Two summers ago, I traveled with my family via Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver to Jasper, Alberta. It remains one of the great trips of my lifetime. Today, I boarded the Alberta Train to travel from Vancouver back to Whistler, also among the prettiest train rides I’ve experienced. The 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics set the standard for Winter Olympic operational success, turning a profit and establishing a legacy for the training of Canadian athletes. It’s fitting that Alberta has leased the Rocky Mountaineer, the standard in luxurious train travel across Western Canada, with trips from Vancouver to Banff and Jasper via Whistler and Kamloops.
This morning, the Alberta Train left early from North Vancouver, snaking along Lions Bay while offering vistas of B.C.’s spectacular Coast Range Mountains. Having driven the Sea to Sky Highway scores of times, it’s a pleasure to gaze out over Howe Sound and into the Cheakamus Canyon with no worry of steering or oncoming traffic. The Coast Range is a beautiful set of mountains, and comparing this range with others is geologically unfair. Regardless, I’ll state unequivocally that there are no mountains in the lower continent that compare with the Canadian Rockies. Taking the Alberta Train along the Coast Range is a perfect reminder that there is plenty more of western Canada to explore that has nothing to do with skiing, snowboarding or bobsleigh.
