Sharp's Travels

It was a 9:45 departure this morning. The temperature was already up to 71 degrees.

We’re traveling on Hwy 212 and we go by a sign that says NO SHOOTING PRAIRIE DOG STUDY. On both sides of the road, you could see the prairie dog villages. We saw a number of them up on their hind legs looking the area over.

We also saw lots of antelope and a few deer grazing in the pastures along the highway, along with the cattle and sheep.

We stopped in Spearfish at Wal-Mart for groceries before heading to Rapid City. We pulled into our campground, Rushmore Shadows in Rapid City around 6pm. It was a long day and we were tired. The temperature did top out at 103 degrees.

For pictures of the day see album: Hardin to Rapid City 8-30-08

Today was a pound the pavement day. We traveled most of the day on the interstate. We did see a big bunch of antelope out in a field. We passed lots of fields of golden wheat, most of which was already harvested or just about ready to be. There was mile after mile of nothing but rolling bluffs.

Our destination was Billings, Mt. but we went on the Hardin, another 57 miles and pulled into Grandview Camp & R.V. Park about 5pm.

We are running the air conditioner for the first time since April. At 7:30pm they had ice cream in the game room so we went over and joined 3 other couples for that evening snack.

For pictures of the day see album: Helena to Hardin 8-29-08

We woke to the wind rocking the 5th wheel. We were in for another day of high winds. We pulled out by the campground office to get internet service and send e-mails.

Hwy 89 is a very curvy and Montana has an open range policy. You go around a corner and there will be 8 or 10 cows standing along the road. They started running and luckily didn’t run out in front of us. They were all along the highway.

Gay was checking out the rear view mirror and saw that our awning had blown off and was dragging on the highway. It had come apart at the top and the wind caught it and that’s all it took to rip it right off. We stopped and he took the remainder of it off. It was one more things to add to the problem list.

The roads were pretty good today and traffic was very light. We spotted a bunch of deer---a buck, doe and fawns. We didn’t see them quick enough for pictures.

We stopped for lunch just before we turned on Hwy 287. Now we are encircled on three sides by mountains.

We saw a group of antelope and more deer.

We pulled into our campground in Helena, Mt. about 3pm. We didn’t even get set up and our neighbors across the street came over to see our truck and 5th wheel. They have a big truck too, so we went to check their truck and 5th wheel out. We sat down and had a few drinks with them. It was nice trading stories.

About 5:30pm we headed out Hwy we looking for Frontier Town. We were there 22 years ago and wanted to check it out again. It was real neat---it had saddles for bar stools. We finally found it and it was all closed up. So sad—it was really a neat place. We turned around and headed back to town and stopped at Applebee’s for supper.

For pictures of the day see album: St Mary to Helena 8-28-08

We were ready by 10:30am to go and check to see if our mail was in. When we drove in there were no cars at the post office. We found this little office was open only from 12:00 to 5pm. We’ll have to come back.

We headed on up to Many Glacier to check it out. We entered an entrance of Glacier National Park. We were able to use our lifetime pass to get verses paying the daily fee. We had thought about doing the Going to the Sun Road in the park but found out from the attendant it was 28 degrees up at the top of the mountain and they had accumulating slush of up to 6 inches so they closed the roads.

It was raining and very foggy so we could hardly see the tops of the mountains or get a glimpse of the glacier.

We turned around and headed back out of the park and Gay spotted 2 mountain goats up on the rocks about half way up the mountain. We could watch them with the binoculars and wondered just how they got where they were.
We headed back to the post office and luckily our mail was in so now we will be on our way for sure tomorrow.

This afternoon when we got back I gave Gay a hair cut.

No pictures today as there was to much rain and fog.

It was pouring this morning. We took our time getting around in hopes the rain would stop so Gay wouldn’t get wet closing up. We had to be out by 11am.

The rain let up about 10:30am and we finished packing things up. Luckily things went pretty fast and we were on our way. We only had 75 miles to go today. We will be staying in St. Mary, Mt. for a couple of days waiting for our mail to come in.

As we got closer to Montana the U.S. Rockies could be seen off in a distance. The terrain started to get hilly. We see lots of horse and cattle ranches.

We pulled into Johnson’s of St. Mary’s RV campground about 1pm. We are parked up on a hill and the wind has begun to pick up. The camp office said they expect 60 mph winds tomorrow. Hope we don’t blow away!

Gay headed downtown to the internet hot spot at 6:45am. He wanted to upload yesterday’s blog & pictures. I planned biscuits & gravy for his breakfast, so I made a batch of biscuits before I hopped into the shower. By the time he got back, breakfast was ready. He said he spotted a big buck in the campground on his way out. He can put that on my wild animal card!

He showered and we began packing things up. We pulled out of our campground at 9:30am.

Within 45 minutes we had left the Canadian Rocky Mountains behind. As far as we are concerned, they are much more breathtaking than the U.S. Rockies.

Our scenery has leveled out into plains and hills.

We took the bypass around Calgary and picked up Hwy 2 south. We stopped for the day about 2:30pm in Fort Macleod.

For pictures of the day see Album: Banff to Fort Macleod 8-25-08

Our day started early. Gay was up at 4am. I was awake and got up about 4:30am. At 5am we went in town to the internet hot spot to upload pictures for the last 2 days blogs. We sat outside the café in the truck. We plugged the computer into the inverter in the truck. It took about 1 hour to update everything.

We headed back to the 5th wheel, had a cup of coffee and a nap!

