The Road Goes On…

Category: Trips

  • 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.

  • Eagle Plains, YT to Dawson City, YT

    Today was our very last day on the Dempster Highway with 369 kms of sometimes rough and challenging gravel road remaining. We stopped at the same lunch spot we had visited on the way up, and to photograph the area of the June/July forest fires again. There were still some areas that were smouldering and we could see and smell the smoke.

    At one point we had to stop for a very cute reason.

    We made it to the end without any flat tires but a very mudding vehicle.

    Off to the car wash we went!

    We’re back at the Gold Rush Campground for the evening before departing for Alaska tomorrow via the Top Of The World Highway. This will get us back to the Alaska Highway and Whitehorse for our trip back.

  • Whitehorse, YT

    The scones from Johnston’s Crossing were great!

    We drove to Integra Tire to get our valve stem replaced again with one compatible with the tire pressure monitoring system. This was done quickly while we waited. We met a German couple who had rented a car in Vancouver and had driven it up the Dempster Highway with four kayaks on the roof. On the way they had shredded two tires and possibly wrecked a wheel bearing. We’re sure the rental car company is eager to get their car back before it gets trashed anymore. The nerve of some people.

    The rest of the day was spent touring Whitehorse. We started at the Visitor Reception Centre where we got our Yukon passports stamped and lots more information on the Dempster Highway trip and options to get to Tuktoyaktuk. An extension of the Dempster from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk is set to open in September but unfortunately won’t be done before we get there. There are options to fly and do a day trip. Hopefully this will work out for us.

    We visited the White Pass and Yukon Route Depot, the Whitehorse end of the former narrow gauge railway that ran to Skagway and dates back to the Gold Rush time. These days one can take a tour by bus to Fraser, BC and then the train to Skagway.

    After this we visited the MacBride Museum of Yukon History. Here we learned about some of the colourful characters that were part of the Yukon’s history, saw some more animals, beautiful native craftsmanship, and really enjoyed a special photographic exhibit on the the building of the Alaska Highway which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

    Tired from walking we enjoyed a rest at a local coffee shop, sitting outside in the warm sun.

    On our way back to our campground we briefly visited the S.S. Klondike, a stern wheeler that had transported goods and passengers along the Yukon River between 1937 and 1955. The S.S. Klondike was restored in 2005 and is now a museum.

  • Teslin, YT to Whitehorse, YT

    After breakfast we went to the Yukon Wildlife gallery adjacent our campground. They have a wonderful display of taxidermied animals in recreated natural habitat scenes.

    Next we wanted to visit the George Johnston Museum with its photo gallery of Tlingit life from the 1920s to 1940s. Unfortunately a power failure at the gallery meant it was closed.

    We returned to the Tlingit Heritage Centre and talked to a few of the workshop leaders about traditional crafts and smoking salmon.

    It was now time to continue our drive to Whitehorse but we had to stop at the Johnson’s Crossing Lodge and RV Park to taste their famous cinnamon buns made from the original 1949 recipe. Their scones also looked good so two of them joined us on our trip and will be breakfast tomorrow.

    We made it to the Caribou RV Park just outside of Whitehorse were we will be spending two nights. They have an outhouse with a with an interesting and amusing sign on the door.

    Right next door is the Wolf’s Den restaurant which has Swiss specialities. We couldn’t resist and enjoyed a delicious cheese fondue (although Martin’s homemade one is still much better).

  • Watson Lake, YT to Teslin, YT

    Our morning in Watson Lake ended up a bit different than expected. As planned, we visited the Sign Post Forest with around 85,000 signs. The sign forest began in 1942 when a U.S. Army soldier from Danville, Illinois named Carl K. Lindley was injured and was asked to repaint a sign that had been damaged by a bulldozer. He asked whether he could add a sign indicating the distance to his hometown and ever since people from all over the world have been adding their own signs.

    The nearby Alaska Highway Interpretive Centre was our next stop and we learned a great deal about how the 1523 mile highway was built in just 8 months and 12 days!

    We spoke to the tourist information agents and got a number of new brochures and information about our upcoming Dempster Highway trip. Now we were really excited about this segment of the trip.

    Our next destination was the Watson Lake Airport to learn about the U.S. – Russia Lend-Lease program where the U.S. lent aircraft and other machinery to Russia during the second world war. The information panels and images also showed the network of airports used to ferry the aircraft to Russia. A large, now seemingly empty, former military hanger can still be seen.

