Mt Mckensie is not the only mountain around Revelstoke but it is the dominant one. It is the home of the Revelstoke Mountain Ski Resort (where we stayed) which claims the "greatest vertical" of 1,713 meters (5,620 feet). There are also some great places as well like this place where we ate breakfast with a number of young Saturday morning footballers.
In addition to great winter skiing, the Revelstoke area boasts miles and miles of hiking and biking trails. And they take their mountain biking seriously here!
In Puerto Rico we put three or four Pasafino horses in a Ford F-150. In Revelstoke they put six mountain bikes and riders in an F-150.
Great as all that is, our real reason for stopping in Revelstoke was for the Revelstoke Railway Museum. Located just a couple of minutes from where the last spike was driven in the Trans-Canada railway, it is one of the best little museums about the early days of the Canadian Pacific Railway. So many of the town we've been through, like Revelstoke, exist because of the Trans-Canada railway. Many of the mountains and passes had never been explored, even by First Nations peoples, until the railroad engineers and survey teams came through. Many towns, like Jasper where our Rocky Mountaineer journey began, are still heavily dependent on the railroads.
My favorite display - no surprise here - was the big 4-8-0 Consolidation steam engine. I love steam engines!
Outside in the "yard" the museum has some interesting rolling stock
including this wedge snowplow. It was coupled to the front of an engine (or two; or three) and rammed through the snow to keep the road open. Plows like this one are still used today.
From the railway museum we headed up through Rogers Pass (incidentally where the first Trans-Canada line crossed) back over the Great Divide, out of British Columbia and back in to Alberta, to Emerald Lake. But that's two more posts. Enjoy the ride.
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