Denali National Park

Okay, so the main draw here is the peak.  Denali's south peak is the tallest in North America, a shade over 20,000 feet tall.  It's also visible an average of 2 days during any give July.  We missed those 2 days!  Oh well, they say you can see it from Anchorage on a clear day, so maybe we'll get lucky later in the trip.  Since we hit Fairbanks, it's been pretty much cloudy and rainy all day every day.  However, we took the Eielson Visitor Center shuttle bus 66 miles into the park and saw some awesome wild life.  I saw a moose, but it disappeared into the brush before I could snap a picture.  Those things are easily spooked.  You can only drive 15 miles into the park in your own car, and there's only one possible viewpoint that far in.  If you want to explore further into the only road in the park, you have to take a tour or shuttle bus.  Ours was a great ride.  They stop anytime you see wildlife, and our driver Elton had been driving buses through the park every summer for 24 years.  There are times when the road is right on the edge of the cliff, no surviving a blown out front tire.  I was happy to leave the driving to a pro.  We spent 4 days here at campground just outside the park entrance.  Besides the nature tour, we ran into friends Eddie and Lois from McDill.  They flew up and rented a car to tour some before cruising south down the inside passage.  Here are some pictures:

Gotta get the park name in a picture

We had dinner and a nice visit with Eddie and Lois.  We ate at the round fireplace in the background, really nice with it being so cool and rainy outside.  The weather is finally starting to feel like Alaska.

A panorama from inside the park.  These stream beds all originate at glaciers higher up in the mountains.

One of the steeper portions of the park road.  I'm sure we'd stop rolling at some point down there...

I've been told before that I have a nice rack...

Dall Sheep, sort of like Big Horn.  Apparently the horns get larger in the fall when it's time to crack heads for the girls.  This herd of 10 weren't there when we made the return trip, lucky to see them.

A family of ptarmigan crossed the road right by us.  They turn white in the winter.

Small herd of caribou making their way through the valley.

We saw 5 grizzlies total.  The best was a mother and cubs that were feeding right beside the road.  They were there on the way in, and nearby on the other side of the road on the way back.  They walked right in front of us, spectacular luck.

Several caribou were feeding right next to the road.

Mom and cubs.  They were adorable.

Fairbanks

We made it all the way from Chicken to Fairbanks after a brief rest in Tok.  The Alaska Highway is beautiful, especially compared to the Top of the World.  Fairbanks, as far as I could tell, isn't a lot different than many modern western towns.  You run out of pavement pretty quickly once you leave the main streets, but other than that they've got all the comforts of home (Walmart and Lowes).  We paid $2.67 a gallon for diesel, a little lower than Canada but considering how much oil they produce here, ridiculous.  I'm sure they blame it on refining capability.  I also found out they have no income nor state sales tax, and they give every resident family member about $2,000 a year.  That's over a billion dollars in handouts just for waking up in the morning.  Hmm.  Anyway, we spent 4 days knocking around town and seeing some of the sights.  I got an oil change in the motorhome, topped off with diesel and propane, and got a small rock chip fixed.  We then went about an hour north for a couple nights at Chena Hot Springs Resort.  This will be the northernmost point we reach on the trip.  This morning, it's back through Fairbanks and on to Denali National Park.  We didn't do a whole lot of scenic beauty in Fairbanks, but here are some pictures:

We hadn't shopped for groceries at commissary prices in awhile.  Eielson AFB is about 20 minutes outside of town, so we had to make a stop.  Pretty quiet place on a rainy Saturday morning.

At the botanical garden, University of Alaska.  These purple plants are everywhere.

The first car in Alaska, hand made.  We visited the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum.  Very cool, lots of turn of the century cars, many from Alaska.  They have 7 one of a kind autos.

Laurie and I going for a cruise in our new toad.  You see the term "Sourdough" up here a lot.  It sort of refers to the bread, but more a person who has spent an entire winter up here north of the Arctic Circle.  You keep your sourdough starter yeast close to your body so's it don't freeze.