At 10am we were ready to take Rt. 1A back to Lake Louise. We wanted to check out some of the attractions we missed on our way to Banff. The parking lot for Johnston Canyon was full yesterday. The cars were even parked out on the highway.

We arrived at Johnston Canyon around 10:30am. We were lucky enough to get a parking spot in the lot. There were tons of cars parked out on the highway again today.

It was a ½ hour walk into the lower falls. It was a paved trail with catwalks that clung to the sides of the canyon walls. The water was so clear and that pretty turquoise color. The falls are a mere 20 feet across at some points along the trails. When you got to the lower falls there was a bridge to cross and you went into a cave and out on the other side close enough to the falls to feel the spray from the water as it rushed over the rock cliff. The closeness to the pounding water was magnificent.

We headed on to the upper falls. That was another hour hike. We climbed up the paths, which winds through the pine, spruce and Douglas fir and onto more catwalks to an impressive site. The upper falls were 100 feet high. It was beautiful. It had high weeping canyon walls to one side. WOW!

The walk down went a litter easier. There wasn’t all that climbing to do. We stopped at the ice cream booth for a treat when we got back down.

We drove on up to Lake Louise. Once more, we were lucky to get a parking place pretty close to the lake. The view from the lakeshore is known the world over. Melting glacier silt creates the striking turquoise color of the lake and keeps it at a frigid temperature year-round. There was a big crowd there. Lots of them rented canoes to paddle the lake.

We decided also to check out Moraine Lake. We drove up a steep, winding road and again when we reached the lake cars were parked all along the road. We drove up into the parking lot and were lucky, for the third time today, to get a spot where someone had just pulled out.

Moraine Lake is also quite famous, in that an image of the valley of the ten peaks, surrounding the lake, appears on the back of the older versions of the Canadian $20 bill. All the peaks are white capped with the remains of the Wenkchemma Glacier. The huge mountain to the north, with the glacier on its summit, is Mount Temple, at 11,636 ft., the third highest mountain in Banff National Park.

To us, this was far prettier than Lake Louise. Seeing the mountain peaks towering over the beautiful turquoise lake was stunning. We walked around the edge of the lake, in and out through the trees. We were glad we decided to check this one out.

It was time to head home. We took Hwy 1 back to Banff. The sides of the highway were lined with tall fences. They had 2 land bridges that spanned the highway for the animals to use to cross over the road. They were covered with grass and trees. They were in the process of doing another one. They had two 15ft high X 150ft long culverts that spanned each side of the 4 lane interstate. They were pretty neat looking.

We arrived back at the 5th wheel about 5:30pm.

For pictures of the day see album: Banff 8-24-08

We were on our way by 8:15am. 8 units parked in the parking lot last night. It was only 37 degrees this morning.

The scenery is just breathtaking. The snow capped mountain peaks change around every corner

We stopped to view the Mistaya Canyon. It was a 300 meter walk down an old rock filled creek bed to the canyon. We dreaded the climb back out but it was well worth it. In the canyon the river has worn a deep twisting gorge into the limestone bedrock and tumbling boulders have created potholes and a natural arch in the canyon walls. Gay climbed out onto the rocks to get pictures of the water flowing through the deep gorges. I stayed on the observation bridge. The water was flowing very rapidly, it thundered through the holes.

We drove along Waterfowl Lake. It was so pretty and peaceful looking.

At Bow Summit lodge, we took the road west to Peyto Lake View Point. The glacial meltwater lake is a brilliant turquoise from glacial sediments. We hiked up a trail about ½ mile---straight up—I had to stop and rest every so often. The air is thinner and I have problems hiking uphill. At the top, we could see Bow Mountain (elev. (6,849 ft), Bow Glacier and the beautiful Peyto Lake below. It was a spectacular site. The downhill trip was much easier!

On up the road, we caught site of Crowfoot Glacier and Bow Lake, another beautiful turquoise lake. We pulled in beside Bow Lake for lunch. It was a nice view from our kitchen window.

We saw our first black bear in the park. We had expected to see lots of animals. He crossed the highway in front of us. He stopped on the hillside to feast on scrub trees there. There was quite a traffic jam before he disappeared into the trees.

We turned onto Hwy 1A headed towards Banff. We were hoping to see more animals but saw nothing. The road was narrow and tree lined on both sides. There were a number of pull-offs with some great views.

We pulled into Tunnel Mountain Campground about 2:30pm. We got everything set up and headed into town to find an internet hot spot to check e-mails and upload pictures and blogs.

For pictures of the day see album: Columbia Ice Fields to Banff 8-22-08

We didn’t leave our campground until 11am. We hooked all up and then Gay thought we should take the hitch extension off to avoid further strain on the bedroom slide. That took about 1 ½ hours. He got that set up and we pulled over to dump and we were on our way.

We spotted 2 doe down in the ditch by the road. They didn’t move as we went by.

We stopped at Rearguard Falls. It was a short 5 min. walk down to the falls. It was impressive. The water surged down over the rocks.

We pulled into the visitor’s center by the viewpoint of Mount Robson. (elevation 12,972), the highest peak in the Canadian Rockier. What a gorgeous view. There was a tour bus from Belgium there. The people were fascinated by our truck and 5th wheel. We showed them the truck and they asked if they could see the 5th wheel. Before we were through, I think the whole bus loan was in the 5th wheel looking around. They said in Belgium you would not be able to drive anything that big on the highway. They were shocked to hear only 2 people lived in it.

We also took in Overlander Falls. It was a downhill walk of about 15 min. to reach the viewpoint of the falls. It gushed down through the rock walls. It was very pretty. It was well worth the walk.

