca Glacier

Hanging glacier above Athabasca Glacier 

Athabasca Glacier is receding at 2-3 metres per year and the lateral and terminal moraines are quite obvious to even the most geologically challenged observer.

The steep grade of the track as we crossed the lateral moraine and dropped onto the glacial surface was quite dramatic. Fortunately the fleet of snow coaches (Terra Bus) used to ferry passengers onto the glacier are custom built all-wheel drive vehicles designed for this role.

Wanna buy a big red bus?

Banff marked our final stop before leaving Canada for Las Vegas, Nevada. We loved everything about this town from the grandeur of the towering snow-capped mountains fringing built-up area, the snow and glacier fed streams, the Bow River Falls and the opulence of the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

Snow fed stream meets glacier fed river.

Bow R. Falls and Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel 

Snow-capped mountains and Bow River

Canoeing on the Bow River

Central Park and more towering mountains

Deer grazing in downtown Banff

Picnicing in Central Park (Canadian Cherries, Danish Brie and Tic Tok 2008 Chardonnay)
- Tik Toc Chardonnay -  grapes from Mudgee NSW and Pemberton WA -

The very regular sound of freight loco horns travelling through town on the way to or from Calgary was a constant reminder of the rail heritage of this very popular holiday centre.

Canadian freight trains (and a black bear) filmed 

in the Bow River Valley, Banff and Lake Louise.

We've seen (heard) more Aussies in Banff than anywhere we've been so far. Some are on holidays like us, whilst others are here on two year working visas. Some seem to have voluntarily surrendered their home grown accent and adopted a Canadian version. On our last afternoon whilst picnicking down in Central Park (on the edge of the river) we enjoyed watch a bunch of young Aussies kick and catch a football around AFL style.

The GPS came out of its bag for the first time to assist with a bit of Geocaching (checkout the linked site if you've never heard of this popular international recreational pursuit). We located the cache we were looking for (our first outside Australia) close to the park on the banks of the river but had to return later when there were less muggles around to witness us retrieve and record our find in the (Swiss Travel Box) log.

As we take the shuttle to Calgary for the flight to Las Vegas we feel very blessed to have been able to experience the sights and sounds of this remote part of the far northern hemisphere especially since we've enjoyed rain free warm summer days and nights the whole time we've been here.

Keep an eye out for some changes to the main blog page. We plan to start posting the price of bananas around the world and other interesting facts.

If you haven't already noticed, if you click on the photos in the post you'll see a full size (well slightly larger anyway) photo most of the time. There are also links that take you to other sources of information (if you're interested).


By the way your comments are welcomed and encouraged. You need to click on the word comments below and you can just select  "Comment as: Anonymous" but sign off with your name so we know who sent us the comment.
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That's all for now however before you leave -

Have you seen the previous page titled " Alaska Tour and Cruise " yet?
(click on the link to take you there)