I was happy to have a chance to see my folks in Colorado, so work site visits in Albuquerque and Denver provided an excuse and airfare. It was over two months since Rahel and I spent time with them in Alaska! Our photo selections are on Picasa here.
September 24-26, 2011. After getting the rental Jeep Laredo, stopping for burritos, and doing a quick site visit, Rahel and I left Albuquerque late on Saturday morning for the 5-hour drive to Lake City. Santa Fe was as congested as ever, but the drive on up across the border, over Wolf Creek pass, and along the upper Rio Grande River was very nice. Perfect timing to see the miles of golden Aspen leaves too. So the reason for meeting in Lake City, in the middle of nowhere, is because I've got my eye on a small piece of land overlooking Lake San Cristobal, and wanted to go have a look around before the snow might arrive. Rahel is always excited at the possibility of being in the mountains (and is also keen on this 10-acre spot with a great view) so we all arranged to meet for two nights at the lake.
Donna from Hall Realty was kind enough to meet us at Lake Cristobal to ride up the mountain and show us the exact location of the mining claim. We took one of two ways up, both of which are nothing more than jeep trails (former mine trail/roads) that go from about 9000' elevation at the lake to 10800' at the level areas of the parcel. I think the road is about three miles, but it is tough for anything less than a real off-road vehicle. Our city slicker Jeep was struggling in a few locations. Passengers were occasionally required to get out and help push. Well, we made it up, and in time to walk around and take in the evening autumn colors over Colorado's 2nd largest natural lake. That view is what makes this place on the east side of the San Juan mountains so nice. And the scrapes and rock dent on the passenger door were part of the fun too.
Next day, mom, dad, Rahel, and I drove around the lake and took the alternate route up Round Top Moutain to spend a little more time looking around. We explored a few of the old mine sites along the way, where a few people are actively digging in their tunnels and rock tailing piles. Our ride was good for most of the trail, but things got too steep and rocky near the top, so the last ½ mile was on foot. Very remote, but cell phones work and town is not far. I hope to drag my parents up there again next year! Plenty of nice RV campgrounds nearby. Juju can run around....
Rahel and I drove on to Denver, where she left on Monday for work travel, and I stayed a night with an old college friend in Boulder. He went along with me on the site visit in Arvada too. For a big city, Denver has some nice places nearby to get away. Dallas is a decent place, but I always felt that I moved the wrong way from Lubbock. :)
Click here for my pictures with descriptive captions.
A note about pictures. Over the 4 months we were on the road, I took thousands of pictures. I have to limit the pics because I would bore everyone with all thousand and I would run out of space on Picasa quickly. I put up 64 this time, but will try to do less from now on.
The last update I uploaded was from Glacier National Park. This one comes a day or two after we leave Yellowstone and the Teton National Park area.
Barbara and I return to Yellowstone National for a 4 day visit to one of our favorite places. Our route will take us to Helena MT and then to West Yellowstone. Because of our late day arrival, we will stay outside the park in the Baker's Hole Forest service Campground. We get up early the next day so we can be at Norris Campground early enough to get a site. Everything works and we are in Yellowstone Norris for 3 nights and 4 days in the park. All the memories of our past trips to Yellowstone are refreshed and we are truly glad we returned. I hope everyone will look at the pictures with descriptions.Yellowstone does not disappoint us. Over the last 32 years we have visited 4 times.
After we leave Yellowstone and Teton, we venture south along the Green River and the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. This area is full of interesting surprises and we take longer than planned. There is more to do than I ever imagined. We spend most of one day at the Flaming Gorge power dam Visitor Center were we take a tour and watch the construction on film. We spent Sept 20th and 21st in the area.
Our next target is Lake City Colorado. There we will meet up with Jay and Rahel and the will spend part of 3 days with us. Jay has a work project in Albuquerque and another one in Denver. He likes to visit Lake City because he is looking a land to purchase. Lake City is an old gold mining town that over the last 100 years has not changed much. No much gold now days but still lots of people that come to Lake City for the summer months. A few of the mines are starting back up because of the high price of gold.
We were to meet up at the Highlander RV Campground and Jeep rental. This was our first hookup to the services in 120 days. It was nice to have the steady electric and water. The water came from a spring about 60 feet above the campground. It is a nice place run by some very accommodating people. We will spend 3 nights in Lake City. 9/23 - 9/26
The fun starts when Jay, Rahel, and the realtor arrive. Maybe Jay will do an update for those 3 days. That visit will be one that Barbara and I don't forget.
Barbara and I are slowly making our way back to Texas. Barbara just turned a year older and it will not be long before I have another birthday. We are doing well and have plans to experience new adventures before returning to Lubbock. The weather has really been good with temps in the mid 40s to highs of 80s. We understand that Texas is still hot and dry with wild fires burning around the Austin and Possum Kingdom areas. We have also been informed of the loss of Bastrop State park. This saddens us as this was a favorite.
8/31/2011
My last update was from the Meziadin Lake Provincial Campground. This is a good one, but we must push south and east along highway 16 toward Prince George, BC. It is a good road with lots of stops and scenic pullouts.
One of the pullouts fits our need for the night. We spent the night here in 2009. This is near Topley and as usual other travelers like this pullout, therefore we are not along.
9/1/2011
We made it to Prince George, BC. The Walmart has been upgraded to a Super Walmart, therefore we can stock up on just about anything we need. Super Walmarts are somewhat new in Canada and this one really has lots of people at it.
At Prince George we have to make a decision on the route we are going to take toward home. We decide we will take Colombia Icefields Parkway (route 93) south from the town of Jasper. In 2009 we took BC route 97 south through BC and then into Washington, therefore routing this time will be a little different.
9/2/2011
Mostly just travel days across BC and into Alberta and the Canadian Rockies. Jasper and Banff make up two of the Canadian National Parks in the Rockies, that some consider the most scenic spots in North America.
We do some tourists sites in Jasper and make a few phone calls because we have not had had cell service in the last 10 days. Our overnight stop will be in the Mosquito Creek Campground just north of Lake Lucerne, a popular lodge and ski resort built in the 20s by the Canadian railroad. This is Labor Day holiday and the park is packed with travelers making it difficult to find camping sites. Mosquito Creek fortunately had an overflow area that we used. The Colombia Icefields Parkway connects the two parks and near the town of Banff we can jump back into BC for a trip through Kooenay National Park in BC that follows route 93 all the way into the US. We cross the border at Roosville. We also are back in the Mountain time zone and the long days of sunshine are much shorter.