We were starting to see the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It was beautiful scenery. We spotted 4 elk grazing along the road. We crossed into Mountain Time just before we reached Jasper national Park, so we have lost another hour. There were lots of pull-offs to view the mountain glaciers.

We did one more falls today, the Athabasca Falls. It drops 40 ft., but it is through a short narrow canyon. The site was sure worth the stop.

We kept checking out campground sites as we went along, but they all had narrow entrance roads to get into the campground and we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to get turned around to get out.

The mountain glaciers along the way were impressive but not like the Columbia Glacier. The glaciers visible from the road are fingers of the giant Columbia Icefield, which covers 241 sq. miles.

It was getting late and we found no suitable campgrounds for our rig so we parked in the far lot of the Icefield Centre. There were already 3 other campers there with their slides out so we joined them. We had a beautiful view of a glacier out our picture windows.

For pictures of the day see album: McBride to Columbia Ice Fields 8-21-08

It rained off and on all night. This morning it is 47 degrees and misty.

We packed up and squeezed out of our tight camping site and headed out. I had to get out my wild animal card again today. We spotted a buck with antlers in the velvet. He was standing right along the road. He never moved as we went by, just stood there and looked at us.

Our morning went by real fast. We had to backtrack back up to Prince George and then made our way towards Jasper.

We pulled into a wayside for lunch and decided we would only go as far as McBride today. We needed to update blogs and do some laundry.

We saw a doe in the ditch by the road. She was real skittish and didn’t stay around for pictures.

We found a campground in McBride with internet service and pull in there about 2pm.

We went into town to the grocery store for milk and bread and when we came back to the 5th wheel I fixed supper and we settled in to read for a while.

We’re off to Barkerville this morning at 9am.

Barkerville is a typical gold rush boomtown; a jumble of log and false-fronted shanties along a narrow, muddy street. It has over 125 heritage buildings, period room displays and museums.

As soon as we got there we headed for Goldfield Bakery for a fresh, frosted fritter pastry. We looked around town a bit, and took a few pictures before heading to the reception building to begin our guided town tour with our historic interpreter. The people there were dressed in costumes of that era and did an excellent job of telling us all about how Barkerville was established.

After our tour we had a ½ hour break to look around a bit more and then we took in a little skit on mining. We got to see the Cornish Waterwheel in action and learn how they mined in the Caribou. The actors for this skit were so funny. They made their 40 minute presentation go by really fast.

There was also a big Chinese settlement in Barkerville. We toured their section of town and got a few pictures.

It was a must to take in the Court Session on Early Justice. For that we had to walk 1 mile on a dirt road, through the woods to the court house in Richfield. They had a sign up “BEWARE OF BEARS”. I was very nervous walking on that road. We met up with a few more people and the comfort of the crowd made me feel more at ease. The court house is the only building still standing in the town of Richfield. The actors did ok with the court house skit. Then there was that walk back. We had a number of people to walk with and it went much better—it was all down hill! We heard thunder and thought we’d get wet before we got back---we were lucky. Gay went out to the truck to get our rain ponchos and umbrellas and just got back inside when it began to rain. If we thought the streets were muddy before, they were terrible now.

We took in the movie on the gold rush and the museum at the reception building and by then the rain almost let up. We ran through the rain drops over to pan for gold. We both found a few FLAKES each!

At 3:15pm we took the historical tour of Chinatown. It was raining yet so they gave the tour inside one of the buildings. We got the lowdown on how the Chinese got to Barkerville. She was hard to understand but we filled in the blanks.

We had to finish our tour of the stable area and then hurried over for our stagecoach ride. The coach was stopped in the mud so it was very difficult to get in. They gave us a 15 minute ride around town.

We decided to eat supper at Wake-Up-Jake Restaurant. We had corn beef and cabbage. It was so-so.

We headed back to the 5th wheel to get dried off and warmed up.

For pictures of the day see album: Barkerville 8-20-08

We were late leaving the campground this morning. It was 10 am when we closed up. We needed gas, so we pulled into a station after we crossed the river in Prince George.
It had started to rain so Gay got soaked by the time he put in over 120 gallons of gas. It cost $547 to fill up the tank.

Our destination for today was Barkerville. About noon the weather cleared and the sun was out. It was already up to 69 degrees.

We decided to stay at Caribou Joy RV Park in Wells. It’s only about 5 miles to Barkerville from there.

We went over to check out Barkerville and purchase our tickets for tomorrow. We were able to get into the grounds and take in one show called Motherlode, which told the story of the gold discovery here and then went to Lung Duck Tong Chinese Restaurant for supper. It was ok, but not like Wisconsin or Florida.

We saw a deer on the road on the way back to the 5th wheel. Gay was able to get some good pictures of it. It just stood there and posed for us.

We saw a beautiful rainbow to top off our evening.

For pictures of the day see album: Prince George to Barkerville 8-19-08

We both had a good nights sleep last night. After breakfast Gay checked the oil in the truck and noticed one of the tires on the trailer was wearing funny, so he took it off and put on the spare. He says it has a loose wheel bearing and by changing to the spare it will be good now until we are back in Florida. It’s great that he carries all the tools to do the work, as well as the compressor to add more air to the spare tire. It was noon before we left our camping park.

We skirted Dawson Creek. The countryside is a farming community. Winter wheat fields and hay ready to be picked up.

