Behind The Scenes: Trainspotting at Morant’s Curve

Morant’s Curve Banff National Park Canada

Just a quick bit of video from our trip to Banff a few summers back and specifically a look at Morant’s Curve.

“Morant’s Curve is located on the western end of the Bow Valley Parkway near Lake Louise. It’s a beautiful spot that the railway passes through. The location was made famous by Nicholas Morant, a staff photographer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He took photographs for the company during the middle of the 20th century.”

Yes, the water in Banff is that color blue! Morant’s Curve is just a few minutes outside of Lake Louise and just about an hour from Banff.

We had been driving around the area of Lake Louise and Banff looking for a hiking spot and just happened to be “racing” a train through the woods.  The trains travel slowly through the valley so we were able to get ahead of it and station ourselves right at Morant’s Curve as it thundered through the valley.

Its a single track along the river and the strangest thing is seeing a train coming in the opposite direct soon after witnessing a long training going the to the other way.  Obviously there is a staging area before going through the pass.

I kept the video of the trains going through Morant’s curve long for the train buffs.  Non-train buffs might want to speed through the video.

Overall the Banff area is beautiful and surprisingly close to Calgary. I think it was only an hours drive. Of course this means its going to be crowded at all of the famous spots but if you are willing to risk getting eaten by a grizzly, you can find solitude on the hiking trails. The week we were there it was mostly rainy and overcast. You have to expect some extreme weather as you are in the mountains.

You can see more of my photographs of Canada here – http://edward-fielding.pixels.com/art/canada