Fairmont Japer Park Lodge is the historic Hotel in Jasper. It is between the summer an ski seasons, so you should be able to find some deals.

Alberta Motor Association usually has good deals for the mountain hotels.

http://www.ama.ab.ca/cps/rde/xchg/SI...n-Getaways.htm

One thing you may take note of, the 2nd Monday of October is our Thanksgiving so that may affect your travel some.

The trip is shaping up nicely. The Alaska ferry and the Skeena portions are set.

Is there is a map that shows typical dates for fall foliage in the Canadian Rockies? We will be traveling between Juneau and Calgary the end of September. With that range from north to south, I'm hoping at some point we get to see good color.

Answering my own question about fall foliage, the VIA train rep told me that fall color isn't particularly good in western Canada. Brilliant colors can be found in eastern Canada. Rather, he warned me of snow (flurries, at least) in late September.

That's only increased likelihood due to the relative proximity to winter. 7 years ago, my partner drove her cousins to the interior. They stopped for a picnic in Manning park - only about 100-120 miles inland from south coastal B.C., and had to get back in after 10 minutes before it was too cold. And it snowed in the southern Alberta rockies too that weekend. And all this over the Canada Day weekend (i.e., 1 July). The fireworks had to be watched indoors too.

I'm back, and appreciate the help everyone gave me. I'll post my itinerary, just in case anyone else considers a similar trip.

• Day 1: Fly San Diego -Juneau on AS; visit Juneau by car
• Days 2 & 3: Ferry, Juneau - Prince Jasper. Stayed in Crest Hotel, Prince Rupert, which has an excellent restaurant overlooking the water. Dungeness crab was superb.
• Day 4: Skeena, Prince Rupert to Prince George. Stayed at brand new Four Points Prince George which is about a $10 cab ride from train station. Ramada is about 2 blocks from train station, and a walking distance option.
• Day 5: Skeena, Prince George to Jasper
• Day 5: Drive, Jasper to Calgary via Icefields Parkway, Lake Louise and Banff
• Day 6: Fly Calgary to San Diego on UA

The weather was marginal, but we had a great time regardless. It turns out that September and October are the rainy season, and we certainly had rain. We had one sunny day while on the train. We also drove thru some snow while on the Icefields Parkway. The aspens were at their peak color wise, a bright yellow.

Every area we passed thru was spectacularly beautiful, whether coming down the inland passage from Alaska, the train thru the Rockies, or our drive thru the Rockies. We booked Totem Deluxe on the Skeena, and had just 8 of us in a car that seated 68. The windows of the car arched up to the center of the ceiling, where there was about a 1 foot wide metal strip where they met. This allowed unobstructed views.

We had a strange thing happen re the Skeena. Our trip from Prince Rupert to Smithers was uneventful. We were to have a half hour break there, while the engineers switched due to the long travel day. After an hour, our conductors told us that there were no engineers available to drive the train onward. Apparently the engineers who were scheduled did not show up. The engineers who had brought us this far wanted overtime pay to take us onward, and CN refused to pay.

Eventually, everyone who was on the train, whether in Comfort Class (at 1/10 our fare) or Totem Class were squashed onto a bus to be driven to Prince George. CN has offered nothing to the Totem passengers for the downgrade. Giving this some perspective, it's like an international first class passenger being downgraded to coach.

I highly recommend this trip. Once I'd figured out the jigsaw pieces to snap together, it was quite easy to organize and to travel independently.

Sounds like you did have a nice trip. It is nice to be able to get teh different view from the tracks

I believe should should get some sort of credit from Via. At least according to their website

"Trains replaced by buses
In exceptional circumstances (e.g., when track works cause a section of track to be taken out of service), buses may be used to ensure connections between one or more of our stations. For the portion of the trip made by bus, we will grant you a travel credit equal to 50% of the rate (taxes not included) you would have paid to travel the same distance by train. In Sleeper class, the travel credit is equal to half the price you would have paid in Comfort class (Economy).

Only the segment of your trip travelled by bus will be considered.

As an example, if you are travelling from Montr�al to Qu�bec City and must complete the Saint-Hyacinthe/Montr�al leg of your trip by bus, you may obtain a credit equal to 50% of the amount you would have paid (taxes not included) for a journey between Saint-Hyacinthe and Montr�al."


http://www.viarail.ca/planner/en_plan_aide_reta.html

If you don't have a use for the credit, perhaps a trade could be worked out.

Thank you very much. It's helpful to know that's their opening offer.

I have had resolution with Via Rail over the portion of our trip served by bus instead of train. They were very generous, well beyond what I anticipated. We received about 40% of the fare back to the credit card, plus getting about a 15% credit voucher.

Good stuff. You deserve something for the downgrade on that service