Our home in Fairbanks, riverfront lot on the Chena River.  Roughing it smoothly, so they say.

The Chena Hot Springs Resort has an indoor ice sculpture museum.  It's 25 degrees in there, so we had to break out our coats for the first time in...I can't remember when.  This is a polar bear lying on his back with balls of ice on his feet.

The marquis award winning sculpture in the museum, two knights jousting.  It's years old, and slowly disappearing through melt and evaporation.

They grow their own flowers at the resort, and like most things in the summer up here, they grow spectacularly.

A reindeer walking in the woods at the resort.  This one's domestic more or less, but we did see another wild moose on our walk.  Those things spook easily.  I couldn't get a decent picture.

Laurie with two new best friends.  They're really into sustainable food and energy at this resort.  It's off the grid, generating it's own power using a geothermal plant.  The chickens in the pen lay eggs that they use for employee meals currently, not certified to serve the public.  I asked an employee if their meals included a lot of chicken and he said yes, but hadn't considered where the chickens come from.  Hmmm.

Like our buddies the horses in Williams Lake, everybody loves grass that can't be reached from the pen.

Tomato plants in the greenhouse at the resort.  They grow their own flowers, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce.  The vines are dozens of feet long, look below the plants.

Alaska!

You might have noticed that Laurie and I are pretty flexible in our travel plans.  The ferry crossing at Dawson City can sometimes take hours waiting in line, because it only carries one rig like ours at a time.  The round trip takes it about 20 minutes, so if there are 4 or 5 rigs in front of you, you can end up waiting for hours.  We got right on, and when we got to the north shore of the Yukon River, it just didn't make sense to overnight again, so off we went.  The highway from Dawson to the Alaska border was paved, for the most part, so we got there in a few hours.  For us, arriving in Alaska in such a remote place was euphoric.  After a quick and easy check in at the border crossing (the agents live on site), it was on to Chicken, AK.  The first 10 miles of the Top of the World Highway in Alaska are velvety smooth, perfectly new and flawless asphalt.  Ha!  Sucker!  The remaining 30 miles were taken very slowly and carefully.  It's a gravel road, and it was pouring rain, and gosh I'm glad I did it but I'll never do it again.  The views were fantastic, but when your eyes are glued on the road ahead so you don't kill yourself and your wife, it's not as easy to enjoy.  All in all very doable though, just slow and a little nerve wracking.  A car or truck would have been no problem.  A bus, not exactly equipped for it though many of us take that road.

I have a tire pressure monitor system that tells me the status of both the RV and car's tires.  It gives you peace of mind knowing you're not dragging a car with a flat tire through the mud.  Speaking of cars with flat tires, a little Hyundai passed us on the road but then pulled over with flashers on.  I thought maybe they saw a bear or moose, but when the driver got out and put his hands to his face, I knew something was wrong.  I pulled over and learned they'd shredded a tire.  They were a young couple from Belgium and France in a rental car.  He'd never changed a tire, so I walked him through it (in the rain) and then followed them to Chicken to make sure the spare didn't blow as well.  No problem, just slow going.  When we got to Chicken, no tire repair whatsoever, so after we shared dinner at the cafe, they moved on to Tok, where TWH rejoins the Alaska Highway.  We overnighted in Chicken and didn't see them on the road, so I assume they made it okay.

After Chicken, the road becomes paved again and is pretty good all the way to Tok, AK.  The Alaska Highway was great, so we made it all the way into Fairbanks.  This is a thoroughly modern town with all the comforts of home.  We're in a full hookup spot with a lovely view of the Chena River, planning our next moves...but not too rigidly.

Some pictures...

Hitchhikers in Dawson City.  I guess having a passport is a big deal?  Gas money seems more appropriate.

Front row seat on the ferry across the Yukon River

Top of the World views are pretty spectacular.  Just pull over to enjoy them.

Our home at the Top of the World

Laurie says "Woohoo, Alaska!  At the border crossing.