We took a break at Chetwynd. It’s the “Chain Saw Sculptures Capitol of the World”. We had some lunch and then headed to the Visitors Center to get a walking map of the town to see where all the sculptures were located. It’s hard to believe they were done with a chain saw. They have such detail.

We went from the valley up into the mountains. The road was curvy but at least there were no frost heaves to deal with. They said to watch for moose but we didn’t see any. My wild animal card is EMPTY today.

We dropped back down into Prince George and found a nice campground with WIFI, cable and full hook-up for only $25.00. WOW!

For pictures of the day see album: Fort St John to Prince George 8-18-08

We started at 7:30 am this morning. It was 52 degrees out, some different from yesterday morning.

We stopped at a pull off for Muncho Lake to take pictures. It is a 7.5 miles long. It is the longest lake in Canada. The beautiful color is the copper oxide leached into the water.

We went through a construction area behind a lead car and were lucky enough to see 2 caribou along the road. The gal driving the lead car told us there is lots of wild life there, even a lynx and a big brown bear that visits the night crew while they are working.

As we climbed up the mountain it widened out into a plush valley. There were pastures there for horses that winter up there. As the valley begins to narrow up again the road runs along the river on one side with high rock faced mountains on the other. It is here we spot more caribou along the highway and then no too far up the road there were stone sheep. We first saw one sheep, then another. I thought it would be nice to see a group of them and low and behold around the next bend there stood 5 more stone sheep.

Summit Lake was also another one of those copper oxide lakes. It was such a beautiful emerald green.

We traveled up and down the mountains leaving all the caribou and sheep behind. Our roads are not the best. There are gravel patches and lots of patches along with the frost heaves.

We did spot a deer with 2 spotted fawns but with cars behind us we had no chance for pictures.

We are back to those tall, skinny pines on either side of the road. The ditches are full of pretty purple fireweed. The scenery quickly changes again with the white birch along the roadside, mixed with fur trees.

We pulled into the visitor’s center in Fort Nelson about 12:30. We had a bite to eat and then went into the visitor’s center to use their internet hookup. It took us 3 hours to upload our blogs & pictures for the past 2 days.

We decided to move on down the road a little further today. We ended up going all the way to Fort St. John. We found no suitable place to pull off the highway and the campgrounds were either full or looked terrible.

We got to the Rotary RV Park in Fort St. John at 8:30pm. It was a real long day.

For pictures of the day see album: Liard Hot Springs to St John 8-17-08

We were up at 5:30 am this morning. We have loss our first hour due to the time zones. No one else had pulled off in this turn-off with us last night. It was 37 degrees this morning and Gay had to scrape the frost off the windshield. It’s time to head south.

Stopped at Teslin to top off the gas tank and then on down the Alaskan Highway towards Watson Lake. For the most part we have the road to ourselves. We only see a car once in a while.

The sides of the road are lined with tall, skinny pines. So far a rabbit is the only wild life we’ve seen.

In the Milepost book at mile marker 1118 I read about mouth watering cinnamon rolls at the Continental Divide Lodge. It was time for a break so we stippped in for coffee & cinnamon roll. It was a neat old log building and the rolls were delicious.

Another mile post find about 65 miles down the road was the Rancheria Falls. It had a gravel path and then a board walk path of about 1/3 mile back in to the falls. We needed the exercise after those rolls anyway. It was real pretty back by the falls.

It is only 11am and the temperature has gone up to 61 degrees. It was another heat wave for us.

The lakes along the highway are like glass. You get the reflection of the trees and mountains back in the water. They were beautiful. Another screen saver Nikki.

We made a stop in Watson Lake at the visitor’s center. We checked out their museum on building of the Alaskan Highway. They had neat old pictures. I spotted a black bear along the roadside. Unfortunately this rig doesn’t stop on a dime so we were too far by for pictures. At least we both got to see it.

We are now seeing lots of birch along the highway. It’s a refreshing chance from fur trees.

We stopped at Allen’s Lookout for a beautiful view of Liard River with Goat Mountain in the background. It sure was pretty.

Just up the road, there was a herd of between 50 or 60 bison grazing along the highway. There were lots of little ones in the herd.

Best of all 2 little black bears were eating the bear candy (clover) right along the road. We pulled up and stopped. We took lots of pictures. They didn’t seem to mind that we were there. We stayed about 20 minutes just taking picture after picture and watching them eat.

My wild life card is filled for today----3 black bears, 65 to 70 bison altogether and I mustn’t forget the rabbit that started it all! Love it.

We stopped at the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park. It was a short walk on the boardwalk down to the pools. There are 2 hot spring pools with water temperatures ranging from 108 degrees to 126 degrees. There were 3 levels to the pool. Lots of people were soaking in it. You could smell the sulfur from the springs. I put my hand in the water and I probably wouldn’t last 5 minutes in it before I was too hot! There was no charge to view the pools, only if you were going to use them.

We didn’t go too much further before we pulled over and boom docked for the night.

It did get up to a warping 71 degrees today!
For pictures of the day see album: Johnson’s Crossing to Liard 8-16-08

It looked like a beautiful sunny day at Haines, but we couldn’t stay another day.

We stopped at a wayside about 20 miles out of Haines to get one last picture of an eagle.

We crossed over the border back into British Columbia and then into the Yukon. We saw a couple more pairs of trumpeter swans but that’s all our wildlife for today.

We stopped for a break at the historic Canyon Creed Bridge. It was built in 1920 to move freight and passengers across the Aishihik River. You’ll notice the crude construction of the bridge from Gay’s pictures.