9/6/2011 – 9/8/2011
Along the way we find Loon Lake, a BC Forest Service Park. This place is hidden off the pavement with about a mile of bad gravel road. When we get there, we find it is a great place and the price per night is free after Labor day. Free is good and the park is nice so we spend 3 nights here. We met a few fellow travelers in the park and the time passes quickly. Be sure to see my pictures of Loon Lake.
It is not far to Glacier National Park in Montana (about 60 miles) so our next stop will be in the Apgar Campground near the west entrance. The nearby towns of Colombia Falls and Whitefish, Montana offer services and shopping.
9/9/2011 – 9/14/2011
Glacier National Park is always a beautiful place to come to. On the north is the US Canadian border and the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, a Canandian US Park formed in 1932. We vacationed here in 1981, 2009 and this year. This is the first time we stayed on the west end of the 100 mile round trip Going To The Sun Highway that connects the west end town of Apgar and the east town of St Mary. This road is also an historic and world engineering landmark. The Sun road is the main attraction and that will take all day to travel, so be sure to pack a lunch and stop at Logan Pass visitor center to eat it. The maximum length is of vehicle is 21 foot long because of the narrow width in some areas and the switch back turns along the way. It is very scenic with wildlife, waterfalls, snowcapped mountains, glaciers and wildflowers. We had a few delays because of construction in the Logan Pass area that slowed travel.
We walked a good portion of the wood planked foot trail that snakes it way up the Logan mountain to the Hidden Lake.
Our campground at Apgar is located on the Sun road just 2 miles from West Glacier, the community at the west entrance of the park. We are also located very near the west tip of McDonald Lake. McDonald is a beautiful lake that was formed in a glacier basin thousands of years ago. The water is clear with depths of 300, thus making it a diver’s delight.
Along the south shore is McDonald Lodge, a beautiful historic Lodge that has been a retreat for the honeymooners since it building. Until the Sun road was constructed the only access to the lodge was boat travel from the Apgar area.
We were camped here for 5 nights.
That is about all for now. We will travel to Yellowstone National Park on the 14 and 15th.
Note... the days are much shorter and the sun hours are changing quickly. The Land of the Midnight sun is no longer with us. Temps range from the high 30 to the 60, so the weather is just perfect. We have had more rain than usual, but it has not been a big problem.
8/22/2011 - 8/23-/2011
This week starts with us at Tok, AK, the gateway junction into Alaska. Since we are traveling south we will join the Alaskan Highway and drive to Watson Lake and then back track 15 miles to the junction of highway 37, the Cassiar Road.
Barbara spent an hour at Tok gifts shops and we ate at Fast Eddies cafe and hotel. They have good food and free wifi. I sent up the a blog there. Spent the night at the Toroso station, one can wash the rig, dump the tanks, spend the night, and fill with fuel.
We get the rig gassed up and the filled the fresh water and we are heading to Kluane Lake for a nice scenic turnout for the night. It is at Destruction Bay, another one of the historic spots on the Alaskan highway. This is the ceremonial spot on the Alaskan Highway that the north met the south road construction crews and the Alaskan highway (Alcan) was completed.
We pass through Haines Junction and Beaver Creek and we are now in Yukon Canada, always very scenic and great government campground. We rate them as #1
8/24/2011
Travel day to Whitehorse, Yukon Terrority. We don't have much to do here, but we did some shopping downtown and purchased a Hank Karr video. Hank Karr is a Yukon story teller and singer.
We shopped Walmart and spent the night with about 20 others in their parking lot.
8/25/2011 - 8/26/2011
Travel day to Big Creek campground in the Yukon 40 miles north of Watson Lake. A very nice government campground with all the wood furnished. Located next to the Big Creek many of the sites sit just a few feet from the bank.
We spent 2 nights here.
8/27/2011
We leave Watson lake and the Sign Post Forest and back track the 17 miles to the junction of highway 37, the north end of the Cassiar Highway. This travels Beautiful British Colombia north country. This is an alternative route that takes us back to the lower 48. It is more scenic and the road condition is good, so here we go. Our target is Dease Lake Lyons Club campground on the Tanzilla river. We make several photo stops along the way and drive the speed limit of 45. We stop at Jade City for some time and a sandwitch. Read about Jade City here.
There is no need for speed along this scenic highway. We will make the Dease Lake in early evening.
We will spend two nights here.
8/28/2011
It's a special day for us. It's Barbara's birthday. We plan just to hang around the camp, maybe watch some movies and cook out on the camp fire. The day passes fast and we are still watching movies past midnight. From our site the river is running with white water and is noisy. Sure makes for a great stay.
She is getting used to birthdays on the road, as we are always on the road during August.
8/29/2011
Travel day to the junction of highway 37 (the Cassiar) and Meziadin Junction,
At this junction, we will spend 2 nights in the Meziadin Provincial Campground. This is a 5 star campground that even has satellite delivered internet powered by a Honda generator as the park does not have a electric grid connection. I used a file picture from 2 years ago but it looks the same today. After a nice fire we watched more movies including the King's Speech.
Just a note... we see mining operations all along the Cassiar, so the price of gold is opening old mines.
Tomorrow we will travel to Stewart, BC and Hyder Ak. for the day. More beautiful Northern British Columbia to see.
8/30/2011
We traveled to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK for a full day of adventure. The drive is about 45 miles through some of the most scenic landscape that nature has to offer. Check it out here The combination of the two towns makes for interesting conversation.
I spent the afternoon at the town Museum that showcased mining. The town also has the only Toaster Museum. This showcases early electrical appliances and radio.
Up to 20 glaciers with some of them coming almost to the highway give windshields vistas that are almost unbelievable . The Salmon Glacier is the largest in the world that can be driven to by car. We also spotted bear grazing along the highway. A raging Bear River follows the road for miles.
This town has seen a lot, good and bad. In the early days, mines drove the economy until 1984 and then it was bust time. At the present time mines are beginning to start operation for gold, silver, and copper. Must be making money, because we saw high grade ore being sent slung on slings underneath helicopters to waiting ships in the port. I took pictures of the large bags of ore at the dock.
Several movies have been made in Stewart. A few are Bear Island, The Thing, Iceman, Leaving Normal, and Insomnia.
If you drive about 2 miles past Stewart, you will cross back into Alaska at Hyder. Claims to be the Friendliest ghost town in Alaska. The big attraction just outside of Hyder is the US Forest Service Fish Creek wildlife viewing area as you drive into the Tongass National Forest. Often times bears will be eating salmon as they spawn in the river. This attracts photographers from all over.
