North to Alaska 2009

Sat, Oct 3: On the road to Durango, Colorado

2009-10-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

We have a leisurely start this morning after our long day yesterday. Dick works on the ATW book volume three and Carolyn uploads the last three days of the Alaska blog. The rig was too far from the router in Bryce to work.

We are on the road by 10AM and head to Montrose.Seeing a Subway and since it is almost lunch time, we stop for two sandwiches to go. Between Montrose and Ouray, we find a turn out along a fast moving stream and have our picnic.

The next point of interest is Ouray, an old mining town popular with wealthy tourist in the late 1800's. It is now a quaint little tourist town. There are the ruins of many old mining operations along the road heading up Red Mountain Pass.

After 13 miles of switch backs, dizzying drop offs on Carolyn’s side, pretty fall colorsand about 25mph we reach the top...11,018 feet! We drop a little and drive through a narrow valleyfor a short way and then climb again for Molas Pass at 10,899 feet. We repeat this dropping and climbing one more time for Coal Bank Pass at 10,640 feet.

Then we drop down to Silverton. This was also a big mining area back in the late 1800'sand is now a popular tourist town.There is skiing here in the winter, but it is probably most famous for the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. This is a spectacular train ride with a coal burning engine though the mountains. They offer two round trips a day during the season. Dick and his brother rode the train as kids in 1960 and thought it was great.

From here we head down the pass to Durango, our stop for the night with a paltry 160 miles under our belt. For the first time ever, we have trouble renting a site and wind up leaving because the manager won’t rent us a good site. It is 4PM, the camp ground is virtually empty and she will only give us a back in site way in the back with, probably, no internet. We can see no less than a dozen empty pull through sites near the office and even the chart in front of her, showing the sites that are reserved, has empty pull throughs close in. Her excuse is she has a big group coming tomorrow afternoon. Oh well, there is another campground about two miles down the road and we find a nice big pull through site there with a good free internet connection.Dick gets things set up and we sit outside and enjoy cocktails. The campground is right beside the narrow gauge track so we watch the two trains, full of happy, tired looking passengers, head to the Durango station with ehe engines billowing black coal smoke. Fortunately, the breeze carries the smoke away from the campground. Dick checks the GPS and finds that we are just under a 1000 miles from home any way we go so we work on a route and cook the last of our Alaskan salmon for dinner.

Friday, Oct. 2: On the road to Grand Junction, Colorado

2009-10-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

It is 21 degrees and sunny this morning. We are up and in the park at Sunrise Point by 7:45AM. Actual sunrise was at 7:28AM. There aren’t too many people out. We walk along the rim and get some nice pictures. We then stop at the Visitors Center and watch the movie, get a stamp for the book and get a pin for Jack. We see some mule deer on the way back to the rig. Dick gets the rig and car hooked up and we are on the road by 9:30AM. We head east on Hwy 12, one of Utah’s scenic byways. We again field of ice where the farmers have watered to help protect the crops from the freezing temperatures. It passes by several State Parks and goes through Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. It is a very dramatic drive as we wind through canyons and up and over ridge lines in all shades of cream, brown and red with a touch of bright green and yellow in the trees along the few streams. We really like this drive. At one point, high above the Escalante River, we are driving on the top of the ridge on a two lane road (Devil’s backbone),there is no shoulder and it is straight down a 1000 feet to the river on one sideand to Calf Creek on the other.This section of the road was not paved until the 1985.

We can see a line of mountains in the distance and sure enough the land changes from the arid canyon land to high mountains with stands of aspen and spruce.

We cross over the 9,000 plus foot summit and have a grand view toward Capitol Reef National Park.
We get to Capitol Reef, a rugged red line of high cliffs, massive domes, soaring spires, stark monoliths, twisting canyons and graceful arches that were a huge barrier to the early westward movement. We turn northeast. It is a great drive through the park. The formations are grand. We were here in 2003, so we don’t spend too much time, just took a few pictures.

Finally about 5PM we get to I-70 and head straight to Grand Junction, Colorado. We get to the camp ground about 7PM. It has been a long day, but the drive was pretty. The good thing is we now have a short day for tomorrow, about 100 miles as we drive over Red Mountain Pass to Silverton and Durango, CO.

Thurs, Oct 1: Bryce Canyon National Park

2009-10-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

It is 21 degrees when we wake up...Brrrrr. It is a bright sunny day with a bluebird sky. Even so, it does not get to 32 degrees until about 10AM.

Around mid-morning we head back to Hwy 89 and then south to Hwy 9, the highway that goes through Zion National Park. It takes about 90 minutes to get to the east park gate.

There are limitations on the size of rig that can enter the park. There is a spiral tunnel that is only 13 feet at the center and slopes down to 11feet. So if a rig is over 11 feet they have to pay an extra fee and then traffic is stopped so the rig can go through, exactly in the middle...fun! When we get to the tunnel traffic is backed up both ways because of the rigs needing to have the road one way. Coming out later in the afternoon there are no rigs needing to use the tunnel so we breeze right through.

It is a beautiful drive to the tunnel.We are basically high on the plateau looking both up and down at formations caused by erosion.Once through the tunnel we drop quickly on a snake of a road to the canyon floor. It is a pretty spectacular descent! It is very crowded today, we have to go out the south gate and park on Hwy 9 walk back to get to the Visitors Center.

When we were here 28 years ago, we drove our motor home into the actual canyon on the scenic Zion Canyon Road, but that road has been closed to private cars since 2000 due to the traffic jams; especially in the summer. We have to ride in on the park shuttle bus. The bus is free and runs very often so it is not a bad deal. The scenic Zion Canyon Road follows the Virgin River up the canyon until the canyon becomes too narrow for a road. The bus makes seven stops and takes about 45 minutes to get to the last stop, Temple of Sinawava.

We hop on a waiting bus and ride to the end. At this point we are in a big bowl shaped area with the river winding though it. We get off the bus and walk the trail a short distance. This trail leads to the narrows after about a mile and a half, where you have to actually walk in the river to go farther.

We are not prepared to hike, so we turn back and walk down by the river until we get back to the bus stop and board the waiting bus. On the way in, we decided to get off at stops for the Big Bend, the Lodge and the Court of the Patriarchs on the way out. The Big Bend has a nice view of tall walls of the canyon and is the starting point for a climb to the top. They say that it is some view from there!

Big Bend is a bend in the river with very nice canyon walls.We can see people walking on the trails at the top of the canyon.

We stop at the Lodge just to get some information.

This is a great park and there is really a lot to do. We think we will come back next October, stay in the lodge and do a few of the easier hikes.

The Court of the Patriarchs is very pretty too. It is our last stop. There is a short walk up to a viewing platform for a nice look at four peaks Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Mount Moroni.I guess we spend about three pleasant hours in the parkplus the drive down and back to Bryce. We get back to Bryce about 5PM and head to Sunset Point. This is a great view. There are hundreds of Hoodoos in somewhat of a semi circular canyon. With the sun so low in the sky, they glow like they are on fire!If you look at the Hoodoos closely you can imagine castles, temples and all sorts of things. The big picture looks like an amphitheater full of people.We still want to see the Visitors Center’s movie and Sunrise Point, but will do that in the morning before we leave. We go back to the rig and fix Mexican food for tonight plus fix some main dishes to heat up for meals as we travel the last stretch to Texas.

Wed, Sept 30: On the road to Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.

2009-10-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

It started raining late last night and the wind rocked the rig all night. This morning it is still raining when Carolyn wakes at 9AM, but the wind has died down. We have a light breakfast and stop by the office to pay. The office was locked up tight last night and Dick could not find anything that told him how to register and get the gate open. Two people went in and out while we were debating what to do. At all the other places we have stayed, the directions were to pick a site and pay in the morning. Since it was already almost 9PM, we were tired and the gates stayed open a long time, we just drove in and found a nice site. The night watchman came over and was a bit upset we just drove in without calling first to make arrangements...well now we know why...Dick found a call number as he goes in the office to pay. It was well hidden and we were tired!

We are heading south on I-15 by 10AM and it is still raining. Through the clouds, we see the mountains are covered in snow almost down to the valley.

Within an hour, we are out of the rain and the sun is out. The mountains around us are covered in a layer of light snow and there are travel advisories for the areas north and east of Salt lake City. We are glad that we made it a long day yesterday and are not driving the rig in the snow today!

We find a subway in the middle of nowhere and stop for sandwiches that we eat while enjoying the view. A little later we turn off I-15 onto Hwy 20

and head over to Hwy 12.

We are getting into the land of colorful bluffs now. We stop for some pictures at Red Canyon and then drive on to Bryce Canyon National Park.

We find a nice camp site at Rudy’s Inn just outside the Bryce park entrance, get the rig set up for two days and head for the park. At 5PM we are at the Visitors’ Center which is open to 8PM! We get a map and some information on Bryce and other parks in the area. Then we head up the 18 mile road to see the park.

We stop at Paria Point, Bryce Point, Farview Point,Natural Bridge and Rainbow point. At Rainbow point we have climbed to 9,105 feet and it is cold! The sun is almost too low for good pictures as we head back, but we stop one more time for Black Birch Canyon.Bryce Canyon is beautiful. The formations are interesting and very colorful. We will come back tomorrow to see some more. On the way back to the rig we see mule deer, a pronghorn antelope and a grouse.

Dick cooks a steak and after dinner he goes for a walk. It is clear and calm with a three quarter moon and 34 degrees. It is going to be cold tonight!

Tues, Sept 29: On the road to Salt Lake City, Utah

2009-09-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

It is not as cold this morning and there seems to be less smoke. We are moving early. It is 8AM and we head toward the Yellowstone’s West gate. The idea is to see some more wildlife, sun rise was at 7AM, but in reality we would like to be in Bryce Canyon National Park tomorrow night and that is 600 miles away. Plus we want to spend a little time in Grand Teton National Park.

Well, there are not many animals to see. The eagle is still high up in the tree and there are three elk near the same place we saw the nice group yesterday, but they are too far away.

We do see another bison, but it also is too far to photograph. The light is right to get some neat shots of what the Indians called the "Valley of 10,000 Smokes."This is the area of thermal activity near Old Faithful.We can definitely see how they came up with that name!Near the South gate we stop for Lewis Falls. It is in a really pretty setting.After we leave the Park we hit 7 miles of big time road construction and are held up for some time. They are completely redoing the whole road and we have to wait for a pilot car then weave around all the heavy equipment.

Finally we get a good view of the Grand Tetons across Jackson Lake. We stop at the Colter Bay Teton Visitors Center for a map and information. We are so long we can’t always pull in to the overlooks. The Ranger gives us a map and shows the places where we won’t have a problem stopping. Dick would be really "upset" if he pulled in somewhere and had to unhook to get out! Carolyn shops for children’s books again. At the Visitors Center we learn that there are three fires in the park or right on the park border. That explains the haze. To bad because it is an almost cloudless day. We see several staging points for the people fighting the fires. The general policy on fire now is to let the natural ones burn out and to try to put the man made one out. One of the current fires was started by hunters.

On to Jenny Lake which is our favorite viewpoint. The wind is picking up and has cleared most of the haze.
We head on out of the parkand to Jackson where we stop for Subway sandwiches for lunch. From here we head mostly south and a little west to the southeast corner of Idaho. We have been this way before, but don’t remember the winding, up and over road as it goes from one high river valley to another.It is a beautiful drive! We are in beautiful fall colors of aspen, birchand red maple.We leeave this pretty canyon and drop down into a more baren area.Then we are out into a open, broad valley of little towns and wheat fields. We stop at the little town of Paris, Wyoming to look at the Paris Tabernacle built in 1888and stretch our legs. It was designed by a son of Brigham Young and is very handsome. It is 5pm and there is not a soul in town; not even a car driving through!

We cross into Idaho a little later and drive along the west shore of Bear Lake. It is a big lake and must be very popular. There are many vacation homes and recreation sites along the shore.We climb up and over another set of mountains and again are heading down a beautiful canyon full of fall color.We finally get to Salt Lake City a little after 8PM, an hour after sunset. We are running ahead of the first big winter storm of the season that is expected to drop as much as a foot of snow in the higher elevations which is the main reason we drove this late. We wanted to out of the mountains before the storm goes through. The wind has been blowing hard all afternoon and is suppose to have gusts up to 60 and 70mph overnight.

We find a camp ground and after some confusion get set up and fix a light supper. By the time we get in bed the wind is blowing so hard it is shaking the rig big time.

Mon, Sept 28: Yellowstone National Park

2009-09-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

It got down to 19 degrees last at the rig. Our propane furnace kept us nice and warm though. It is another beautiful morning. Dick went to the office to pay for last night and tonight and found out the park road from West Thumb is closed due to a fire. That has really messed up our plans! We had planned to drive the big circle but that is now out because the road from Madison to Norris is also closed for construction. All we can do is the is the section from Madison to the South Entrance...all of which we will also drive tomorrow. So, we spend the rest of the morning answering email etc.

About noon, Carolyn puts together a picnic lunch, some of the cheese we bought in Canada, crackers and a few other things and we head into the park. Since 9AM, when Dick went to the office, the sun has been covered with a smokey haze! We drive into the park anyway, but the smoke really gets bad by the time we get to Madison and we almost turn around. Fortunately we don’t and head on toward Old Faithful.

The first thing we see are many empty cars and the owners standing in the river fishing.

We take a side trip through Firehole Canyonand see Firehole Fallsand a neat swimming hole above the falls.A young boy and his dad were swimming! Then we pull off on an overlook for the Lower Geyser Basin and have our lunch.The wind has picked up and is clearing the smoke out.

After lunch, we turn off for Firehole Lake. Here we stop to look at one of the many bubbling pools of hot water. There are several geysers on the road that are smoking,but none are going off. We then head to Old Faithful and the Visitors Center. The Park Service is really in the building mood. A lot of changes have been made since we were here in 2003. There is a temporary Visitors Center and a huge building right in front of Old Faithful that will be the new Visitors Center that will open in August 2010. At the Visitors Center, we find out that the brown trout are running which explains all the fishing, that there are actually four fires burning in the park and that Old Faithful will go off in about 45 minutes. We kill some time by heading up to Kepler Cascadesand then come back and wait for Old Faithful. Right on time she goes off with a nice display (the puff of white just to the right of the water plume and just above the tree line is the smoke from the fire near West Thumb). We then go over to the Old Faithful Innfor a couple of pictures of the six story timber lobby.

and wind up buying some really well done photographs from a guy selling pictures he shot in the park.

It is now a little after 4PM and the sun is low in the sky. We drive back the way we came and turn off on the Firehole Lake road again to see if anything is happening. We find several of the little geysers are going off,but we missed the Great Fountain Geyser.Back on the main road, the fishing continuesand it is prime time to see wildlife. Sure enough we do. There are several traffic jams! First we drive by an elk cow and calf grazing along Firehole River.Then we see a bison.The best is a bull elk watching over his haremas they graze along side or wade in the river.One calf is even nursing while he and his mother are wading. There is also a grey wolf near the edge of the river checking out the herd and catching rodents (the elk is looking right at the wolf; he is the dark spot to the left of the dead trees on the right).The last jam is for a Bald Eagle. He is close to the road, but is up in a tree with too many branches for a good picture.

We get back to the rig and cook up the rest of the corn and the beans we bought just after we crossed the border and grill the trout. It turned out to be a nice day even with all the closed roads.

Sun, Sept 27: On the road to West Yellowston, MT

2009-09-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

We spent a restful night in Bozeman, MT and did not smell the smoke from the fires to the west during the night nor when we awoke this morning. The sky is clear and it is cool but not cold. We spend the morning working on the blog and the rig. We are planning to meet some friends at their home in Big Sky, MT. Dick and Trish worked together for seven years and she and her husband built a retirement home in Big Sky.

We stop at an Appleby's for lunch and then head south on Hwy 191 toward Big Sky.Right on time we meet our friends and drive to their home where we spend two plus hours visiting and admiring their collection of western art.

About 4PM we bid them goodbye and drive the 50 or so miles through the high valleydown to West Yellowstone, MT. There are cars in many of the pull offs. Men are having a great Sunday afternoon fishing.

At West Yellowstne we get a nice campsite at Grizzly RV Park right in town. This is one of the nicest parks we have seen. There is a freeze warning for tonight (26F) and we are cautioned to disconnect the water hose from the faucet and the rig before retiring.

After some discussion, we decide that we will stay here tomorrow night also and drive the Explorer into Yellowstone instead of trying to find a campsite in the park. We take a walk and admire the shiny rigs parked around us. They sure make our dirty one look sad but those have not traveled as far over muddy roads as ours has. I think both of us are toying with the idea of upgrading our rig in size and we have already talked about going to the RV show in January.

Sat, Sept 26: On the road trying to get out of the smoke!

2009-09-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

It is so nice to wake up to blue skies!There is a little flea market setting up as we leave the campground so we wander through itthen hit the road. We are still following the Lewis and Clark trail and are also in the Nez Perce heartland. Their history is very interesting and sad. History seems to indicate they were mostly a friendly nation, but were caught up in the rush for gold and land from the 1850's to the 1880's.

