Wednesday 31st: Rain, Railroad and of course a Waterfall !

Still raining this morning but we head off back up Highway 1 to Yoho National Park in hope of it clearing up later.
This pic is just outside of Banff ........

By the time we get past Lake Louise and up in the mountains the rain has stopped.
Our first stop is at the viewpoint for The Spiral Tunnels.
This is what the blurb says:
"The Spiral tunnels were built by the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) in order to help negotiate the dangerously steep Kicking Horse Pass. When the original line was built through the Kicking Horse Pass, the grade was a steep 4.5% - the steepest railway grade in North America.
Unfortunately this resulted in many accidents as trains tried to climb the pass, or descend it, and the Spiral Tunnels were devised as an alternate method. The tunnels were built to curve around and spiral through the mountain and into the pass below, reducing the grade to a safer 2.2%.
The Spiral Tunnels can be seen from the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 1) and there is a very interesting display detailing the history of the tunnels, how they were made, and how the tunnels work. If you arrive at the right time, you may see a train using the tunnels. It's very neat to see as the train looks like a snake in a coil. Unfortunately though there isn't any consistent time when you'll see a train pass through, so it's up to luck"
Oh wow we are so very lucky as The Rocky Mountaineer enters the Lower Tunnel while we are watching.......
This is in fact also the first time we have seen the famous Rocky Mountaineer

The Rocky Mountaineer exiting the lower tunnel.
Tomorrow we pass this way again on our journey to Revelstoke and maybe one of the big freight trains will be going through !! he he

Map of the Upper and Lower Tunnels

On to the incredible Takakkaw Falls one of the highest falls in Canada

View from car park

Ok, it's another waterfall but we love them and this one although not pretty is really dramatic. It is now spitting a cold icy rain and what with that and the falls themselves it reminds us of an awesome waterfall/area we saw with Clive and Eileen in Iceland in 2010

Last stop today, as rain does stop play again for the rest of the day, is Emerald Lake.
Even in the rain the lake is an emerald colour and very pretty, if it is sunny tomorrow we may re-visit, we plan to hit the road early.......
Despite the rain we have had a great day, the drive through Kicking Horse Pass even with the road works is amazing, the mountains either side and the fantastic scenery.............and then of course there's the railroad, I even saw a watertower but it was raining hard and my boy wouldn't get out of the car to take the pic !!