Ruth woke up not feeling well so we started the morning slowly. She spent most of the day lying down and resting and Martin went for a nice hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House.
Along the way he saw a number of people rock climbing, two grizzly bears from a distance, and tons of chipmunks.
The hike is 5.3 km one way and had a 370 meter elevation gain.
No map today as the van didn’t move.
The night was not as calm as expected. Pepsi was also a paid guest of the Fairmount but she made it very clear that she preferred sleeping in the van over the five star Fairmount. After this battle was settled we had a great night sleep and Pepsi was happy to go for a walk in the morning.
After breakfast we left for Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway. We stopped several times to take in the amazing beauty and visited the Athabasca Falls.
Later on in the afternoon we stopped at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre and hiked a short distance to the glacier. There are a number of markers that show where the toe of the glacier had been in previous years and it became very obvious that global warming has taken a huge toll on this glacier.
We arrived at the Fairmount Chateau Lake Louise and our van was too high to fit into the parking garage. Therefore it was ‘valet’ parked right out in front of the hotel along with four other RVs.
When we had made the reservation we had also included Pepsi as one of the guests and when we arrived in our room we found a welcome gift for her.
After the issues with her sleeping in Jasper we decided to have her sleep in the van again.
We had a nice swim and trip to the steam room followed by a cheese fondue at the Wallser Stube restaurant.
Lake Louise is an exceptionally beautiful location and we decided to try and stay for another night. This took a bit of work, but Jeff, our front desk agent, pulled out all the stops to make it happen. Yay!
The morning started out with a swim, whirlpool and sauna at the Prince George Aquatic Center. We were refreshed and felt fit for our drive to Jasper. Despite the rain we made it in good time and didn’t see any evidence of the forest fires burning in BC.
On our way to Jasper we saw our first Elk feeding by the side of the road. It is close to mating season and the signs said to stay away from the animals as they may charge. Remember, these animals have big horns. Nonetheless, a number of tourists felt the need to take selfies with the Elk or otherwise get within 5 feet of them. Hopefully everyone made it back in the car safely.
In Jasper we stayed at the Fairmount which has log cabins right beside the lake. Ruth had received a teaching award four years ago and one part of the gifts were certificates for a stay at a Fairmount hotel. Since we hadn’t used them we thought this was the time and place to be pampered a bit. Quite a difference from Walmart the night before.
Today was a driving day and we had relatively few stops. The first place we did stop was the Gitanyow Totem Pole Park which has one of the largest and oldest outdoor totem pole collections. The totem poles show the clan status and are carved from bottom up.
Shortly after our visit to the totem poles we left beautiful Highway 37 and turned onto Highway 16 to begin our journey eastward. Our next stop for gas and a short break was Smithers. Since it was Sunday not many stores were open. The town was designed after an Alpine village and thus has a sculpture of a Swiss man with an Alpenhorn. Smithers also had the first traffic lights we’ve seen since Whitehorse.
We continued on to Prince George and since it was already relatively late and dark we opted for a Walmart parking lot.
After a long sleep and long breakfast we continued our trek south and stopped at Jade City. There are several major Jade mines in the Cassiar region and together they produce approximately 1 million pounds of Jade a year, half of which is exported. The mines account for 92% of the world’s Nephrite Jade production. We spoke to a very knowledgable woman at the store who explained the differences in quality and how the jade is worked to show its beauty. Our van is a few pounds heavier now as a result of this visit.
The weather changed by the hour. We drove through rain, dark clouds, wind, beautiful sunshine which make the change of scenery even more fascinating.
Tonight we are camping in an unmarked rest area right by the Devil’s Creek bridge. As we were having dinner we noticed he had company. We peeked out of the side window to see what this older gentleman was up to. He had a pickup truck and kept hopping in and out of the bed of the truck. At one point flames appeared from the truck bed so we went out to investigate and found out he was just making coffee.
After a cozy breakfast and updating our blog, we finally got on the road. Instead of taking the Alaska Highway all the way, we decided on a short detour to Carcross because we had been there 14 years ago on a Holland America cruise trip.
On our way to Carcross we passed Emerald Lake with its mesmerizing blue, turquoise and green water.
Carcross is a town on the White Pass and Yukon rail line which was built because of the gold rush and linked Skagway and Whitehorse.
The town has really changed. Some of the buildings were or are in the process of being renovated and new stores and boutiques in a small plaza were a nice addition. We had ice cream in one of the old ones and cappuccino and German Apple cake in a new one. We visited a gallery and saw very different pieces and styles of art by various artists.
One of the shops sold Maple Syrup. Since we hadn’t seen any Maple trees on our journeys, we enquired as to whether Maple trees grew in the Yukon, at which point the owner showed us a potted Maple tree at his front door. Once he realized that we were from Ontario he quickly confessed that his syrup actually originates in Quebec and he makes artisan maple butter and crunches from the syrup.
We were determined to make it to British Columbia via Highway 37 today. We passed through beautiful landscape and just before dark we found a fabulous free campground right by a river on Kaska Nation land.
Yesterday we had booked a flight seeing trip with a glacier landing but when we arrived at the airport we were told that it was too windy and cloudy and thus the flight was cancelled. No Mount Logan, the highest peak in Canada, for us.