We stop at the Nez Perce National Park Heart of the Monster siteand listen to the story of the beginning of the people. It is an interesting story and the rock does look like the heart of a monster. For the next 100 or so miles we follow the Lochsa Riverthrough a wildness area. It is a pretty drive with several trailheads going off into the mountains, some with foot bridgesacross the riverAfter we cross the Lolo Pass and head into Montana we turn south on Hwy 93. Here we encounter a raging forest fire to our west.It had been a little hazy earlier in the Lochsa River canyon, so we guess this is the cause. Though today the wind is blowing hard toward the east and pushing the smoke and fire toward Montana. Once in Montana we head down to the Idaho border. Near the border, we cross over the Lost Trail Pass and turn east. Our goal is the Big Hole National Battlefield(Smoke from the earlier fire can be seen at the top of the picture) also part of the Nez Perce National Park. This is where in 1877 the non-treaty Nez Perce tribes fought the army to a stand-still and escaped after capturing a canon and losing some 90 of their people. Later, some of the Nez Perce were sent to Oklahoma for some 20 years. Ultimately, the tribe was reunited on much reduced reservation lands in Idaho.

At the battlefield visitors center, we can see yet another fire raging to the east.The rangers say one fire started on August 13 and the other just last week. They are being allowed to burn, but hopefully there will be rain and snow by Tuesday that will help control the fire.

We are planning to spend the night in Andaconda and then drop down into West Yellowstone tomorrow about 150 miles away. Leaving the visitors center we head north between the two fires. It is nearly 5PM and about 60 miles back up to our stopping spot. However, the smoke just gets thicker and thicker. It makes for some interesting pictures (first two pictures looking west third picture looking east),but we have no desire to camp in it. Instead of turning turn off for Andaconda, we go on up to I-90, a smokey sunset on I-90 near Butte,and head east till we leave most of the smoke behind us. We wind up stopping at 8PM in Bozeman about 100 miles down I-90.

It has been a long day and we are a little road weary so we watch the Stepford Wives while we fix dinner.

Fri, Sept 25: On the road to Kamiah, Idaho

2009-09-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

It is another pretty morning. We get up and have a leisurely breakfast talking over what we want to do today.As we look at the map and read about the scenic drives, we realize that it would be better to drive on today on the roads we want to travel as there is no real loop to do with out a lot of back tracking.

So Dick goes to the office for a refund of the second nights fee. Back at the rig Carolyn gets breakfast cleaned up and things stored away while Dick gets us hooked up and read to go.
About 11AM we head down the Coeur d’Alene Lake Scenic Byway, Hwy 95.

The lake is 32 miles long and formed by glacier activity.It is a beautiful lake with many nice homes right on the water. There are also many for sale!
All most at the south end of the lake,we leave Hwy 95 and pick up Hwy 3 which is White Pine Scenic Byway. This takes us through the high valley of the Joe and Marie Rivers then into an dense, old fir/pine forest.

After a while we get back on Hwy 95 heading due south to Lewistown at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers.For a while we drive through golden steep rolling hillscovered in what is left of the wheat harvest.It is pretty countryside. Then at Lewistown we descend on a very steep road...with lots of trucker warnings at the top and four run away truck ramps on the way down!There is a great overlook just before we start down. We stop there, have lunch and enjoy the view. We can see the tail end of the Snake River Hell’s Canyon it is such a clear day.At Lewistown we pick up Hwy 12 which is the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway. It follows the Lewis and Clark trail along the Clearwater River.We make a stop at the Nez Perce National Park Visitors Center and learn a little about the Nez Perce Indians. There is a very nice museum at the Visitor’s Center with lots of items that were used in everyday life. The beaded items are especially nice.

We drive on the edge of their reservation for the rest of the afternoon along the Clearwater River. The park service has some maps and other information on the area. The park is quiet big with several points of interest in northern Idaho and western Montana.

We drive on, following the scenic byway to Kemiak. It is a very nice drive. The river is beautiful in the late afternoon sun.

There are many people wade fishing in the river. We find a nice little campground on the river at Kamiah.We love to camp where we can set out and enjoy the waterand a pretty sunset.We grill some of the corn we bought in Washington and have a simple dinner of vegetables.

Thurs, Seot 24: On the road to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

2009-09-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

We sleep well again. It is another pretty day and we are up and on the road by 9:30AM. Today, 48 days after we left the "lower 48", we cross the border again just south of Osoyoos, BC.
The drive to the border is scenic

as we follow several lakes and pass though the nice village of Oliver where we stop at a neat little shop with lots of local crafts. The highway goes though a green valley surrounded by more arid mountains. This is a major fruit and wine region and is definitely worth a return visit sometime!

At the border, we have a short wait behind about 6 cars and there are two lines working. We show our passports and are asked the standard questions to which we give the appropriate answers. Then we are directed to a area ahead of us to have our rig and tow strip searched. The lady doing the search asked about fresh foods we bought in Canada that we still have. We have lettuce and tomatoes which we mention plus some green onions we forgot about. Well, in the rig, she confiscates a rather sorry lemon and a piece of lime we have had since we left the US 6 weeks ago and then takes offence at the few green onions we have in the ice chest in the car. She then pokes around in the car some more and asks a few more questions and lets us go. Glad that is now over with! We stop at a fruit stand a few miles down the road as we are still in the pretty green valley of vines and fruit trees. We buy some corn, green beans and fruit and strike up a conversation about the border crossing. Apparently this is a common occurrence. The farmer’s wife tells us there is a moth that gets in green onions the agents are trying to keep out. We all have a good laugh about the bugs knowing they are not suppose to cross that line in the dirt that is the border! Hmmm. She says it is good for her business though!

Soon we leave the green of the valley and head into the arid hills. We soon pick up the Columbia River

just below the Grand Coulee Dam. We make a stop at the Dam and head on down the road to Spokane and finally to Coeur d’Alene where we stop for the night as the country side changes to golden fields of harvested grains and pretty old farmsteads. The campground is on an island in Coeur d’Alene Lake. It is grassy and spread out. We get a good site next to the lake. That is good as we want to spend two nights here to explore a little.

Dick heads to the store to replace the food we need and Carolyn starts to read about what there is to do and see in Coeur d'Alene.

Wed, Sept 23: Penticton, British Columbia

2009-09-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

After sitting on the shore listening to the water sounds and a good steak dinner last evening, we both died by 9PM..it is getting dark much earlier now, around 8PM. We are both awake. refreshed and ready to start the day by 8AM.After breakfast, we do a little email ,etc., and then drive to the Visitors Center for information on the wineries.The center is great. The lady gives us several maps and takes time to talk to us about our interests and then marks a route on the map along with places to stop that she thinks we will enjoy. There are maybe 60 wineries with in an hours drive of Penticton, most all of then are in the hills on the east side of the two lakes. The lady at the visitor’s Center suggests that we concentrate on the Naramata Bench area. She gives us a great little map and circles four or five things to be sure and visit. We leave with a bag of maps and information booklets and head for Naramata.

We stop at two wineries, but both have a charge for the tasting even though the visitors center’s information says they are free. We used all our Canadian dollars at the store yesterday when we thought we were heading to the border. So we move on. The next winery, Poplar Grove, on the list also produces cheese and their tastings are free. We try four wines and all the cheeses. We buy two white wines and their award winning Merlot and three of the cheeses! The views from the wineries are great. They are on a bluff overlooking the lake with the vines running down the hill toward the lake.It is a little after 12:00PM and we are hungry now so the next stop is a winery that has a Bistro, Hillside Cellars. The menu is interesting so we sit down and order. Dick has a Greek wrap and Carolyn has a pizza with grilled local pears, caramelized onions, pine nuts and blue cheese made at the other winery. We try a glass each of two white wines. The meal is wonderful. In fact the pizza is so good ,with the blue cheese, that we go back to the other winery and buy a full wheel of it. The owner tells us it freezes beautifully.

Well fed, we head to the little town of Naramata. There is a resort hotel, Naramata Heritage Inn, built in the Cape style of Cape Town,that was built in 1908 and a nice little park down on the water.Believe it or not, there is small stream in the park that flows into the lakeand there are salmon running!We are really a long way from the ocean! There is also a bike trail on an old railroad bed above the wineries that would be fun to ride. The view of the lakes must be grand. There are tons of apple trees with the apple boxes sitting around waiting to be filled!This area reminds us of Clare Valley in Australia in some ways. It is a great place to visit for a few days!

We head back to the campground stopping at the grocery store for some rainbow trout to fix with one of the bottles of white. Then go back to the campgrounds. It has been a pleasant day, warm and sunny; glad we found the place. It is a well kept secret. We spend the rest of the afternoon sitting beside the lake watching the world go by. Dick cranks up the grill and cooks up some things to have over the next few days and we enjoy the bottle of merlot with a grilled hamburger. We are not too hungry after our good lunch and good wine. We will sleep well!

Tues, Sept 22: On the road, working our way to the US border.

2009-09-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

Glory be, it is a beautiful morning! The sky is clear and blue!We are rolling by 9AM. Again we didn’t have to unhook last night. We continue down Hwy 97 past several roadhouses the sprang up in the 1860's to service the travelers on the original wagon road. We see another black bear having a drink at one of the many small lakes along the road, but there is no way to stop for a picture. There is road construction off and on today. The road is being made into a four lane highway. The truck traffic is heavy again.

At Cache Creek we leave Hwy 97 and pick up the TransCanadian for a few miles heading south still. The landscape is changing; it is drying out very fast.There are orchards on the hill sides and along the river beds now. We stop at one of the road side stands and buy some fresh tomatoes. Since we will cross the border soon we can’t buy apples or peaches.

Unfortunately, at Spences Bridge, we leave the good TransCanadian and turn onto Hwy 8 heading southeast. It is very scenic,but very narrow and crooked. It follows a small river through a canyon like area. After an hour, we change highways again and are now on the beautiful four lane divided Hwy 97C. The landscape changes once again too and we are in forested mountains. In fact, the road climbs for half its distance then decends at a rapid rate for the other half.

We get to Kelowna about 2:30PM. It has the first really nice shopping we have seen since Anchorage. So we stop at a grocery store and spend the last of our Canadian cash. At Spences Bridge, we leave the good TransCanadian.

We now turn South onto Hwy 97. We are now maybe 60-70 miles from the border. This is a nice drive. We are driving down the western shore of Okanagan Lake.

This a wine producing region and reminds us a little of Italy. We follow this lake for about 20 miles. Just south of Penticton we see a really nice campground on the shores of Skaha Lake.It is almost 4PM so we decide to stop. We get a great site right on the lake shore.After relaxing about an hour on the edge of the lake, we decide to stay another night enjoy the lakeand check out the wines of the area. We can see the vineyards on the hillsides across the lake and noticed a wine center as we came through town.

Dick grills a steak and we have a relaxing evening after three days of driving and 1000 miles.

Mon, Sept 21: On the road to Barkerville, British Columbia.

2009-09-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

The weather is not co-operating very well these last few days. It is misting again this morning. We don’t rush because we aren’t planning to drive too far today. We turned onto Hwy 97 just before we stopped yesterday so it is just about 150 miles to Barkerville where we are stopping today. We get to Barkerville about noon. It is not raining, but looks like it could at any minute.

Barkerville is a gold mining town dating back to the late 1850's Canadian gold rush. It has been painstakingly restored to the way it looked in the 1870's. No one lives in the town now, the last citizen died in 1978, but it looks like people live there. The general store’s shelves are stocked with goods of that day. The drugist shop has shelves full of bottles of the medicines of the day.The church and the school houseare ready to begin the day.The homesand officesare furnished with actual period pieces and of course there are people dressed in period dressdoing chores that would have been done then. During British Columbia's gold rush many chinese were brough to work on roads to the gold fields and in the mines. Barkerville had a thriving Chinatown. There is a laundry complete with wash hanging to dryand a fully stocked herbalist shopalong with various homes and other shops.

We spend an interesting two hours walking around looking in all the buildings and visiting with the shopkeepers about the area. We have a nice bread bowl of soup and some rootbeer at one of the restaurants and then watch a movie on the town history. It starts raining as we finish the tour. Since it is still early in the afternoon we elect to drive on. We are tired of camping in the rain!

The highway follows the path of the original road built in the early 1860's to bring supplies to the various gold rush towns in interior British Columbia. There are some nice vistas of pretty lakes and rolling farm land, but the road is narrow and the traffic is very heavy with many heavily loaded logging trucks.

By 4PM we are ready to stop but pass several less then wonderful looking campgrounds. About 5:30 in Lac La Hache we see a nice, small, grassy campground fronting on a pretty lake and stop. It finally stopped raining about 75 miles back and the sun came out. We drove 290 miles today after all.

After setting up the rig,

we walk along the lake shore as the sun sets. Then Dick makes garlic spaghetti for dinner.

Sun, Sept 20: On the road to somewhere on the Yellowhead Highway.

2009-09-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

It is misting with low clouds this morning. Dick gets the rig and Explorer hooked up and Carolyn finishes posting to this blog. We are on the road about 9:45AM. We drive across the bridge just out of Stewart and have to stop, get out and walk back out on the bridge for a wonderful picture of the morning mist on the river. Then a few miles up the road we stop again for the morning version of Bear Glacier and a pretty misty mountain scene. All this puts Dick in a great mood...we have done 15 miles in 35 minutes. Ideally he wants to make it to Prince George 440 miles away!

Fortunately for Dick, after we get back to the Cassiar Highway, we turn on our latest book and head South. We don’t stop again until we get to the junction with the Yellowhead Highway around 1PM. The drive is still pretty, but we are leaving fall so the colors aren’t as striking.The road is good, the clouds lift and again there is no traffic so we make good time.

Once we turn East onto the Yellowhead Highway, the traffic really picks up along with congestion. We are back to civilization with houses and businesses along the highway. The countryside is changing too. We are leaving the mountains and getting into rolling hills with many farms.The road is still following various rivers and we see a lot of people wade fishing. We also pass several nice looking lakes. The best thing that happens is the sun comes out!

We stop for lunch at a rest area and get to Prince George about 7PM. It has been one of those long driving days that happen once in a while on a trip as long as this one. We stop at a KFC in town and get dinner to go. Then we turn South again onto Hwy 97 and find a Good Sam campground just out of town.

Sat, Sept 19: On the Cassiar Highway heading to Stewart, British Columbia, Canada

2009-09-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

It rained all night again, but this morning the clouds have lifted. It looks like it might clear off. We are moving by 9AM. It really makes a difference when we don’t unhook the night before. We left home two months ago today. We commented last night that to be a small rig and not rated for long trips, the rig is living very well even with the rain that comes with the Northwest.

The road is good today for the most part. There is one gravel section down to a river crossing and back up the other side. Again there is almost no traffic

and the scenery is really nice. We cross Gnat Pass today, the dividing line between the Arctic and Pacific drainage systems. I guess we are officially out of the Arctic country now. We drive through pretty river valleys between snow capped mountains most of the day. At one point we have a nice black bear sighting. He is beside the road eating berries so we stop and watch for a few minutes.We also stop at one of the two gas stations we see on this two hundred fifty mile plus day to top off the tank.About 2PM we reach our turn to the coast. It is about 40 miles down to Stewart, British Columbia and Hyder, Alaska on the coast at the head of the Portland Canal. Stewart and Hyder developed because of mining in the area in the early 1900's. The road is known as the Glacier Highway. It goes over Bear Pass and by Bear Glacier. Bear Glacier calves into a lake that is right beside the road. The are about 20 glaciers visible from the highway up in the mountains. It is another stunning drive. We see another black bear and a beautiful grey wolf on the road.
Once in Stewart, we get set up in the Bear River Campground. The campground doesn’t allow tent camping and soft sided campers due to an active bear threat. They also advise you not to get out of your motorhome after dark!

It is time now for us to pursue the main attractions in the area. We head across the border to Hyder, Alaska to do the self guiding auto tour to Salmon Glacier. Hyder is almost a ghost town now, but at one time it was an active mining town. The drive to Salmon Glacier, 20 miles away, mostly follows the Salmon River and passes by several old mines. The road also takes us back across into Canada, but there is no passport control at this crossing! The road is gravel and steep in places, but is worth the effort. It is late by the time we get to the toe of the glacier.We are just above it. The road runs on the mountainside right by the glacier. It actual goes on several miles farther to the summit of the glacier, but the clouds are settling down on us and we have no desire to drive in dense clouds/fog on the side of a glacier!
We head back down the mountains to Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing area. The Forest Service has built a viewing platform along the creek. Chum and pink salmon spawn in the creek from July to September. The salmon run attracts the grizzly and the black bear. We get out on the raised walkway just as a grizzly enters the creek from the other side. We spend 30 or 45 minutes watching her walk up and down the creek catching and eating several big salmon! It is really neat! We are so close to her, less than 10 feet as times!We are in the cage and she is free to do her thing. There is a ranger there, but all he has is a can of bear spray.

It is nearly dark, we are getting cold and hungry so we head back to the rig and have dinner and crash...it has been a fun, busy day.

