The Authorized Version

I am a Rocky Mountains girl. I’ve lived almost all of my life within sight of the Sawtooths, a range of the Rockies. We have traversed the Colorado Rockies many times on family trips and when our daughter and family lived in Calgary we made regular jaunts over the Canadian Rockies.

I was amazed, however, to discover what a very different experience viewing the Canadian Rockies was from the train. One feels so close to nature on the train. The right-of-ways are narrow and the entire panorama is just beyond your window.

We had an early morning stop at Jasper in the northern end of Jasper National Park, often called the gem of the Rockies.

It felt good to stretch our legs in the sunny, high mountain air.

And we got to meet Jasper the Bear.

The early 20^th century posters advertising for English settlers to populate the Canadian west give one a sense of how vital the train was to the development of Canada.

Back on the move, we were surprised at the number of high mountain lakes and rivers we passed.

Since there is only a single track across Canada, and freight trains have right-of-way, the Canadian waits on sidings for freight trains heading the opposite direction. As we sat on a siding waiting for yet another to whoosh past us, my husband estimated that the freight trains must be at least a mile long—another evidence of the importance of trains to the Canadian economy. We were continually impressed at evidences of the vibrancy of that economy.

We ate lunch while sitting on just such a siding, enjoying the wind blowing long grasses and wildflowers outside our window, pine forests and jagged mountains in the distance. All under the canopy of a bright blue sky. A swarm of little yellow butterflies flitted by, then flew on.

Then we were off again. We passed a herd of Rocky Mountain big horn sheep—maybe 15 or 20 of them—and a black swan floating in a lake—all of whom eluded my camera.

For the rest of the day, just sit back and enjoy the scenery with us:

If you missed the story of the hair-raising start to our journey, you can read Day 1 here. Next week, Day 3, the broad Canadian prairie.

Watch for the up-coming Against All Fierce Hostility, book 6 in the Monastery Murders, for Felicity and Antony’s adventures aboard the Canadian. And in the meantime you can get ready by catching up on the first books in the series.