Trip Reports: April 30 to May 24, 2004

by Ted & Sylvia Blishak

From Mexico to Canada by Rail and Sea

Prince George to Jasper

May 20, 2004  After fortifying ourselves with a tasty hot breakfast in the Ramada Hotel dining room, we taxi to the station. The Westbound Skeena is just pulling out for Prince Rupert while our Eastbound train is backing in, and Sylvia has time for a few photographs of the equipment before we board.

Departing Prince George, Sandy is serving cold breakfast at our seats. Passengers are quiet and subdued this morning, perhaps they got only 5 ½ hours sleep as we did. This is a good time to take a nap in our comfortable high-backed seats before the scenery becomes spectacular this afternoon.

After our tasty cold roast-beef lunch, the Canadian Rockies begin to rise up around us, becoming more and more dramatic, culminating in mighty Mt. Robson, which at 3954 metres is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. We’ve been lucky enough to see the top of the mountain on past trips (on all but about 10 days per summer, its head is in the clouds, as it is today) but it is stunning in its gigantic size nevertheless, and two of its glaciers are clearly visible. The engineer slows the train to a walk past the best viewing point, as cameras click and beep.

Click on images for larger view

Rolling past eight-mile long Moose Lake we reach Yellowhead Pass, the highest point on Skeena’s route, at 1131 metres, then descend into Jasper, the train’s end point. Here we are met by a Brewster Tours bus and transferred to the Sawridge Hotel about seven blocks from the downtown station, at the east end of the main street, and located strategically across the road from the Canadian National main line.

Only a few of the rooms have track-views, available on special request, but we have a beautiful two-room, two-bath suite overlooking the woods behind the hotel. If we open our windows, we can still hear the CN locomotives rumbling up into Jasper from Edmonton, as well as the whine of dynamic braking as lengthy freights descend the grade to Canada’s Great Plains.

This upscale hotel has an atrium lobby and dining room, with broad skylights and a vast array of plants, including cacti and full-sized trees, giving diners the impression of sitting in an outdoor garden.

We retire early, looking forward to a morning tour of Maligne Canyon and Maligne Lake.

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