Fri, Sept 18: On the road on the Cassiar Highway

2009-09-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

It is 31 degrees when we wake up this morning, but our propane furnace keeps the rig very comfortable. We stopped last night just short of the Cassiar Highway junction with the ALCAN. After a fast start, since we didn’t have to unhook last night, we make our big turn South toward home.

The Cassiar Highway, Highway 37, is a less traveled alternate to the ALCAN.

It is 450 miles of mostly chip seal and some gravel road running through the Yukon Territory and British Columbia connecting the ALCAN to the TransCanadian Highway (or the Yellowhead Highway).There are few towns and very limited services, so we have planned our stops for gas and camping accordingly.

It is a beautiful drive made even more so due to the weather the last two days. We hit construction for the first 20KM and are held up for a bit. We visit with the flag woman (these people are very talkative) and a German couple who are biking the route! That is really kind of nervy because the flag lady told us she had seen a black bear crossing the road just before we stopped.

Past the construction, the highway is narrow but good and has almost no traffic.

The scenery is stunning. Fall is in full color here. There are many beautiful lakes and pretty streams along the way. We stop at Boya Lake Provincial Park for lunch.It is a great campgroundwith most sites right on the edge of the lakeand we have the whole park to ourselves! Too bad it is so early in the day!

The day stays beautifuland the mountainand lake sceneryis fabulous. Our stop for tonight is a campground in Dease Lake,one of the two waysides on the highway. We top off the gas tank, get some milk and eggs at the small store (I couldn’t bring eggs into Canada) and park the rig by a little creek running through the camp site. Dick grills some of the salmon we bought in Haines and we have a pleasant evening.

Thurs, Sept 17: Skagway and...

2009-09-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

The alarm goes off way too early! It is pouring down rain, but fortunately Dick disconnected everything and readied the rig before we went to bed last night so we get up and leave with a minimum of effort.

Check in for the ferry goes smoothly and the rig is first in the RV line and the Explorer is third in the car line at 5:30AM. Carolyn will drive the Explorer onto the ferry and off again. We will use it to explore Skagway later.

While we wait, we crank up the generator and fix coffee, tea, some bacon and sweet rolls. At 6:00AM the agent comes around to check that we have turned off the propane; don’t want the ferry to blow up! They start the loading process at 6:45AM with a fifth wheel that spent the night at our RV park. The poor guy has to back the rig down the ramp and into the ferry...glad it isn’t us! The cars are loaded last and we are off on time at 7:15AM.

The ride is one hour. It is still raining but not as hard as before and the clouds have lifted a little so we can see some of the beautiful fjord, the longest in North America.Once in Skagway, we find a place to park the rig and set out to explore a bit in the car. Our first stop is a small café for a hot breakfast. We both order a full breakfast. It arrives with two huge pancakes, two link sausages and two fried eggs. We eat every bit!

Since we first came here in 1991, the National Park Service has restored six buildings from the Gold Rush days right next to the harbor. We have visited them before. There are displays and a nice film plus the Park Service does some walking tours. Today, all we want to do is get the stamps in our National Parks Passport. We bought this earlier in the trip when we realized just how many of the parks we would visit on this trip.

We have always been here on a ship, so since we have a car we drive around a little just looking at the town. Many of the downtown buildings are restored or built to the Gold Rush look, so the town is colorful even on this rainy day. The rain stops for the moment and we head out to the Gold Rush Cemetery. The Historical Society has posted a detailed history of all the known graves including the infamous Soapy Smith. We also pass the rail yard of the White Horse and Kukon narrow guage railroad. it is interesting with all the old railroad cars. Our plan was to spend the night in Skagway, and then leave tomorrow, but it is only 10:00AM and the forecast is for even more and heavier rain this afternoon and tomorrow. We are tired of rain and decide to move on after a little shopping. Most places have much the same stuff we have seen everywhere with one exception...a Christmas shop. Dick finds a big, beautiful, wilderness Santa. It is beautifully done and he points it out to Carolyn...big mistake...we now have a two foot Santa with snow shoes, suede duster, fur lined boots and gloves carrying a string of real fur pelts, including an Ermine, and a wreath riding in the back of the Explorer!

Driving up through the White Pass on the Klondike Highway across the canyon from the White Horse and Yukon Railroad is a great drive. This is the second time we have done it and both times there have been low clouds. It is still a neat drive. We can only imagine how wonderful it is on a clear day.During the Gold Rush days it was known as the Dead Horse Trail because so many horses and mules died carrying the miners and their supplies up the pass before the railroad was completed.

Surprisingly, when we get near the summit and the Canadian border crossing, the clouds lift and we get a bit of sun. It is really pretty. There are a series of lakes along the road for miles in the high alpine valley. The farther we drive the better the weather gets until we break out into blue skies and sunshine!At Jakes Corner we leave the Klondike Highway and take the Tagish Cut-off over to the ALCAN. It was rainy when we did this stretch coming up; in the sunshine it is a much nicer drive. We make very good time. There is no traffic and about 6:30PM we stop at the Nugget City, Baby Nugget Campground, 340 miles from Skagway. It is a huge campground, something like 100 sites, but they only have the 30amp sites open. That is fine for us and we park in a completely empty campground! Carolyn fixes some pasta and a salad and we enjoy a pretty sunset.

Wed, Sept16: Haines

2009-09-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

The sky is overcast and it definitely looks like rain.The forecast is for heavy rain most of the day. The only outing we have planned for today is for later this afternoon. The Silver Seas Shadow was in port yesterday, today we have one of the Holland America ships.
We have a lazy breakfast of leftover quiche. Dick does laundry since the campground has good water pressure and a nice laundry area and Carolyn cleans up the rig a little from our dusty ride the other day. It starts raining about 10AM and rains steadily most of the day.
Haines has a good internet system on which we can buy time, so we spend most of the day getting the second volume of the RTW book uploaded, the copy ordered and the Alaska blog up to date.

About 5PM there is a break in the rain so we head out to the Chilkoot River and Lake.

The salmon are running and the grizzlies come to the river late in the day to feed on them. When we drive upstream to the lake the shore is empty. We spend some time watching the salmon on the edge of the lake and a man fishing from a boat. He keeps hooking salmon, but each time he loses it just before it can be netted.

The clouds start to settle down on the lake and the showers begin so we leave the lake and drive back along the river. Much to our delight there is a bear jam

with everyone out on the edge of the river watching a grizzly catch and eat salmon! The bear is on the other side of the river, about 150 yards away. He gets his fill about the time it starts raining hard.

We head back to the rig to dry out and have dinner. We have to check in at the ferry terminal by 6AM.

Tues, Sept 15: On the road to Haines, Alaska

2009-09-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Carolyn was bitten by something yesterday that was looking really angry last night so she took some Benedryl and does not move until almost 9AM. The bite looks better this morning so we guess it will be OK. Of course, Dick has been up awhile, out walking and taking pictures around the campgrounds.As soon as we can stow everything, we are moving again. It does not take long since we had a pull through site last night.

By 10AM we are driving down the Haines Highway to Haines, 147 miles away. It is a beautiful morning with one of those blue bird skies.We are really lucky...this is an absolutely stunning drive. We are right on the Edge of the Kluane Provincial Park and it is one beautiful vista after another... glaciated mountains, alpine valleysand coastal forest.

We cross the Chilkat Pass at 3,510 feetand head down what once was a trading trail used by the Chilkat Indians, known as the "Grease Trail". They traded a grease made from fish along with shells and other coastal items for furs, meat and copper with the interior tribes. In the 1890's this trail was made famous by the miners trying the reach the gold fields of the Yukon. Carolyn thinks it is the prettiest drive of the whole trip!
We get to Haines about 1PM and head out to see about ferry reservations.The next ferry to Skagway is on Thursday, departing at 7:30AM, so we book passage and then head back to the Oceanside Campground, the only one still open. They have plenty of space and we get set up for two nights.

The owner is very nice and gives us pointers on the things to see. Our first stop is to find some fresh, wild salmon for dinner. That accomplished...three filets in the ice chest, we visit some of the artist galleries, Old Fort Seward

and drive out to Chilkat State Park on a point in the Lynn Channel.The tide is out and we see three bald eagles feeding on a sand bar, but without the long lens, our pictures aren’t worth much. Tomorrow we will be more prepared for animal sightings! Haines is known for its bear and eagle sightings. Maybe we will have some more luck with the right camera.

On the way back to the rig we stop and pick up a couple of potatoes for dinner. Home again, we enjoy watching the world go sitting by on the bank overlooking the canal

and grilling the salmon.

Life is good!

Mon, Sept 14: On the road to somewhere on the ALCAN Highway

2009-09-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

We get up early and are on the road by 8AM believe it or not! By tonight we want to get as close to Haines Junction, over 400 miles away in the Yukon Territory, as possible. The morning is beautiful with a blue, blue sky and lots of sunshine! It should be a pretty drive.
Since it is so clear and not a cloud in the sky,

we stop several times for pictures of the snow capped mountains of Wrangell-St Elias National Park,including turning into the park visitor center and walking the short trail to the view point.After about 40 miles, we stop again for gas in Glennallen before heading up the Tok Cut-off, settling in for a long drive. The first 90 miles or so of our road follow the western boundary of the national park and we get some nice views of Mt. Drum, Mt. Wrangelland Mt. Stanford from various angles.
About 50 miles north of Glennallen we climb through the Alaska Range until just south of Tok.This is another scenic drive with absolutely no traffic. At Tok we stop at a post office to mail a DVD to Rick, gas up again (this is a really remote area-gas stations are few and far between) and have some lunch. We also get the propane tank topped off. It was 29 degrees this morning! Our route home is through a less populated area than we have traveled in so far and the services will be fewer and the temperature colder. We are late enough in the season that we may even have to improvise and dry camp in rest areas...we will see how it goes.

From Tok we are back on the AlCAN, the same section we drove after we came down from Chicken several weeks ago. It is now about 50 miles to the Canadian border. We pass US Customs and see a sign that the Canadian Customs is about 20KM ahead. We now know why...the road is awful. We slow way down and ride the roller-coaster!We are driving on the east side of the Kluane Provincial Park that is connected to the Wrangell-St Elais National Park and makes up the World Heritage site. We follow the eastern boundary for the rest of the day, another 300KM. The scenery is wonderful,

but the road is awful. With exception of a brand new section around Kluane Lake,we are beaten to death. At least we are not fighting traffic...there is none!This is the infamous Destruction Bay area of the ALCAN Highway. It has been bad since 1943 and there isn’t anything that can be done apparently because it is built across permafrost that is right on the surface.

We make it to Haines Junction; 450 miles and 11 hours later.We did pass a couple of campgrounds, but they were closed for the season. In fact, where we stop, all we can get is electric because they have turned off the water and sewer system! We are tired enough that this is OK. Carolyn had made dinner for tonight yesterday. So, we heat up the quiche and add a salad. It is getting dark much earlier now so we are in bed asleep by 10PM...with the full propane tank feeding our furnace!

Sun, Sept 13: Tonsina River Lodge, Richardson Highway Mile Marker 79

2009-09-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to laugh when I type the heading...it sounds much more than it is! We are sitting in an overgrown grass field, granted with full hook-ups, but, on one side is a bunk house that has seen better days ...20 years ago; and on the other is the grass air strip (runway) and the “Lodge”. It is no more than a string of log, prefab-looking, buildings with green metal roofs and several more of the “North Slope” buildings, painted green, tucked in behind the wooden ones.Then, kind of connecting the “RV Park “ to the Lodge area, is a three story Hotel/Roadhouse that was moved here from Valdez in 1928.It is all boarded up, but was probably pretty nice in its hay day. The whole set up is off the road some along side the Tonsina Riverand the road sign announces they are the last services for 79 miles (until Valdez); gas, food, bar, lodging and, most importantly in Alaska at least, a liquor store. Also Russian food served here! In fact, the woman/wife of the man who took our money speaks Russian and English with a Russian accent. They had a steady stream of customers last night and again this afternoon; all very local looking!

We slept well. The grounds were totally dark. They even turned out all the neon beer signs. We awoke to another winter sky, but it does not really look like rain so we elect to stay one more night and explore as planned.

About 10:00AM, we head back several miles to the Edgerton Highway.The sun is trying to come out and we can see part of Mt. Wrangell so we stop for a picture.It is small world...there is a lady there taking pictures too and we visit. She is from a small town in NE Louisiana and is a friend and neighbor of a doctor we know who used to live and practice in Brenham, Tim Spires!

As I said, we are going to drive to the end of the paved section of road; to the Copper River Bridge. The road continues another 60 miles on the old rail road bed, but Dick has no desire to tear up another tire in this remote section of Alaska; especially since the season is over and there is very little traffic. The road goes through the farming community of Kerry, which was one of the last areas to be homesteaded in America.There are very few homes and less farming, but we pass a church that has a full parking lot this Sunday morning. We also find another cemetery.This one, judging from the crosses, is a European Christian group. The oldest grave dates from 1942 and the newest from 2006.

The pavement ends at the community of Chitinaon the Copper River. Chitna was a rail head supply community for the gold mining industry just like Eagle, McCarthy and Talkeetna and they all have a special character, quite a different look from the made over tourist towns. From Chitina we drive through the rail bed cutand on down to the river where there is a really good bridge across the river. But, from there on it is rough, gravel, one lane and has surprise railroad spikes every so often just waiting to ruin a tire! These were left from taking up the rails. McCarthy, 60 miles further in, is at the end of the road and across the foot bridge is Kennecott Mines, all in Wrangell-St Elias National Park. This is now a remote...translate fly in lodge, but some brave soles do drive.We are just exploring and want to see the fish wheels.These are homemade, water driven, fishing machines that are used by the Native Americans of the area to catch salmon. The Copper River Area is the ancestral home of the Ahtna People who depend on the salmon for a large part of their food. There are some wheels that are slowly turning,but we see no salmon. Copper River is a very popular salmon fishing area.

We drive back toward the Richardson Highway stopping for pictures of One, Two and ThreeMile Lakes; that is the distance the lakes are from Chitina! Then we stop for lunch at Liberty Falls.This is a nice lazy drive and the river viewsand fall colors are great.Back at Richardson we continue north a little farther to Copper Center, a small community also on the Copper River.One of the system of Roadhouses was built here in 1898 to supply the miners and is still operating.These roadhouses sprang up every 10 miles of so along the trails that became the main highways of today. We have seem a few of the roadhouses that are still standing on this trip, but they were not still run as roadhouses. Copper Center's roadhouse was built across from an Ahtna village. The Ahtna's were great traders and made arrow heads and other tools from the copper they found in the area. Today the Ahtna village is gone, but there are signs of both the Indianand the minerculture in Copper Center.

Carolyn finds another of the area's unique cemeteries beside a small community church. It is the largest one we have seen and has a mixture of Roman and Russian Orthodox Cross on the gravesand a few, very old, spirit houses also.While we are there we visit with two young men, their father and grandfather, who are visiting family graves. The appear to Ahtna and have driven up from Anchorage for the day.

It has turned into a pretty afternoon so we head back to the rig, making one last stop for a picture of the pipline, still marching beside the highway on its way to Valdez.Back "home" we get everything packed, the food issues sorted out and cook up the fresh things not allowed into Canada. We do some grilling and just enjoy the rest of the day.

We want to get an early start tomorrow. We will have a long day if we can reach Haines Junction by tomorrow night. We plan to spend a few days in Haines and Skagway before heading South.

Sat, Sept 12: On the road to somewhere on the Richardson Highway

2009-09-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

This morning we have a winter sky...high thin clouds and a weak sun peaking through.The weather can go either way today...we are hoping for sun as we head out on this world class scenic drive. This part of the Glenn Highway is a National Scenic Byway.As usual we are off to our late start. Dick was tired last night and did not download the pictures so Carolyn could not finish posting to the blog. She is rebelling and wants to get caught up since we have good Internet here. She knows, as we head into Canada, Internet will become scarce again. The Canadians don’t feel the importance to be connected that the Americans do!

We are finally off by 11AM and at 5:30PM we stop at Tonsina River Lodge at mile marker 79 on the Richardson Highway, 176 miles from where we started! Even in the winter sunlight it is a beautiful drive.

About 10 miles down the road we stop in Sutton to see the cemetery with the Spirit Houses, a combination of the Native American and Christain take on graves.The Chugach Mountains are to our southand are covered in a glorious blanket of Fall colorinterspersed with two glaciers, Matanuska and Nelchina, that you can see from the road.
We stop half a dozen timesfor pictures at the various viewpointsand, at one, see the last of the wildlife Carolyn really wants to see. We had pulled over for pictures of the braided river and sitting on a log in the middle of the river is a Bald Eagle,just watching the world go by. Several other people see him and stop too. Neat!

The Matanuska Glacier

is only four miles off the highway and there are great views of it.The Park Service has built a nice interpretive center at the best viewpoint.
The Nelchina Glacier is much more massive looking and we can really see the ice field way back up the glacier valley, but it is also farther away and there is no pull-out to stop for pictures...to bad it is a neat sight spilling down out of the surrounding mountainous bowl.

