The historic Kicking Horse Pass between Banff and Yoho is one of the most important passes in the Canadian Rockies. It was discovered in 1858 by the Palliser Expedition, who were tasked with discovering a possible route across the Rockies for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The first steam trains finally steamed across the pass in 1885, but the steep gradient was an enormous technical challenge: the very first train to attempt the new railway careered out of control, killing three workers, and wrecks and runaways continued to plague the railway during its first years of operation. To cut down on accidents, an ingenious system of underground passages known as the Spiral Tunnels was subsequently devised by one of the CPR’s assistant chief engineers, JE Schwitzer, modeled on designs he had seen pioneered in the Swiss Alps. Snaking beneath the roots of Mt Ogden and Cathedral Mountain, the tunnels allowed trains to tackle the extreme gradient in stages rather than in one nightmare plunge, and drastically improved the railway’s safety and reliability after they were opened in 1909. They are still in use to this day.
The main viewing platform (the Upper Lookout) is off Hwy 1, 8km (5 miles) east of Field. If you time it right, you can see a train exiting from the top of the tunnel while its final cars are still entering at the bottom.