This is a special edition of our blog. In this entry, we take some lesser known side roads well off the normal routes in Alaska. Much of the next 10 days will be in an area with no cell or wifi service, therefore we will be dark during that time. Much of this entry is devoted to old towns and mining old, either gold or copper. We get a touch of gold fever while camped at the Little Nelchina. I detail our adventures along the McCarthy road leading us to the Kennecott Copper Mine in the southern Wrangell-St. Elias national Park. After leaving there, we travel the west and north park boundary to the Nabesna Road that takes us to the old Nabesna Gold mine, still in the Wrangell-St. Elias national park.
08/14/2011
Today is a travel day east and north along what is called the Glenn Highway (Alaska route 1) and is the most direct way from Anchorage to the Tok Junction and the Alaska highway (Alcan) . It connects Anchorage to Glennallen where there is the Richardson Highway to either the north or south. The south will take you to Valdez or Tok to the north.
We traveled to the 137.6 mile post on the Glenn and stopped for the night in the Little Nelchina State Recreation area (abandoned for 10 years) and found it to be just right for us. Description is 9 campsites, 15 day limit, no fee, no drinking water, with fire pits, and grayling fishing. Enough camping wood was stacked at the fire pit for a few days. I even hooked up the electric water pump to pump water from the river to the RV
We liked our site and decided to extend a few days.
08/15/2011
We found that it had gold in the river and this is a mini gold rush era in Alaska. Two longtime local guys , Alan and Dennis, from up the road came to do a little panning for gold. They came back the next day and brought the equipment to do mining using a gasoline lake pump with a special suction device along with a sleuth type separator box that they had constructed. Of course they knew how this all works and within 2 hours they had vacuumed up and separated a few flakes of gold. They plan to take this equipment up the river about 20 miles where there is a larger concentration. Both of them have studied prospecting for gold in this area and I believe they will have good success. Good luck to them. Alan is the owner of the Slide RV and lodge and Dennis is and retired engineer that worked in power generation field.
08/16/2011 - 08/17/2011
I checked the wheel bearings and adjusted the brakes on the trailer. I changed the oil on the Honda generator. I have an hour meter and the recommended 50 hour change intervals come more quickly than I would have ever thought. I have all the water I want, therefore the car and trailer gets a good wash job. It is nice to see them clean for a day or two. We spend a lot of time in and around the park. There are some hiking trails along the Little Nilchina, so I hiked a few of them. This place is packed with mining history. At the turn of the century, there was a mule pack train that moved along this river delivering supplies to the town of Nelchina, now just a ghost town with little trace of the past.
We meet more Bob and his wife, Kahren, who were out cutting wood for the winter. They are nice and give us some salmon nicely vacuumed packed. We gave them some of Jack Reed's good Lubbock grown pecans.
The day light hours are giving way to the season change and we have dark nights and much shorter days. A few leaves are starting to fall.
08/18/2011
The time has come again, and it’s time to travel. We are heading east into Glennallen with plans to turn south and head to Chitna, AK. This will take us to the end of the pavement and a campsite where we will leave the RV for a long day trip to towns of McCarthy and Kennecott.
We find a Dept of Transportation campground called the Copper River DOT campground that will work just perfect. We meet up with Alan and his wife Liz that are traveling with Dick and Nancy. We had met Alan and Liz earlier near the Yak ranch on the Edgerton Highway. Be sure to check the Yak picture, because you may not know yak crap.
08/19/2011
We all have the same travel plans to McCarthy and Kennecott so we caravan together. The distance is 59 miles one way and it will be nice to travel with someone on this really bad gravel stretch of road. Described by the Milepost editor as
“The McCarthy road is a gravel road built along the old Copper River & Northwestern railway bed. Watch for old rails and railroad ties embedded in the road or lying along the roadside. The McCarthy road ends at the Kennicott River, 59.3 miles west of the town of Chitna, AK. There is no gas or diesel available on the McCarthy road.”
To make matters worse, it looks as if it will rain all day. We are eager to get there, so at 8AM we are off to a long day of adventure. The 60 miles takes us 4 hours to complete and we had no problems, just a few scenic stop along the way.
At the end of the road we get to walk a ¼ mile gravel road and a bridge to the town of McCarthy where we will catch a local shuttle into Kennecott and the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark located in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This is the largest of the US national parks, it is larger than 11 Yellowstone parks. It is larger than some of the states in the lower 48.
We tour the Kennecott Copper Mine and see the remains of the Mill house and most of the infrastructure building still standing. The mine closed in 1938 after mining and concentrating at least $200 million worth of ore. It had the best grade of copper ever found and supplied the copper for the world for many years
After visiting the mine we took the shuttle back to McCarty and spent some time at the Museum, store, and the historic Golden Saloon. McCarthy has no electricity, paved streets, and nothing except a foot bridge to cross the Kennecott river. There are a few generators running behind the stories. Supplies are brought in when the river is frozen or carried across the footbridge.
We were able to make the 60 miles in less time, but it still took about 3 hours to get back to the campground. Alan made a big fire and we had a good time around the fire telling stories. A little later we had smores using mints, that worked really good.
A little about Alan and Liz Johnson… Alan and Liz work for Honeywell Avionics as software engineers in the “fly by wire” control systems of the new age airplanes. They write programs that control and then furnish feedback to the computers onboard. They work for a while and then go home to a 38’ catamaran sailboat anchored on the eastern coast of Panama. This is their home. There blog at http://svkopelli.blogspot.com
A little about Dick and Nancy Maynard… Dick is a retired mechanical engineer with professional license and sometimes does church construction. He spent his working career as a field superintendent at job sites around the US. Nancy is a retired office manager.
08/20/2011
We say goodbye to our friends at the Copper River DOT campground and turn north to Glennallen and than toward Tok Junction. However, as I said early in this post, we got a touch of gold fever. On the north side of Wrangell-St. Elias NP we decide to take the Nebesna road that takes us some 42 miles into the park to the Nebesna Gold Mine that was abandoned in the late ‘40s. It is also the road to the Rambler Gold mine that I will hike up to. We set up camp at mile 16.6 in a site with a view to the southwest over Kettle Lake toward Mount Wrangell. Tomorrow we will drive to the end of the Nebesna road.
We did the dump station thing at Glennallen as we traveled through.
