Day 12 May 1st Jasper to Quesnel

our cabin

An early start because today

bears at hotel entrance

we rejoined the train. The alarm was 0515 and then we did all that was necessary to catch a coach at 0630 to take us and the luggage to Jasper train station. The family of (artificial) bears at the hotel entrance were snapped in case there was no more interesting wildlife to report.

Jasper Railway Station

The weather forecast was fine although we had early

Mount Robson with clouds

showers. We were soon ushered onto our coach and left the heritage station. The route took us through the Yellowhead Pass and soon to the continental divide before the descent to Quesnel began. We stopped several times to allow the passing of freight trains . As we went the tracks followed the Yellowhead River which was quite narrow. We gained very good views of Mount Robson, the highest peak of the Canadian Rockies, although at this stage there was cloud at the top.

Fraser River

Later the Yellowhead River joined the Fraser River which we were then to follow to Quesnel. Today’s journey was not as exciting as previous days with there being lots of forests and several stops/waits for

typical farm

passing freight trains. During the travelling we were served breakfast and lunch which kept fuel levels high. We looked for more bears but largely to no avail. We had almost given up hope when Christine saw a black bear in the woods by the train, no pictures but a thrill for her.  We passed several small farming communities and the first city we came to was Prince George which was comparatively industrial. Forestry seemed to be the major activity in this part of Canada.  This has been a long day on the train and we have another early start tomorrow and hopefully more interesting things to see.     .