After 10 days in the Rockies we are heading back to the coast on Via Rail Canada’s ramble through northern British Columbia. This is a day and half rail trip to Prince Rupert on the coast, with an overnight stop at Prince George where we all get off the train and head for overnight accommodation. Coming into Jasper to the train station from our cabin there is a whole lot of commotion beside the road. Cars are stopped all over the place in order to view a herd of elks (?), they are females and young ones it seems……….males have antlers,  lying in the middle of the river on a gravel bank. Interesting location for a herd  of elks to lie around!

I think this is an Elk?

A totem pole near the Jasper Railway Station

The Dome car on the Via Canada train to Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert lies just south of the Alaskan border. Part of this route takes us through what National Geographic has labelled one of its 10 great train trips. It is a remote part of the country but the Trans Canada Hwy follows us along the way that was hacked out of the mountains by the railway builders in the early 1900s. We go past Mt Robson, cloud covered, and at 12,972 ft Canada’s highest peak. Many lakes and streams are passed by. We also see our first black bear in the wild, a brief glimpse as the train scoots by. A little later Allthego saw another one but was too slow with the camera, or the train was too fast!

Big Moose Lake

Mt Robson

Our stop over in Prince George was brief, just enough time to go to bed and then get up to get back on the train the next morning for breakfast as we headed off to Prince Rupert. While waiting to board the train one of the local First Nations peoples explained the meaning of some of his artwork on display in the Information Centre attached to the station. It turns out that he had been locked up for a few years and had found new meaning in his life whilst inside and was now working at trying to reconnect his people to their traditions as well as live in the ‘new’ world. A story we hear all to much of in Australia with our indigenous people.

Prince George elk

Bear! The black smudge in the middle!

A lake along the way

Across a trestle bridge near Prince Rupert

We have a couple of nights in Prince Rupert before boarding the BC Ferries ferry that will take us down the southern part of the Inland Passage to Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.