08/21/2011
Our Nebesna road adventure started about 10AM with us driving about 44 miles into the very scenic Wrangell St.Elias NP. The 55 degree weather was clearing with a lot of open blue sky giving us a perfect view of the mountains. The road for the first 20 miles is fair, but the next 20 are potholed and sometimes very rocky. There are a few areas that still have the corduroy road that used wooden timbers for the surface. We will ford several water crossings along the way, but these are not a problem as they are gravel and the water was not over a foot deep. In all directions the views are very scenic with some of the most impressive mountains in the world. To each side of the road the wild flowers grace the landscape.
This is hunting season in Alaska and this is a favorite for subsistence hunter and sport hunters. They hunt moose, dall sheep, and caribou. This is a national park that in 1983 opened it to land grants that brought people in to get free land. They are still a few private owners along the Nebesna road. Most of these folks have left and headed for warmer areas.
We drove to the end of the road and I walked another few miles to the trailhead to the abandoned Rambler Gold Mine. The trail was 1 mile each way, but the trail to the mine was up a steep mountain side. I made the mile, but had to stop for many rest stops along the way. The effort was rewarding as the views were great and I got to the mine to take pictures. It is somewhat scary walking into an abandoned mine, what if there is a bear in there. I took a few pics with flash. The return hike was easy as it was downhill all the way. I estimate that I walked about 7 miles today.
On the way back to the camp, we meet Alan and Liz as they were traveling toward the end of the road. We talked for a while and then we drove on to a water crossing to wash the truck of the mud we got on the McCarthy road. That worked out nicely. I use the Honda generator to power the small pump so Barbara can rinse as I used the soap and brush. On the way back, we got a few pictures of the mountains as the sun set in the west. A very good day
8/22/2011
We are leaving today and heading for Tok or Haines Junction , but are not sure because of the weather.
Therefore, this is house cleaning and blog writing. We are getting some rain and I have some concern about the road condition because of the rain falling.
We spent 2 nights at Williwah on the Whittier/Portage Glacier highway and then a night in Anchorage. Went to Alaskan Wildlife Conservation and saw the wood bison.
We spent the day visiting downtown Anchorage and a few museums and got a stamp for Barbara. Did the Alaskan Experience Theater in downtown. Worth the admission of $6 for the two of us.
Made it to Palmer on the 10th and expect to be here 5 nights. Spent the the 11th at the Independence Gold Mine on Hatcher Pass. Closed in the early 50s and has been transformed into a state park. Google it, very nice
Plan to spend some time in the old town of Palmer and we have a great camp site at 10 buck and the wood is furnished. It is perfect weather about 70 clear blue sky.
Spent the afternoon of the 13th at the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. Interesting place.
That is about it for today. We are sitting around a camp fire listing to the radio after cooking a bratwurst. No bear stories just a black and white cat came through the campground. We are camped next to the Matanuska river, the river you follow after leaving Palmer.
This campground is at the end of the Palmer Muni airport and lots of light planes take of and land here during the day.
We are leaving the Palmer are traveling toward Glenallen.
Our last blog was sent up from Seward, AK. Jay and Rahel were leaving for the airport in Anchorage for their trip to Dallas and back to work. It was a great 10 day visit with a lot of adventures and excitement for all.
Monday, July 25-26th
We took Jay and Rahel to the bus for their trip to Anchorage. We then went back to the campground and got ready to leave for Soldotna, on the west side of the Kenai. Therefore, we will call this a travel day.
You can not travel the Seward-Sterling highway without finding new adventure. It is only about 80 miles, but the Kenai is full of surprises such as wildlife and fishermen. At this time of the year the fish are running and fishers are here from all around the world. As we drove across the Kenai and Russian rivers, we could see them standing "shoulder to shoulder" while fishing the rivers.
We overnighted for 2 nights at the Fred Meyers store at Soldotna and stocked up on supplies as we are heading up to Captain Cook State Park for 3 nights.
Wednesday the 27th - 29th
We are at Captain Cook State Park. This is north along the west coast near the original oil patch in the Cook Inlet. Barbara and I liked this park in 2009 and wanted Brad and Bev to see it.
At this park we did some beach combing for agate rocks, walking the nature trails, and wildlife watching. This park has designated and "social" trails. This was a good time of the year to see the many wild flowers along the trail. We even had a very close encounter with a mother moose on our way back to our site. The moose let us pass without any problem.
Our next site neighbors, Larry and Diana from Eagle River near Anchorage. They showed us some very strange rocks that they had collected on the beach to the north. They have come here for several years and have collected many of these strange rocks. This link reflects some of their work. The rocks are referred to as Sprint Rocks and they have many in their collection. They gave us a rock of our choice. Very interesting rocks.
Saturday July 30th
Travel day back to Soldotna on our way to Homer. We found a brand new Super Walmart at the town of Kenai and that meant that we would spend a few hours in Kenai before returning to Fred Meyers for another overnite.
Sunday August 1 - 6th
Homer is full of adventure. First we find a couple of side by side camp sites in the town campground on the Homer Spit. This is backed up against Kachemak Bay, the bay with a beautiful view of the mountains across Cook inlet.
Homer is a must visit town on the Kenia. Here are a few links, be sure to click on them and then travel to the "End of the Road" along with us. Homer wiki link Homer link 2
We enjoyed Homer very much. We did the usual tourist such as the Homer CoC visitor center and the Islands and Oceans Visitor center. We enjoyed the campfires on the beach, the late evening story telling around the fire, the tides that go out and come in, watching the bald eagles watch us and the fish cleaning area and the company of Brad and Beverly, our friends from Santa Fe.
On Monday the 1st a strange happening occurred on the beach just 50 feet from our camp site. A 178 foot beach landing craft sailed to the waters edge, placed an anchor down and just let the tide go out. About 6 hours we found out why. The owner of the Helenka B needed to re-couple the port side propeller shaft that had slipped out of the coupling. The ship, built in 1942, was a mine sweeper that served in 3 wars. It has since been shortened by 40 feet and made into a utility beach landing craft. See my pictures of the ship and the repair.