At Glennallen we turn south onto the Richardson Highway. At this point, Valdez is 110 miles south. At mile marker 107 we turn off for the Wrangell-St Elias National Park Visitors Center. We want to drive into the park, one of the two roads in, the Edgerton Highway, to Chitina about 33 miles back. Hopefully we can explore a little tomorrow, but need information on road conditions. It is beginning to rain now so we will just play things by ear. While there, we watch a nice movie playing up the vastness of the park. It is larger than Switzerland with 13 million acres in the US plus the adjoining Glacier Bay, Kluane National Park and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park in Canada which together make up a total of 24 million acres of protected land. The park has 9 of the 16 tallest peaks on the North American continent plus the steaming volcano of Mt Wrangel.

The ranger gives us the go ahead, but says most of the services are closed for the season in Chitina so we drive to Tonsina River Lodge for the night, about 5 miles south of the Edgerton turn off.

OK, as this trip has progressed, Carolyn has developed a set of standards for where we stay...in order of preference: full hook-ups; space between the sites; good, hopefully free WiFi; grass around the site with a gravel drive way; pull through site; and just a good look about the park. Well, tonight we feel like we are some where on the North Slope or maybe Coldfoot. The camp site actually has every thing Carolyn requires except the last, a good appearance! Well, this is a very remote part of Alaska and there is nothing from here to Valdez, 80 miles south, so you take what you can get and enjoy!

As we are having our cocktails and thinking about fixing spaghetti for dinner, we watch a small, single engine plane land in the grass 50 yards from the rig. The pilot gets out and walks into the roadhouse that is part of this campground setup. A few minutes later he comes back out with his take-out box, climbs into the plane and takes off! Life in rural Alaska, "ya gotta love it"!

Fri, Sept 11: On the road to Somewhere on the Glenn Highway

2009-09-12T01:24:00.001-07:00

It is not raining when we wake, but there are heavy low clouds all around. We are tired of the rain and decide to skip the Homer activities and its rain. So, we head out and begin the trek home. On the way off the spit we take a few pictures, one of the Salty Dawg Saloon a local landmark on the spit and one looking at the spit from town.We still have a few stops we want to make in East and Southeast Alaska, but these are all basically in the direction of home.

As we climb back up to the top of the bluff out of Homer, the sun breaks through the heavy fog/clouds.By the time we get to Anchor Point about 15 miles up the road, the skies have cleared some. We make a stop at the end of the most westerly road in North America and check out the fishing on Anchor River at the old bridge. We can see the Aleutian Mountains a little better today.

We turn east at Soldotna and do a shopping stop. We are running low on the fresh stuff again. Then we stop at the Russian River ferry crossing.It is a place where rafters and fishermen can access the river and the opposite shore. There are a lot of people out today. This area from Russian River past Kenai Lake is really beautiful. We are glad the skies have cleared some so we can enjoy the beautiful Fall scenery.

Tren Lake at the junction of Sterling and Stuart Highways is flat calm and Carolyn can’t resist the chance to try for a nice reflection picture.

There are usually swans and loons on the lake, but not today.

We continue on to Anchorage stopping for a pictures at Canyon Creek,

Portage Glacier viewpoint and along the Turnagain Arm.It is low tide and makes an interesting picture.

We manage to get to Anchorage at rush hour. But traffic is a piece of cake compared to what we are used to in Houston. Our goal for tonight was to get to the Glenn Highway and we did. We stop five miles past the junction and set up camp at Fox Run Campground. We actually stayed here in 2002. It is a small family owned set-up. We will now probably spend a couple of days along the Glenn Highway and in Copper River Valley. We know from our first trip, that this is world class scenery through here. We did not do it justice last time. Hopefully the rain will stay away. Afterwards we will head back across the north west of Canada to Southeast Alaska; Haines and Skagway.

It is nice to be outside to fix dinner on the grill; steak and baked potatoes, of course. That makes cooking so much easier in our small space!

Thurs, Sept 10: On the road to Homer

2009-09-12T01:05:00.000-07:00

It is still quite windy this morning, but the sun is out. The weather forecast for Homer is not too promising, but we pack up the rig and head down there anyway. It is around 70 miles along the buff that runs down the east side of the Cook Inlet. We get glimpses of the Aleutian mountains and the several volcanoes that are active across the inlet on the west side. Unfortunately the high overcast and sea mist keep us we from getting a really clear picture with the camera.

We make one stop along the way at Ninilchik, a very small village on the beach, to see the second of three Russian Orthodox Churches in this part of Alaska. The church is up on the bluff overlooking the village.

There is still a Russian presence in the this part of the peninsula. The church,The Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord,is about the same age but smaller than the one in Kenai. The priest greeting visitors tells Carolyn there are between 25 and 30 parishioners at the Sunday services. To be as sparsely settled as the peninsula is, there are many small churches representing most denominations. There is also a small cemetery beside the church. Carolyn finds the way the graves are marked interesting.From what she reads this is very much the Russian influence.

As we approach Homer at lunchtime, the skies are getting heavier and the sea is very rough. Someone is enjoying the weather though!This does not look promising for a fishing trip or a trip over to Seldovia, a little Russian village down near the mouth of Kachemak Bay, only accessible by plane or water taxi.

We are lucky in that the only campground on the Spit with full hook ups is still open...at least until Saturday noon.According to the lady at the desk, the only reason the campground is still open is that they are expecting a 26 rig caravan at 3:00PM for two nights! Hmmm...that is close!

After getting things set up and the car unhooked, we head out looking for some lunch. There are a bunch of little shops and cafes up and down the spit. We opt for fish and chips. Turns out it is their last day to be open. After eating we walk around. Several of the shops and businesses are closed for the season, but we do find very nice gifts for our two oldest grandsons. We talk to several operators and find that either the business is closed for the season or is shut down due to the weather and may not be operating tomorrow either. Bummer...oh well we will just have to continue with some retail therapy in downtown Homer.

We get back to the rig about 3:00PM, just in time to see the caravan that was with us up in Fairbanks pull into the campground. It is also beginning to rain big time. We settle down in the rig for a very lazy afternoon. We have very good internet here so Dick works on-line and Carolyn continues putting the finishing touches on Volume two of the RTW book.

We fix some fettuccine and salmon for dinner and watch the movie, "The Cardinal"...a very good old movie. The rain on the roof puts us to sleep.

Wed, Sept 9: Kenai

2009-09-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

The weather is still iffy...cloudy with a shower this morning. We fix a nice breakfast and decide to stay here one more night. It is a nice campground with a great view we can enjoy even from the inside of the rig if it is rainingAbout 10AM the sun comes out so we make a break for it. Our first stop is at the little Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1895. It is part of the Russian heritage if the area; Kenai was one of three Russian settlements.

Then we head up the coast to Cook State Park at the top of the Peninsula. Hopefully we will see some salmon.The park is broken into several sections including a nice dry campground on the bluff overlooking the Inlet,but there is no fishing activity. Actually there isn’t anyone in the campground except the host and just a few cars in the parking lot.

We drive back to the Sterling highway and head back toward Anchorage to see if we can spot a wood craft shop we sailed by yesterday, but apparently it is father back than we realize so we turn back to Soldatna to check out the salmon fishing boardwalk at the visitors center. In 2002 there were plenty of salmon in the river and lots of fisherman trying to catch them. Today we see no fish in the water and only two men trying their luck. Dick talks to one and he says the fish come when they want to!

The other guy across the river had some luck as he is cleaning 3 big salmon.Then we go on to the Kenai Landing,an old cannery from 1922. It is open to walk around, but all the tourist activity is closed up. From the look of what we have seen of the Peninsula so far, it is really suffering from the down turn in the economy. There are many empty buildings for sale and not too much tourist activity even though we are in the peak of the fishing and hunting season.

Back at the rig, Carolyn works on the blog and the RTW books and Dick goes back to the store for a steak to grill tonight since it isn’t raining and we have such a nice view to enjoy. We will try for Homer tomorrow.

Tues, Sept 8: On the road to the Kenia Peninsula

2009-09-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

It is fair today with high thin clouds and some sun. It looks like a winter day. We get up and away by 10AM with a stop at the little Post Office to mail a DVD of lake house pictures to Rick. We are heading to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. The weather is unsettled right now so we are playing it by ear.

There is road construction going into Anchorage so, even though the road is interstate quality, it takes some time. Once through Anchorage we head around Turnagain Arm,

a drive we always enjoy.There is a bore tide here, but the tide is going out this time. We actually saw the tide come in when we were here in a rented RV in 2002.

The original plan was to spend a night in Hope, an old, early 1900's gold mining town on the Kenai side of the Arm, but when we get there it is shut up tight. The campground is right down on the water but there is no one around to find out the cost. The sites have only electric and it is just 15amp power...not enough to really operate the rig and Dick doesn’t have the right plug anyway. Since nothing in the little village opens until Wednesday or Thursday, we move on after walking around.Carolyn is not in the mood to be self contained tonight!

Back up on the Seward Highway we take the turn for the Sterling Highway and head toward Homer along the Kenai River. This is a pretty, blue-green, salmon river. We see some boats out on the river and many people fishing along the shore and from bridges. However there don’t seem to be as many as in 2002.

We stop at a big Fred Meyer on the highway in Soldatna for eggs and baggies. They have fresh local salmon so Dick gets a big piece to grill tonight. Then we drive on to Kenai, originally a native village and later a Russian settlement. We stop at Beluga Lookout Lodge and RV Park, right on the edge of a bluff overlooking the mouth of the river,and the Cook Inlet and get a site right on the bluff with a great view. After enjoying cocktails, Dick grills the salmon and some corn and we have a nice dinner while enjoying our "million dollar view"!

The sun is setting earlier now so we watch the movie "Flyboys" before bed. It is good, but as Dick says...they really stretched the history a bit!

Mon, Sept 7, Labor Day: Houston (Alaska)

2009-09-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

Since it is Labor Day, we opt for one more night here. From the look of the traffic on the Parks Highway in front of the campground, it was a wise decision.

Carolyn fixes a country breakfast and Dick gets the laundry started. Later Dick gets the pictures from the last few days downloaded and Carolyn gets the blog up to date. She also uploads to the publisher's website the now complete first volume of our RTW picture book. That takes over an hour, but it is done...now we just have to finish volumes 2, 3 and 4 then do the one for Alaska!

It is another nice day so after a late lunch of hot dogs, we check out the empty campground. There is a river at the back.Everybody was gone by noon.

Then we head back down to Wasila, about 15 miles away, to visit the Iditarod Museum and some of the sled dogs who have run the race.The museum is mostly a gift shop with some race memorabilia, but they do have information on all the winners of the modern races going back to 1973 and a nice video made during and after the 2008 race. We also visit with some of the sled dogs. They are so excited when they get in the harnesses! They can hardly wait to go and if they don’t get to run,they look so dejected!The dogs are so small, it is hard to believe they can work so hard so long.

Back at the rig we have cocktails and fix Mexican food. After dinner, Dick packs most of the outside stuff away. Tomorrow we head down to Homer.

Sun, Sept 6: Houston (Alaska)

2009-09-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

After a good night’s sleep, we mess around with house keeping chores until afternoon. Then, as the weather is still very nice, we decide to make a circle drive over Hatcher Pass which is northeast of our camp ground.

First, we head back north about 12 miles to Willow where we turn east on Hatcher Pass Road.

The first 11 miles are paved but in fairly poor condition. Then we hit gravel and the road steadily deteriorates as we climb up toward the pass. Hunters are out in force and we stop once to put out a smouldering campfire that some "sportsmen" had left. The campsite is filthy with cans, human waster, toilet paper and spent shotgun shells everywhere. The Haul Road drivers didn't think too highly of the hunters...maybe we now know why!

Moving on up the pass, the scenery gets more and more spectacularbut the road becomes a series of giant potholes!The fastest we can drive safely is about 10-15MPH. But, taking it slow, we enjoy the scenery.We see many families out picking blueberries and the traffic on the road is quite heavy to be such a lousy road. Toward the top of the pass, we see mine tailings spilling down the side of a mountainand one mine operation that is still working.At the top of the pass is Summit Lake and the parking area is crowded with cars and trucks. Many people are picnicking by the lake so we join them.There are several people hang-gliding off the cliff face down into the valley.Once they get to the bottom, there is a truck waiting to run them back up the hill for another go.It sure looks like fun. Just past the lake, the road heads steeply downhill and we pick up pavement again and head down the valley.In the distance are the mountains near the Glenn Highway and we can see hanging glaciers in them.As the valley levels out, we turn right toward Wasilla and then back north on the Parks Highway to Houston and our campground. The total trip is 82 miles and 23 of it is an extremely rough road. It is fun on a pretty day but we would not try it if it was wet.

Back at the rig, we fix hashbrowns and hamburgers for dinner. Dick then cooks up two pounds of sausage to freeze. That makes cooking breakfast much faster and easier. Carolyn works on the blog and night comes on about 9:30PM.

It is amazing how much sooner night is falling as the days pass. Sunrise and sunset are coming four to five minutes later and earlier each day. When we got to Fairbanks on August 23, sunset was at 9:42PM. Today it is at 8:50PM! A month from now it will set at 6:57PM and the sun will not rise until 8:18AM.

Sat, Sept 5: On the road to Somewhere on the Parks Highway

2009-09-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

We wake up to another fabulous day. In fact ,the sky is totally blue, not a cloud in sight. The plan is to drive south until we find a suitable camping site and park for at least two days over the Labor Day weekend... seeing the changing views of Denali...a perfect day for the activity!

We are slow as usual getting off and since we have been dry camping we have to fill and empty the various tanks. About 10AM we head to the station and of course Dick strikes up a conversation with a guy from Arkansas while working on the rig. We finally leave the park about 11AM heading south for Anchorage.

We stop at several spots on the side of the roadfor pictures as we head south.We also stop at the North View site in Denali State Park,where we can also see one of the many glaciers in the Alaska Range,at Hurricane Gulchand at the South View sitein Denali State Park. Mount McKinley is really showing its stuff today. The Highway roadside is thick with parked Alaskans' cars as they all take pictures of the Mountain! Those not taking pictures are calling their friends to tell them to get out and see the Mountain!

We first try for a camping stop at Talkeenta, a historic mining town in the shadow of Mt McKinley.There is only one campground and it only has three very undesirable full hook-up sites so we give it a pass...we want full services tonight! Since the town is having a holiday Market over the weekend, we move on down the road thinking we will stop at a "Good Sam" park down the road a bit and go back tomorrow. It turns out to be a gravel parking lot so we head on, passing two more, less than wonderful, riverside campgrounds.

About 5PM, in Houston, Alaska, after a food market stop for bread and eggs, we finally find a nice "green" campground with full hook ups that backs up to a river. They have Internet too, so we settle in for the next two or three days.

Dick gets the rig set up and Carolyn gets things ready for a steak and potato night.We enjoy sitting outside with cocktails while watching the world go by. It has been a busy five days so we call it a night as the sun goes down.

Fri, Sept 4: Denali National Park

2009-09-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

The promised nice weather is holding today. We awake to a light frost on the windows and a nearly cloudless sky. Carolyn fixes a nice big breakfast. We then get all the camera gear together and some snacks and head out the park road to get a picture at Mile 9 of the mountain since it has a bad habit of getting covered in clouds by noon. It is a beautiful day in the park!

Our eight hour bus ride to the Eielson Visitor Center leaves at 12:30PM. We get to the transportation center about 30 minutes before schedule because we want to be at the front of the bus. As it turns out, there are only 15 or so tickets sold for this bus, but it is still good to be in the front of the bus since the road dust is a big problem! We are also lucky in that the driver usually does one of the more expensive formal tour runs and she talks about the park and the animals almost the whole eight hours!

This ride takes us 60 miles into the park, going takes about five hours and then three more retracing the route. Private cars can only go to mile 13. The bus makes rest stops at Teklaneka River,

Polychrome Overlook and Toklat River before reaching the Eielson Visitor Center. There are also stops on request for wildlife and scenery pictures.

The scenery changes as we drive and climb; low brush cover in a riot of Fall color changes to a fir forest. Then we drive up an unbelievably narrow, cliff hanging, one-way, gravel road with a fabulous view of the valley 600 feet below and then down again to a river valley and more vivid colored brush land where we see many animals.

Going in, we see Dall sheep, three or four groups,moose cows and several bulls, a great red fox right beside the road and snowshoe hare. We see grizzly bear; two different mothers with cubs on the hillside eating blueberries, caribou; several groups one right on the road,wolf; a pack with cubs and adults and many arctic squirrels. Coming back out, we have a neat sighting of a moose close to the road,a grizzly sowand her year old cub,just off the road, plus a few more Dall sheep and caribou groups.

From the Toklat River on to the visitor's center we climb up into the tundra and it really is not worth the extra dusty ride since we have had some great views of the mountain for much of the section to Toklat; plus we did not see any wildlife on this last section. Eielson Visitors Center does have a nice view of the Mountain and some walking trails down to and along the glacial river.