We also went by the Takhini Salt Flats; it’s a series of bowl-shaped depressions where salt forms on the surface as water brought up from underground springs evaporates. These flats are not uncommon in the Yukon; this one is notable for the size of its salt crystals, as well as the variety of salt-loving plants that grow there, such as the distinctive red sea asparagus. We could see these flats and pretty flowers from a distance, but had no chance to try and take pictures.

When we got to Whitehorse we went to the Super Store to pick up more of those great rib eye steaks we had gotten when we were here with the caravan. We stored the few things we bought, and headed on down the road towards Watson Lake.

We found a turn-off along the road and pulled in for the night. We had a beautiful sunset to end our day.

For pictures of the day see Album: Haines to Johnson’s Crossing 8-15-08

We were up this morning at 5:30am. Gay made coffee and we filled our mugs and headed out to Chilkoot Lake to see if we could see any bears. We sat and waited over an hour with no luck. We did see lots of eagles across the lake in the trees. There were too many to keep count of. We took a few photos and headed back to town and then spotted a bear off to our right on a dirt road. He was walking right towards us but when he realized we’d stopped the truck, he headed off into the bushes. We weren’t lucky enough to get a picture this time.

We came back to the 5th wheel, showered and had breakfast. I did a little laundry, while Gay checked over the truck & 5th wheel.

After lunch we headed out again. We’d been told about an eagle’s nest in Tlingit Park, so we checked it out. The babies are already pretty big. We could see one of them out on a branch near the nest, flapping its wings. We were told one of the babies may have already flown away.

From the park we headed to the American Bald Eagle Foundation. We watched a movie on the eagle migration to the Chikat Valley and viewed over 100 specimens of local fish & wildlife. The animal displays were laid out so neat.

We took a drive down around Portage Cove and back into town. We filled the truck up with gas and are ready to leave Alaska tomorrow.

For pictures of the day see album: Haines 8-14-08

We were ready to leave this morning by 6:45am. We hadn’t gone to far when we spotted a bear run across the road ahead of us. He wasn’t close enough for a picture this time.

Our road was good the rest of the way to Haines Junction. We made the turn towards Haines. The mountain views were beautiful until it started to rain and the fog set in. We dropped down into the Chilkat Valley and passed through the boarder with no problems. We had only 40 miles to go into Haines. The road from Haines Junction to Haines is great. We sailed right along.

We drove past the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, a 48,000 acre sanctuary for the National Bird. We spotted 4 eagles along the road there. One pair was sitting on a nest there.

Haines is known as the Valley of the Eagles. In the summer, they’re likely to be perched at the waterfront or along the rivers. We were lucky to see 8 eagles altogether today. The eagles gather along the Chilkat River in Haines by the thousands in the winter. The natural upwelling of warm water allows them to feed on the late run of salmon when the rest of Alaska is frozen solid.

Adult bald eagles weigh between 9 or 12 pounds, with a wing span of 7 feet. The females are slightly larger than the males. They can fly up to 30mph and dive up to 100mph. The term “eagle eye” is no exaggeration; eagles can spot a fish up to 1 mile away.

We also saw 6 trumpeter swans today. This area is their natural breeding ground.

We arrived in Haines at our RV Park about noon. We got set up in between the rain shower, had a quick bit to eat and headed out to Chilkoot Lake, about 11 miles from here, to check out the bear feeding on salmon there. We waited about 1 hour and saw nothing so started to head back when we spotted one. He was in the river eating salmon. Gay got a number of pictures. The bear came back up the bank in front of us to cross the road and head back into the woods. It was neat to get such a close look at him.

We came back into town and had fish and chips at a local restaurant. It’s been a long day.

For pictures of the day see album: Kluane Lake to Haines 8-13-08

We packed up and headed out of Tok about 9am. We met up with another couple from our caravan (Glen & Sheila) and traveled with them as far as Beaver Lake. There was lots of road construction and frost heaves so traveling was slow. Each side of the road was lined with skinny fur trees. Spike says they could be as old as 100yrs, but because of the permafrost, they don’t get very big around or very tall.

We pulled into a wayside about 12:30 for lunch. While we were there our caravan friends passed us up again.

We spotted 2 more moose—one with a calf across the lake along the highway. We saw a pair of trumpeter swans with 2 little ones on that same lake.

As we moved along we passed our caravan friends again. They were taking a break at a wayside. They pulled in behind us and we traveled together again. We each had CB’s so were able to talk with each other.

We were lucky to spot a couple of eagles, one down low in the trees along the road. All in all about 14 trumpeter swans, but couldn’t get close enough for pictures of them.

We checked out a burl display in Destruction Bay. These log shapes comes from spruce, cottonwood and poplar. The shop was closed but he had a pile of burl shapes that are handcrafted into bowls and more. They use these trees a lot up here for porch posts on log buildings. All the burls on the trees give it lots of character.

Our day is winding down, and we were looking for a place to pull in for the night. We dry docked at Kluane Lake in a turnout along the highway. It’s a beautiful spot. We had the lake at our front door and a beautiful sunset. There were 7 other campers that joined us for the night.

For pictures of the day see album: Tok to Kluane Lake 8-12-08

We closed up and we were ready to head on over to the post office to pick up our mail by 9:15. Today was a sunny, beautiful day.

As we climbed up out of Valdez, we met up with 2 couples from our caravan. We traveled with them to Glennallen and then went our separate ways. They were going back up north to the Arctic Circle and we were on our way to Tok.

The roads were lined with trees most of the way before we came back towards the mountains. The roads were good and bad. You had to watch out for the frost heaves. The last 30 miles into Tok was new road.