Brad and Beverly, our travel buddies, Our campsite on the Homer Spit would be the location that Brad and Bev turn back north toward Anchorage to start their return to lower 48 and then on to Santa Fe. They have to be back on Sept 1st, so this will give them about 25 days to find their way back to New Mexico. This was planned in the beginning, but we are already missing their presence as we were together every mile for the last 2 months. Sometimes we blazed the trail and sometimes they did, together we logged nearly 5500 miles. We have worked together and played together and experienced many adventures in the Land of the Midnight Sun and the Last Frontier. We drove the ALCAN, camped at the 30 mile Tec campground in Denali, drove to the Arctic circle, experienced nature at it best, shopped every store along the way, and had lots of meals together around a campfire. There was never a dull moment. Brad is a ham radio operator as I am, therefore we had good communications along the way. This helped out a great deal. Along the way, Brad and I would work together and complete many useful modifications to our rigs. We both like to tinker with electronics and mechanical project, so we came prepared and with a list of things to do. Happy trails John and Barbara
This is a special blog entry, our son, Jay spent a few minutes pounding the keyboard. His entry was finished up beside the campfire at our Seward AK, campsite. I wish he had more time to help with these entries as he is much faster on the keyboard and a much better writer. If I had these skills in the past, they have diminished in past few years.
I'll try to retrace our southern adventure trail from Denali National Park where we spent a wonderful 10 day adventure to Seward AK. At this time we have Jay and Rahel, John and Barbara, Brad and Beverly in our little caravan. Jerry and June Bauler will meet up with us in Seward.
I will insert Jay's blog first, and then mine after that. From Dallas to Denali was a blur, replacing a kitchen sink and getting ahead with work. Rahel and I spent less than 12 hours in Anchorage before catching the Denali Star train to the park (highly recommended) and a campsite at Riley Creek. Didn't even have time to seal the leaky seams on my tent so we got the full rain experience! July is the wettest month in Alaska, I'm told. Backcountry hiking in the tundra is a spongy thing, taking a lot of effort to walk, and a bit of planning to bush-whack through the willows and alder bushes. Upper Teklanika River was too wide to cross comfortably (ask the wet kid from NYC we spoke to after his fall with backpack into the main braid) so we made camp on the west side, content to do day hikes in the rain and eat mostly rehydrated backpacker food. Other that the glacier view and mountain scenery, finding just-ripe wild blueberries was my highlight. Push forward to Saturday, Rahel and I climbed back to the park road, thumbed down a camper bus, and got back to the park entrance for a rendezvous with ma and pa Harris. Luxury!!
Flashback three years (to the week) when I was camped at Wonder Lake, Denali, and missed a chance to hop a plane around Mt. McKinley, aka Mt. Denali. This time, we booked a two hour summit tour out of Talkeetna, with our fingers crossed for good weather. Lucky us with the blue skies, and lucky for my dad Talkeetna Aero had one extra seat (copilot spot, naturally) for my dad. Dave was a great pilot and the trip was something we agree will be a highlight for the rest of our lives. Look for the photos to come. Hard to compare, but imagine circling Mt Everest, seemingly close enough to touch the face outside your window, then down the glaciers and crevices to the base camp.
Forget Anchorage, let's push south to the Kenai Peninsula for royal RV camping, hot meals, and cold IPAs (ok, and Alaskan White ales for Rahel). We stayed two nights at Williwaw campground, which was situated below a series of glaciers, south of the spur road to Whittier, AK. Short hikes, dense understory vegetation, lingering snowpack, and superb mountain views there. Up early with my dad! Want coffee? Start the generator! :)
Sitting at the table under the rain-sheltering canopy here in Seward for the third night. Dying fire is giving in to the rain drops but we've had our lucky fill of sunny days while here. Rahel and mom played cowgirls for the day, taking a horseback ride around Resurrection Bay, across braided rivers and up the forest for a true adventure experience. Dad and I hiked up Marathon Mtn for several hours, making almost 3000 feet of elevation gain before the snow-laden bowl above town. Good sleep awaits tonight. I'd vote for sleeping in tomorrow but we're dropping them at the port in the morning for a day-long boat ride out to the bay and Prince William Sound.
Ten days can fly. Vacation is winding down and brutal Texas heat await. Maybe I'll quit my job and come here to work on a fishing boat. Train for a ranger position at the park. Or brew IPAs in the forest. Rahel will work on a horse farm, specializing in Friesian horses and Border Collies. Probably not, but everything has been as amazing as one could hope, and we'll come back. Check for more later.....
Jay & Rahel
7/19/2011
Our destination is Seward, AK, but first, lets stop in Talkeetna. Talkeetna is a historic small town near the base of Mount McKinley. It is located on a 15 mile spur road that spurs from the Parks Highway, the main highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks.
We have spent time in Talkeetna in 2009 and Jay in 2008. It is a laid back place with roadhouses, museums, gift shops and adventure air flights to the summit of Mount McKinley. Jay and Rahel had researched reviews on the charter services and booked a flight on Talkeetna Aero Service. The night before the flight we had a hard rain and the prospects didn't look good for a sight seeing flight. As most everything works out, the skies cleared and we had a "perfect 10" weather day. Jay asked if there was a single seat available and the pilot said the copilot seat was. Jay asked if I wanted to go and that was all it took, the three of us were in the air headed for the summit for a 11/2 hour flight. Jay treated and that made it even better. What a day to remember. The flight was spectacular and Dave the pilot was the best in the business. I don't have the space to show all the photos but flying directly into the snow capped mountains was a big "WOW". This year 9 climbers have lost their lives on this mountain, a little more than the normal average of 4 per year. At the 14000 foot camp we saw a small plane stuck in the snow. Inexperienced pilots fly in and get stuck in fresh snow. They have to walk a path before the plane can get up on the new snow. Our pilot was a first responder with updates to the emergency responders.
7/19/2011 - 7/20/2011
Our travel south took us to Anchorage and then around the Turnagain Arm to the spur road toward Whittter, a port and an old army base back in WWII days. We were going to camp at the US Forest Service Williwaw campground. Very nice scenic spot at the base of the Portage Glacier. Lots of hiking trails filled with beautiful wild flowers at their peak time. Good weather and a day hike to the USFS visitor center was nice. Camp fires and camp ground talk made the day pass quickly.
7/21/2011 - 7/24/2011
Today we welcome Jerry and June Bauler, our neighbors across the street on 79th street. They have driven up from Lubbock to fish the Kenai. We will visit with them here in Seward and Soldotna. He is booking fishing charters for salmon and halibut.
Seward AK years ago was the ice free deep port that most of the freight for the state came through. It had a large Alaskan State Railroad switch yard and that took the trains north past Anchorage to Fairbanks. It also carried tourist from the large ocean going cruise ships. In 1964, that changed somewhat. The largest earthquake recorded caused much damage to Seward and especially it's rail system. The town recovered and the Alaskan State Railroad survived, but tourism became number 1 business in Seward.
