So to finish off our train trip east to west across Canada ..... we woke to shadowy mountains just visible in the early morning light. These soon resolved into towering monoliths - The Rockies! We were in the thick of them and the air was like .... I can’t describe it other than cool, crisp, clear as ice, almost spritzy and smelling of spruce and other plants. Absolutely delicious! And to think we had crossed this same mountain range by train heading east in Colorado, USA, just two months earlier.
We spent much of the day in the Dome car just watching as the mountains and rivers slid passed. Talk about idle or rather idyll. We finished this rather picturesque day with an enormous juicy rack of lamb, a bottle of Maréchal Foch (a hybrid French red wine grape) and for entertainment, an electrical storm!
We piled into bed with mixed feelings at the end of this wonderful journey .... plus the nightly chocolate on the pillow! I’d seen and learned so much and spoken with some interesting people over many delicious meals. A marvelous experience and one which I am sure would be extraordinary in the winter months with blankets of snow and frozen lakes and waterfalls.
There are many more train journeys yet to enjoy - and no we don’t follow Michael Portillo favouring instead the more adventurous Chris Tarrant.
This is what greeted us at 5.30am as we were coming into Jasper.
Jasper Station
Jasper
We settled into the Dome car as the train pulled out of Jasper
On the left bottom is the carriage roof - seen from the Dome.
Didn’t see much snow so people flocked to get pix of this beauty.
Most pix have blur and a few reflections and the occasional raindrop or insect smudge; it goes with train travel. But in case you’re wondering, this is a waterfall!
We passed a number of rapids and fast flowing rivers but here and there a tranquil creek or back water dotted with water lilies took my eye.
Blue River village. We didn’t see a blue river but we did come across it further south on our way to San Francisco.
Quite a few wide expanses like this were evidence of huge snow melts in spring and summer.
This is an aspen! Did you know that the Trembling Aspen forms one of the largest and oldest organism in the world? I didn’t either. That colony has survived relatively unnoticed within the Fishlake National Forest in Utah for 1000s of years and covers an area of 80 hectares - it is in fact a single organism. The trees multiplied by root suckering on open land, and share the same genetic background. We have similar ancient examples of trees cloning in Tasmania. A forest of Huon pine in the south west coast range for example are are genetically identical, they're all male (Huon pines can male or female). Some individual trees are believed to be over 1500 years old. Ancient pollen samples suggest that this clonal organism has inhabited the region continuously for at least 10,000 years. Now THAT is amazing! We don’t strut our stuff enough. Come on Australia, get with the program - we live in a special and very ancient land with some totally unique plant and animal species and amazingly spectacular geology.
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