Salmon spawning and a bear feast

One of the things that has been the most interesting to me on this trip is how much wildlife we’ve seen as the Rocky Mountaineer train chugged up the steep grade of the Selkirk Mountains towards the Bow River and the Continental Divide, the highest point on our trip. We’ve seen moose and elk and deer and a couple of black bears (including one sitting on the side of the tracks watching us slowly pass by; he was so docile that we all swore he had to be some sort of Disney animatronics).

But I guess the most amazing sight to me has been watching the thousands and thousands of spawning salmon in the creeks and tributaries of the various rivers we’ve run along. It’s hard to overstate the abundance. And, of course, wherever there are spawning salmon, there are bears and eagles; lots and lots of eagles. Perched on the banks of a creek tearing into a spent bright red salmon.

Antoine tells us that there are five different species of salmon spawning in these rivers: chum, coho, chinook, sockeye, and spring. They navigate their way from the Pacific Ocean back to the streams where they were born at different times in the fall, laying their eggs and then dying, their carcasses washing up on the riverbanks where they become an ungodly buffet for the bears and birds.

Sometimes the train will slow as we come aside a particular stretch of river so loaded with spawning salmon that it looks like you could walk on their backs from one side of the stream to the other without getting wet. It’s incredible to see.

And then, of course, there are the stunning views of the snow-draped mountain peaks that appear at every twist and turn in the tracks. As Kaley said this morning as we were all staring in awe from the viewing platform, “They just keep coming, the mountains.”

And they do.