I need to make a correction - the pine trees are Lodgepoles, I have no idea why I called them Logpoles. Forgive me, I'm old.
We heard a number of stories about the condition of the Alaska Highway but have found that it's really a pretty good road. The road crews appear to be on top of the frost heaves and repairs have been done or are underway. The rough spots are also well marked with signs. We've been pretty impressed.
Another thing I've neglected to mention is the number of hours of daylight - there are a lot of them. We go to sleep in the light and we wake up in the light. Fortunately, I don't have any issues with going to sleep so it's not a problem. It's just so weird. Today is the longest day of the year - I think Jan said there were supposed to be 21 hours of daylight - I don't know, I was asleep.
We got on the road at 8:32 and drove past lakes that looked like mirrors, meadows with streams running through them, and snow capped mountains in the distance. Along the way we met a couple traveling on motorcycles. They're from Vancouver and plan to ride as far north in Alaska as they can, head to the East Coast of Canada & the US, down to the South, across to the Southwest, down through Mexico, and end up at the bottom of South America. They plan to take 2 years to do it. Boy, do we ever feel like wimps - a mere 2 months and only to Canada & Alaska.
We stopped for the day in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. We stayed in a nice RV park but pretty crowded. We went out for dinner and there were no empty tables so a man invited us to share his. He was from British Columbia and was in town on business. He and Jan must have visited for an hour and a half solving all the world's issues. We stopped at Walmart to buy ice - they don't sell ice. Who ever heard of a Walmart that doesn't sell ice?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Day 14
We left the Tetsa River RV park at 8:42 and continued our journey with the goal to end our day in the Yukon Territory. We began the day with the rolling mountains & thick forests, made our way through the end of the Northern Rockies, and ended with rolling mountains once again. The Northern Rockies portion had really rugged mountains and peaks. In that area we got to see Stone Sheep mamas and their babies. The scenery changed back to rolling mountains and forests and that's where we got to see a herd of bison pretty much up close & personal, but not as close as Mr. Picture Taker Jan, he wanted a nice close up (and he got it).
As we were driving through Northern BC, it dawned on me the logpole pine trees were really healthy looking - no pine beetles. As I was admiring the green trees, we came around a curve face to face with the remains of a forest fire that happened last year. It went on for miles and even destroyed an entire mountain.
Tonight we are at the Baby Nugget RV Park in Nugget City (the RV park is Nugget City) in the Yukon Territory. It's pretty expensive as far as RV parks go plus they charge for everything - a shower is $1.00 (or 1 Loonie in Canada) for 2.5 minutes. I'm glad I have my own! Jan also had to pay $5.00 for WiFi but it's worth it (it's been free in most of the parks that offer it).
Believe it or not, it was actually hot here today. I was of course wearing jeans and long sleeves because we ARE in the Yukon and had to change into shorts & a short sleeve shirt. Jerry & Nancy even turned on their AC.
I reported earlier that the speed limit signs just had a number - well - I have noticed that in British Columbia the speed limit signs have a km/h under the number. I didn't want to mis-speak (like a politician).
As we were driving through Northern BC, it dawned on me the logpole pine trees were really healthy looking - no pine beetles. As I was admiring the green trees, we came around a curve face to face with the remains of a forest fire that happened last year. It went on for miles and even destroyed an entire mountain.
Tonight we are at the Baby Nugget RV Park in Nugget City (the RV park is Nugget City) in the Yukon Territory. It's pretty expensive as far as RV parks go plus they charge for everything - a shower is $1.00 (or 1 Loonie in Canada) for 2.5 minutes. I'm glad I have my own! Jan also had to pay $5.00 for WiFi but it's worth it (it's been free in most of the parks that offer it).
Believe it or not, it was actually hot here today. I was of course wearing jeans and long sleeves because we ARE in the Yukon and had to change into shorts & a short sleeve shirt. Jerry & Nancy even turned on their AC.
I reported earlier that the speed limit signs just had a number - well - I have noticed that in British Columbia the speed limit signs have a km/h under the number. I didn't want to mis-speak (like a politician).