We were disappointed but had a fabulous day anyways. At the Tachal Dhal Visitor Centre we were able to see Dall Sheep in the distance on the mountain. A telescope on the porch of the visitor center helped us see these beautiful animals grazing with their young. Our cameras unfortunately didn’t get as close as the telescope. Look for the little white spots in the clearing below.
We discussed at length whether to go for a hike, but given the strong winds and flying sand we decided against it and moved on.
At Haines Junction we stopped at the Village Bakery for soup and a Bison cheese dog.
Puppies! Our next stop was about 20km outside of Whitehorse at Muktuk Adventures. This is a place for ‘People who love dogs!’. They have approximately 120 huskies which are used as sled dogs in the winter and trail adventures in the summer. We opted for the self-guided tour which meant we got to play with and pet 120 adults and puppies, all with their own personalities! What fun!
Exhusted and covered in doggy kisses we headed off to Takhini Hot Springs to soak in their pools.
Back in Whitehorse we replenished our fridge and cooked a delicious Indian chicken dinner.
Our first stop this morning was right across the street at the Beaver Creek Visitor Centre where we entered the draw for the 2oz and 1oz gold nuggets now that we had more than 20 stamps in our Yukon passport. We each got a gold Yukon pin as well.
As we drove along the Alaska highway we saw several ‘pothole’ lakes that were caused by the melting permafrost due to the rebuilding of the highway.
The scenery on this drive was spectacular in places!
We had read that this area is a stop-over for migratory birds and that the Trumpeter Swans use this area for nesting. We were so lucky to actually see a pair swimming close by the highway.
There is lots of construction on the highway and some longer stretches have pilot cars that guide you through the working equipment and challenging stretches of road. Today we had a 20km stretch and were following such a pilot pickup truck when it abruptly stopped, another pickup truck pulled up beside it and began re-fueling it. We could not resist asking for fuel as well. No such luck!
We stopped at the Kluane Museum of Natural History and saw a terrific display of the animals, native tools and weapons, and Yukon minerals.
The Dall Sheep are generally so high up in the mountains that you don’t get a close look at them.
Dinner was at the Talbot Arm Motel, restaurant, gas station and gift shop. Here we ran into the French motorcyclists with their sidecars we told you about a couple of days ago.
Our campground for this evening is the Congdon Creek Yukon Government Campground, right on Kluane Lake. The tenting area was surrounded by an electric fence as a grizzly bear trail runs along the creek. No fences for hard-shell RVs, so we were on our own. No, we didn’t see any grizzly bears but sure enjoyed the amazing scenery at the lake.
The good news was that Pepsi didn’t wake us up this morning. The bad news was that the 5:00AM freight train blowing its horn did. We hit the snooze button, but another train was long shortly afterwards. The blast of a train horn definitely isn’t something one can ignore for long. Time to get up and get going. Today was a long drive from Anchorage to Beaver Creek, Yukon.
The drive on the Glenn Highway and Tok Cutoff was filled with majestic mountain ranges and glaciers. We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier for some photographs.
We had lunch at a viewpoint overlooking the Gakona and Copper rivers. Here we noticed that the vegetation indicated the beginning of fall. The fireweed was blooming only at the tip which means winter will be here in 6 weeks.
The road had lots of frost heave and gravel stretches and we were amazed at how quickly the two French motorcyclists with sidecars navigated these obstacles.
We turned back onto the Alaska Highway at Tok, gassed up, had an ice-cream and headed towards the Canadian border. We cleared customs at Beaver Creek, had a nice chat with the officer about our Tuk trip and drove another 3 km to our campground for the evening. Right next door is Buckshot Betty’s where we had a delicious chicken parmigiana.
We have a confession to make. After writing the blog entry for yesterday, we snuck out and went to the 10PM Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Show and what fun it was! Ruth even snapped some pictures of the gamblers!
After the show we walked around Dawson City for a bit. The light was just wonderful at 11:15PM.
The morning was very busy. We started with three huge loads of laundry and while the mobile windshield repair guy was climbing on the hood of the van, we did a thorough house-cleaning. After finishing up our chores we headed to the Dempster Highway Information Centre to show our Dempster passports that indicated that we had visited all the required sites and were now eligible for the grand prize of Canadian Diamonds. We are very positive that we will win this prize as there are less than 160 entries so far.
We still had a stamp to get for our Yukon passport so we headed to the Dawson City Museum. It shows the history and culture of the local natives, the Klondike gold fields and the development of Dawson City, including the establishment of the first banks in Dawson, one of which was a CIBC. Prior to the banks arriving, bills were paid with nuggets and gold dust.
Now we definitely had to leave Dawson as it was already 1PM. We crossed the Yukon River on the ferry and started the Top of the World Highway towards Alaska. It started out paved…. Soon it was no longer paved and the Dempster Highway was great in comparison. The border crossing had wonderful pavement and the scenery is absolutely beautiful up there.
We stopped at an abandoned traditional roadhouse that had been occupied off and on by different owners.
We arrived in Chicken, Alaska which got its name because the founders didn’t know how to spell Ptarmigan, a bird that looks like a chicken and is the state bird of Alaska. It was just supposed to be an ice cream stop, but turned into a free night of camping and a lovely chicken pot pie dinner, followed by a blueberry/apple pie dessert, followed by a beer. We got to know Aaron, a student who worked at the restaurant to support his university education and talked to a number of the fellow campers and people at the saloon.