Dick is really suffering from the tail end of his cold and the dust is driving him crazy so he does not enjoy the trip very much. Carolyn likes it; the scenery and animals are worth it. We are lucky in that the bus never has more than 24 people so we all have a double seat and it is easy to take pictures from either side, but I think it would have been "hell" if the bus was full...it is a school bus! We were the last bus to go in and come out and the bus before us was packed!

We get back at the transportation center about 8:45PM, tired, dusty and hungry so we head straight into town. The only place still open with food left is Subway so we get two foot longs and head back to the rig. There we fix stiff cocktails and chow down. Then Dick takes some strong drugs to control the cough and we hit the hay!

Thurs, Sept 3: On the road to Denali National Park

2009-09-06T11:06:00.002-07:00

We finally wake up to a clear day in Fairbanks. We get the rig and the car ready to roll and head out, stopping to look at the wolf skins at the fur store one more time...sigh! Properly prepared and mounted, a wolf skin rug will set you back $1,900.

It is a pretty drive down to Denali and we get there about 2PM. We elected not to make reservations since we were not going to stop if the weather was bad. Of course, this is the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, so the campgrounds back in the park are full or only have one day available, but the campground at the entrance is open. We make arrangements for a bus ride into the park tomorrow and take a site in Riley Campground near the Park Entrance. We will be dry camping for two nights and can only run the generator for four hours a day, 8-10AM and 6-8PM. Fofrtunately, the rig has new house batteries and we should be just fine for power. We find a nice site at the camp, Carolyn fixes lunch and we eat outside to a chorus of squirrel chatter.

We then drive the Park Road to Savage River,stopping many times for beautiful scenery and for a moose jam. There is a bull mooseherding two cows across a river bed.

At Savage River we park and take the two mile loop trail along the river.It is a smooth trail and a very nice walk! After a mile into the little canyon formed by the river there is foot bridge across the river. Here we have the ultimate Denali experience! A group of six Dall rams work their way down to the river for their nightly drink. One stops not three feet in front of us and munches on a tasty willow for a while. It is great fun being so close to such pretty animals and getting great pictures!

On the way back to the camp site

we encounter another moose jam on the Park Road. There are two bull moose duking it out near the side of the road.It is rutting season so the boys are a bit testy right now!

After our hike we are tired so we fix an easy dinner of pasta and call it a day.

Wed, Sept 2, On the Haul Road (Dalton Highway) to Fairbanks

2009-09-06T11:06:00.001-07:00

It is a nice morning, in the low 40'sF, but not quite as pretty as yesterday afternoon.After a buffet breakfast that is not nearly as good as yesterday's, we head about 16 miles north and west to the isolated town of Wiseman. This town was founded in 1908 after gold was found in the river near by in 1907.The gold petered out rather quickly, but some hardy souls continued to live in the town. It has been continuously occupied since and is the most northerly settlement that can make that claim.

We spend about two hours visiting with a man, age 52, who was raised in an area west of the town and moved with his parents to Wiseman as a child. He raised his family here. He went to Anchorage for a semester of college, but did not like the urban lifestyle so came home.He has been in Wiseman ever since. He is a true self educated man and a fountain of information on this part of the world! He told us about his family’s subsistence lifestyle: how they grow or gather their food, the adaptions he makes for the short growing season and how they cook, light and heat the house. He uses a combination of solar power, wind, wood and propane. He hunts and traps and serves as a weather station and animal monitor for the Parks and Game service.

He then took us around the village and showed us the small house that served as a home school for his children, the chapel, the post office,that was active from 1910 to 1956, and several other homes in the town.Since the Dalton Highway was built some adventurous souls are finding their way to Wiseman for R and R during the summer and, of course, people like us who are just interested.

From there we go back to Coldfoot to the National Park Information Centerand then head south on towards Fairbanks. We are driving through a high river valley and the fall colors are outstanding. We pass through Prospect Creek where the coldest temperature ever reported in the US occurred, -79.8F. Jack, our guide earlier in Wiseman, said he does not get out if it is below -50F...bad things happen to the human body and to metal. Steel springs and such can shatter like glass at those temperatures.

We cross the Arctic Circle, marked with a sign, and stop for pictures.At Gobbler's Knob we run out of the Brooks Range and are now in a high meadow valley.The fall colors continue to be outstanding.About 2PM we stop for lunch at Finger Mountain, an interesting granite outcropping.There is archaeological evidence that it was used by hunters as much as 10,000 years ago. Probably as a lookout point for animals in the valley below.Then we head to the Yukon River where we stop again for pictures and ice cream.The river is much wider than it was in Dawson City some 800 plus miles upstream.

After crossing the Yukon River, we are in rolling, forested land with the pipeline beside us the rest of the way.It is a pleasant drive and we talk among ourselves. We are very lucky with the small group and we get along very well. Hamos is an asset. He is about 30 and has taken five months off to travel around the world. So far he has spent all his time in the western US, but is planning to go to Japan next. He is a computer guru from Austria and his English is excellent. Our other passenger is about our age and had planned to retire this year. In fact, this was to be her retirement trip but the economy changed her plans and she will return to work. She has a small motor home that she travels in by herself. She is from San Diego, CA.

We get back to Fairbanks about 8:30PM. We are weary but very glad that we did this trip. It was loads of fun and very enlightening. We kept saying we are done with expedition type trips, but they just keep calling to us!

We head straight to Chili's for some food and then to the rig and bed!

Tues, Sept 1 On the Haul Road (Dalton Highway) to Coldfoot

2009-09-06T11:05:00.001-07:00

It isn’t actually sunny but the sky is clear with high thin clouds and no rain. We can see the sun shining on the Brooks Range so there is hope for a nice day. Rob knocks on our door at 7AM and we all soon find our way to the dining room for breakfast. The cook has our order and starts it as soon as he sees us. It arrives in front of us in a few minutes fresh and hot!

We are on the road by 8AM and make a stop for Rob to get a coffee fix for the road. They have a Starbucks and some other very popular Alaskan coffee house here in Deadhorse. They are everywhere! Our guide is Rob Jordan. He is 30-ish, single and a teacher of Sociology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks in the winter. He is highly educated both formally and self tought. He has two bachelor degrees, two masters and has taken courses in everything from forestry and wildlife management to communications and marketing.

Out on the Haul Road things are quiet. The road is wet from yesterday’s rain, but not slippery and is in good condition. As we head down the road, Rob gives us lessons on the land, the vegetation, the animals and their habits and the pipeline and pump stations. It is very interesting...a living classroom. Plus, Rob has a great sense of humor. This country is not at all what we expected...it is really pretty!Rob wants to be sure we see three things unique to the North Slope. The first two have to do with the land...tundra polygons,which are breaks in the top few feet of the ground and pingos, pyramid shaped upheavals in the suface. Both are formations on the surface caused by the action of the permafrost underneath. We see many polygons and a few pingos and lots of small lakes and ponds even though this is considered a desert.

As we get closer to the mountains we come across the last thing Rob wants us to see...Muskox! There are what look to be three laying down by the river a little ways off the road. Rob assures us they are very docile, so off we go on a little hike to get a better look! Of course, they eventually see us and get up. It turns out to be four...one is a calf. They look like a really shaggy small buffalo, and the calves are one of the bear's favorite meals. We see several more groups for a total of 20 as we head up into the Brooks foothills. According to the biologists that watch the muskox there are only about 70 left since the young are a favorite food of the bears in this area.

This is a summer nesting area for a great many migratory birds. Even though the North Slope had its first winter storm of the season this past week there are still a number of birds. As we continue south through the foot hills of the Brooks we see tundra swanwith some fledglings, Canadian geese, greater white fronted geese and a Hawk Owl that zigged when it should have zagged. That is a shame since it is really pretty bird. We also see cariboo and calves. This is their summer calving area.

There are good views of the pumping stations and of course the pipeline is marching beside the road most of the way.It goes underground some, but we can still see the green grass on the surface above its route since that ground is warmer than the rest of the area.

Rob is a fountain of information and we all have tons of questions. He has some snacks in the car so we munch, talk and watch until almost 2PM. He says he has a special place for our lunch. He pulls off on a side road in front of Slope Mountain. There are many such roads for the hunters to use for their camps.We hike in with lunch in hand and find some rocks to sit on. It is special because there are Dall sheep grazing right in front of us! Never mind it is in the 40'sF and a wind is blowing...we are all well layered and having an awsome adventure!We drive over the "Ice Cut" that the Ice Road Truckers talk about. It is "famous" because it has a guard rail on the outside, straight down edge. The rail is pretty dinged up too! Rob says you know it is a bad steep curve because there is a guard rail!

The next stop is the entrance to Gates of the Arctic National Park, Galbriath Lake and Rainbow Glacier. This is a fabulous park. It is hike in only, but the entrance is a wonderful place to stop...to bad we don’t have the motorhome so we can stay awhile!

There is a small airport near by. We stop for a closer look at a couple of light planes. As it turns out, a hunter just flew one in from the interior with his moose kill. He and his buddies are up here in their two planes hunting and using the airport field as their base camp. We spend some time talking to him and the guys help him get his 1,000 lbs. of moose packed away. I must say the head and antlers are quite impressive.

Next we pass Pump station #4 on a glacier moraine and head into the glacial valley of Atigun Pass, the infamous pass through the Brooks Range on the Haul Road...made famous on Ice Road Truckers! It is almost straight up and down...Rob says the builders of the road felt switch back were inefficient! It had rained and snowed the day before and the truckers were using chains this morning, but it is warmer now with some blue sky and sunshine so the road is now a sea of mud about 8 inches deep. The pass is beautiful. Near the top a trucker radios Rob that there are sheep near the chain up area so we pull off for a lookand for Rob to get up his courage to go over the pass...he has been dreading it all day...he didn’t want to have to roll around in the muck to chain up! So off we go. It is a neat ride and we have no trouble until we are going down the south side and encounter a truck stuck in the mud....it gets tense in the van as Rob weaves through the stopped traffic trying not to slow down enough to sink in the mud himself! The van slips and slides, but we get through. What an awful mess and to think the truckers put up with this and worse all the time! According to the radio traffic the stalled trucker will have to be towed out of the mud. There is constant chatter on the CB between the drivers, including Rob, on road conditions and just friendly banter at times.

Once across the pass, we are out of the tundra and in a beautiful forest painted with Fall colors. To make it perfect, we have left all the clouds behind and are in that perfect late afternoon light that has such a glow. It is a beautiful drive on into Coldfoot, our stop for the night. We have enjoyed the first 240 miles of the Haul Road even if it has taken 12 hours to cover.

Coldfoot is a road house with 52 rooms. It is a truck stop!The buildings are the same as in Deadhouse, just dirtier, mainly because the whole town is, simply put, a sea of mud!It is about 8:30PM when we get there. We get settled into our rooms and meet in the café for some dinner. It is an interesting group..rough and ready truckers with their colorful language, a few independent types like us and maybe 60 cruise passengers on two Holland American tour buses! The cruise ladies are tiptoeing through the mud in their leather high heel shoes and matching colorful ski wear! Some of the cruise lines now offer bus tours to Deadhorse.

After a huge plate of food we head back across the parking mud hole to our rooms and bed. It is still light at 11PM.

Mon, Aug 31: In the Air to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

2009-09-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

We are up and waiting at the office for the van to the airport by 5:45AM. Several other people from the campground show up and at 6:05 one of them calls the tour office to ask about the missing van! They say it is on its way and a few minutes later it arrives and we are off the airport. There is a crowd waiting in the office, but fortunately most are going on one of the various one day tours.

Right at 7:00AM they announce our pilot is ready to leave and we are off! No baggage check, no security, no X-ray line!The flight is two hours and about ten minutes in a 9 passenger, plus pilot, Piper Navajo and is uneventful. There are only 4 passengers plus the pilot and the 4 of us will be doing the drive back together in the 15 passenger van that is set up for 10. That will be nice as there will be room to move around in the van.

We can not see anything soon after takeoff from Fairbanks due to cloud cover. The peaks of the Brooks Range are as high as 9,000 feet and the pilot has us at 10-11,000 feet. Fortunately as we fly over the mountains there is a break in the clouds and we can see the peaks of the Brooks. Then as we approach the end of the two hour flight, we break out of the clouds and can see the Brooks Range with the morning sun reflecting on the snow and the tundra below. There are thousands of tundra ponds on the North Slope; very pretty from the air.

On the tarmac it is right at 30F with a 30MPH wind blowing and a high overcast. The puddles and ponds have a scab of ice on them along with some snow from yesterday. The Brooks Mountain Range is covered in snow and is glittering in the sun shine.We are greeted by the guide, but are actually picked up and taken to our lodging by the camp cook, a nice young man, who shows us around Deadhorse, takes our meal orders for the next four meals and gets us settled into the room. Our meals here and all along the trip are extra and we ordered our meals through breakfast tomorrow. Three meals plus a sack lunch for tomorrow cost $119 for the two of us. It costs a bunch to get the food up here! By the way, we saw the Deadhorse terminal for Carlisle Trucking, star of "Ice Road Truckers" this last season, on our little tour this morning.

It is 10:55AM Alaska time and we are in our room at "Deadhorse Camp”. This is a work camp, we are staying here with men working in the oilfield, and the rooms are clean and neat. You must remove your shoes at the door. Everyone is walking around in sock feet or dedicated indoor shoes. The facilities are dorm style with men's and women's baths and toilets down the hall. Actually, ours are down the hall and up stairs one flight. As an added attraction, we have a view of "The Haul Road" and the Brooks Range from our room. We are told the rooms don't have keys. “Everyone has a good job and doesn't want your old camera or laptop!” Lunch, huge grilled hamburgers, is at noon and we get out and walk around a bit after that taking pictures of the road signs,the equipment and the buildings around our “Camp”.Later, around 4:00PM or so, we visit the all in one and only store which houses the Post Office,and go for the guided tour of some of the Prudhoe oil field and our visit to the Arctic Ocean shore.The wind is now blowing a gale and it is trying to snow mixed with light rain and sleet! Our stop at the ocean is at East Dock which never saw any ship traffic....they built the dock, but no one checked on the water depth before hand. At the end of the dock it is only three or four feet deep! They now have a West Dock that goes out about a mile and can handle cargo ships. Back at the camp, warm and dry, we have an Alaskan Mexican dinner which is not to bad. As we leave the dinning room, we see the sun is out and there is the beginning of a great sun set. So all four of us gear up again and head outside for some pictures.After that we fall into bed and sleep the sleep of the dead! So far, we are glad we made this side trip. It is very interesting to see it all.

Sun, Aug 30: Fairbanks

2009-08-30T22:45:00.001-07:00

Rain on the roof keeps us in bed until after 9:00am. We have nothing planned for today which is good because it is cold and rains all day.

We work on the RTW book and try to upload the first volume, but the internet connection is to poor, so all we can do is get the blog up to date.

After lunch, we pack what we will need for the next three days and get the rig set for our absence. We check in with the tour company about 5:00PM and learn that it is snowing in Deadhorse, but we are a go. They will pick us up at 5:45 in the morning here at the campground.

We fix a dinner of spaghetti and call it a day turning in to the sound of rain!

We may not be able to post until next Thursday or Friday...stay tuned, we will be back!

Sat, Aug 29: Fairbanks

2009-08-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

When Dick gets up this morning, the rain has stopped but it is in the mid-40s with heavy fog. By 9:00AM, however, the fog is gone and it turns into a beautiful day with clear skies and white, puffy clouds. As usual, we get off to a slow start and do not move from the camp until nearly 11:00AM. We first take the motorhome and get the propane tank filled. Four point six gallons costs $16.10. We then fill up the rig’s gas tank at Sam’s at $3.119 per gallon. Once the rig is back at camp and connected to the utilities, we take the Explorer to get gas and do some more exploring of the area.

Our first stop is the Alaska Fur Company where we admire the clothing and animal skins they have for sale. Dick would like to have a wolf skin for in front of the fireplace but they run from $250 to $750 each, depending on the size and quality. He will have to think about that just a bit.
We then fill up with gas and head up north to Fox

where one can get up close and personal with the Alaskan Pipeline.While there, two busloads of Holland American passengers arrive to view this engineering marvel.We then try to visit dredge #4 but it is not open this season to solo travelers.That must mean tour groups only!

We then drive some 40 miles toward Circle and locate the campground where we spent a night in the rain in 2002.

It is much prettier today in the sun!This is a great road to drive in the sunshine. There are many pondsreflecting the fall colors and a pretty river weaving them together.We see many people out trying their hand at having a fish supper.

Returning to Fairbanks, with a brief stop at the Chatalinka Lodge and Liquor Store,and old mine site..dredge and all,we do a little supplemental grocery shopping and return to the camp ground. A tour group is pulling in and we visit with some of the people and admire their rigs before we cook supper.One couple is from Sugarland, Texas! Supper is trout, corn-on-the-cob, rice and strawberry shortcake. How rough is that? It is 9:15PM and the sun is just before setting. The weather is supposed to cloud up and rain. We will find some way to kill tomorrow and then Monday we will embark on our trip to Prudhoe Bay.

