Mike Yardley: Riding the rails in the Rocky Mountaineer

"Awaking to the elemental splendour of Stanley Park, the Burrard Inlet, and the North Shore Mountains, I was up early at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver, buzzing with anticipation. I had a hot date with a legendary rail excursion."

"Even the most seasoned travellers agree that experiencing the Rocky Mountaineer will leave you in swirl of superlatives with its unswerving commitment to delivering the best: in hospitality, comfort, cuisine, and knock-out scenery."

Read Mike's full article.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from news Talks at.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be Mike Yardley is our travel correspondent and he is
here with us this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Kilder, Good morning, Jack.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
You are riding the rails of the Rocky Mountaineer in
Canada for us this morning. That's built as one of
the world's greatest luxury rail journeys. So does it live
up to the billing? It does?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Jack, Yes, I think it is what bucket lists were
made for, to be honest, and obviously Canadians are very
proud of this train journey because it is really a
prize to tourism experience.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
It is not cheap.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
You will feel swept up in supreme comfort. But what
I think underpins its success is that across just a
couple of days of train travel, the sheer range of
changing landscapes is remarkable, and you've got very intimate encounters
with the heart of the Rockies stealing the show. The

(01:04):
hospitality on board, Jack is lavish, if not lush, because
you've got a complementary open bar. The dining is seriously gourmet.
I mean, it just amazes me what they can whip
up in the train. Gelly for five hundred passengers. But
the whole experience just us like a perfectly orchestrated symphony,

(01:27):
you know it. Just it feels seamless and knowing and
very indulgent.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Oh so good. So are there a variety of roots?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah? There are.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So Vancouver is the main departure point, but you can
choose from a trip that will zip you up to Jasper.
You can actually take a longer trip that also takes
in Whistler and Quesnela on the way to Jasper. They've
also headed across the border and recently launched what they
call the Kenyon Spirit. So this takes you from Denver

(01:59):
through Moab and through to Salt Lake City.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
And the thing about the Rocky Mountain here, which I
think is really good.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
All travel is in daylight hours, so you don't miss
any site. They'll put you up in our hotel overnight
at the end of each day. But I took a
ride last month on their flagship route, which is called
First Passage to the West.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
First Passage to the West. Okay, So from Vancouver, where
does it take you?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:28):
So this is very much tracing that the Transcontinental Rail Route,
which very much stitched Canada together. Back in the day,
and the flagship route runs between Vancouver and Lake Louise
and bamf And you can do it in either direction,
but I would suggest you start in Vancouver because the

(02:50):
scenery just gets better and better and grander and grander
by the hour, climaxing with day two immersed in the Rockies.
If you do it the other way around, you just
get the best stuff too fast, too early.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
You know, to quick.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, and you have that overnight stop in Kamloops after
day one, which is a really unusual place. Check It's
like a semi arid desert and I was quite blown
away by this. In the highest summer, their temperatures will
hit forty five degrees. Right in winter they'll go down
to minus forty. I don't know of many places with

(03:28):
such an extreme temperature range. So, yeah, the landscape is
pretty wild, even brutal in these parts.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
And then you have these enormous.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Rivers like the Fraser that the train snakes along between
Vancouver and Kamloops.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
So how is the wildlife?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well, yeah, really good question, because at it's very much
a case of you want Lady Luck on your site.
It can be a famine, it can be a feast.
So obviously bear spotting is a big drawer, right. I
only saw one grizzly scampering up the hillside from the
river with a salmon.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Only one.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
But I was chatting to some passengers who had done
the Rocky three times and they said on their last
journey two years ago they counted forty eight beers, which
is insane. Yeah, but I have to say the birds
of prey, they are a very common sight, and I
just loved seeing balled eagles and osprays swooping down snagging

(04:31):
a salmon straight from the river. I mean they're like
ram raiders of the sky, smash and grab on the water.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
You can never get sick of seeing that.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
How varied is the landscape.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
It is amazing, Jack, that the variety is just so
tightly packed. So like parts of British Columbia look like
Central Otago, sun burnt mountains, topped and snow surging rivers
coming through the landscape. Then you've got those gnarly old
suspension bridges crisscrossing the river, sort of reaching back to
the gold Rush once again, a bit like Central Otago.

(05:05):
And then suddenly you're in this like blaze of green.
Just the density and the immensity of the rainforests is stunning,
and I became quite the tree freak I have now
after nerding out, been able to decipher the difference between
you know, your Douglas fir, your trembling aspin. I love

(05:26):
that name of a tree, trembling aspen, mountain, hemlocks, lodge
pole pines, so many different types of trees. And yeah,
it's quite fun just to sort of like play spot
that tree, what's its name? And then in addition to
Central Otago, it does after a while, I feel like
you are just rolling through a giant highlights reel of

(05:49):
Central Otago with a bit of McKenzie, the Southern Alps
in the West Coast rainforest all rolled into one.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, it sounds amazing. What was the highlight for you?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, an unexpected site, I'd have to say, which was
a highlight seeing Harbor's seals who had swam fifty five
kilometers upstream on the Fraser River to Binge on salmon
Berg swimmers. As to the scenery, it is absolutely no

(06:21):
question the untamed glory of the Rockies.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Once you cross the continental.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Divide, you've got lakes as luminous as like Pukake, one
after another of these lakes, all fed by glaciers. Then
this huge procession of peaks that reach higher and mightier
than Alraqi mount Cock are like nature's grand cathedrals. And
I've got such very self explanatory names, Jack, like Temple

(06:47):
Mountain and Castle Mountain. So yeah, the scenery in the
Rockies is engrossing to the point of feeling oversaturated. You know,
you just think have I seen too much?

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Now? My eyes need to rest. But it is quite captivating.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
So when's the best time to go?

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, well, the Rocky Mountaineer rolls from April to October.
I would say definitely give summer the flick July August.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
And interestingly, the.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Wildlife is typically very low energy in summer for spring growth,
hungry bears and snowclad scenery. I would say April is
really good, and if you like your autumn colors October
we'll see you sort it.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh nice, Okay, thank you so much, Mike. It does
sound incredible. We've had a text through saying Jack, I
did this trip Vancouver Camlob's band Rocky Mountaineer fifteen years ago.
It is still a magical memory as Mike describes absolutely
amazing scenery. So thank you for all of Mike's tips
on riding the rails of the Rocky Mountaineer in Canada.
You can go to news Talks headb dot co dot
nz and his article and tips will be up there

(07:53):
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