Traversing Canada: Day 9: Lake Louise-Kelowna

Day 9: Lake Louise - Revelstoke - Vernon - Kelowna

Having safely awoken at our campsite (thank you, electric fence protecting us from bears and other wildlife), we set out from Alberta to BC, to Yoho National Park, along the Kicking Horse Pass across the North American Continental Divide.

Satellite image of the ~30 km trip along the Kicking Horse Pass, across the continental divide separating Yoho and Banff parks, BC and Alberta and the Atlantic and Pacific ocean basins.

The Kicking Horse Pass was one out five potential routes for the CPR to cross the mountains. It seems it was picked, rather hastily, on the basis of being "not too close, yet not to far" from the US border. The original track had a grade of 4.5%, required additional "helper" locomotives and resulted in multiple crashes due to runaway trains. Several decades later, the steep track was replaced with a system of two spiral tunnels, which increased the track by 10 km, but, importantly, halved the track grade.

One of the Spiral Tunnels in the Kicking Horse Pass.

There is one descending train in the photo; it arrives on the foreground, curves into the tunnel entrance in the back, and finally reemerges below (middle of photo). The TransCanada highway was built in 1962 along the original steep railroad track.

Railroad track system fits organically into the mountainous terrain.

As we enter the fourth national park in two days - Mt Revelstoke National Park - nature starts somewhat blending into a whirlwind of colours and textures. The park awakens with a truly diverse presentation of climate and a fitting farewell on the Rocky Mountains.

Residents of Revelstoke constructed a road going up the mountain of the same name in the early 20th century. The serpentine trek was eventually paved and supposedly takes you up the mountain beyond the trees and bushes, into the "alpine" meadows. Halfway up the road, we find it blocked by snow banks. No go. Although we didn't quite get to alpine meadows, we got treated with a waterfall, fog, clouds, snow banks, and moss growing on the road.