Finally the highlight....our Rockies!!!

Hello dedicated followers. We have finally reached that pivotal moment of our trek across western Canada; the Rocky Mountains. 

I didn't really want to start this post off with a video, but you will understand why I am. As we travelled westward along the rails, every once in a while one of our hosts would man the microphone to let the passengers know about approaching important landmarks or wildlife sightings. At this particular juncture we were informed that we had arrived at the "official" entrance to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I wondered what could possibility identify this location given that we were basically in the middle of nowhere. It turned out to be simpler then one would think, the mile marker was simply named "Entrance." Please click the link below.

https://vimeo.com/38812812

Anyway, moving along (no pun intended), we quickly found ourselves surrounded by mountains. I tried to divide my time equally between the observation level and main level of our favourite car, called the Park car. This was the best car for taking pictures because it was the very last car. Even the layout was designed for mingling and it just happened to be the bar car too. 

East side exposure

 River Bed

 Sharp Bend

Both the above and below photos are entering and leaving various tunnels. One photo taken from the rear of the train and one from the observation deck. 

The above photo is Moon Lake. We were told by the crew that this particular lake is fed by a glacier, resulting in Moon Lake being the head waters of the Fraser River.

Our train stopped for about one and a half hours in Jasper, Alberta. The next two photos depict just how train travel has advanced since the mid 1800's. 

Steam

Diesel 

Funny enough, when I snapped the photo I think this very well could have been a shift change for engineers. Locomotives need to be refuelled every 8 hours, and so do the engineers.

White tailed deer having a snack on grain that escapes occasionally from passing freight trains. Sadly, though this seems to be the only wild life that we were able to see, but that doesn't mean everyone else didn't see more. 

 I thought it was a good idea to post the above photo, which is the Park Car. I took the majority of my photos from this location. I must say that I am not completely happy with the results because I had to shoot through tinted glass windows everywhere on the train that are only cleaned half way through the journey.

We arrived in Vancouver at approx. 8:45 a.m. After bidding our many new acquaintances goodbye we headed off to continue our journey in beautiful Vancouver. 

We have left the the fairer weather behind pretty much at the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border, and arrived to much cooler temps and even a snow shower. Hopefully we will have brighter skies tomorrow and can snap some good pics here in this beautiful coastal city. I hope you have enjoyed my photos as we travelled on board the "The Canadian" Train #1. Hopefully I will have some sunnier weather tomorrow so I can snap some good photos while we are here. 
Thanks for checkin' in with RAD.