We had been to Seward in 2009 and marked it as a must return. It is a great place with the small boat harbor, the enormous fishing attraction, and the daily excursion boats out into the Gulf of Alaska. We like this place and it did not disappoint. We hiked, rode horses, took day trips to study geography wildlife, flowers and people.
Time is really moving along and I am posting this a few minutes before leaving Denali. In a few minutes, Jay and Rahel should come from their back country camp and we will head to Talkeetna, about 150 miles away. I guess I will call it a travel day.
I am putting up our Denali pictures and hope you will read the captions and look at the wildlife shots. Click here for the picture link
Look at the pictures and give names to the ones with no names. I will revise the caption after you name that flower.
Our stay in Denali has reminded us that we will have to return in a few years, one just can't get enought of Denali and the state of Alaska. We camped in the Teknilia camp ground and traveled all over the park via the bus pass that we purcahsed. It is a bargain and I don't have to drive.
I am cutting this short because of time and the fact I want to catch up with my blog. When Jay and Rahel join us, maybe they will blog their experience here. I'm sure that they have had a good time in the few days that could squeeze into their busy lifes. Jay and Rahel few into Anchorage and rode the Alaskan Railroad to the park. Although we were in the park at the same time we have not seen them.
We leave the park for Talketna and there Jay and Rahel will take a scenic flight tomorrow for a view of the park and Mount McKinly, if the weather permits.
Then on to toward Anchorage area, where we will make updates to this blog.
Stay tuned for more as we have many miles to go.
John, Barbara, Beverly and Brad caravaning on the Parks highway
This starts our 4th week of our 2011 Alaskan adventure. This will cover the return to the ALCAN highway and on north toward Fairbanks. Our plans call for a few days at Fairbanks, but as it turned out we extended a few more days.
6/26/2011
We will miss the Haines AK area, because we had settled in Chilkoot State Park. We liked what we saw each day. Simply spectacular scenery and the abundance of wildlife makes this a must see.
So today becomes a travel day that over the next few days will take us 640 miles north along state highway 3 and the ALCAN highway 1, through Haines Junction, Kluane National Park and Preserve, Destruction Bay, Burwash Landing, Beaver Creek. All of these historic places are in the Yukon Territory. All of these places had their beginnings during the building of the Alaskan Highway. We will cross the border back into Alaska just north of Beaver Creek.
We found a really nice pullout on Kluane Lake and decided that was far enough for the day, therefore we would spend the night there. What a nice view of the lake and Soldier Summit.
6/27/2011
Today is a travel day that will take us to the Yukon Terrority and Alaska border. This was the day for bad road, over a hundred miles of it. Active construction caused many delays and then rain on top of that. We stopped at the Beaver Creek information and had a nice visit with the man in charge. Very nice and knowledge guy. We pushed on the 35 miles to the border and stopped for the night at the pull out under the border signs on the Canadian side. Good view of the border and all the signage.
6/28/2011
Today, after crossing north of Beaver Creek, we are back in Alaska and driving toward Delta Junction, the end of the Alaskan Highway, historic mile 1422. We spent an hour there visiting the museum and seeing the sights at the junction. Then we take state highway 2 due north to North Pole and Fairbanks. When we cross the border we lost the road construction, gained an hour time, and got cell phone service. We spent about 3 hours at North Pole having a late lunch and shopping at the gift shop. Just another 30 miles to Fairbanks where we will spend the rest of the week.
6/29/2011
We are in Fairbanks and have several days of activities planned. First we head for the University of Alaska Museum of the North at Fairbanks. This is a world class museum. We bought a Toursaver coupon book that gives us half price on several tourist adventures in Alaska, and the museum was one of them. We spent most of the day at the museum that also includes a botanical gardens and a wildlife research center.
6/29/2011
It is time for tire rotation on the Suburban and I purchased the tires at Sams Club so that is the place that i will take it. It would be a few hours before they would finish so we had a few hours to shop at Sams. It is always costly when we go there and that was no different today. Brad purchased a Sony camcorder so he could do some video recording along the way.
6/30/2011
Barbara and Beverly did some shopping at Fred Meyers and Brad and I did some work on the rigs. We met up with a friend of Brads that owns 600 storage units in Fairbanks. Ken and his wife Anna are also world wide game hunters and have a very nice trophy room that we were invited to see. Trophies from all around the world and many from Alaska also. After a nice visit in their lovely home, we went to eat prime rib at the Turtle Club.
6/31/2011
We are finding a lot more to do in Fairbanks than we planed, so it looks as if our stay will be extended a few days. More visiting around the campground and more places to go.
The girls decided that it was a good time to do the laundry. Here in Fairbanks you have to wait in line for the washing machines as this is a busy place.
7/01/2011
It is raining here so we are confined to our RV. We watch movies and do some card playing. Also a few trips to the Super Walmart.
It is time for tire rotation on the Suburban and I purchased the tires at Sams Club so that is the place that i will take it. It would be a few hours before they would finish so we had a few hours to shop at Sams. It is always costly when we go there and that was no different today.
7/02/2011
Ken and Anna come by our campsite and we visited with them for a time. It is raining again.
7/04/2011
July 4th is active in Fairbanks. We were planning on attending the 4th celebration at the town park. This is a large park called Pioneer Park. Instead, we decided to drive to the Arctic Circle. It is about 240 miles round trip for us and that will take all day. This historic road is called the Haul Road or Dalton Highway and is about 75 percent gravel. We get an early start so we can take our time with so many stops along the way. The name Haul road name was derived from the role it played in the 18 wheelers during construction of the pipeline. It is the road that follows the oil pipeline to Prudhoe Bay. AK. Common sites along the route are freight haulers, grizzly bear, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, musk ox, and many birds. It also home for many mosquitoes.
Services are few and far between along the Haul road, therefore we must be prepared before we start this adventure. We stopped at the Yukon crossing BLM visitor and enjoyed the visit with the host. Nice place.
Our day was long, but we are glad we made it to the Arctic Circle.
7/05/2011
This is the day that we visit Pioneer Park. It has a aviation museum of the planes that have been used in the building of Alaska. A lot of bush pilots and what they did in the early days. Many are called heroes because they did so much, some gave their life for the betterment of the small communities.
The park has also dry docked a restored stern-wheeler called the Nenana. She carried freight and passengers on the Nenana river and Yukon rivers in the '40 and '50s.
We spent most of the day at Pioneer Park. Very nice place and no entrance fee, so free is good.
