719a Rocky Mountaineer; Gulf Islands BC; Global Perspective; Piecing Together America

Travel with Rick Steves - Rick Steves

This episode explores scenic train travel on Canada's Rocky Mountaineer, the cultural richness of British Columbia's Gulf Islands, and the transformative power of immersive travel across America. It features personal stories from travelers, historians, and authors.

Key takeaways

• The Rocky Mountaineer's route was vital to Canada's unification and showcases stunning engineering.
• Intergenerational travel creates lasting emotional and cultural legacies.
• The Gulf Islands blend natural beauty with Indigenous heritage and Pacific Northwest charm.

Transcript preview

The stories of surveyors, visionaries, and even the schemers who helped put Canada together come alive when you ride the historic rocky mountaineer. It's a marvel and there's a reason that this has become one of the most famous trains in the world. Coming up we hear what it's like to introduce a new generation to the fun of traveling on a scenic railroad. Or head for the islands, there's hundreds of them off the coast of British Columbia and pick one that's just the right mix of nature and comfort for a great summer get away. really feel like the islands to me. It feels like you're in your own little world. Explore what it means to be a global citizen as you go beyond your own borders. It's less the mindset that we pack and more the mindset that we unpack. And journey deep within America to discover what every city and state is proud to show you about who they are. I'm very obsessed with America if you can't tell and I wanted a piece of every city. All aboard, it's Travel with Rick Stees. We're celebrating Canada Day and the 4th of July on today's travel with Rick Stees. We'll hear how the Rocky Mountainier train line helped to tie Canada together and we'll pick our favorites from among the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. Plus a sort of real life where's Waldo shares his enthusiasm for America after getting up close with people in each of the 50 states. He tried his hand at the local crafts in every major city in the USA. scenic train rides and Canada has a train ride that is both which captured the imagination of a train lover and Grandpa Rick Antonson. He's written about the joy of this train especially through the eyes of his 10 year old travel buddy his grandson Riley. Rick's book is Train Beyond the Mountains and Rick joins us now to share some of his memories about this train and why we might want to give it a world ourselves. Rick thanks for being here. So good to see you again and nice to be able to talk about travel. It's great and it's great and it's great to be able to be able to talk about travel. sitting across from a person who has a Canadian accent. Thank you very much. Hey your book Train Beyond the Mountains, journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer, it celebrates a remarkable train line that really helped tie Canada together. It seems to me it's important historically for the past and it's also important touristically today for people who want to enjoy the amazing Canadian Rockies. Let's start with the history. What's the big deal about this train, the Rocky Mountaineer? Well there was a national dream, which was to have a national dream which was to have to have a national dream, then the colony of British Columbia become a province and join all of Canada. It really kept it from becoming part of Washington State and the commitment of the government in Ottawa was to build a railway. So the Canadian Pacific Railway is historic but the challenges of the geography through the Rocky Mountains which today is celebrated because of the scenery but at the time you're told as an engineer you've got to make a tunnel through there. You've got to go down the Fraser Canyon. difficult which makes for a spectacular route for the Rocky Mount. And roughly what age was that? What years was the... We're in the 1880s, 1890s. They're doing the surveys. The same thing was going on in Italy when Italy was uniting they had to lash it together by train lines. Of course the same thing was going in the United States with our Western movement. Absolutely. I didn't know we could have had British Columbia had it not been for your engineers that tied it to eastern Canada. Well and it was dodgy for a long time and in fact when the route when the route properly quickly there was talk well maybe we'll go back and join Washington State become part of the US so that was a very real imaginable you know back 150 years ago the engineering of this was was quite a challenge and the Rockies are a formidable barrier what were some of the challenges they just had from an engineering point of view to accomplish this in Thai Vancouver with the rest of Canada part of it was that they were working 12 months of the year which is great when you're in the summer you can get the cruise everywhere and then all of the sudden you can get the cruise everywhere and then all of the and you're dealing with snow slides and they didn't have yet snow sheds so they could protect the rails so even the supply trains would get stuck in the snow and it was very very difficult you've got steep inclines that they now have worked around they did the spiral tunnels which travelers on the Rocky Mountain you get to go through which were a Swiss engineering marvel where you go in and circle around and they engineered that a hundred years ago more than that because I've seen that in Norway they've got a spiral tunnel of a train line. They do indeed. In fact, I was just in Norway and on the train. It's just like, what a concept, a corkscrew to go up and then carry on. And you got to gain that altitude somehow. And they started at either end and met within a couple of feet of one another. That blows me away, that they could do that then. A hundred years ago. They could do it today. Still Marvel. Exactly. Rick Antanson chronicles the history of the Canadian West in his book, Train beyond the mountainier. And in an updated edition of the classic slumox gold. search of a legend and a curse. His website is Rick Antonin.com. Rick, what was your work as Vice President at Rocky Mountainier? I was there at the start in the early 1990, so three years. So the start of the start, the sightseeing version of it, with the glass domes and all of that. That's correct. So my job was the sales and the marketing and I often say all the loose ends because it was a startup. And the train had been designed to take people through the Rockies in particular during the daylight during the daylight. So you. So you. So you. So you. So you're and then you're on the train all day you overnight in hotels in Kamloops and on the train again to Vancouver or you can do it in reverse. So it was a really exciting time we were learning everything getting it going so here it is you know almost 30 years later