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.
This morning was an awfully early morning. Pepsi woke us up at 5:15AM and wanted and then didn’t want to go to the bathroom. She’s been scratching herself more recently and we were a bit concerned about her and weren’t able to sleep after that so we got up, fed her, walked her, had breakfast and departed for Anchorage on the Parks Highway.
We drove for a about two and a half hours and turned onto the Talkeetna Spur Road and stopped at Kahiltna Birchworks where they make birch syrup (like maple syrup, but with birch sap). They had a short video on the production of the syrup and we saw the huge evaporator that they use.
After that we were hungry and stopped at the Flying Squirrel Bakery/Cafe for a smoked salmon, tomato and cream cheese bagel. Ruth had a tasty cappuccino. Yummy!
The town of Talkeetna was filled with tourists and we wandered through some gift shops and an outdoor market. This town is also accessible by train and appears to be part of a Princess Cruise line trip.
We returned to our van and drove non-stop to Anchorage enjoying the Chugach Mountains along the way. We are staying at the Ship Creek RV Park Campground right downtown in Anchorage. There appear to be many homeless people in Anchorage and when we inquired about it, the woman at the campground office said that Alaska doesn’t charge people for non-violent crimes anymore which basically means you can walk into a grocery store, fill a buggy with merchandise and walk out without fear of any consequences. I wonder how that works out for them. In any case, the campground appears safe, is very clean and full of new coaches and other RVs and we will be departing early tomorrow morning.
We got our oil changed at Jiffy Lube and did some quick shopping for dinner at Costco. A 3 pound BBQ’d chicken is only $4.99 here! Since it was still hot, we had it in the van in the parking lot. Some will be lunch tomorrow.
We drove through the downtown core to get an impression of Anchorage. We recognized the hotel we had stayed at when we were here in 2003 with Holland America as well as some of the streets. Anchorage is a mix of old and new buildings, some chic and some run-down.
