“Bear on the left!” a spotter calls out.
The guests aboard the train clamor to the left, their eyes to the glass and cameras and cell phones in hand. Those down below on the landing between passenger cars stick their heads out, the wind whipping through their hands as they look for the sneaky beast.
“There he is!”
It’s a black bear, sunning himself where the forest meets the railroad tracks, either unaware or uncaring of the 83-ton train passing him. It’s an animal we add to our list: bighorn sheep, elk, eagles, osprey, and I’m certain I spotted a female moose meandering along the trees.
They’re all breathtaking sights for the passengers aboard the Rocky Mountaineer train, moving eastward 35 miles per hour along the Canadian Pacific Railway. The railways cut through mountain and cross over rivers on the train’s First Passage to the West route, a journey from bustling Vancouver to Kamloops, then finally Banff and Lake Louise.
You’ve probably seen the world by plane, by car. But what about a good old-fashioned iron horse?