We saw 2 eagles, 3 trumpet swan 3 moose and I must not forget the rabbit. Lots of wildlife today!

We pulled into the Sourdough Campground at 4pm, set up camp and headed into town to upload the blog and pictures. We also filled up with gas because we will be going back into Canada tomorrow.

For pictures of the day see album: Valdez to Tok 8-11-08

It rained all night last night and most of the day. During the break when it wasn’t raining we took a ride to see if we could find any bears in the creek where all the salmon were swimming upstream. No luck on the bear viewing, but did see two eagles. We then took a ride around town and that took all of ten minutes. When we got back to the 5th wheel it started to rain again. So we both took a long nap this afternoon. In the morning we take off for Tok.

We were picked up at our park here in Valdez at 9 am and transported 4 blocks down to the docks where we checked in and boarded Stan Stephens 9 hr. Glacier & Wildlife Cruise of Prince William Sound. We rode on a catamaran boat. The waters of Prince William Sound are known as some of the calmest waters in Alaska.

We headed out past the pipeline oil tanks and into the bay. We saw eagles perched high in the trees along the shore. Our guide also took us close to the bank to see the sea lions sunning on the rocks. The male sea lions can average 1,200 lbs and the females up to 650 lbs. They eat during the night, sunning and resting on the rocks during the day. They have been stamped with a number so they can tell where they have traveled from. We also saw a number of horned puffins floating in the water.

We were a few miles away from Columbia Glacier and we started seeing icebergs from the glacier floating in the water. Columbia Glacier is Alaska’s largest tidewater glacier. We were able to get within 500 ft of the glacier. The blue hues in the glacier & icebergs were beautiful. We took picture after picture.

We cruised on around the islands and spotted a number of sea otters. The males can weight 100 lbs. When not eating they float on their backs grooming and resting. We came pretty close to them and it didn’t seem to bother them.

About 12:30 we were all served a lunch of Alfredo Chicken on rice, vegetables and cookies for dessert.

We continued on over to Mears Glacier. This is an advancing and very actively calving glacier. We stopped about ¼ mile from the glacier. The ice walls were 300 ft high. Again the blue hues wee magnificent. It did not calve for us while we were there, but it spit water and little chunks fell off. There were a lot of thunderous noises coming from behind the glacier wall. It was moving somewhere back up the mountain.

There were lots of little harbor seals floating on the icebergs in front of the glacier. They didn’t seem to care that we were there.

Fishing just opened up for the harbor boats and there were a number out in the bay netting fish. We saw the large nets in the water around the boats and we got to see them haul the net in and dump the fish.

At different times during our cruise we had a number of Dall Porpoise swim in the wake along beside our boat. They can swim up to 35mph. They weigh up to 400lbs and are 6-8 ft in length.

We found another group of sea lions on the shore. They were a noisy bunch.

Our captain spotted some humpback whales. They kept popping up and when they’d dive their tales would fly up in the air. We were lucky enough to get 1 picture of the whale’s tale. It is so hard to be quick enough to get any pictures.

About 5:30 pm they fed us clam chowder & crackers for supper. It was very good. It hit the spot. It was chilly out on the water.

We cruised back along the shoreline, checking out the caves in the rock cliffs and saw another eagle.

The cruise was everything we’d hoped for and then some. Getting so close to the glaciers was awesome.

There were a number of people from Germany on our cruise. One couple sat with us. They were touring Alaska in a camper bus that holds 24 people. The front of the bus has the seating and the rear has the sleeping quarters. Their tour goes for 3 weeks and then they fly home from Anchorage. They showed us pictures of the inside of their camper and we invited them over to go through our 5th wheel. We have their e-mail so we can keep in touch. It was interesting talking to them.

For pictures of the day see album: Valdez Prince William Sound

We left our Palmer campground at 9:15 am. 60 miles east on the Glenn Highway we pulled into an overlook for a spectacular view of the 27-mile long Matanuska Glacier. What a site! At Glenallen we turned onto the Richardson Highway towards Valdez, on the shores of Prince William Sound. The sites traveling through the mountains were so pretty. Worthington Glacier is visible from several turnouts around mile marker 28. Hope some of our pictures do it justice. Valdez is home to 5 glaciers. The Worthington, Columbia, Meares, Shoup and the Valdez glaciers.

We got glimpses of the Alaskan Pipeline here and there. In the early 1970’s Valdez became the staging area for work on the lower portion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Today Valdez hosts the Valdez Marine Terminal, which is the southernmost end of the 800 mile pipeline.

We went through the Thompson Pass, which is at an elevation of 2,678ft., and is above the tree line.

Coming through Keystone Canyon was spectacular. The high rock walls and curvy roads made for some beautiful scenery.

As we were nearing Valdez, we came upon Bridal Falls and Horseshoe Falls. We stopped and took a number of pictures. It was a very pretty site.

Most of the road coming through the mountains was very bumpy. There were a lot of frost heaves that kept your speed down to 30 or 40 miles per hour.

We arrived in Valdez around 5 pm. The first campground we tried was full. They called The Eagle’s Rest Campground for us and we were able to get in there. We set up camp quickly so we could follow a small stream down to the shoreline. We stopped a one turnoff and the salmon were thick in the water. They were all trying to swim upstream to spawn and many of them were dead lying on the rocks along the stream. The seagulls were right down in the stream catching and eating the fish as they tried to swim upstream. We were told the bears had been feeding there too. It was really something to see hundreds and hundreds of fish swimming in such tight clusters.