Fri, Aug 28: Fairbanks

2009-08-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

The morning is mostly clear and sunny and we had said that if it was we would drive south to see if we could see Mt. McKinley. We get gone by a little after 10:00AM for the 120 mile drive to the park. The highway for the first 80 miles or so is better than we remember it being but it then deteriorates into a rolling sea of frost heaves. One could get seasick driving that stretch. At one point, something over half way into the drive, we catch a brief view of the mountain with no clouds and full sun. It is magnificent in its snowy blanket from some 70 miles away. It must be awesome on a clear day from a closer vantage point.

By the time we arrive at the park, it is sprinkling rain off and on with the clouds moving in from the south threatening heavier rain to come.

We are surprised that there is no gate or check point to pay your fees or show you pass. But, there is not and we drive the 13 mile stretch of the park road open to private cars. At the Savage River there is a check station and you may not drive a private vehicle any further with a few special exceptions.

During our drive in and out, we see some beautiful Fall colorsand three moose. It is the rut and two males are stalking a female on a hillside several hundred yards from us. We get photos with our 400mm lens and watch them until they move into heavy cover.Fortunately it doesn’t rain while we are looking and taking pictures.Back at the park entranceit starts to rain in earnest and we attempt to find out about making camping reservations for next Thursday and maybe Friday but the lines are long and we give up. We do watch a great film on the park and its seasons but leave without any firm plans to return next week.

We head back toward Fairbanks about 4:00PM and run out of the light rain after 20 miles or so. The drive back in uneventful and we are back at the rig by 6:15PM to find that there is no water pressure. It seems some idiot has backed his rig over the outlet in his campsite and they had to turn off all the water to repair the break. The water comes back on within an hour and Dick starts several loads of laundry at $2.00US each. Just after arrival, several women arrive and start filling the remaining machines. Two of the ladies are from North Carolina and Dick enjoys a visit with them. Upon returning to put the wash in the dryers, the husbands have arrived and one of them tells Dick that Spruce Pine, NC had a major fire this year and a significant portion of downtown burned. We go to bed about 11:00Pm with clean laundry, clean sheets and rain on the roof.

Thurs, Aug 27: Fairbanks

2009-08-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Dick is up at 6:30AM. It was raining when we went to bed last night but there is not a cloud in the sky this morning! After a light breakfast, we make reservations to take the 2:00PM cruise on the “Riverboat Discovery” and also make our reservations to take the three day, two night trip to Prudhoe Bay and back.

After renewing our lease on our camping spot through Friday night, we spend the rest of the morning working this blog and trying to get the first volume our Trip Around the World book ready to go to the printers. About 12:45PM, we finally come to a decision as to where to leave the rig and the car while we take our Arctic Adventure trip up to Prudhoe Bay. We have to move out of our current space by Saturday due to the arrival of a caravan. We decide to move to an available Chena River-front space now and book it through next Wednesday. We will leave both the car and the rig in that space with the rig hooked up to electricity. The tour group will pick us up here at 5:45AM on Monday morning and return us here on Wednesday evening. Carolyn takes care of the paperwork and we make the move before leaving for our “Riverboat Discovery” trip.

We make the short drive to the pier from which the riverboat sails. There are, ultimately, 14 tour buses from the various cruise lines who drop off passengers for the trip. The boat will hold 800+ passengers on four decks. Shortly after 2:00PM we head down the Chena River at a dead slow pace. We are treated to the first of the well thought out and well coordinated events of our trip. We have not gone 200 yards when we drift to a stop and watch a small float plane take off, landand take off again just for our benefit. The pilot talks to us through the PA system about the plane, flying in Alaska and his life as a bush pilot and mechanic.

Our moderator discusses the various houses that we see on both sides of the Chena River. They range from Alaskan Mansions with manicured lawns to shacks with yards full of junk. He says that river front property goes for $100,000 an acre and construction costs are about $150 per square foot. He also points out that Alaskans to not judge you by how much money you have but "by how much stuff you have piled in yyour yard!"A little further down river, we float to a stop at the Trail Breaker Kennel,the kennel of Iditarod Champion and Alaska legend, Susan Butcher and her husband Dave Monson. We see a wonderful demonstration by the dogs under owner, Dave Monson. Susan won the Iditarod four times, 1986,1987, 1988 and 1990. She died from Leukemia in 2006. When she won the first time, bumper stickers and T-shirts were produced that said: "ALASKA; Where men are men and women win the Iditarod". Her husband is also a well known dog team racer.

The next stop is to see some reindeer, or domesticated caribou, and then we have a quick stop to watch a fishwheel at workand a salmon drying demonstration at the Chena Indian Village. The young lady doing the talk is a local high school student and Alutiiq Eskimo.

We travel a little farther down river to the mouth of the Chena River and look out over the Tanana River
as we turn around. Here we are entertained by a young Bald Eagle and then get a fast look at an adult soaring through the blue sky and into the trees.
On the way back up river we stop for a tour of the Chena Village with talks on the Native Alaskan life style past and present. There are three”stations” and we are split into three large groups each lead by Native Alaskan young people.

Our group goes to the Athabascan clothing and hide display first and our guide, with help of a friend, explains how furs and skins are preparedand made into clothing and what the different bead work means. Then the guide models the “sun bonnet coat”,an absolutely beautiful piece of handmade work!The next stop is for a talk on ancient life with a display of several types of structures used then; the fur hut made on a frame of young birch trees,a temporary structure made of fir branches and a hut made of woven birch bark.There is also a birch bark canoe on display.

The last stop is for a log cabin, a trapper cabin and a food cache and fur pelt display.Here we learn about the different furs and how they are used in clothing and also a little about the changes in lifestyle after the Western culture was encountered. Our guide explains how the native people are maintaining the old ways and living a modern life style.It is a great tour...each demonstration area has plenty of log bench seating and the guides speak very clearly into a microphone so everyone can hear. The grounds are large and well laid out with several other demonstration areas one can visit... the dog team pen,the salmon drying area and several structures from the original Chena Athabascan Indian village which was located near by. The setting is wooded and bounded on two sides by the Chena and Tanana Rivers. The hour we spend there goes by fast.

Back on the river boat, we have a 30 minute ride back to the landing and enjoy the beautiful afternoon the whole way. Then we head back to the rig. One of the sites we passed on the tour was the Pump House which dates to the gold mining days. It pumped water from the Chena River to a gold field up in the hills. Now it is a restaurant. We go there for dinner and have a good hot spinach and bacon salad with blueberry vinaigrette and prawns with a crab meat stuffing.

Right on cue the sun slides below the horizon for a while and we have the pitter patter of rain on the roof.

Wed, Aug 26: Fairbanks

2009-08-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

It is overcast and looks like it might rain again this morning. We get up and have a nice breakfast then just mess around on the computer until about noon. Carolyn gets everything put away and Dick disconnects the rig so we can take it to the shop for the 1:00PM appointment. The computer shop is just down the street so we stop first and leave the computer. At the computer shop, the lady tells us the computer will be ready in two hours. Since we are going to the movies, we tell her we will be back after 4pm and head to the garage to drop the rig.

We have a little time to kill before the movie starts so we go to the store. The sky is clearing and it looks like we will have some steak cooking weather later so we buy steak and all the trimmings including fresh corn and strawberry shortcake makings.

We then head to the theater and get tickets for Harry Potter. Dick doesn’t enjoy it as much as the first shows...he said it was to dark, but I think the fact that the three stars are not as cute as they were as kids makes a difference too.

While we are at the show the garage calls and tells Dick that there are some parts that need to be replaced in the wheel and, if they can find them, the rig will be ready this afternoon! Lovely! Dick tells them that the rig is our hotel and not to leave us stranded! OK, now lets enjoy the show!

We come out of the theater to blue sky and bright sunshine...nice! We pick the computer up... after this repair and the repairs on it right before we left, Carolyn’s computer has all completely new insides at no cost, only the case and the hard drive are original equipment! Warrantys are wonderful!

We head back to the garage and get the good news...the rig will be ready in a few minutes...all fixed and ready to travel...thank goodness. The couple next to us at the campground have been stuck in Fairbanks for 26 days and counting! They are in a fifth wheel and their truck engine died on them near Tok. They were towed to the campground for $2400 and are now waiting on getting the truck repairs finished. That is one of those Alaska trip horror tales.

Back “home” and all hooked up, we enjoy the beautiful afternoon. Dick cooks the steak and the corn on the grilland Carolyn fixes the strawberries and shortcake. It is a pleasant evening with all our known problems solved.

Tues, Aug 25: Fairbanks

2009-08-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

It rained softly most of the night. Nothing hard, just a pitter-patter on the roof when you thought to listen as you turned over. It was really rather nice. This morning it is in the low 40's, there are puddles everywhere and the awning off the rig is dripping in the low corner. The air smells of Christmas trees!

We manage to wile away the whole morning and early afternoon working on this blog and the hard copy book of our around the world trip. After lunch, we take off and check what is showing at the movies. The new Harry Potter flick is showing so we will probably catch it in the next few days. Then, on our way to the Visitor Information Center, the phone rings. It is a lady with the parts for Carolyn’s computer. It seems her business is just around the corner from Gabe’s Truck where the rig has a 1:00PM appointment to get its front end repaired/aligned tomorrow. We agree to drop the computer on the way to leave the rig for its repair. With a little luck, both the computer and the rig will be repaired and ready to rumble by this time tomorrow night!

We then finish our trip to the Visitor Information Center where we find out where to look for some of the First American wooven baskets. They make the baskets out of several materials, but we like the sweet grass ones. The pictures are quite beautiful and we would like to have one to add to our collection. We also talk to a provider of the trips to Prudhoe Bay about going there. They have room for us on Saturday or Monday. We would be on the road or in the air with them for two nights and three days! We will make final arrangements tomorrow if all goes well.

We then visit a shop that stocked some of the baskets, but theirs are way too expensive. While beautiful hand work, they are over priced for our pocket book. If I had the funds, I would buy a small gray and black basket made from whale baleen. It is about 3 inches in diameter and the same tall. It could grace my home for $2,200 and no tax! The sweet grass ones were very pretty too, but are $500 to well over a $1000. The work on them is much finer than the sweet grass baskets we have from South Carolina.

After finding out that the baskets are beautiful but over priced, we go to the local Sam’s Club and to WalMart to restock food and other consumables. I fill up the Explorer at Sam’s for $3.089 a gallon.

Back at the rig, we enjoy a cocktail and then have garlic spaghetti and a salad for dinner. It is now nearly 10:00PM and the sun is setting with a red/orange glow in the west. All in all, this has been a good day. Let’s hope that the repairs to the rig and the computer go smoothly tomorrow. Pictures are taken of the Chena River and rig in the campground tonight at 10PM with no flash.

Mon, Aug 24: Fairbanks

2009-08-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Dick is up early and gone by 7:45AM to try and find someone who can align the front end of the rig. His first stop is the local Ford dealer. The service writer is very nice but they do not have an alignment machine that will take the weight and physical size of the rig. He recommends two places in town that should be able to do the work. The first of these cannot do it for the same reasons, but the second, Gabe’s Truck and Auto, can do it and are a Good Sam Service location. They make an appointment to have the work done at 1:00PM on Wednesday, August 26. Now, let’s hope the problem is just an alignment issue and not something bent or broken.

Dick returns to the rig about 9:30AM to silence. He quietly makes a travel mug of coffee and then heads out to replace a digital camera card reader and to look for a single DVD disk onto which he needs to copy some photos. The reader is easy, but no one will sell a single DVD and the bundles of 10 that he finds are a little expensive. He will look some more later.

After putting gas in the Explorer at $3.139 per gallon, he returns to the rig by 10:30AM and Carolyn is up. We don’t expect the call from the Dell technician today so we plan to drive the 132 mile round trip to Chena Hot Springs just to get out and to see the countryside. We see some interesting signs and a couple of moosealong the way but the last 35 miles is under construction and we spend over an hour waiting for pilot cars during the round trip. Except for the construction the drive is nice. There is a little color in the aspen and the road follows the Chena River the whole way. Chena Hot Springs is nothing to brag about in the summer. It might be quite nice as a winter sports area.

We return to Fairbanks and restock our bar at a WalMart liquor store and then return to the rig. Dinner is baked chicken with Stove Top Stuffing and green beans. It might not be quite as good as the salmon and prime rib of last night but it tastes good just the same.

We continue to suffer from the sun’s refusal to go down and once again we go to bed with it quite light outside despite it being nearly 10:00PM.

Sun, Aug 23: On the Road to Fairbanks

2009-08-24T01:58:00.000-07:00

It is a little over cast this morning as we leave our little hide away about 50 miles south of Fairbanks. During the night another rig pulled in, but we never spoke to the couple before leaving.
The drive is uneventful and we get to Fairbanks about 11:30 AM. We check into River's Edge Campground after checking out the only other campground with full hook ups. Finally, we get set up after moving to a second site. The first one was really cramped, especially since we will probably be here all week. Last night Dick made contact with Dell Service and we should have Carolyn’s computer up and running by Friday if all goes well!

The rig and the car are covered in dirt and dust inside and out. Carolyn tackles the inside of the rig and Dick works on the outside of the rig and under the hood of the Explorer. It is getting harder and harder to get the drive shaft reconnected when it is unhooked and we want to drive it. There is probably road debris in the mechanism. The whole engine block has a half-inch of dust on it! Several hours later and a roll of paper towels sacrificed to the dust monster, we have a fairly clean “home” and the Explorer seems happier!

We then spend some time looking through all our stuff on things to do in Fairbanks. First on the list, without too much thinking, we elect for an early dinner at the all you can eat Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park. About 6PM, we head over to the Park. It turned cold and started raining about 4:30PM so we will eat inside, but we go to all the stations in the outside setting. Lets see, at the check in station, we are given a big fish shaped platter and go first to the sides station for salads, maybe eight different ones with baked beans and hot bread, of course. Next is the BBQ pit and carving station

where we are given a huge slice of prime rib and a huge piece of grilled salmon. That is topped off with pieces of deep fried Halibut and Cod! Dick gets our drinks and we go into the warm dinning room and eat like crazy. There is cake and coffee if we are still hungry...and, of course, we are! Heck we have just completed our trek to Alaska!

The food isn’t gourmet, but it is good and worth what we paid. After we eat we walk around since the rain has just about stopped. There are many pieces of equipment around the grounds that were used during the gold rush days and early mining period.Probably the most interesting is a steam shovel that was used to dig the Panama Canal and then brought north to Fairbanks to work the gold fields.
We drive around town after we leave because Dick wants to check out two places he found in the phone book to possibly get the front end of the rig checked out. He wants to be there when they open to hopefully get an appointment early in the week. Then it is home and a quiet evening.

Sat, Aug 22: On the Road to Somewhere in Alaska

2009-08-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

We are up early...that damn sun! We are heading to Fairbanks now, but probably will not drive the whole way today, if we find a nice place to stop.

The highway down to Tok where we pick up the ALCAN again is even worse in places than the road into Chicken. There was a huge fire through this area, the Fortymile River area, in the summer of 2004. It burned 6 million acres from May to September that year. As far as the eye can see in places there is nothing except the new growth and the fireweed plant that is the first thing to come after a burn. The mountains all have a purple-pink hue right now.

Actually, having seen it before the fire and now is interesting as we can see all the twists and turns of Fortymile River and its streams now that the land is a meadow.
We stop in Tok at the Visitors Center and get a wealth of information on things to do and see in Alaska. Dick saw a lube place as we came into town with big bays. We go back to see about an oil change. The guy can change the oil as soon as he finishes what he is working on. So we have lunch in the rig while we wait. He gets to us very fast and checks everything out. He says we have a wheel problem, probably an alignment issue so that is one more thing we will get checked out in Fairbanks this week.

Back on the ALCAN again, we head to Delta Junction and the official end of the ALCAN. This is another pretty section of the Highway with high mountains on one side and a river on the other.At one point we cross a long bridge over a trickle of water that must be a ragging tourent during the Spring melt from the looks of the river bed.There is a pull off at the end of the bridge, so Dick turns off and drives out to the edge of the river bank. We get out for walk along the rocky shore doing some rock hounding and enjoying the views of the snow capped mountains.

In Delta Junction there is a nice little park area at the 1,422 Mile Marker.Across the street is the old Sullivan Roadhouse that was originally 18 miles down the road. It has been set up like it would have been at the turn of the last century.
Now, heading north on the Richardson Highway, we follow rivers again.It is getting late in the afternoon and we are ready to stop for the day. We find a RV park, Lazy Moose, right on the river with full hook ups and it is empty! Checking it out, we find it is on an honor system so we make ourselves at home and have a pleasant evening, sitting out side in the warm sun watching the river go by!
The park actually has internet too, so Dick contacts Dell about Carolyn’s computer problem and makes arrangements for the screen to be replaced while we are in Fairbanks. Carolyn's computer being out of commission makes get the blog up harder. Dick doesn't share well!

