The Road Goes On…

Category: 2017 Northwestern Canada

  • French Creek Recreation Site, BC to Devil’s Creek, BC

    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.

  • Whitehorse, YT to French Creek Recreation Site, BC

    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.

     

  • Kluane Lake, YT to Whitehorse, YT

    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.

     

  • Beaver Creek, YT to Kluane Lake, YT

    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.

     

  • Anchorage, AK to Beaver Creek, YT

    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.

  • Denali National Park, AK to Anchorage, AK

    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.

  • Denali National Park, AK

    6:30AM was shower time and without breakfast or coffee we drove straight to the Wilderness Access Centre at Denali National Park to catch our 8-9 hour bus tour through the park. Thank God there was coffee available at the centre.

    The weather was rainy with low clouds which made us fear that we wouldn’t see much of the natural beauty or animals, but those turned out to be unfounded.

    Brian Burnett was our more than competent driver and guide. He has been driving as a guide in Denali for 27 years and had a vast knowledge of the history of the park, the people, the climate and above all, of the animals.

    Speaking of animals, we did not see a moose but we had seen two a couple of days ago right beside the highway. We did however see quite a number of animals, starting small with the state bird of Alaska, the modest Ptarmigan. This was followed by witty, charming and curious Arctic Squirrel.

    For a while nothing happened until we were able to a see a couple of white dots on the side of a mountain slope. We were told they were Dall Sheep but they were too far away to be photographed.

    Now it became more exciting. As we turned a corner we were waved down by a surveying team who pointed down the road. As we approached, right in front of us we saw a mother grizzly bear frantically digging and pawing her cub out of the way. What was she looking for? We never found out, but a few minutes later, a second cub appeared from the other side of the road. Happily, mother bear and her two cubs were reunited.

    Constantly scanning the landscape for more animals paid off and we found a herd of caribou on a hill.

    At the end of the day we saw another single caribou with a great rack.

    We had been so disappointed that the weather was rainy when we left but this accentuated the landscape and put the mountains into a wonderful mysterious fog.

    By the afternoon the clouds and mist had lifted somewhat and the gorgeous colors of the landscape were more visible.

    The road into Denali Part is mostly gravel and the hairpin turns are very tight and so narrow that two vehicles cannot pass each other. Access on this road is limited to the buses and very few private vehicles that are given passes to camp in the park.

    We had frequent stops at viewpoints and rest stops. At the Eielson Visitor Centre we were pleasantly surprised by a youth orchestra playing rock music with classical instruments.

    After 8 or 9 hours on the bus we were ready for an afternoon nap. This was followed by dinner at the picnic table outside, a stroll through town visiting the shops and an ice cream dessert.

     

  • Fairbanks, AK to Denali National Park, AK

    Today was a quieter day. We bought some new hiking boots for Ruth as the soles of her old ones had just simply disintegrated on our hike in the Northwest Territories. The new ones are super snazzy.

    After buying some groceries we drove to Denali National Park without further delay and visited the information center to enquire about hikes and bus tours for tomorrow. No guided hike was available anymore, but we were able to purchase tickets for an 8 hour bus tour tomorrow starting at 8:10AM.

    Our campground (Denali Rainbow RV Park) is super conveniently located in town and is within walking distance to pretty much everything.

    We had a nice home cooked pasta dinner in the van and caught up on our blog while listening to the gentle rain which started upon our return to the campground.

  • Chicken, AK to Fairbanks, AK

    The morning progressed really quickly because there were no showers and the fridge was empty. We headed for the restaurant where we had breakfast and met Sue, the super energetic owner of this establishment. Everything we ate was homemade by her and she also had cinnamon buns, scones and oatmeal cookies for sale that will become breakfasts for the next couple of days.

    We photographed some more and stopped at the chicken poop, a four stall outhouse that is even wheelchair accessible.

    Given yesterday’s gravel highway experience, we hoped for the best.  It wasn’t long before the gravel ended and the paved road began. Our van and its inhabitants were relieved to be able to enjoy a smoother ride.

    The scenery wasn’t all that interesting and we didn’t stop often until we reached Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaska Highway.

    Ruth was attacked by a gigantic mosquito but defended herself admirably.

    We drove on to Fairbanks, found a spot for the night, and then headed to the fairgrounds to visit the Tanana Valley State Fair where we saw Elvis, some chickens, food stalls, craft vendors and rides.

  • Dawson City, YT to Chicken, AK

    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.