Down on the shoreline the water was black with salmon, working their way upstream. The sea lions were just off shore feeding on the fish also.

Supper was late tonight, just too much to see.

For pictures of the day see album: Palmer to Valdez 8-8-08

Off we go---headed for Palmer, Alaska. We only had about 75 miles to go today. We made a stop in Wasilla at a Wal-Mart for groceries and then on to Homestead RV Park on the Glenn Highway just outside of Palmer. We got in about 1 pm, set up camp and were off again. We wanted to check out the Musk Ox Farm about 15 miles on up the road. The farm was established in 1986 and they now have 59 Musk Ox. The main focus of the farm is to raise tame healthy Musk Oxen for the production of qiviut, the rarest of fibers on earth. It is combed from the oxen’s fur and spun into a soft and lightweight yarn. Oiviut is 8 times warmer then sheep’s wool, yet finer than cashmere. It does not shrink in any temperature of water.

It benefits Alaskan natives, through a cottage knitting industry. Over 200 Alaskan Natives members are mailed the yarn as needed. They knit from their remote homes, far from the major cities of Alaska. It allows them to earn a supplemental income. When the knitting is received at the co-op, the members are paid for their work.

Our guide took us to the pens and told us about the oxen by name. This spring they had 4 new little oxen. They’re now 4 mo. old. The next 4 we saw were 1 yr. old and then we were taken to see the adult oxen. There were lots of balls in the pens. They all love to kick them around. They even have a huge one they jump up on.

In the spring when the weather warms, they begin combing the oxen for the qiviut. They are brought into combing stalls and combed twice a week. Some of them love it and others don’t like to stand still to be combed. If they can’t comb them they let it shed naturally and they pick it up from the fields.

The items made with the yarn range anywhere from $135 to $595. It was and interesting tour.

It was about 3pm when we left the Musk Ox farm and we felt we would have time to drive on up through Hatcher Pass to the Independence Mine in State Historical Park. It was one of Alaska’s largest gold mining camps. It employed 204 men between the years of 1936-1951. More than 181,000 ounces of gold were extracted from the Independence. Many of the buildings are falling down and others they are working to restore. One of the volunteers of the project took time to give us a little history of the mine.

We stopped back in Palmer to check out a book store and quilt shop. Gay asked what they would recommend for a restaurant in town and they said Turkey Red. It was an Italian restaurant. It was a bad choice. We had their special for the night and it had no flavor at all. We were very disappointed.

We headed back to the 5th wheel and got our pictures and blog ready to upload.

For pictures of the day see album: Talkeetna to Palmer

We headed out the door at 8 am. We are only about ½ mile from the airport where we are taking the Talkeetna Air Taxi over Mt. McKinley this morning at 8:30am. We had clear skies and it was only 41 degrees.

We checked in and signed on the dotted line and were given our boots to slip over our shoes. They wanted us to be prepared when we stepped off the plane onto the glacier. We flew in a wheel and ski equipped Beaver aircraft. As we stepped outside there was the constant buzz of aircraft overhead. We were hyped up and ready to go. We took the Grand Denali tour. You circle Mt. McKinley and traverse the Alaska Range twice. There were 6 of us plus the pilot.

Our take-off was smooth and we headed across country to our first peak, which was Mt. Foraker at 17,400ft., our next peak, Mt. Hunter at 14,573ft, and last Mt. McKinley at 20,320ft. We had a clear view of all three of them. Hurray! This trip was the highlight of our Alaskan adventure thus far. The scenery was breathtaking. The glaciers were so neat to see. We flew around 12,000 ft high and our pilot told us all the history of the mountains and how the glaciers and mountains were named. Gay had the back seat and could move from side to side to take pictures.

We landed at Kahiltna glacier base camp where the climbers begin their ascent, and the Wickersham Wall of McKinley, the steepest continual vertical relief in the world. We were at about 7,400ft.

There were two other site seeing flights on the glacier when we landed. It was only 15 degrees there. We all got out and were shaking in our shoes. Stepping out onto the 700ft thick ice field glacier was an experience unlike any other. We walked around our plane, took pictures and then took off headed back to the airport.

We saw a couple of moose and trumpet swans far below on the ponds. We both had cameras, so there are 386 pictures. What a flight is was, our pilot maneuvered us around mountain peaks, through passes and next to sheer, mile-high granite walls. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Hope you feel as if you were there right along with us. It was amazing!

For pictures of the day see album: Mt McKinley Flight

When we woke up this morning it was raining. It continued until about 1pm. We never popped our heads outside all morning.

After lunch we ventured uptown again. Talkeetna is a unique blend of old-time Alaska small town, population 873, and modern tourist destination. There are a lot of flight seeing excursions, climbing expeditions for Mt McKinley, fishing and river tours. We had to finish the tour of the little shops and get pictures of DOWNTOWN.

We went back up to the turn out after the sun came out and the clouds cleared, to see if MT. McKinley was visible. No luck. We headed back to the park and settled in to watch a movie---then I fixed supper and we settled in for the night.

For pictures of the day see album: Talkeetna 8-5-08

Off we go. At 8:45 we were finally ready to leave the welding shop. 5 days was a long time to dry camp. Only 20 amp service, I couldn’t run anything!

Just down the road we spotted a moose and her calf alone the highway. Not 5 minutes later another moose with her calf. WOW! We’re feeling good.