Carolyn fixes a light meal of fettuccini and after a beautiful day we call it quits in the land of the midnight sun!.

Fri, Aug 21: On the road to Chicken, Alaska, USA

2009-08-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

It is not as bright and sunny this morning, but it isn’t raining either. That is good since we will drive "The Top of the World Highway"and then wind down the dirt and gravel road on the US side to Chicken, Alaska.

We make a fast trip to the grocery store for milk and eggs, hook up the car and head out only to stop again two blocks from the camp to check out a crafts store. After buying a couple of gifts, we stop for a couple of vintage Dawson City photos; unrestored buildings, the restored hotel and post office
and head over to the ferry that connects Dawson City to West Dawson across the Yukon River. The ferry runs until ice starts to form in the river and then, usually about three weeks later, sometime in November, the ice bridge opens to traffic untill about April when there are another three or so weeks while the ice breaks up and the ferry can starts running again. People living in West Dawson have about six weeks to two months a year where they are rather isolated!

We are lucky and drive right on.It doesn’t take long to cross and we are on our way. The Top of the World Highway climbs up into the mountains and runs along the ridge line for 65 miles.It is a beautiful drive and we can see for miles both north and south.The road was freshly seal coated when we came across in 2002, but today it is not in as good condition with many breaks and long stretches of gravel. There is absolutely nothing except road, scenery and a few gold mining ghost towns. The border crossing is in the middle of nowherewith two Americans and two Canadians manning their respective post, very lonely duty!
A fast passport check by a less than friendly agent (coming into Canada the agent was very personable, I don’t understand why our agents can’t be that way) and we are back in the good old USA!We stop at the official welcome sign for Alaska for pictures, we made it!Heading on up the road a way, we stop at another pretty overlook and visit with two Germans on their way to Dawson City in a rented RV.
The road on the US side is awful, with lots of wash boarding and wash outs on the outside lane, but the views are beautiful and we make the 35 miles down the mountain, with only a little tooth jarring, into the booming metropolis of Chicken, Alaska! Chicken is a gold mining townfrom the 1900's and is today home to a US Post Officeand three businesses: two RV parks and "Down Town Chicken", a café, saloon/liquor store and gift shop.As we pull into "Down Town Chicken", two Holland American tour buses pull out on their way to Canada. We are glad we did not meet them coming down the gravel road!

We get a site at the campground with full hook ups, it makes life easier, and settle in.

We are at the back end of the campground near the Pedro Dredge that use to work the mines around here. We and another rig are their only takers for tonight. There is internet supposedly, but we can’t connect. Also, when Carolyn turns on her computer, the screen is garbage. Great, hopefully we can get that dealt with in Fairbanks!

Carolyn fixes spaghetti and we watch "A Lion in Winter". This story picks up where the book "Pillars of the Earth" ended. It’s a long movie and it’s all we can do to stay awake.

Thurs, Aug 20: Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada

2009-08-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

This morning is bright, dry and sunny. While we have a late breakfast, we read through the tourist booklet and decide to go to the information center for more detailed information. Dawson City has a great information center.

We head out to see Bonanza Creek,

the location of the first gold strike in1896. The picture above is the actual location of the first gold strike in August 1896. There are channels of gravel all along the creek bed and up onto the hill sides from all the dredging work.Gold is still being mined and there are KEEP OUT signs all along the road. Several miles up the road are two National Park areas, one around Dredge #4 and the other at Discovery Claim, the site of the first strike, and Claim #6, a place where you can pan free using only hand tools. The Dredge is huge.It is the largest wooden-hulled, bucket-line, gold dredge in North America and has definitely left its mark in Bonanza Creek.

At Discovery Mine we see a couple of young men panning. Up the road at Claim #6, there are a group of people trying their hand. We get out and wander around doing a bit of rock hounding, but the water is too cold and the ground too muddy to really get into the panning scene.

Back in town, we go the the Palace Grandfor a little skit put on by the parks department summer workers. It is OK, but the movie on the Gold Rush is better. The theater has been restored to its original grandure.

After that we drive around a little, the town has completed restoring many of the old building since we were here in 2002. There are wooden side walks and most of the buildings are brightly painted and open for business.At 5:30PM we head down to the Yukon River landing for a two-hour river ride on the side wheeler, Klondike Spirit.We go down river far enough to see the First Nation village of Moosehideand then turn around and go by the steamboat boat graveyard.
From there we go up river about 4-5KM from Dawson City, past the mouth of the Klondike River with its dark green clear water pouring into the slit laden Yukon giving the Yukon a two tone effect.We then pass a First Nation fishing Camp and finally turn around in the area of a back woodsman, dog trainer, trapper.It takes a hour and a half to go upriver and ten minutes to go back down, or put another way...it took four to five days to go from Dawson City to Whitehorse up river and about 21 hours to come back down river from Whitehorse to Dawson City!Back at the rig, a little after 8PM, we fix quiche for supper and think about going to Diamond Tooth Gertie’s CanCan show at 10:30PM; but not very hard!

Wed, Aug 19: On the Road to Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canadn

2009-08-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

We wake to a beautiful morning again and are on the road by 9AM. After a gas stop we head up the ALCAN and turn right...north...on the Klondike Highway to Dawson City 318 miles away. The road starts off in good shape and we drive along the shores of Lake Laberge for a while through wooded rolling hills. About half way to Carmacks, one of two "towns"...a service station/all purpose store and a few dwellings...on the way to Dawson City we stop to stretch our legs at pretty Fox Lake. This section of the highway follows lake shores or rivers and is nice and scenic. The road is deteriorating as we go north though.

We cross the Yukon River againand pass through Carmacks, established as a trading post in 1890's. We stop for a picture of the river valleyjust before Five Finger Rapids, where the river divides into five channels. The road is really rough now with many gravel sections but fortunately there is very little traffic.
At this point we leave the Yukon River and head to Pelly Crossing, the second "town"... a gas/food station and a campground. We stop at an overlook,fix lunch and enjoy the view out over Pelly River. From now on the road is mostly built up with bogs on either side that your car could disappear in or small streamsand beaver lakes.We feel like we are riding a roller coaster due to all the frost-heaves. They are marked with orange flags just before you hit them so you know the heaves are coming and can "hold on"! We also get into rain so that just adds to the thrill. About 4PM we get to Dawson City in a misty, sunny rain and find a gravel parking place for the rig at a campground in town. The campground is well maintained and not full, so it really is not as bad as it sounds. We relax for a while and then fix some Mexian food. It has been a long day so, Dick goes to bed early and Carolyn works on the around the world picture books for a while.

Tues, Aug 18: Whitehorse, Yukon Territoey, Canada

2009-08-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

It is a beautiful morning with bright sunshine and big white fluffy clouds. We spend the morning doing some food prep to make things easier later and messing with the computers. Carolyn fixes a picnic lunch and we head out about noon.

The plan is to drive down the Klondike Highway a ways south toward Skayway. We won’t drive this section later in the trip. The road follows the famous White Pass and Yukon Route Railway down to Carcross. This section of the railroad has not see service for many years.

We stop at Kookatsoon Lake Provincial Park for lunch.
This is a pretty little day use park on the shores of a crystal clear lake with a nice swimming beach. Brrr....!. After the lunch break, we head down the road to the historic Robinson Road House.It is a short hike back in the woods across the tracks to the old timber "village", a roadhouse and saloon, several log and sod roofed cabins and out buildings, along side the railroad tracks. This roadhouse was in its hey day in the 1890s. It was a transfer station, train to wagon, for goods being transported on the railroad before it was completed into Whitehorse.

About 3PM, we head back to Whitehorse to get some more trout. Last night’s trout was great. We are in luck as they have three trout left and we buy two. They have not restocked the frozen potato section but dessert section is full, so we get two frozen pie crust for quiche to hold us over with easy meal prep till we get to Fairbanks, the next stop that will have full hooks available. Carolyn has decided she can’t live with out something at the craft store so we stop there and Dick also stops at a auto parts store for some more oil. There has been no oil leak in the Explorer since the oil burp but....we are 300 miles from no where!

We have an early dinner of steak tonight then go back to town for the Frantic Follies, a Gold Rush variety show. It is cute and something different but we don’t make it to bed before the sun tonight. Our stay in Whitehorse has been low keyed but nice. On up the Klondike Highway to Dawson City tomorrow.

Mon, Aug 17: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada

2009-08-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

This morning dawns cold and wet so we don’t even move untill almost 10AM. It is raining steadily but not too hard. We lounge around, checking email and getting the blog caught up.

About noon Carolyn fixes a big country breakfast and we lounge some more. It is still raining and is forecast to do so the rest of the day. It should clear off tomorrow so we will probably stay over one more night. Sunny days are forecast for Dawson City starting Wednesday so it makes sense to slow down a bit.

Around 3PM we head for the local WalMart. The parking lot is full of RVers. It is a bust. It looks like Hurricane Ike is headed here! The shelves are stripped! So we head to the SuperStore, Canada’s version of WalMart. It is much bigger, but still the freezer cabinets are bare... literally...no frozen potato products, no frozen pie crust or any kind of pies, etc., and very little of any other kind of frozen food; just long aisles of empty cabinets....weird! The other thing we can’t find is bulk sausage like Owens or Jimmy Dean, not even a Canadian brand. We will be in Alaska by the weekend probably, maybe we can find it there. We do finally find a laundry bag and a pail...I know, but we have been looking for them the last 3,000miles or so! Carolyn gets some nice California strawberries and some fresh rainbow trout to fix almondine for supper.

After we exhaust the food stores, we head back into town

to check out a craft store. There are some really pretty wood crafts here, but artist are very proud of their work. The rain has now stopped, so we head to the dam on the Yukon River and check out Miles Canyon about 5KM up from the dam. It and Whitehorse Rapids were two, big, dangerous problems for the miners trying to get to the gold fields during the gold rush of 1898. The dam with its lake has tamed the rapids, but the canyon is still a dangerous body of water. Here the dam only raised the water level about 10 meters and there is still 10 meters of canyon wall left.There is a footbridge and a path along the canyon where a tram ran to haul the miners supplies from Canyon City to Whitehorse.Maybe, if it dries out some, we will cross the bridge and walk the 1.5 KM to the ghost town of Canyon City tomorrow.

It is starting to rain again so we head back to the rig and start our trout dinner. Cocktails, a good meal and a slow day has us turning in before the sun sets again tonight. Since the sun does not set until nearly 10PM that’s not as bad as it sounds though!

Sun, Aug 16: On the ALCAN to Whitehorse, Yukon Territiory, Canada

2009-08-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well, we are up and rolling early, having survived the bears and no electricity. This park didn’t allow a generator after 10PM. I think from now on we will only stay where we at least have electricity or can use the generator. Though we will still have to watch where we park. We had trouble running the generator even when we could. The sites are so closed in and the air so heavy and still, we kept getting carbon monoxide sucked into the rig and had to turn the generator off for a while. The climate is very oppressive due to the hot springs and the vegetation is similar to the tropics. The sun is up early and so are we. Believe it or not we are on the road a little after 8AM.

After crossing the Laird River yesterday, the road improved greatly. This morning we follow the Laird for a long way.
We are out of the Rockies and the land is rolling and heavily wooded.Signs warn of buffalo every few miles. We see the first ones as we pull out of the Park.There was a huge fire along here in June and there are signs every where telling motorist not to stop. In fact, we see smoke off the road so parts of the fire must still be smoldering and we see more buffalo too.There are beautiful views around every bend and over every hill. At least it seems that way! We get to Watson Lake around 10:30 and gas up. The tourist trade must really be off this summer. So far three of the lodge/gas stations that were listed as open for this season are shut up tight. Dick is watching the gauge closely as we have no desire to run out of gas! Watson Lake is famous for its sign post foreststarted many years ago by a soldier working on the road.We stop for the required picture and see a couple of signs from Texas.We cross between British Columbia and the Yukon Territory five or six times today, We lose count because only a few of the crossing are marked. The scenery begins to change also. It is very hilly with many beaver made lakesand snow capped mountains in the distance.At about mile mark 700, we cross the Continental Divide.The watershed on the east drains into the Arctic Ocean 4000+KM away and the watershed to the west drains to the Pacific Ocean 3200+KM away. We are really enjoying the beauty! The road has been very good today, we don’t feel beaten to death and none of the cabinet doors have flown open so far! We stop at the overlook for Teslin and fix lunch.One of the longest bridges on the ALCAN crosses Teslin Lake here. The lake is large and we follow the shore for 86 miles. In fact, for the rest of the afternoon we drive along one lake after another ringed by mountains.This is also First Nation country, the native Americans of the area.

We get to Whitehorse about 4:30PM. It has been a long day, but the time went by fast with all the beautiful scenery. We find a nice wooded site at Hi Mountain Campgrounds and settle in for at least two nights. Turns out, the couple next to us is from Switzerland. They took a cruise up to Alaska from Vancouver and are now driving a rented motorhome back. They are very excited about the beauty...that is quite a compliment on the scenery given the beauty of the Swiss country side.

Sat, Aug 15: On the ALCAN to Laird Hot Springs Provincal Park, British Columbia, Canada

2009-08-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

It is another cool, sunny morning. We get breakfast and get things set up for a night of dry camping about 75 miles up the road at Laird Hot Springs. This is probably one of the prettiest sections of the highway and one of the roughest drives so far!We first drive along the Toad River.We pull off to take some pictures and visit with some men who are going to float across the river and go Stone Sheep hunting up in the mountains.A bit later we encounter a young Caribou lunching along side the road.We follow Muncho Lake, a beautiful turquoise blue lake filling the whole valley. Stopping at Strawberry Flats Provincial Park on the edge of the lake, we walk along the shore.There are only two rigs in the whole park, it is a beautiful settingand we probably should just stop for the nightand skip the Hot Springs.

From here, we drop down into Trout River Valley

see the Stone Sheep the hunters are after,and then pick up the Laid River, which is a much bigger river than we have seen so far. The hot springs are in a Provincial Park not far from the Laird River crossing.The park is very wooded and nicely maintained, but when we arrive the bugs are swarming and it is a bit of a let down after the beauty of the Muncho Lake Park. The whole stop gets off on a bad foot when Dick finds a dinner plate sized oil puddle under the car when we unhook it. He can’t find where the leak is. We drive the car around and can not find any more leaking....we will hope for the best at this point.

Carolyn fixes some lunch. Dick takes a nap and Carolyn works on the blog for a while. Hopefully we will be somewhere where there is Internet and more importantly cell phone service tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

About 6PM we decide to brave the mosquitoes and walk to the Hot Springs about 1KM away. They have made a boardwalk through the marsh to the springs.There are two pools, Alpha and Beta. Alpha is first and is the cooler of the two, about 110+F degrees. We use the changing rooms and walk in. It is HOT especially close to the bubbling springs, but 30 or 40 feet away it is hot but bearable. Lots of people are enjoying the pool. It is good sized and, of course, the farther from the springs the cooler the water is. We get to talking to a couple who drove up today from Dawson Creek to enjoy the springs. They are tent camping right across from us. They tell us that Beta pool is closed due to a bear problem. We had noticed three of the campsites closed off with a huge baited bear trap in the middle one.I am not real sure I would want to be in a soft sided set up close to the trap. We are about four sites from the trap!

Refreshed and relaxed we hike back and begin supper; New Mexico eggs. I can tell it is going to be another early night, but that is alright as tomorrow we hope to get to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, over 400 miles away.

Fri, Aug 14: On the ALCAN to Toad River, British Columbia, Canada

2009-08-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

We are up early, for us, this morning. It gets light really early up here! That is alright though, because Carolyn discovered that the pictures of the "0" Mile Marker did not transfer to the computer and Dick had erased the chip already. So about 9AM, we drive the mile and a half back into town and take the pictures again. We are officially heading north by 9:30AM. It is a clear cool morning, the road is good and the traffic is light.

Our first stop is about 15 miles north of Dawson Creek for a 10KM loop along some of the original Alaska highway

and across the only curved wooden bridge left, the Kiskatinaw bridge. Back on the main highway we head to the Peace River crossing. The road dips dramatically down to the river valley and we have a great view over the valley. This river created a bottleneck for the highway originally when it was only a ferry crossing. Then the first bridge, built in 1943, collapsed in 1957, the current one was built. We sort of slide across this bridge as the road bed is made of steel grating with ribs running parallel with the traffic. A pipeline crosses the Peace River with us.Dick says it is like driving on marbles and it feels plain weird!

The land is still rolling farm land, but the farms are getting farther apart now and the land is less cultivated. After about two hours we are in wooded, mountainous country.

The road is still good and there is lots of oil field activity.

By lunch time we reach Sikanni Chief River and the RV park where we were planning to stop. Since it is too early to stop, we buy gas and the owner lets us pull into one of the riverside camp sites to have lunch.

This is a rustic camp ground in a pretty setting, not too different from the rest we see.

The next true town is Fort Nelson, but it is still a bit early to stop, so we decide to go on to Toad River. The RV park there gets good reviews. Unfortunately the road's quality is going down hill fast.