Day 13
I forgot to mention the best part of our bike ride in Dawson Creek. We saw a beaver swimming down the creek with a good sized tree branch in his mouth. We followed it for a little while but the creek took a turn and we decided not to keep going. I was just really eager to get back on the bike.
Today was a day to put on some miles so it was spent driving. But that's not a bad thing, driving here is really amazing. We left Dawson Creek at 8:34 and our goal was to get at least as far as Fort Nelson. We made it to Fort Nelson at 2:30 and decided to keep going since it was so early. The drive today was a different kind of beautiful - rolling mountains covered with thick forests. Everything was so lush & green except for the logpole pine trees that have been ravaged by pine beetles (I'm assuming they're like bark beetles). The forests in Montana, Alberta, & British Columbia have really been hit hard - it's pretty sad. We also saw a couple of bears just strolling down the road today.
We stayed at the Tetsa River Services & Campground and it was pretty hilarious. The park is nothing like the description in our "Mileposts" book. We were parked side by side on a large cement slab next to an old (really old) tack building with construction supplies piled on one side. The price included water & electricity but we couldn't locate the hookups. It turned out the electrical plug was under one of the eaves on the tack shed and the water was around the back of the shed - we would have needed a 50 ft. hose to reach it. There were also piles of old horse manure all over our parking slab. On the good side, the surrounding forest was very pretty, the price was only $25.00, the people who ran it were very nice, and, most importantly, the woman made huge homemade cinnamon rolls that were absolutley divine. I do have my priorities.
Today was a day to put on some miles so it was spent driving. But that's not a bad thing, driving here is really amazing. We left Dawson Creek at 8:34 and our goal was to get at least as far as Fort Nelson. We made it to Fort Nelson at 2:30 and decided to keep going since it was so early. The drive today was a different kind of beautiful - rolling mountains covered with thick forests. Everything was so lush & green except for the logpole pine trees that have been ravaged by pine beetles (I'm assuming they're like bark beetles). The forests in Montana, Alberta, & British Columbia have really been hit hard - it's pretty sad. We also saw a couple of bears just strolling down the road today.
We stayed at the Tetsa River Services & Campground and it was pretty hilarious. The park is nothing like the description in our "Mileposts" book. We were parked side by side on a large cement slab next to an old (really old) tack building with construction supplies piled on one side. The price included water & electricity but we couldn't locate the hookups. It turned out the electrical plug was under one of the eaves on the tack shed and the water was around the back of the shed - we would have needed a 50 ft. hose to reach it. There were also piles of old horse manure all over our parking slab. On the good side, the surrounding forest was very pretty, the price was only $25.00, the people who ran it were very nice, and, most importantly, the woman made huge homemade cinnamon rolls that were absolutley divine. I do have my priorities.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Day 12
We spent the day hanging out in Dawson Creek. We went to the Museum and learned all about the building of the Alcan Highway and the history of Dawson Creek. Jerry & Nancy went exploring around town and Jan & I went for a bicycle ride on the Dawson Creek Trail - the trail started near our RV park. Now, mind you, I haven't even ridden my bike in a number of years so I'm pretty bad. I rode it a little at Utah Lake but I wasn't riding WITH Jan - he RIDES, I mosey. I felt kind of bad for him because he kept having to stop and wait for me. I told him that at least his eyeballs got a lot of exercise because he rolled them a lot. I actually lived through the experience (thus I'm able to write this blog entry) and if nothing else, I'm a good sport.
Our grandson video called us tonight so we got to talk to and see Joshua, Delaney & Lisa. Video calling is so cool!
We plan to head out early tomorrow morning and start making our way to Fairbanks.
Our grandson video called us tonight so we got to talk to and see Joshua, Delaney & Lisa. Video calling is so cool!
We plan to head out early tomorrow morning and start making our way to Fairbanks.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Days 4 thru 11
We are finally in a park with WiFi! Those parks are few and far between, in fact, we've been without phone service a number of times as well.