We stopped in Girdwood to check our Paragliding and because of the rain & wind up on the mountain they had not done any flights this morning. He said we could call back in ½ hour to check on the status. We decided to scratch this adventure from our list and head for Telkeetna. We phoned ahead for camp reservations and lined up our flight over Mt McKinley for Wednesday August 6th.

We arrived at Telkeetna Camper Park around 4pm. Got set up and went over to Talkeetna Air Taxi. We thought we might change our flight to tomorrow, but decided to leave it for Wednesday. Headed down into town and checked out the little shops and the Open Air Market. They had some pretty stuff. I loved all the photographs of the area.

We stopped and bought milk for breakfast and then went back to the 5th wheel for supper. I fixed steak & onions with baked potato.

It’s been clear here so we hopped in the truck and went back up the highway to see if Mt. McKinley was peeking out. No luck, maybe tomorrow.

For pictures of the day see album: Kenai to Telkeetna 8-4-08

We were up early to put the 5th wheel back together after the replacement of the main hitch frame and welding done. We installed all the fiber glass panels and sealed the seams, put on the cannels and did the chalking. We didn’t get done until 8:30 pm. We both were tired when we got done.

For pictures of the damage and repair see album: 5th wheel hitch repair

We hadn’t had breakfast before the guys at the welding shop arrived. We hustled around and closed up the 5th wheel.

We picked up a few odds & ends at Three Bears and then went back over to Beluga RV Park to post the blog and pictures.

We stopped by the Saturday Market at eh Visitors Center. They had booths set up outside with crafts, jams & vegetables. I told them they were brave to sit outside. It was in the low 50’s and very windy. I checked out all the booths and headed back to the truck to get warm.

We came back to the 5th wheel for lunch and put one of the slides back out so we could sit, relax and read while they worked on the 5th wheel. By 5pm they were done. Now it is up to us. We have to get the front panel back on but it is too windy now. Hopefully the wind will die down so we can begin the process of putting everything back together.

We were up very early this morning. A call came in that was the wrong number at 5:45am. We showered and went out for breakfast. We needed internet service so headed back over by the Beluga RV Park and parked just outside the grounds so we could get on the internet and upload blogs and pictures for the last 2 days.

We checked out the Visitors Center and watched their movie “Spirit of the Wild” all about Alaska. If any of you caravan people read this it would be a good one to buy. Fred Meyers may even have it. We also checked out the museum.

We were told about the old Canary building down by the bay so we went to check them out. One of the building had a few shops in it so naturally those needed to be investigated! They had some neat stuff.

We spent the afternoon sitting at the welding shop hoping they would get done with our 5th wheel. No such luck. Hope they work on Saturdays. We need the weather to co-operate with us---hope it doesn’t rain before we get the front cap back on.

About 5pm we headed out to find a place to eat. We ended up at Ellis Brewing Co. There were lots of cars in the parking lot so we thought it must be a good place to eat. They had hand tossed pizza. For dessert we stopped at Cold Creamery for their homemade ice cream. We had chocolate and added peanut butter, chocolate sauce and peanut butter cups in a chocolate and nut dipped waffle bowl. MMM-good.

We headed back to the welding shop—put the slides out and set up our home again.

(Gay here) Its Cheri’s birthday!!!!!

For pictures of the day see album: Kenai 8-1-08

We were up early because we wanted to get all closed up so they could work on the 5th wheel this morning.

By 8 am we were on our way to Soldotna to take an air charter in a float plane over to Wolverine Creek to view the bears that feed in the creek.

When we arrived, there were 4 other people that would be riding in the plane with us. We glided along the lake and you didn’t even realize you were airborne. We flew for about 30 minutes. Our pilot, Craig, took us by an active volcano and dropped down on a lake where he had his 18ft. flat bottom boat moored. We boarded the boat and he took us to Wolverine Creek. We spotted 2 eagles up in the trees along the shoreline. Craig took us to within 50 feet of the shoreline. The salmon were all swarming around by the mouth of a small stream and you could watch them as they jumped up into the air, trying to make it up the stream. They would get caught in the rocks and the bears were right there to feed on them.

We weren’t there but 10 minutes when a brown bear worked her way down to the water with her 2 cubs. She finally got right in the water and put most of her head under water. The cubs just watched from the bank.

About 10 minutes later a black bear came charging down the hill onto the rocks by the stream. He caught a few fish, ate a few bites and went in for more. His last fish he carried off into the woods.

We spotted a couple more black bear along the shoreline. Craig would cruise on in so we could get a closer look and we would follow then along the shore.

We were checking out a small waterfalls located close to the plane when we spotted a black bear with a tiny cub. They went back and forth in front of us on the shore and then the mama bear jumped into the water with the cub right behind her. You could hear the cub just talking up a storm. It was neat to watch.

Our flight back and landing were smooth as silk.

Roger and Jen thanks for sharing this little gem with us. WE LOVED IT!

We shared our lunch plans to go to the BBQ trailer at the wood carvers with everyone and low and behold everyone went there, even the pilot.
We gassed up, filled the LP tank and I got a haircut before we returned to the welders. They are still not done. We set up camp for another night here.

For pictures of the day see album: Bear View 7-31-08

We packed up and said our goodbyes to everyone and hauled the 5th wheel over to the welding shop for our 9 am appointment to have the hitch re-welded.

We had bigger problems then we thought. Gay had to take the whole front panel off and found 8 cracks in the hitch frame. It has to be completely rebuilt. We worked at taking all the chalking and residue off each piece Gay took off. What a job.

We plugged in at their outside outlet and put the slides out and camped right in their parking lot.