After Fort Nelson we are back in the Canadian Rockies with fast moving clear rivers along side the road.The road is as much gravel as it is paved now, but it is still marginally OK. We see some deer, and moose along side the road and a Black Bear and her two cubs running across the road. We drive along Summit Lake in the Summit Pass area. This is the highest pass on the ALCAN at 4,250 feet and the lake can still have ice in late June. From here, we descend into the pretty MacDonald River Valley and follow the river for the next twenty plus miles. It is a rough, dusty drive, but the scenery is worth it. Unfortunatly we have more camera problems at this point. We get to Toad River Lodge and Campground about 5PM. It is a welcome sight and they show a vacancy, yeah! The campground sites back up to a large beaver lake and the whole place is very picturesque and rustic! We get set up in our space and walk around a bit. Carolyn goes in to get dinner started and Dick finds the beaver lodge and gets a couple of pictures before the beavers disappear.

Dick fixes garlic spaghetti and we settle in for a pleasant evening. Again we go to bed before the sun! There is a lot of daylight here during the summer.

Thurs, Aug 13: On the Road to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

2009-08-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

The only problem with the park campgrounds is there is no water and sewer at the sites and the central dump and water source is not large enough to handle everyone at one time. We decide to get up and get going around 8AM to be one of the first in line. That works well and we have no wait. We head out of the parkand get to Hinton around 9:30. Dick gasses up, we stop at a nice grocery and Carolyn fixes breakfast before we turn north to Alaska. The road sign even says Hwy 40 "Scenic route to Alaska". The drive is pleasant and the highway is mostly in good shape. The drive follows a river again through forest covered mountains

to Grand Prairie. The original plan was to spend the night here, but it is only a little after 2PM and too early to stop. So we drive on to Dawson Creekafter a stop at a big liquor store and some lunch in the parking lot. We are having trouble again with pull outs along the highway.

It is 80 miles to Dawson Creek and most of the drive is through the rolling plains dotted with small farms.When we get to Dawson Creek, our first stop is at Mile Marker "0" for the traditional pictures. Then we visit the Information Center and load up on maps and booklets on the AlCAN and the points of interest along the way. A very nice young lady tells us about the campgrounds and calls the one that appeals to us. It is a typical private campground, a mix of semi-permanent RVers who are summer workers and one or two-nighters like us. It is well kept, but the sites are tight.

We do some house keeping after five days of off and on rain and get caught up on the computers. Supper tonight is spaghetti and meat sauce out of our homemade freezer supply.
Tomorrow, twenty-six days after we left home we actually start our drive on the ALCAN!

Wed, Aug 12: On the Road to Jasper National Park, Jasper, Alberta, Canada

2009-08-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

Dick is up at 8:00AM and is feeling better despite still having a cough and runny nose. Hopefully, this will pass soon. Carolyn is up not too much later and asks Dick if he heard the noises around the rig last night and felt the bumps against the rig. He says yes but thought he was dreaming it...NO!

Carolyn fixes a breakfast of eggs, sausage and sweetroll and we eat outside as the sun is now out and we have a pretty view.

Carolyn finds some animal tracks around the rig, Jack says he is ready to go home now!
We pack up the rig and head to the dump and water supply before we head up the Icefield Parkway to Jasper. We have another night of camping with only electricity tonight in Jasper.
The Icefields parkway is a spectacular drivealong the Bow River valley formed by the melt waters of groups of glaciers. Then it climbs steadilyto the Columbia Icefields and drops quickly to the Sunwapta River valley. The first site to bring us to an abrupt halt is Herbert Lakewith its fabulous reflection of the surrounding mountains.An hour later we have gone only 25 miles...it is about a 150 mile drive, but it is evidently going to be a long day! We stop to check out Crowfoot Glacier;it looks like a bird foot but has lost most of one of its three toes in recent years: Bow Lakeand Glacier;Waterfowl lake;Saskatchewan River Crossingand Glacier; up and over Sunwapta Passwhere we stop to check out Bridal Veil Fallsand have a lunch break.

At this point the temperature falls and the glacier's weather effect kicks in with low clouds, mixed snow and rain. When we get to the Vistors Center at Athabasca Glacier it is raining in earnest. The glacier is very close to the road and you can actually take busses from the center for a walk on the Glacier. Having done this in the bright sunshine in Alaska, we have no desire to even bare the cold rain to hike to the vistor center today. The parking lot is packed. In my opinion this is the least attractive part of the Parkway, glaciers look very dirtly up close!

We head back down

into the Sunwapta River valley at a dizzing rate past more nice scenesand drop out of the rain. About 25 miles from Jasper, the highway joins the Athabasca River and we stop to explore the Athabasca Falls. We get to the campground entrance about 3:30PM to join a long line of moterhomes and campers waiting to check into the park campgrounds. It takes about an hour to get our assigned spot and get the rig set up. The site is very prettyso we set out the chairs and table before heading into townto check out some tourist shops...we are looking for a copy of the neat bear warning sign we keep seeing.No luck on the sign, but we buy a pizza for dinner and go back to the rig and enjoy the evening outside.

Night comes late here so we give up and go to bed in the dusk.

Tues, Aug 11: Banff National Park, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

2009-08-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Once again, we both sleep in. It is dark and cool when we get up about 9:00AM and is threatening rain. It only takes it a few minutes to make good on its threat and a light, steady rain begins.

After breakfast, we drive over to the hostel and sit in the parking lot while we sign on to their wifi router and download emails and business information and upload this blog. Back at the rig, we pack up, hook up and check out just before 11:00AM.

It is still raining, what the Irish refer to as a soft rain, and we only have 60KM or so to go to Lake Louise so we are in no hurry. We drive the alternate route through Johnson Canyon and find it to be a pretty drive. We see one moose cow

and numerous small creaturesalong with repeated warning signs that it is illegal to hike in these forests unless you are in a group of four or more persons. These signs are accompanied by photos of very angry Grizzly Bears. I guess that one hiker does not make a meal, two might not be enough and so they are sending in groups of at least four to keep the bears well fed and in the woods.

We arrive at the Lake Louise, hard-sided vehicle, campground about 1:30PM and check in. Only hard-sided campers are allowed here. All tents and soft sided campers must stay inside the electric fenced area. It would seem that they are somewhat concerned about the bear population! We are warned not to leave our campers after dark unless we are carrying a bright light and making lots of noise!

The campground leaves much to be desired. The one in Banff was very nice but this one is electric only and two units to a site, side-by-side.

It is no big deal as we have plenty of water and waste capacity for two days and will refill our water and dump before we leave tomorrow. The site is pretty barren though.

After unhooking the car, we head over to Lake Louise to see its world famous scene.

It is not far up the mountain to this lake and we luck out finding a parking place in the closest public lot. It is still cloudy and spitting rain so we do not get to see it in the sunshine but it is still a beautiful sight.The glacier, opposite the famous hotel, at the end of the valley, 7KM away, cooperates and drops a huge chunk of ice into the valley below and we hear the report of its landing some 20 seconds after the event!

Next, we drive about 14KM up another high valley past some stunning views

to Moraine Lake, another famous scene in this area and are fortunate in our parking again. More photos

and more crowds but now we can say we have been here ourselves and not just seen pictures.

Finally, we drive north and west on Canada 1 to Kicking Horse Pass

to see the sight and explanation of the spiral tunnels built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908-1909 to ease the route and dangers to the trains moving up and down this pass. You can’t see anything of the tunnels except two of the entranceson a mountainside across from the parking lot but they do have a good explanation of the how and why of the project and it is well worth the stop. The tunnels are several miles long and do a figure 8 inside the two mountains forming the sides of the pass.

Leaving here, we drive on down the pass to the village of Field where we turn around and head back up the passto get a feel for the route the trains took before the tunnels were built. Canada 1 now follows the old rail route. It must have really been a hair raising ride before the tunnels cut the grade in half. We return to our campsite only to discover we need ice so we turn around and buy three small bags of ice for $8.53CDN or $7.85US. Back at camp it is only 5:30PM so we have a snack and try to delay dinner awhile. After a supper of stuffed tortellini with homemade pesto sauce and a Caesar Salad we are both in bed by 9:30PM. Carolyn works on our Around The World Book for awhile but turns out the light before too long.

Mon, Aug 10: Banff National Park, Banff, Albert, Canada

2009-08-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

This morning started at 10:15AM! We must really be tired, especially Dick, He never sleeps this late. He still doesn’t feel very good. The cough is getting to him. It is cool and a little overcast.

We get going and have some breakfast and plan the day. After reading through Milepost, a guide to driving to Alaska, Dick decided he needed to get some extra filters and oil. We checked out the store here in Banff yesterday and it didn’t have a good food selection so we are going to head out of the Park to Canmore later today; maybe the shopping will be better.

About 1:00PM we get on the road and drive a scenic loop by the Hoodoos, strange rock formations above the Bow River. We then head to Lake Minnewanka. It is a beautiful man made lake originally dammed up in 1912. We met three people going scuba diving. They said the water is in the 50's and that people dive the lake year round, brrr...! We then drove over to Two Jack Lake

and on to Johnson Lake.This lake is a popular lake for swimming and picnicing. There are lots of people and even some swimming.The scenery is gorgeous!I fixed a lunch for us, but Dick doesn’t feel like eating so we headed out of the park to Canmore looking for an auto parts place, a grocery and some place to get some medicine for Dick.

Canmore is a resort town just outside the park boundary. We quickly find an auto parts place and Dick gets what he needs. We find a local, chain, food store that is really nice with lots of speciality items. Carolyn picks up a few more fresh things. There is a pharmacy in the store and the pharmacist recommends something for Dick too.

We get back to the rig about 4PM and just relax for a while before grilling hamburgers for dinner and grilling some chicken we got at the store for some later meals. The medicine seems to have helped Dick as he is feeling better.

Dick then heads over to the wifi hot spot we found to check on some business and Carolyn works on the blog. We head for Lake Louise tomorrow. We will try to post this as we leave town.

Sun, Aug 9: Banff National Park, Banff, Alberta, Canada

2009-08-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Twelve hours of sleep should do us both good. It is cool this morning, too much so to eat outside.

Carolyn figures out what went wrong with the reservations. We spent only two nights in Greybull, when the trip plan called for three. One should check their plan every now and then! Guess that shows how bad Carolyn was feeling! No problem though. We do try to move up the reservations at Lake Louise and Jasper one day each, but Lake Louise is full, so we just leave everything as is with the extra night in Banff. The camp site is nice; there is plenty to do and see and we need the rest. Dick is still not feeling too well, so our plan for today is to rest and recoup, maybe even get better organized with our picture storage.

We spend the morning at the campsite, both of us working on the computer on the current blog report and pictures plus the Around The World picture book. About 2:00PM we have lunch and head into town. We need eggs and milk and an ATM machine. That taken care of we walk around the nice little downtown of Banff. It is very touristy, but pretty.

After buying a couple of Christmas items and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police pin for Jack, we head to an internet café at a hostel. Believe it or not, it has free internet! We double check our reservation date at Laird Hot Springs for Aug 15th and Dick does some banking business. We will come by here tomorrow and get the blog caught up.
Back at the campsite we have our cocktails and fix chicken and dressing along with strawberry shortcake for supper.

Sat, Aug 8: On the Road to Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

2009-08-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

It is grey and overcast this morning as we break camp. After gassing up the Explorer, we head up Hwy 93 through a valley of mostly farm land. It is about an hour’s drive to the border.
At the border there are maybe five cars waiting in line. The line moves fast; most must be returning Canadians. With in minutes, the line behind us is ten cars long including three motor homes and we are talking to the border agent...our timing is perfect. The lady agent is friendly, looks at our passports and asks if we have any liquor or weapons. Dick quickly tells her the amount, in liters, of liquor we have and that we have no guns. She asks, "where did you leave the guns? Dick replies, "they are at home, why do you ask?" She responds, "you are from Texas!" We all laugh and she asks about fresh fruits and vegetables, Carolyn tells her we have lettuce and tomatoes. She checks again on potatoes, peaches, plums and apricots. Carolyn says we ate those up last night.

She also questions the extra pages in the passports and all the countries we have visited...were they business? Dick responds we just finished a trip around the world and are now going to drive the ALCAN to Alaska. We are celebrating retiring! She wishes us a safe trip and sends us on our way! We are on our way in eleven minutes after stopping in the line.

The countryside is very pretty. We drive for a long way through a forested valley along a river with rugged rocky mountains on either side.

About 1:30PM, we are ready to find a lunch spot as we are driving along a beautiful lake. Like so many places in New Zealand, there is absolutely no place to pull off the road and enjoy the view. Finally we see a gravel wide spot and pull over. Carolyn fixes some lunch and we enjoy the scenery for a bit.

About 3:00PM we reach Radium Hot Springs, a resort town built up around the hot springs at the entrance to Kootenay National Park . Stopping at the park entrance, we purchase a four day pass. We are entering a complex of four national parks and will camp for four nights in two of them. The road into the park goes through a narrow canyon giving Kootenay an impressive entrance with an 11% climb for a mile are two. The mountains are stark and steep. We follow a river canyon for the next 50 or so miles to Banff in Banff National Park. It is a beautiful drive and we arrive at the campsite in Banff about 5:00PM.

Here we encounter a small problem...they don’t have a reservation for us! Seems as how our reservation starts tomorrow for two days! Fortunately, they can accommodate us for tonight then our reservations are good for the next three nights in Banff and in Lake Louise and one more night in Jasper National Park. Tomorrow we can try calling to see if we can move the dates at Lake Louise and Jasper up one day each. We are assigned a very nice, wooded, spacious site. Dick is feeling so bad right now, he is glad to have three nights in one place.

We get set up; even getting out the outside chairs and ground mat. After enjoying a nice sunset with deer roaming the campsite, we have the chicken pie Carolyn had fixed the day before. By 9:00PM we are both asleep with a golden moon shining in through the trees !

Fri, Aug 7: West Glacier, MT and Glacier National Park.

2009-08-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

The weatherman is never right. The sky is blue with puffy white clouds this morning! So about 10:30PM we head out to drive the "Going to the Sun Highway" again. Since it is Friday, there is a lot more traffic. We take our time and stop at some of the lookouts we missed yesterday along Lake McDonald. There is a much longer wait at the construction area, but when we get to Logan Pass, we can see down the valley so we drive down to St Mary’s Lake and stop for a view of Jackson Glacier. This is an incredible road and the scenery is spectacular! It needs to be driven both ways as the scenery looks very different going down instead of up or vice verse! It is definitely worth the two trips. It is a 96 mile round trip! Allow four hours!

Back at the west entrance, we stop at Apgar Village to look around and then head back "home". We will go into Canada tomorrow, so Carolyn spends the rest of the afternoon cooking up the fresh food we would otherwise have to throw away and making a meal to heat up tomorrow night. The border crossing may take a long time so she is planning ahead since we have about a six hour drive to Banff.

Dick cooks a steak and we have some fresh local peaches for desert. We work on getting the blog up to date also, since we don’t know when we will have Internet again.

Thurs, Aug 6: On the Road to West Glacier, MT and Glacier National Park.

2009-08-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

The rain stops about 7:00AM and by the time we are leaving the campground the sun is out and the streets are drying. More than half of the driving today is on I-90 and is rather boring. It is nice to have books on tape for times like this. We are listening to "The Pillars of the Earth." We turn off I-90 at Missoula and head due north to West Glacier. About 45 miles of this stretch is along the beautiful Flathead Lake. There are fabulous lake homes and marinas around every turn. At Kalispell, we stop at a big grocery store and restock our fresh produce for the next day.

We plan to stay at the KOA in West Glacier and arrive about 3:30PM. We meet two rigs coming away from the campground and see that there are about four more waiting to check in. The campground looks almost full. We are not willing to wait so Dick makes a U turn in the middle of the two lane road, not an easy feat when you are 47 ½ feet long, but we don’t get stuck or hit anythying! We head to the second choice, Sam, Suz and Ed just down the road and are glad we didn’t wait around as we meet six more rigs coming up the road to the KOA. It looks like they may be hosting a rally or other group, with everyone pulling in at the same time.

It was good that we didn’t wait around at KOA as we got the last full hook up at Sam et al campground. It is not as new as KOA, but it has big shade trees and has a real camping feel to it. By 4:30PM we are set up. Dick listens to the weather radio and hears that heavy rain is expected for tomorrow so we decide to drive the "Going to the Sun Highway" now. What a spectacular road! It was built in the late 1920's and early 1930's and has not changed much...a real cliff hanger! Since it is late, there is not too much traffic. We stop at a couple of turn outs and take tons of pictures.

There is construction near the pass, but the delay is very short. Going across the pass we get into the clouds and the East side is fogged in.

Dick now has the cold Carolyn had the first week of the trip and his ear plugs up painfully as we head to the pass. We decide to go on down the east side and take the loop around the base of the mountains back to West Glacier. It is a nice drive, but a good bit longer; 120 vs. 48 miles.

We get back to the rig about 8:00PM and fix another round of New Mexico eggs and plan for a lazy, rainy day tomorrow to catch up on the picture sorting and the blog.