I don't usually stop for a picture at the state welcome signs, but this one seemed special

Nicco and Marion, intrepid travelers from Belgium and France.  Very nice young couple.

In a town called Chicken, they go a little nuts with the whole chicken theme.  A 12' tall chicken seems appropriate.

The Alaska Highway between Tok and Fairbanks.  Very nice, smooth and beautiful views.  This isn't the ALCAN that my uncle George and Aunt Doris told me about. 

The 49th Sticker Ceremony

Now, how to get that Hawaii sticker?  I'm workin' on it...

Yukon Territory

The Yukon has proven to really be remote.  The roads are rougher, the rivers wider, the wide open spaces even more wide open.  Sometimes we'll crest a ridge and be presented with what seems like 100 miles full of trees in every direction.  I'm sure they've logged up here substantially for years, but it's still amazing how much forest they've got.  Watson Lake was just a stopover.  We watched a cool domed ceiling immersive movie on the northern lights (probably as close as we'll get this summertime trip), went out for dinner, and toured the world famous sign post forest.  Up early the next morning, it was time for a day on what used to be called the ALCAN, now just the Alaska Highway.  It's just not the adventure it once was.  You have to slow down for the well marked pot holes and poorly patched areas, but making about 50mph all day is no problem.  That gives you time to take in the scenery anyway.  We got to the provincial capital of Whitehorse for 3 days in the big city (WiFi, cell phone service, and Walmart).  Whitehorse was one of the major stops on the way to the Klondike gold fields, and was also important in the building of the ALCAN during WWII.  It's a pretty good sized town with all the comforts of home.  If your home is dark 6 months out of the year and gets down dozens of degrees below zero.  We're traveling in high summer, so it's actually a little hot.  We've seen 90's and with the sun being so intense, it's actually pretty nice when the sun dips down a little and it cools off.  It never really gets dark, maybe for a couple hours in the middle of the night.  While in Whitehorse, we went to several museums.  They had a great one that explained Beringia, the now submerged Bering land bridge that was dry for thousands of years before the last ice age melted.  Another good one was the Transportation Museum.  They had to get pretty inventive to move people and cargo around up here over the years.  We also toured one of the larger stern wheel steam boats they used from about 1900 to the 1950's to transport people and cargo between Whitehorse and Dawson.  It's hauled up on the bank, just like they used to do every fall when river ice threatened.  We spent 3 nights total in Whitehorse, and even had time for a relaxing evening by the campfire.  Our spot at Pioneer RV Park was nice and wooded, really private, but with water, electric and even cable TV.  After 3 days, it was time to head north on the Yukon Highway to Dawson City (not to be confused with Dawson Creek, much further south in BC).  Dawson has been a hoot.  This is the town they built when gold was discovered nearby in a little stream that feeds into the Klondike river, which in turn meets the mighty Yukon river.  We took in a Can Can show (touristy) and a few more museums about the last great gold rush in North America.  The gigantic dredges they used to process gold bearing riverbed gravel left these incredibly long, high piles of rocks everywhere up the Klondike River Valley.  From the air, it's a mess, but the trees and bushes are taking over and in another hundred years you probably won't even be able to see it.  We also took a side wheel tour boat ride on the Yukon river.  It was interesting seeing the town from the river and hearing about all the history.  We steamed up to where the Klondike flows into the Yukon and saw a native American (1st Nation as they're called up here) village on the bank.  They're not hurtin'.  There's no bridge across the Yukon here, so tomorrow we catch the ferry to the other side and head on toward Alaska.  We'll likely overnight shortly after the ferry ride to get a nice early start on the Top of the World Highway.  Sometimes the line of cars waiting to get on the ferry can be pretty long, so we're not getting in a hurry.  Ever.  Some pictures from our time in the Yukon Territory:

Woohoo, our 2nd Canadian Province.  I guess we'll have to buy the Canadian extension of the sticker map now.  This was at the northern end of the Cassiar Highway, a very scenic drive.