On Thursday, June 10th, we drove out of Idaho into Montana. We were so excited when a park ranger directed us to a scenic drive to take us to Helena (we love the scenic drives) but the scenic drive turned out to be no fun at all. What the ranger didn't know was that about 6 miles of the road was under construction, which wouldn't have been too bad except we ended up in a really bad rain & hail storm. Our clean truck & trailer are now grossed out.
Friday, June 11th - We followed the Missouri River through beautiful mountains and canyons. We stopped in Great Falls to buy some groceries and to see the Great Falls. Unfortunately, the exit we chose to find a store took us right into downtown - crowded, narrow streets - not good when you're pulling a trailer. It was freezing cold, too. Today we crossed into Canada and stayed at a park in Milk River.
We've been kind of amused at the road signs in Canada, eh. The speed limit signs are white with a black number, that's it, just a number (not to mention that the numbers are metric). Jan was disappointed that 110 did not mean miles per hour. They also have a lot of signs that have pictures - no words. Like some stick people with binoculars means a scenic viewpoint, a picture of a traffic lane with what looks like a garbage truck means watch for trucks entering the highway. I'm a little disturbed at the one that has a black man holding a shovel in a pile of dirt -could it be some sort of racist jab at our president? Someone should call the ACLU (or would that be CCLU)! Or maybe it just means "men working".
Saturday June 12th - On to Banff via Calgary. The traffic in Calgary was awful but the scenery was awesome. We also made the mistake of driving into Banff trying to locate the Visitors Center - it too was jam packed with people & cars and the streets are very narrow. We went to a Provincial Park to camp but our trailers wouldn't fit so we wound up at Lake Louise RV Park. Our camp site was great - the Bow River went right behind us. Jan got to take a long bike ride, which he really enjoyed. We saw some bears along the road while we were driving. The only negative at this RV park was that it was also across the street from a very active railroad track. That train was lovely to listen to at 4:00 AM.
Sunday, June 13th - We stayed an extra night at Lake Louise so we could visit Lake Louise and Moraine Lake as well. Both lakes are crystal clear, surrounded by snow capped peaks. We ate lunch at the trailer and then ventured on to Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park. We were told there was a nice stroll around the lake that would take us about 2 hours - we decided to do it. Well, only half was a nice stroll and it took longer than 2 hours. We were pooped! A stop at the Natural Bridge (the Kicking Horse River eroded the rocks to form a bridge) and then back home.
Monday, June 14th - On to Jasper via the Icefields Parkway. We saw a big horn sheep just sitting by the road, Jan took pictures of a grizzly bear by the road, too. Beautiful, awesome, breathtaking - none of these words is adequate to describe this area. Majestic snow & glacier topped mountains, beautiful lakes and rivers, rugged peaks - amazing. We stopped at Athabasca Falls - they are so forceful you can feel the ground shake - beautiful as well. A mother elk and her baby came right through our camp today.
Tuesday, June 15th - We stayed over an extra night so we could go exploring around Jasper. We went up to the tram but didn't ride it - it was cloudy & freezing, there's no way I was going to the top of the mountain. Jasper is a quaint and cute little town - nothing like Banff. We drove to Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake where we ate lunch at the Lodge. Along the way we got to see 2 black bears (crossed the road in front of us), 3 deer, & an elk with thick velvet on his antlers. A female came through camp again tonight but she didn't have a baby with her. Jan got to take another long bike ride and saw a huge male elk.
Wednesday, June 16th - We drove Scenic Route 16 from Jasper to Prince George then on to Whiskers Point Provincial Park for the night. We were camped on McLeod Lake - very pretty. The Provincial Parks are great places to stay, they are well maintained and very inexpensive.
Thursday, June 17th - We arrived today in Dawson Creek British Columbia - mile 0 for the Alcan Highway. It's been an exciting day - I did laundry (lots of it) and went to Walmart for groceries. Strange Walmart - no produce or meat. We did go out for pizza - that was good. Jerry & Nancy want to stay here tomorrow which means we will head for the Yukon on Saturday.