    When we were ready to leave we had a bit of a surprise – the information panel in the van’s dash showed that the right rear tire was low in pressure. We hurried back to Watson Lake to a tire repair shop and they discovered that the valve stem was leaking. Fortunately they were able to fix it, although they didn’t have any stems compatible with the tire pressure monitoring system. The owner told us that a shop in Whitehorse would be able to replace the valve again with one that was compatible.

    On our way to Teslin we stopped at the famous Rancheria Restaurant that was already mentioned in the 1949 edition of the Milepost. Here we had apple pie and talked in great length with the Kim, the daughter of the owner. Kim is a teacher and lives in BC now.

    A little further up the road we saw a wolf walking in the bushes by the side of the road.

    The rest of the drive to Teslin was uneventful and we crossed the Nisutlin Bay Bridge, the second longest water span on the Alaska Highway at 584 meters.

    We checked into the Yukon Model and Lakeshore RV Park right across the bridge and then hurried off to the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre for the Ha Kus Teyea Celebration. Here we enjoyed traditional dances and ate smoked and BBQ’d salmon for dinner. By the lake we saw the canoes that had participated in the traditional lake crossing.

    Dead tired we returned to our campsite and went straight to bed.

  • Test River, BC to Watson Lake, YT

    After a great sleep and a nice warm shower we went for the promised amazing cinnamon buns at the campground store/restaurant. Here we found hot coffee and tea, fresh baked bread, homemade sausages, books and a variety of native art, knives and clothes.

    We enjoyed our conversations with two gentlemen from the US and Al and Darlene from Manitoba.

    The campground itself was unique with a diesel generator running in the barn to supply power to the campground, and a trailer with freezer style door handles that contained the washrooms and laundry room.

    Gas was sold out, even at $1.59 a litre!

    It seemed we were out of battery power as well as our van refused to start. No dash lights, no click, no nothing!

    Martin began some troubleshooting, disconnected the vehicle battery, and borrowed a multi-meter from the campground. The battery read 0 volts. Strange. Maybe the meter was broken, so he tried measuring the coach batteries. They read 6V each as they should. A few more tests gave somewhat unexpected results. Time to ask whether they had another meter. The next meter showed 12V on the vehicle battery, so he reconnected it to the van again and all of a sudden everything worked! Phew…

    Now the most breathtaking portion of our trip so far could begin. Most of the time we drove along lakes and rivers through the mountain ranges of the Rocky Mountains. We learned about folded mountains and alluvial fans caused by water draining after summer downpours.

    Wildlife was abundant! We saw Stone Sheep, bears and bison.

    Part of the Alaska Highway follows the Liard River and it took us to the Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park where we had lunch followed by a soak in the pools filled with naturally hot spring water.

    We made it to the Yukon!

    Our destination for today was Watson Lake and we stayed at the Downtown RV Park. Dinner was across the street at a Chinese restaurant with homemade food for a reasonable price. The program for the evening was a visit to the Northern Lights Centre, the only planetarium in North America featuring the myth and science of the Northern Lights.

  • Grande Prairie, AB to Tetsa River, BC

    As we left our campground we drove by a tractor trailer accident. Highway 44 up to just outside of our campground is a 4 lane divided highway but it ends and takes a left turn into Grande Prairie. This truck driver must have either missed his turn or fallen asleep and ended up running off the road. A great wake up call for us, especially because this was going to be a driving day for us.

    We stopped at the Costco to gas up the van and also pick up some bottled water. The water costs $3.39 plus a deposit of $4.00 and a $1.39 Enviro fee.

    We passed many oil and gas wells and associated businesses and a large number of Golf courses on our way to Dawson Creek where the Alaska highway begins.

    There is a turn off to Kiskatinaw Provincial Park about 27 kms in. Here one can drive a 10 km section of the old Alaska highway and can cross the historic Kiskatinaw Bridge, the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska highway that is still in use today.

    The beginning of the Alaska Highway still had lots of canola fields and oil and gas wells but soon it became more forested with hills and curvy roads, still with oil and gas wells although those eventually also ended.

    As of Fort Nelson we drove through mountainous areas with steep ascents and descents of up to 10% and tight curves. We enjoyed the stunning scenery and were warned to look out for animals by the many caution signs. Sure enough, we were very lucky to see a mother moose and her calf crossing the road ahead of us. What a sight!

    We were ready to call it a day and stayed at the Tetsa River Services and Campground. One of the allures was the promise of the best cinnamon buns ever for breakfast. After driving 720 kms, that sealed the deal!