That's Laurie in the midst of the Watson Lake Sign Post Forest.  People come from all over the world and leave signs.  It's a lot of license plates, but also a lot of custom signs of towns or things like our little custom welcome sign we put out front of the motorhome.  Some people went to great lengths to bring something cool to leave behind.  Laurie read there are something like 85,000 signs.

Laurie's not the first Razorback in Watson Lake.  Lonoke is just outside Little Rock.

Nisutlin Bay Bridge over the Teslin River.  This is the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway.

The SS Klondike, perched where they last hauled her out on the banks of the Yukon River, Whitehorse.

At the Yukon Transportation Museum.  This old DC-3 "Goonie Bird" is the worlds largest wind vane.  In only 4 knots of wind, it will spin to face it.  It works, we saw it.  They did some pretty good engineering to balance it that well.

Miles Canyon on the Yukon River.  Just upstream from Whitehorse.

Okay, this is one of only 2 accidents we've seen caused by road hazards.  This fellow went over a "frost heave" to fast.  The freezing and thawing causes the roads to get pretty bad undulations, but they're pretty well marked.  This was a particularly bad one that snapped the trailer's hitch.  The other accident was a work truck hauling a cargo trailer that was way off the side of the road on a curve, overturned in the bushes.  Not sure what happened with that one, the scene was empty and just marked with an orange cone.

Okay, 1130pm in Dawson City.  We were walking back from the Can Can show and were treated to a double rainbow that was about as intense as any I've ever seen.  The base was particularly bright.  Almost midnight, normally too dark for rainbows right?

Dawson City as seen from Midnight Dome.  The bright splotch at left is where they dredged up gravel from the Klondike Valley and just left it there.

The Tintina Trench from the Alaska Highway.  One of the many geological structures caused by the glaciers up here.

This guy is going from the Artic Circle to the tip of Argentina.  Looks like a tank, but pretty trail worthy.  You see all manor of rigs up here, from high dollar Class A diesel coaches to ratty old Class C motorhomes from the 70's.  There's something for everyone.

Dredge #4, now a National Park of sorts.  These machines would float on a little pond in the river and scoop in tons of gravel down to the bedrock, run it through a sluice to shake out the gold, the spit the useless gravel out the back into a long pile called a "tailing."  It floated, so it was easy to move up stream after it had dredged a section.  The tailings go on for miles as they work the dredge up the river valley.

The ferry that will (hopefully) carry us over the Yukon river and on to Alaska.  I took this picture from the tour boat.

Shingletown, CA (Note: Post got stuck in drafts, posted out of order)

Last summer on our way back south from Oregon, we stayed out side of Redding, CA basically in the shadow of Mount Shasta.  We didn't get to see a whole lot of the area, so we spent a little more time this year.  Not that everybody's heard of Redding, but Shingletown is a tiny little berg full of quirky locals on the highway through the woods leading to Mount Lassen, Shasta's little brother.  We stayed at a KOA and had the coolest spot with patio furniture, fire ring, and a full size propane grill included.  It sure is nice sitting by the fire on a cool Northern California evening.  While we were there, we toured a wild pony rescue ranch, hiked through some caverns, played at open mic night and just generally had a nice relaxing time.  Here are some pictures:

A panorama of our spot at the KOA.  You pay a little extra, but wow the site sure was great, and private.

This entire cove was orange clay when we came through last year.  The California drought was so bad the lake was down over 100 vertical feet from this year.

A view from the boat on our way to Shasta Caverns.  It was a nice little ride, and the caverns were very well preserved considering that they've been a commercial venture since their discovery.

Just another view of a boat dock on Shasta Lake.

Panoramic view of Shasta Lake right before you enter the cavern.

Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River.  2nd largest dam in the US, behind Grand Cooley.

Actual wild ponies.  They don't try to train them or anything, just make sure they're fed and have thousands of acres to run around on.

Last time we were in the area, I played at an open mic night at California Brewing Company.  Great to do it again.  This is me with Hal, the host.  I got to jam again with Richard on harmonica, so much fun.

Trip Notes (So Far...)