On Thursday, June 10th, we drove out of Idaho into Montana. We were so excited when a park ranger directed us to a scenic drive to take us to Helena (we love the scenic drives) but the scenic drive turned out to be no fun at all. What the ranger didn't know was that about 6 miles of the road was under construction, which wouldn't have been too bad except we ended up in a really bad rain & hail storm. Our clean truck & trailer are now grossed out.
Friday, June 11th - We followed the Missouri River through beautiful mountains and canyons. We stopped in Great Falls to buy some groceries and to see the Great Falls. Unfortunately, the exit we chose to find a store took us right into downtown - crowded, narrow streets - not good when you're pulling a trailer. It was freezing cold, too. Today we crossed into Canada and stayed at a park in Milk River.
We've been kind of amused at the road signs in Canada, eh. The speed limit signs are white with a black number, that's it, just a number (not to mention that the numbers are metric). Jan was disappointed that 110 did not mean miles per hour. They also have a lot of signs that have pictures - no words. Like some stick people with binoculars means a scenic viewpoint, a picture of a traffic lane with what looks like a garbage truck means watch for trucks entering the highway. I'm a little disturbed at the one that has a black man holding a shovel in a pile of dirt -could it be some sort of racist jab at our president? Someone should call the ACLU (or would that be CCLU)! Or maybe it just means "men working".
Saturday June 12th - On to Banff via Calgary. The traffic in Calgary was awful but the scenery was awesome. We also made the mistake of driving into Banff trying to locate the Visitors Center - it too was jam packed with people & cars and the streets are very narrow. We went to a Provincial Park to camp but our trailers wouldn't fit so we wound up at Lake Louise RV Park. Our camp site was great - the Bow River went right behind us. Jan got to take a long bike ride, which he really enjoyed. We saw some bears along the road while we were driving. The only negative at this RV park was that it was also across the street from a very active railroad track. That train was lovely to listen to at 4:00 AM.
Sunday, June 13th - We stayed an extra night at Lake Louise so we could visit Lake Louise and Moraine Lake as well. Both lakes are crystal clear, surrounded by snow capped peaks. We ate lunch at the trailer and then ventured on to Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park. We were told there was a nice stroll around the lake that would take us about 2 hours - we decided to do it. Well, only half was a nice stroll and it took longer than 2 hours. We were pooped! A stop at the Natural Bridge (the Kicking Horse River eroded the rocks to form a bridge) and then back home.
Monday, June 14th - On to Jasper via the Icefields Parkway. We saw a big horn sheep just sitting by the road, Jan took pictures of a grizzly bear by the road, too. Beautiful, awesome, breathtaking - none of these words is adequate to describe this area. Majestic snow & glacier topped mountains, beautiful lakes and rivers, rugged peaks - amazing. We stopped at Athabasca Falls - they are so forceful you can feel the ground shake - beautiful as well. A mother elk and her baby came right through our camp today.
Tuesday, June 15th - We stayed over an extra night so we could go exploring around Jasper. We went up to the tram but didn't ride it - it was cloudy & freezing, there's no way I was going to the top of the mountain. Jasper is a quaint and cute little town - nothing like Banff. We drove to Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake where we ate lunch at the Lodge. Along the way we got to see 2 black bears (crossed the road in front of us), 3 deer, & an elk with thick velvet on his antlers. A female came through camp again tonight but she didn't have a baby with her. Jan got to take another long bike ride and saw a huge male elk.
Wednesday, June 16th - We drove Scenic Route 16 from Jasper to Prince George then on to Whiskers Point Provincial Park for the night. We were camped on McLeod Lake - very pretty. The Provincial Parks are great places to stay, they are well maintained and very inexpensive.
