Summer 2011 Travel Alaskan Adventures

Dear Friends and Blog followers,

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Note... Special day on the 28th

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.

That's about it for now

John and Barbara on the road