I guess we're roughly half way "through" our trip.  I've been wanting to write about some general points about the trip, nothing really photo worthy, just factoids about driving to Alaska in the summer of 2016.

Road Conditions

When we crossed the Canadian border into British Columbia, I was expecting something akin to walking into the woods on the Appalachian Trail; nothing could be farther from the truth.  The roads in southern BC are as good or better than anything we've seen on US or state highways in the lower 48.  About half way up the Cassiar Highway, you start running into a few patches of gravel here and there, but nothing worse than we've seen on a hundred county highways in the US.  We've gone a couple hundred miles on what used to be called the "Alcan", or Alaska-Canada Highway.  Apparently as recently as the 80's it was gravel and dirt, but it's basically a 2 lane highway as good as any now.  Yes, there are patches of gravel that are very well graded, but if you slow down and pull over upon meeting the few tractor trailers you see, the gravel is no big deal.  If you're not careful, you can get a giant hole punched in your windshield.  In Watson Lake, there was an RV parked next to us that looked like it took a baseball bat to the windshield.  I have to assume they didn't stop and pull over and the closing speed of 2 converging vehicles turns a rock into a lethal weapon.  I was also fearful of long mountain climbs up here.  Again, we're not done yet, but the roads from the Washington state border have been far less hilly than what we ran into frequently traveling in the western US.  We're intentionally taking the more primitive roads from Whitehorse to Dawson and beyond (the Top of the World Highway, etc), so perhaps my attitude will change.  From here on out, any punishment we put the RV through will be through choice more than necessity.

Communications

I had to contact Verizon.  I'm paying $2 a day while in Canada to access the features of my calling plan, but for 2 bucks I get all my normal data and minutes.  Cell access has been excellent, with the only exception being along the Cassiar Highway.  Regular land line phones are available, but not cell.  The only cell signal we got on the Cassiar was when we were on the side trip to Stewart, and they had just gotten a cell tower in the last year, linked to the world via a large microwave tower.  There's also satellite WiFi available in the backwoods now.  We had excellent WiFi, but no cell, at the Mountain Shadows RV park in Iskut, for example.  Pretty amazing that it's so fast both ways.  I was only used to satellite signal coming down to Earth in the form of TV.  By the way, Dish Network doesn't work in Canada, but many of the campgrounds have cable TV served over their own satellite dishes.  I've watched the news a couple times, but it's so nasty we turn it off.  Since we got to Watson Lake at the end of the Cassiar, we're seeing cell service pretty much everywhere.  I noticed a lot of microwave towers along the highway, which I assume furnishes the link.  Burying fiber optic cable up here would be a project.  Looking at the coverage maps, we'll see cell service in most of the towns along the way, even in what you'd think would be the end of the Earth.  Modern telecommunications keeps pushing the end of the Earth further and further away.

Finances

In summer 2016, it's good to be an American traveling in Canada.  I feel sorry for our Canadian friends, because the exchange rate gives us about a 25% discount on everything.  For example, a good old $5 fill up meal at KFC is the same price here, but 5 Canadian dollars.  With the exchange rate, Laurie and I paid exactly $8.08 US for 2 meals, including their tax.  Substantial savings over the course of a summer.  Also, they're more advanced than we are regarding credit card usage.  Here, they bring a chip enabled card reader to the table and you handle the bill right then.  No asking for the check, then getting paper, waiting for her to come back and take your card, then waiting for her to return with the final check for you to figure out the tip on.  Here, you tell the reader what percentage of tip you want to give and it tallies the total right there, you punch in your pin, and you're done.  The card reader even prints out your receipt.  Pretty slick.  ATMs are also everywhere, so cash has been no problem.  Speaking of cash, you have to feel some Canadian money if you haven't.  It feels like thin Mylar plastic, very durable and less likely to collect germs than good ol' greenbacks.  It takes getting used to.  Also, the $5 is the smallest bill.  They use $2, $1 and smaller coins.  The $1 is called a "loonie" because it has a picture of a loon, the $2 a "toonie"...because it's 2 loonies, duh.