7/06/2011
This is the day that Brad and Bev strike out for the El Dorado Gold Mine tour and the stern-wheeler Riverboat Discovery cruise down the Chena river. We did the same adventure in 2009 so we op out on this one. Nice, but costly.
Barbara and I spent the afternoon at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. This is a "five star" auto museum that showcases the best of the best before 1930. Truly an unbelievable auto museum. Many autos displayed are one of a kind and all are American made.
7/07/2011
Today is a travel day to Denali National Park, about 4 to 5 hours south on the Parks highway. On our way out of Fairbanks we again stopped at Sams for a few last minute items and fuel. Brad purchased a Sony video camera so he could record some video along the way.
We stopped along the way at the Nenana visitor center. We are actually a day ahead of our reservations in Riley Creek campground, we spent the night at the Denali visitor center parking lot and then to the campground the next day.
That's all for now... Next report will be from our activities in Denali.
We arrived in Whitehorse, YT on the 18th in need of groceries, fuel, and propane for the RV.
We had several activities in Whitehorse that would take us two days. Whitehorse is a busy town and a crossroad for the ALCAN (highway 1) and the Skagway to Dawson City highway (highway 2).
6/19/2011
Our plans were to go north to Dawson City and west on the Top of the World road to Chicken and back to the ALCAN via TOK junction. That changed on Monday morning because of the Top of the World road became impassable. We call the Dawson City visitor center and they called the border crossing to get the latest conditions. Rain had been falling for days and was not expected not let up. Roads were soft, washed out, and dangerous. At this time we decided not to go to Dawson and would continue on to Haines junction and turn south on YT 3 toward Haines, AK, a popular scenic coastal town on the Lynn Canal near the Chilkoot inlet. We missed Haines during our 09 trip. This turned out to be a good move and led us to a week of new adventure. The distance from Whitehorse to Haines Junction was about 120 miles and then to Haines another 130 miles. We would have to return to the ALCAN via the Haines leg, but that was not a problem.
This was out last night in Whitehorse.
6/20/2011
We traveled to Haines Junction and visited the visitors center where we watched a video and gathered information. We turned south and the adventure began.
The wonderful views from the windows of our rig last just about all night long as we are still in the land of the Midnight Sun. On toward Haines... Our destination would be about 10 miles north of Haines on Kathleen Lake in the Chilkoot State Park. This would also be in Alaska to we would see the border crossing about 60 miles north of Haines. That meant that our cell service would again work and we would be 3 hour earlier that our CST time.
Because of our no hurry pace we stopped at a scenic pullout and spent the night.
This adventure trail would take us through some of the best mountain views with snow caps and spectacular windshield vistas we have encountered. Along the way we would see many wildlife and now we would also see many bald eagle checking us out while perched from the tree limbs.
6/21/2011
We arrived at Haines and stopped at the visitor center for local information and guidance. We traveled the 10 miles along the Lynn Canal to the Chilkoot State Park and found it to be wonderful, just right for our needs. Just 10 dollars per night for great scenic sites.
We booked a day ferry trip to Skagway AK, therefore that would use a full day on Wednesday the 22nd. We thought that 3 days in the park would be enough, but because of more activities that we planed we extended our stay to 5 days in Haines.
6/22/2011
Today was our trip to Skagway on the Skagway Fast Ferry, we had to depart early, so we set the alarm. The trip is about 20 miles in the Lynn Canal and will take nearly an hour each way. Nice day and nice comfortable boat. Skagway is a shopping town and is the orginial gateway to the Gold rushers of the 1890s. So much history and so many shops. Skagway is also the port to many of the very large cruise ship that travel the Alaskan inland water way routes.
It is not uncommon to have 3 or 4 of these ships in port and that means that over 10 thousand may walk the streets of Skagway. Brad and I did the National Park museum and film presentation and the girls shopped. Brad and I did some historic sites and the girls shopped. Must be 25 jewelery stores mostly owned by the cruise ships that sell a good selection of almost any stone from anywhere in the world. Lot of tanzanite and diamonds. This is also a destination for honeymooners from European countries. Skagway is the headquarter of the Whitepass and Yukon rail that gives a sighseeing adventure over the famous White Pass gold rusher route of 1897.
So much history, so much to see. We like this place. The four of us attended the National Park narrative tour of the town led by a park ranger. Nice day but we have to get back on the ferry back to Haines.
6/23/2011
Today was a sight seeing day around the park. We watched the bald eagles and hunted for bear. We hiked a trail in the forest and walked the shoreline at Kathleen lake. The eagles put on a show as they will swoop down and capture fish and other prey from the water a few feet away. One fisherman had a close call with an eagle as it tried to snatch the fish from his line. Even with the daylight so long (about 21 hrs) the days just fly by.
6/24/2011
Today we spend some time in the town of Haines. We visit some of the local shop and eat at the Fireweed sandwich shop, good place to eat. The building dates back to WWII and served as a quarter master depot. We went back to the visitor center and got more information. We booked a seat on the Fjord Express to Juneau, AK.
Brad and I visited the Hammer Museum and the girls went shopping.
The rest of the day was spent viewing the sights around the Chilkoot inlet and the State Park.
6/25/2011
We booked a seat on the Fjordland Juneau Express. This would be all day wildlife site-seeing trip starting at the Haines small boat harbor early in the morning. At Juneau, we would dock and have about 4 hours in Juneau for us to do about anything we wanted to. We took the Mount Roberts Tramway ride up the Roberts mountain where we could look over the city. We also saw a live Bald Eagle that had been injured and was being rehabilitated. We walked the old town area and ate at the Twisted Fish Company. The tour also included a trip to the Mendenhal Glacier just a few miles from Juneau.
While at Mendenhal Glacier, I met up with Jack Weatherly and his wife, a co-worker that I worked with for 30 years. They were on a cruise ship docked at Juneau.
This is also a port to many large cruise liner that bring in thousands of travelers from all over.
The Fjord Express was the highpoint of the day. This was a very nice trip on the Lynn Canal to the whale watching areas. The Captain and his assistant did everything that was possible to make it enjoyable. The captain did a narrative along the way. The Fjord Express is a family run and staffed business that started in 2001. Just getting glimpse into how all this works is worth the trip. The deck hands name is Iris and she is a hard working 23 year old deck hand that works on the boat during the summer and is a school teacher during winter. She grew up in Haines and has lived in Haines year around.
Back on board and headed back to Haines. This would be our last night at Haines. Nice place.
That is all for now, end of week 3 on our Alaskan adventure.
