Aboard the Rocky Mountaineer to Jasper, I found a moment to be still

Globe and Mail

6 days ago

As the train slowed to a halt, the usual chatter of passengers aboard the Rocky Mountaineer dimmed to a quiet hum, as if to mimic our surroundings. I stood outside on the viewing deck, just steps from the still, clear water of Moose Lake, which was gleaming in the sun. The warm smell of fresh-baked bread wafted from the train's kitchen into the crisp air of Alberta's Rockies.
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I had let time slip away. Maybe it was because I had gone two days without much cell reception and WiFi, or because unlike my usual jam-packed travels, I was forced to stay put. Taking this legendary rail journey last April, I departed from Vancouver, rolled along hills and through hot desert canyons, and found myself near the end among the ice-capped peaks of Jasper National Park. I was pleasantly surprised to have reached this level of disconnection – having no need to worry about logistics, I completely forgot to change my phone's time zone while on board.
This route to Jasper, Journey Through the Clouds, just reopened in spring, almost a year since the July, 2024, wildfire devastated the UNESCO World Heritage Site. As Jasper welcomes tourists back, this train is one of the most awe-inspiring ways to get there, turning a 90-minute flight into a two-day, one-night adventure. When travelling a century-old rail path, built in the 1880s by the Canadian Pacific Railway, you're left with time to ponder the past and present. For travellers like myself, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But even for train staff who make the trip on the regular, it never gets old.
'I have the absolute best office view in the world,' says Wendy McMichael, who has been a senior on-board manager with the Rocky Mountaineer for 14 years, in which she's seen everything from marriage proposals to a bear on its hind legs watching the train go by. 'No two days are the same' she says, reflecting on the ever-changing weather and terrain.
Though each day may be different, they are all just as well-rehearsed.
Red carpets are rolled out at the station and men in Scottish dress play bagpipes – a nod to the heritage of the founders and owners, the Armstrong family. The Rocky Mountaineer's crew works overnight to get the train ready, says Celia Bautista, who has been a train manager for four years.
If you're venturing upstairs to 'GoldLeaf' service, plush, heated seats await and you can almost touch the lush foliage that brushes the outside of the glass-domed ceiling. Soon after boarding, you're offered tea, coffee and cake with lemon glaze poured on top at your seat, before you're invited to the dining cart for breakfast.
(The train's cheaper SilverLeaf service still offers great views – the main difference is you're served breakfast and lunch at your seat.)
The breakfast and lunch menu uses ingredients local to the regions the train passes through. Elaborate and colourful meals include Fraser Valley chicken paillard with corn and fennel sauté, locally-farmed steelhead with gnocchi, seared albacore tuna with truffle aioli, and for dessert, a lavender lemon posset. The food is prepared fresh by just two people in the tiny kitchen on board. It's a fascinating feat, with the 72 guests split into two groups to allow for service.
The first part of the trip cuts through lumberyards and the flower fields and farmlands of Abbotsford, where cows graze under highway bridges. Along the way, big-horned sheep stop their hopping to examine our noisy intrusion, people come out to their porches to wave, and speed boaters show off their drifting skills for the audience.
Often, there are relics of the original line such as telegraph poles still standing from when Morse code messages were sent to train stations. As we pass large, unmarked stone graves, our host Tina Mohns acknowledges those who died while building the tracks – among them, around 4,000 Chinese construction workers.
As the diesel-electric train twists and turns through the Coast and Cascade Mountains at 50 kilometres an hour to 100 km/h, Mohns tells tales of local sites, legends of long-ago epic journeys, and the 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush.
In one day, we go from the steely grey, towering cliffs of Hell's Gate on the Fraser River to the dusty-brown ridges and large osprey nests in Ashcroft, B.C. (which I'm fascinated to learn is classified as an arid desert). Overnight, we get off in Kamloops and sleep at a hotel. The next morning, 10 railcars split off with some heading to Banff, while our three railcars head to Jasper. We were back to lush greens by the Thompson River, one of the longest salmon runs in the world. Here, the train did a 'Kodak roll,' moving slowly past the remote Pyramid Creek Falls – which are difficult to access by car or foot – so passengers could snap pictures.
While we were in Jasper National Park's Yellowhead Pass, Mohns told us the area is home to around 1,500 moose and that if we see wildlife, we should yell so the staff can alert the other coaches. Here I was, on the lookout for moose, drinking a Caesar, with Shania Twain's You're Still the One playing over the speaker (could it get more stereotypically Canadian?), when someone yelled 'Bear! Bear! Bear!' I plastered myself against glass-domed windows for a better look, along with the rest of the passengers.
Eventually, we reached Mount Robson – the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies and the end of our journey. I enjoyed my cabin in Jasper, walking the trails near the gushing Athabasca Falls, and seeing wildlife such as mountain goats, elk, and a black bear emerging from hibernation.
But I missed the train, with its promise of serendipity, and an excuse to be still. It helped me forge a deeper connection to this part of the country. Sometimes, the journey can be as exciting as the destination.
Rocky Mountaineer runs between April to October. The Vancouver to Jasper route starts at $2,654 for SilverLeaf class and $3,565 for GoldLeaf. Travellers in wheelchairs can use a lift to get on the train, and also have access to narrow wheelchairs on board that fit in the aisle and the railcar elevator.
The Rocky Mountaineer is not a sleeper train – the night in Kamloops is spent in a three- or four-star hotel. Pre and post-trip extensions are offered in five-star hotels, such as the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver and Jasper Park Lodge.
Rocky Mountaineer packages can include excursions such as wildlife tours, ice plunges and Indigenous plant walks. Some areas of Jasper National Park remain closed because of wildfire damage; you can find updated information on the Parks Canada website. You can extend your trip by booking a bus from Jasper to Banff on the Icefields Parkway, where you pass jagged sawtooth mountains, gravel flats with braided streams, and the Columbia Icefield.
The writer was a guest of Rocky Mountaineer and Fairmont Hotels. It did not review or approve the story before publication.