Kicking Horse Pass (el. 1627 m, 5339 ft) is a high mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border, and lying within Yoho and Banff National Parks. A National Historic Site of Canada, the pass is of historical significance because the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway was constructed between Lake Louise, Alberta and Field, British Columbia using this route in 1880s, in preference to the originally planned route through the more northerly Yellowhead Pass.
The pass was first explored by Europeans in 1858 by the Palliser Expedition led by Captain John Palliser. The pass and the adjacent Kicking Horse River were given their names after James Hector, a naturalist, geologist, and surgeon who was a member of the expedition, was kicked by his horse while exploring the region.
The original route of the CPR between the summit of the pass near Wapta Lake and Field was known as "The Big Hill"; with a ruling gradient of 4.5 percent (1 in 23), it was the steepest stretch of main-line railroad in North America.
Due to frequent accidents and expensive helper engines associated with railroading in the pass, the CPR opened a pair of Spiral Tunnels in 1909 that replaced the direct route. Although these tunnels add several kilometres to the route, the ruling grade was reduced to a more manageable 2.2 percent (1 in 46).
The Trans-Canada Highway was constructed through the pass in 1962 following essentially the original CPR route. It reaches its highest point at the Kicking Horse Pass with an elevation of 1,643 metres (5,390 ft).
Divide Creek, a creek that forks onto both sides of the Continental Divide, is located at Kicking Horse Pass.
It was made famous by Dave Broadfoot in the CBC Television series Royal Canadian Air Farce. Broadfoot played The Honourable Member for Kicking Horse Pass in the satirical series, and in his personal standup routines.
Famous quotes containing the words kicking, horse and/or pass:
“I hate the actor and audience business. An author should be in among the crowd, kicking their shins or cheering them on to some mischief or merriment.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The hardiest skeptic who has seen a horse broken, a pointer trained, or has visited a menagerie or the exhibition of the Industrious Fleas, will not deny the validity of education. “A boy,” says Plato, “is the most vicious of all beasts;” and in the same spirit the old English poet Gascoigne says, “A boy is better unborn than untaught.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance—but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)