Our last entry took us to the border and into Calgary. This will chronicle another week of adventures along the ALCAN highway. This is really where the historical travel starts, but we'll need to get to Dawson Creek, BC. For pictures and descriptive subcaptions click here
6/12/2011
We traveled from Calgary to Edmonton, AB, then to the West Edmonton Mall the largest in North America. It lives up to big as it has a theme park and almost anything else inside. The girls shopped and shopped and the hours got away from us. Brad and I had some maintenance and other projects to do and that filled our day. We decided to just spend the night in the parking lot after the security people said it would be OK.
6/13/2011
A travel day from Edmonton to Grande Prairie. The day light is now getting much longer. We don't see the sunrise or the sunset. Sun is about 20 hours a day and with twilight, there is not a real darkness. Brad bought some material at the hardware store to darken his windows for sleep time. Grand Prairie is a busy town with lots of stuff going on. We stayed at the WM with a petty much a full parking area.
6/14/2011
Another travel day except now we are experiencing the beauty of the spring along the ALCAN. Miles of wild flowers adorn the highway and high lite the vistas seen through our windshield. And then the wild life such as bear, wolf, wood bison, moose, birds, and people. The humans may be the most interesting. Each evening we select that special place along the road to make camp. The view in the evening is with the sun high in the west and in the morning the sun will be high in the east. Just can't describe some of the views.
We spent the night a historic provincial park called Kiskatinaw at the 21 mile post where the curved wooden bridge spans the Piece river. This was an original work camp in 1943.
6/15/2011
Another travel day north and west. We drove to Fort Nelson and went to the visitor center. This is another boom town from mining and oil related activities. Lot of new construction and hotels. We finished the day by driving about 30 miles north to a large pull-out where we would spend the night.
The cars and the trailers were very dirty and needed washing. We used river water to bucket wash everything. The river was running hard and fast with big snow chunks floating by from the snow melt.
I went outside at 0300 hrs and took some pictures. See this link for the picture made in "land of the midnight sun".
6/16/2011
Our target destination for today is Laird Hot Spring provincial park. It is a popular place with a natural hot springs. We enjoyed it in 2009. After setting up at the camp site and eating, we walked the quarter mile to the spring and got in the very hot water. This is a wide spot in the river and has been in service for a long time. I think it was close to midnight and had plenty of day light to return about 0130 hours. Read about it here.
6/17/2011
Another travel day and today is the Watson lake visit. Watson Lake is known world wide because of the Sign Post Forest. Started with a sign painter during the highway construction and continues today with about 70 thousand sign from all around the world. Read the Wiki about the Sign Post Forest here. Enjoyed a few hours there and drove about 30 miles north where we spent the night in a pull out along with one other traveler.
6/18/2011
Today we are heading for Whitehorse, YT and to the Walmart to stock up with stuff. Plan to spend a couple of days there to visit the local attractions. I pick up with that on the next addition of our travel blog.
It's been a while since I have put up a update as to our travel plans and other activites. This summer of 2011 found us making plans to return to Alaska and western Canada. In February 2009 we traveled to the "Last Frontier" and enjoyed it so much that we decided to return. This time we would travel with our good friends from Santa Fe, Brad and Beverly Cottingham. Plans were made to do this in 2009, but at that time, due to unexpected events they could not travel with us.
In early 2011 we made plans early, worked hard getting ready, and marked the calendar for a June 5th leave date. This turned out to be a great time to flee the extreme heat and drought conditions in the Texas Panhandle area. In addition, our friends Lowell and Vickie from McAllen, Texas were planing travel to Washington, Oregon, and the north west US as part of their summer escape from the hot south Texas heat. They would travel through Lubbock and stay at out house and then we would caravan to Palo Duro State Park where we would attend the presentation of the Pioneer outdoor amphitheater musical drama "Texas" . They would accompany us as far as Billings, Mt. At time we would go north into Canada at the Sweetgrass port of entry and they would continue to the west into Glacier National Park.
We left Lubbock with Lowell and Vickie following behind. Because The Silent Wings Museum on the north side of Lubbock had a special events day, we stopped there on the way north and enjoyed several hours looking at all of the exhibits. Then the drive to Palo Duro where we enjoyed the evening and the next day at the Panhandle Plains Historic Museum in nearby Canyon, TX. Also enjoyed the wildlife and spent time exploring the area. We spent two nights at Palo Duro.
We joined up Brad and Beverly at Trinidad, CO on I25, the afternoon of the 7th where we would spend the night. We were early enough to enjoy the free welcome to Trinidad and ride the historical tour bus around town. The driver is a history buff and does a good job explaing the early days of colorful Trinidad. Trinidad is a early railroad town with a interesting past. Very informative tour about town.
6/8/2011 Left Trinidad, Co and drove to Wheatland, Wy where we spent the night in the city park in the RV area. It was part of a large sports complex and was very nice. We were glad to find it as the weather had turned bad and the storm clouds were growing. Just got rain but no other problems. On our way up I25, we stopped at a Camping World near Thorton Co, for Brad to get a recall done on his refrigerator.
6/9/2011 Travel day north on I25 along the Bighorn National Forest. Beautiful drive in the very green rocky mountains. They have had a lot of rain and everything is greed. Lots of wind generators and livestock grazing. On into Sheridan for fuel and then I90 to Billings, Montana. This is where we say goodbye to Lowell and Vicki as they go west and we go east. We will meet up with them next year at the annual Blue Bonnet rally in Bandera. We spent the night in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.
6/10/2011 Another travel day toward the US Canada border Lot of rain has fallen and we had to detour because of a washed out highway (US87) just to the north of Billings near Lavina on 87. Not a big problem as the detour took us through some nice country roads. Lots of water but we continue to Great Falls, do some sight seeing and shopping. On toward the boarder to a pull out to spend the night, just a few miles south of the port of entry at Sweetgrass, Mt/Coutts, AB, Canada.
6/11/2011 Another travel day north into AB Canada Entered the port of entry with no problem and continued the short drive to Calgary where we spent the night at the Flying J. We wanted to get a early start to Edmonton, AB and to the big mall there.
Just a little review... We don't plan on more than 2 to 3 hundred miles per day. This keeps us busy and active with sight seeing and visits to area attractions. We drive slow so we don't miss anything. We try to use the internet to check out the "must see" attractions along the way. We limit our expenses by using free or low cost overnight spots. No reason to purchase expensive camp grounds just for a few hours of rest time. Much of our saving goes in the fuel tank as fuel is expensive and will get more expensive as we go into Canada.