Campground Availability

Laurie and I have been full time RVers for over 4 years now.  We are not "camping", like we used to do in our little 6x6 pup tents we bought at Service Merchandise when the kids were little.  Our RV is our home.  Like most people, we don't want to live in the dirt and pine needles.  So, we like to park our home at a nice place with utility hookups.  We've lived disconnected (aka dry camping) in the motorhome for a week or more at a time, repeatedly, in cool places like Key West.  However, running the generator to use high demand major appliances and charge the batteries gets old. Plus, there's the issue of refilling fresh and discharging waste water tanks.  So, I was a little worried about the availability of modern campgrounds on this trip.  For nothing.  I knew there'd be provincial parks with places to camp, but I never realized how popular RV travel was, even up here.  There are more RV parks with hook ups here than you can shake a stick at.  We've never even been tempted to dry camp so far.  I think we might for a night in the middle of nowhere after Dawson City, but for the most part, nice campgrounds have been more available than in the states.  Most of the vehicles you see up here are RVs.  I bet we outnumber semi trucks, cars and motorcycles combined, two to one.

Fuel

Sitting here in Whitehorse, we still have a half tank of gas in the Chevy.  We did the side trip to Salmon Glacier and a little running around town, but we haven't put gas in the car since we left Washington.  The RV is a different story.  We've fulled up a couple times now.  I've paid as much as $1.14CD per liter for diesel, as little as $1.03CD.  So, doing some quick math (thank you Google), that's $.79US per liter, 3.8 liters per gallon, so almost exactly $3 a gallon.  That's pretty good, even if diesel was anywhere from $2 in the South to maybe $2.70 in California.  Availability has been fine.  We get about 900 miles to the tank, so drive by dozens of stations, even in the middle of nowhere, without needing to fill up.

People

This might be the best thing about the whole trip.  Canadians are so nice it takes a little while to get used to.  RVers are generally a pretty nice crowd, so if you combine that with the Canadian warmth, it's been fantastic.  Watching US news is depressing compared to just hanging out with happy people.

Weather

We crossed the border in late June, spent the 4th in Stewart, BC and the weekend of 9-10 July in Whitehorse, YT.  Generally speaking, it's been warm and dry.  We've had a rainy day or two, and some evenings that were perfect for campfires, but summer's effect is felt incredibly far north.  The bugs take advantage of the short season too.  It's not as bad up here in the Yukon, but in Iskut it was pretty thick with flies and gnats.

Getting Home

When we were in Florida planning this trip, I was pretty sure the trip up would be great, seeing new things and always wondering what was over the horizon.  I also was pretty sure I wouldn't want to drive back.  Also, there are wonderful things to see along what they call the "marine highway."  So, we're taking a few ferry trips back from Alaska to the Lower 48.  The southernmost Alaskan town you can drive to on the coast is Haines.  From Haines, you can catch a 4 hour ferry ride to the State Capitol, Juneau.  We're catching our ride from Haines to Juneau on August 25th.  We'll get off for a couple days, then proceed on an overnight ferry to Prince Rupert BC, where we'll again disembark for a few days to check out the area.  The final ferry leg we've paid for is from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, on the northwest tip of Vancouver Island.  We'll spend a leisurely Labor Day weekend (Labour Day here) or a little more on Vancouver Island before jumping on a ferry to Washington, probably Port Angeles on west side of Puget Sound avoiding the Seattle area.  We'll have a month or so to wind our way to Denver, CO by October 15th, when I have a symposium for my doctoral program to attend.

Marriage

Even after 30+ years of marriage, some couples call it quits when the nest empties out.  Moving into a rolling 400 square foot condo has ended many relationships.  I guess we're pretty lucky.  We've been wandering around our great nation, now our great continent, for over 4 years and I'm amazed at how fun it is to hang out with my wife.  It takes a lot of love and patience when you're in such close quarters, but man oh man the reward is so sweet.

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Well, that's all for this rainy afternoon in the Yukon Territory.  I'll have pictures and touristy things next time.