October 10 – The foothills and the prairies of Alberta

Today we boarded the VIA rail for a three day trip to Toronto.  Within the first hour or so we saw elk and deer (before we were even out of Jasper), 

a bear and a herd of big horn sheep.  Those were the highlights. 

The clouds are low and there is no sun.  But at least it wasn’t raining. 

The first part of the trip was along a river with the mountains in the background.  With the laden skies it was a bit moody.

We quickly left the mountainous area and were into the foothills, still with lots of rivers and lakes.

We saw a lot of dead pines (had yellow needles) due to the spread of the Japanese Pine Beetle this far east.  However, in the snow the yellow trees made for some interesting viewing.

In the morning we sat in the observation car so that we could enjoy the few mountains we passed.  On the way to the dining car we discovered the lounge car with an observation dome so we headed there after lunch.  The views were much better…including a view straight down the top of the train. 

We sat there for quite a while, alternating between freezing and (once – Paul needs this to be factual) overheating. We finally headed back to our sleeper compartment but they have no table on which to work so we went back to the observation car to take advantage of the seatback trays.

One thing we have noticed is that we seem to be spending a reasonable amount of time sitting at sidings waiting for the freight traffic to pass.  Sometimes there was interesting "art" to view on the sidings.

We arrived in Edmonton Alberta late afternoon where more passengers boarded and they took the observation car out. They only use it going through the mountains where the scenery is dominated by mountains.  From here on out it will be prairies and woodlands and such.

After dinner everyone was invited to go up to the first class lounge to check it out.  It is reasonably nicer than the other lounge. We would have been more interested in seeing one of the first class cabins but none were available.