and I wanted to go back see all the changes because by now they have those gorgeous domes as one traveler called it it's the glass train because you can look everywhere almost feel like you touch the mountains. I just love that I mean Switzerland's really into that and I like I like I like I like I like my legs up on the Ottoman in front of me and I just go back and I've got these glorious mountains cruising overhead because of that beautiful stunning dome and of course that gig of yours as vice president of the train line is long gone but you've got recent memories of sharing this with your grandson Riley tell us more about that that's pretty exciting way to do it. One of the things that I've learned of recent is something that I would call intergenerational travel but one of the fellow passengers on Rocky Mountain Ear about parents, grandparents traveling with the younger generation. And he called it legacy travel. I love the term. He said, you know, most people when they pass, they leave a checkbook legacy. They're leaving behind some money. But he said, what a grandparent traveling with a grandchild does is leave the legacy of travel, the insights. And another passenger has said to me, you know, Rick, this trip means the world to you today. In 20 years, it'll mean the world to your 10-year-old grandson, talking with Rick Antonson about Canada's popular and historic Rocky Mountainier train ride. And Rick is a former president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver. He served as an ambassador for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and he was vice president at the train line itself, Rocky Mountainier. His book is Train Beyond the Mountains and it raves about that venerable train line in Canada. Rick, what were some of the great moments as a grandfather on that train with Riley? He initially? walked down and found the observation deck at the back. So you've got two levels. The top is the dome where everybody is and then you take turns going down for a lovely meal service. But at the back of the lower level is, say, 10 foot by 10 foot observation deck. Riley became fascinated with that. He'd leave behind his electronics, which I was worried he'd spend too much time on, and he'd say, I'm going to the deck. And we'd go down there and he'd get in the corner and he would spend the wind blown through his face and into his eyes and all over his hair he would look at the lapidated buildings and say somebody wants to live there what happened grandpa he'd wave at a school bus at a crossy when we're going along he said those kids are going to school I'm not this is that an open air observation deck on the train I there's a beautiful photograph in your book about that I love it because one of my least favorite things about a European train is the sign next to the window that says it's dangerous to lean out because I've always got that window down and I'm always leaning out and I think okay I'll be well aware if something's gonna come off and decapitate me I'll pull my head in. But the Rocky Mountainer has those observation decks. And it's terrific. The other thing is that there are people gathering there all the time. And they would talk about other trains they've traveled all over the world. They'd talk about how they wish they brought their grandchild along on a trip and how they're planning to do that because most of the audience is sort of an over 50 crowd, And I had lots of other people volunteering to be the grandparent for a couple of hours if I wanted to go on my own and read a book. And what you wrote about in your book, Trained Beyond the Mountains, was that each mile of the track uncovers stories of historic characters, pioneers, explorers, schemers and visionaries. What a treat for a grand-grandpa to have his grandson there and to be wonder struck by the guys who did this back in an age when it really was quite an astounding engineering accomplishment and important for Canada. for North America, it established that in the West there would for sure be this border between the two countries and all of the juxtapositions that have come from that. But it's also a story of indigenous peoples who were hosts, often in a very interrupted way. They were hosts to the newcomers with European backgrounds. That didn't always work out well for indigenous peoples and the trained commentary on board does a very good job of familiarizing travelers with the... history that goes thousands of years back. Rick we've just got a couple more minutes and I want to talk about the Rocky Mountainier today as a touristic experience. How is it designed so that you get immersed in the nature? Tell us about the actual experience. It's a marvel and there's a reason that this has become one of the most famous trains in the world. It's extraordinarily comfortable to be on board, but it's the overarching glass domes that give you a sense of constantly being drawn. you can relax and read or talk to other people but you're always being drawn visually to take a peek through the dome and the roots go bamp, camloops, Vancouver or reverse they go between Jasper and Camloops and Vancouver. Grandson Riley and I were on this as well from Vancouver, you overnight in Whistler, then next day you overnight in Quinell, so you're through the caribou where the gold rush happened, fascinating stuff and then up to Jasper. opportunity to spend more time in the Rockies after that which really rounded out this rough sort of circular tour. Everyone you encounter was having what Minnie said was the trip of a lifetime. This is an amazing experience from a travel and a train lover's point of view if the awards that the Rocky Mountain Ear has won is an indication. You mentioned in your book, you're awarded as the world's leading travel experience by train by the World Travel Awards Association, the world's leading three times. It's amazing and as I think about it a lot of times I like to sleep on trains but I'm glad on this particular train you don't want to miss the scenery so you have overnight stops right? That's absolutely true. You're in awe and you're a little humbled by the geography and you're thrilled to be on a journey. If there's ever a time to be in the moment it's on a train and a train is like a continuum of moments after moments after moments. starts and ends regardless of which way you're going in places where you could enjoy little extra time also. Let's close our conversation just if you can think of a favorite moment you had as Grandpa with Riley. You know he said to me at one point you're not as easy to travel with as I thought you'd be and it reminded me sometimes how I became a grandfather in the moment almost trying to smother him with my enthusiasms and tell them a whole bunch of other stuff. I'll tell you we just had a couple weeks together and we were in Norway which is my family heritage as well on my dad's side so his we got to his great