Leaving Vancouver behind, we took the VIA Rail Canadian to Jasper. I love trains, but even I have to admit that spending more than 18 hours on a train is pushing my limit. At least one family in economy with us was going all the way to Toronto, a four-day journey. My head hurts just thinking about it.
I’d happily take the train across the country, but I could never do it all at once. I’d get a 30-day pass (or, thanks to VIA’s somewhat limited fare structures, two or three 12-day passes) and hop across the country a few hours at a time, spending a day or two here and there to explore. Four days all at once? I can’t imagine.
Still, I highly recommend the train trip from Vancouver. The train crosses much of the B.C. interior at night, and spends most of the following day crisscrossing the Fraser River and North Thompson River valleys and eventually climbing over the Yellowhead Pass into Alberta. By my count, our train had at least 17 passenger cars (including 6 cars with observations domes), making it by far the longest train I’ve ever been on. The observation car nearest to us was never more than half full when we went up there. My advice: try to get a good night’s sleep at the beginning of the voyage and then grab a good window seat for the rest of the day, whether in the dome car or your regular passenger car. If you can, shell out for a sleeper compartment; it’ll cost twice as much, but you’ll be at least three times happier in the morning.
Jasper, the National Park, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. You could probably spend the entire summer there and not run out of places to go or things to see. Jasper, the town, is tiny and reminds me a lot of southern Ontario tourist towns: the main drag is so focused on serving tourists that I’m always left wondering where local residents shop or eat. I can’t imagine that locals spend $100 for a middling dinner for two at Evil Dave’s or $20 for souvenir underwear.
I love little local museums, and the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum didn’t disappoint. The walkthrough display chronicling Jasper’s history is so chock-full of Banff-envy that it reads like it was penned by a spurned lover. “Banff may be bigger and better, but we’re happy that we’re small and unappreciated! We swear!” While the museum spends a lot of time disparaging the development and popularity of Banff and extolling the quiet virtues of still-wild Jasper, it’s actually bang-on in making the comparison. Wildlife was abundant in Jasper, with appearances by too many elk to count, as well as some deer, a moose, a black bear, and countless ravens that seemed twice as big as their urban cousins in Vancouver.
Just about the only thing I remember about Jasper from when I was there as a kid thirty years ago was the preponderance of trailers and motorhomes. It’s still largely the same, but at least half of them these days are rentals.
Anyway, read on for the obligatory gallery and more observations.
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- If you ever do the train ride from Vancouver to Jasper (which I highly recommend, by the way), be prepared to sit in your seat slack-jawed for most of the trip. The route along the Fraser and Thompson rivers is pure Canadian mythology.
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- Among the many sights along the train route is Mount Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. Seen from the train, Mount Robson is all alone, a solitary and huge mountain rising above the valley with nothing else even remotely comparable nearby.
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- Risa lives for her peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, so we spent most of the vacation hauling around a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a knife. When lunch time rolled around, we'd find a spot to sit down (here on the train), make a couple of sandwiches, eat, and continue our journey.
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- The 300-foot-high (almost twice as high as Niagara)
Pyramid Falls is one of the more spectacular sights along the train route from Vancouver to Jasper. The train crew announces it in advance and the train slows to a crawl so that everyone can take pictures. Although it's in a provincial park, there is no vehicular access and there are no developed trails. The falls are best seen from the train: the tracks are virtually at the base. They can also be seen from Highway 5, much more distant and across the river. In theory at least, intrepid hikers, canoeists, or swimmers can also get right at them, but I don't know how common any of those would be.
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- You know you're in camper land when the most popular place in town is the combination laundromat/coin shower. And believe me, after 18 hours on the train from Vancouver, quite a number of people (especially those making the full four-day trip to Toronto) could have used one or both of the services.
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- Our first morning in Jasper was a little chillier than you'd expect for mid-July. Still, it was a few degrees warmer than the original forecast.The weather in Jasper was highly variable: sunny and warm as we headed out for dinner, blowing wind and cold when dessert was ready, pouring down rain for the walk back to the hotel, and all clear 10 minutes later. Alternatively, it could be grey, cold, and miserable when we sat down for breakfast and sunny and warm by the time my bacon and eggs arrived.
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- Jasper is about as dog-friendly as The Beach back in Toronto.
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- Patricia Lake is one of the many picturesque locations in Jasper. As Risa said at one point, Jasper is really unfair because just when you're finished oohing and aahing over one vista, you turn around a corner and there's another one right in front of you, even more spectacular than the last.
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- Just beyond Patricia Lake is Pyramid Lake at the base of Pyramid Mountain (neither of which is related to Pyramid Falls in B.C.). When you're this far north (Jasper is about 53° north, quite a bit farther north than Moosonee), summer days are quite long. We didn't get to Pyramid Lake until well after 9 o'clock, and this picture is from closer to 10 o'clock, still well before sunset.
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- A little resort on Pyramid Lake was hosting a wedding. The wedding party was still out having pictures taken during the golden hour before dusk. I hope the guests weren't waiting for dinner.
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- There's wildlife to be seen virtually everywhere you go in Jasper. Many of the elk in the park are quite habituated to cars and people; this one was part of a herd that was grazing along the side of the road.
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- Medicine Lake, along the road to Maligne Lake, fills with meltwater every spring and then drains over the rest of the year even though it doesn't have an outlet. I'm standing on the dry flood plain here, about midway between the high-water mark and the mid-July shoreline. The lake drains via sinkholes in the bed and courses through an underground cavern system before re-emerging 16 km downstream. In the 50s, attempts were made to plug the lake by filling the sinkholes with mattresses, sandbags, and bundles of magazines. Further proof that conservation practices are moving targets.
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- The Maligne Canyon, downstream from Medicine Lake, is a spectacular gorge with a well-developed walking trail.
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- The Maligne River plunges relentlessly through the canyon.
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- Despite, or perhaps because of, the river's power, a couple of kayakers were taking turns riding down it. I first encountered them on the trail, carrying their boats upriver. A few minutes later, I saw the first one going down a hairy set of rapids. Looks like fun, but way beyond my meagre abilities as a flatwater kayaker.
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- I'm no expert, but it really doesn't look like there's much room for manoeuvring in that gorge. Oh, and you're going sideways, dude. Pointy end first!
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- Closer to the bottom of the Maligne Canyon, a pretty little waterfall cascades into the river. Waterfalls in the Rockies are about as common as Starbucks in Seattle, but they're all gosh-darn pretty.
Next installment: heading down the Icefields Parkway, which is by far the best drive I’ve ever been on.