Thursday, June 17th - We arrived today in Dawson Creek British Columbia - mile 0 for the Alcan Highway. It's been an exciting day - I did laundry (lots of it) and went to Walmart for groceries. Strange Walmart - no produce or meat. We did go out for pizza - that was good. Jerry & Nancy want to stay here tomorrow which means we will head for the Yukon on Saturday.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Days 2 & 3
Tuesday morning and I already failed at writing down the time we got on the road! We left Priest Gulch at 9:30-ish. We started out on Highway 145 to Telluride (another beautiful drive), made our way to Moab, with our goal to make it to Provo Utah. Along the way, outside a town named Norwood, a deer walked right out into our lane. I was yelling "Deer! Deer!", Jan was hitting the breaks (a truck pulling a trailer does not stop on a dime) and that crazy deer just stopped and stared at us. Jan honked the horn and luckily the deer ran off. As I was sitting there near heart failure, Jan looked at me and said "You should have taken a picture". I told him I was much more concerned with not killing it, grabbing the camera never occurred to me. He's a man with a new camera - he wants pictures of everything. We rolled into Provo around 4:30 and stayed at Utah Lake State Park. The park is right on the lake and we were surrounded by all kinds of birds - pretty but very noisy birds. We were awakened during the night to the sounds of what we thought was rain but we were wrong, it was the automatic sprinklers watering our truck & trailer. It actually did rain later but we had a good laugh over our "sprinkler bath."
This morning we left Provo at 8:48. Our goal today was to meet Jerry & Nancy in Idaho Falls. As Jerry & Nancy were making their way to meet us, one of their trailer tires clipped the end of a ladder that had fallen in the freeway. It caused a blowout which, in turn, damaged the plumbing for their stove and some of the electrical wiring. They spent Monday in Reno waiting for their trailer to be repaired. Our drive today was uneventful, just more beautiful scenery. We arrived at the Snake River RV Park around 4:00 - Jerry & Nancy arrived about an hour later. We're all excited for what's to come and will head for Montana tomorrow.
This morning we left Provo at 8:48. Our goal today was to meet Jerry & Nancy in Idaho Falls. As Jerry & Nancy were making their way to meet us, one of their trailer tires clipped the end of a ladder that had fallen in the freeway. It caused a blowout which, in turn, damaged the plumbing for their stove and some of the electrical wiring. They spent Monday in Reno waiting for their trailer to be repaired. Our drive today was uneventful, just more beautiful scenery. We arrived at the Snake River RV Park around 4:00 - Jerry & Nancy arrived about an hour later. We're all excited for what's to come and will head for Montana tomorrow.
Monday, June 7, 2010
The day finally arrived! We thought we were pretty much ready to go on Saturday but there was so much that had to be done at the last minute that we really worked our tails off. It took me 3 1/2 hours just to load the food! I have a lot more food than space.
We left the house this morning at 9:42. For those of you who have followed Jan's annual motorcyle trips, you know that Al Contreras reports exact times and mileage - I'm not doing mileage. We had to stop in Chino Valley for ice so we really didn't get on the road until 10:12.
We stopped for lunch at the turnoff for Sunset Crater - we figured lunch in Flagstaff would be much cooler than lunch somewhere on the reservation. I know some of you will groan but I think the ride across the reservation is fascinating - not the houses - the landscape. The scenery is constantly changing and most of it is really beautful. As for the houses, the residents have certainly come up with a lot of uses for old tires!
We ended the day at Priest Gulch, an RV park between Dolores and Telluride, right on the Dolores River. It's really a nice park. By the way, I'm wearing a sweatshirt!
I'll write again the next time we have WiFi!
We left the house this morning at 9:42. For those of you who have followed Jan's annual motorcyle trips, you know that Al Contreras reports exact times and mileage - I'm not doing mileage. We had to stop in Chino Valley for ice so we really didn't get on the road until 10:12.
We stopped for lunch at the turnoff for Sunset Crater - we figured lunch in Flagstaff would be much cooler than lunch somewhere on the reservation. I know some of you will groan but I think the ride across the reservation is fascinating - not the houses - the landscape. The scenery is constantly changing and most of it is really beautful. As for the houses, the residents have certainly come up with a lot of uses for old tires!
We ended the day at Priest Gulch, an RV park between Dolores and Telluride, right on the Dolores River. It's really a nice park. By the way, I'm wearing a sweatshirt!
I'll write again the next time we have WiFi!
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