Back in the U.S.A.

We made it back to the U.S. Yesterday we left Raduim Hot Springs and drove south on highway 95 crossing into the U.S. at Eastport, Idaho. There was a line of cars at the border but fortunately it moved quickly. The border guard who questioned us for a few minutes had an odd style of questioning and we were unsure if this reflected a lack of social skills or an attempt to intimidate or throw us off our guard, but it was quick and not really unpleasant.

We used the last of our Canadian cash to pay for the campground (they do it like a hotel, where you pay when you check out). We were past the point where we usually fill up with fuel, but we guessed correctly that fuel would be cheaper in the U.S. than in Canada so we waited to fill up after the border. In lieu of a truck stop we pulled into a gas station with a lot of room. The fuel was cheaper than we have seen for some time and offered a 5 cent a gallon discount for cash. Dennis went in to ask if they needed prepayment for the cash price. When they said yes, he said "here's $400 for pump 5", and the startled clerk who had not seen what we were driving seemed astounded saying "You want $400 worth of gas!" Fortunately we only needed 125 gallons so we got some change.

Dennis has been concerned about an oil leak in our engine. The mechanic who changed our oil in Whitehorse said that it needed to be repaired by an engine shop but should be able to wait "until you get home" which was reassuring as he had noticed the Florida plates. But we decided to contact the Detroit Diesel shop in Spokane as we can't really see an advantage to waiting to get the problem repaired and we have the time now. We had been told they would look at it today but when we called to confirm they said they were really busy and asked if we could come in tomorrow instead. So we decided to stop for a couple of days at the Little Diamond NACO park in Newport, Washington. This is a relaxing place with a lot of room and a lot of woods and not many people. There is not a lot to do but we don't mind for a couple of days. We will go on to the shop tomorrow.

We are noticing signs that we are back. We got back just in time for a warming trend. We ran our a.c. today for the first time in at least 2 months. And it gets dark before we go to bed. It seems odd now for it to be dark at 9 o'clock in the evening.

Raduim Hot Springs

We are now at the Raduim Valley Vacation Resort in Radium Hot Springs, B. C. This is a very nice RPI park, probably the nicest that we have stayed at. They have very long 50 amp. full service sites, just a little close side to side. Each site has a small cabana with a grill. It is a well kept park with a nice recreation building with pools and hot tub and a nice excercise room. They provide cable tv with a lot of channels. Although they have a wifi hotspot in the rec center, we opted to pay extra for a cable modem which is probably the best internet connection that we have ever had on the road.

We drove less that 100 miles yesterday morning from Lake Louise. It had rained most of the night and still some rain in the morning. We drove through the mountains going from Banff National Park to Kootenay National Park which ended just before the little town of Radium Hot Springs. We saw some fresh snow above us on the mountains. The only wildlife that we saw on the drive was several elk.

Raduim Hot Springs and Invermere a few miles to the south are 2 of the resort towns in this mountain area. Radium Hot Springs is named for the springs in Kootenay Park just up the mountain from the town. We saw something saying that Radium Hot Springs is also the Bighorn capital of B.C. We weren't much impressed until we saw a few of these guys stopping traffic in the middle of town.

We mostly took it easy today, and did a little local site seeing. We have moved every day for 8 days in a row and that is tiring. We plan to stay here two more nights before crossing the border on Monday. We drove into Invermere this evening and had a very good meal at the Oriental Palace.


This gull looks like it is larger than the boat.

The Columbia river seems to be much smaller here than in Electric City, Wa

Icefield Parkway and Lake Louise

We got up and left early this morning. We headed through the mountains to Jasper and Banff National Parks. We expected travel to be slow and wanted time for sight seeing. We were also concerned about finding a suitable place to stay in the park as we had not made a reservation.

The drive was nice with a lot of pretty views, even with the sky becoming more overcast as the day went on. The only wildlife that we saw were 6 or 7 deer on the Bighorn Highway even before we got into the parks. And with the combination of the deer being skittish and not having the camera ready at the right times we didn't even get a picture of any of them.

We drove the Icefield Parkway and saw several glacier views but not up close as we did not want to take the time to hike or take a tour bus up. Travel was a bit slow but not as bad as we feared.
We watched the buses for a while and then moved on, would have been fun to do but very pricey.

nice view of the glacier



We had identified the Lake Louise Campground in Banff National Park as the best option if available. We had also been told that it is often possible to get a site without a reservation if you arrive early in the afternoon. About 2 o'clock we pulled into a line of RV's waiting to get in. Another camper came by and said they had only 5 unreserved sites left and there were more than 5 RV's ahead of us, so it all depended on how many of the ones ahead of us had reservations. It turns out we got lucky. We got the last unreserved electrical site. We would not have stayed on one without electricity as they have severe restrictions on generator use. It is a nice campground. We were very happy with the size of the sites and the wide roads for easy turns. We are right near the rapidly moving river with views of the mountains peaking through the clouds.

Unfortunately the weather became worse as the day wore on with intermittent periods of rain. After parking we drove to Banff as we had planned. But the rain was picking up which got in the way of sight seeing. When we reached the town of Banff it was raining so hard that it made no sense to get out and walk around. We thought that we would stop somewhere for a snack, but couldn't find a place with close parking to avoid the downpour so we headed back. We were able to return on a different road and see a bit more of the park. It is a disappointment as we plan to move on tommorrow (the site we are on was only available for one night), but it also reminded us of how lucky we have been with weather on this trip.

To Mile 0 and Beyond

Yesterday we drove the rest of the way to Dawson Creek and stayed the night at the Mile 0 RV Park. We didn't care much for the park. We didn't like the poor wifi, the unfriendly staff, and the fact that they told us that the only sites unreserved were the 50 amp. full service pull throughs (the most expensive sites in the park) when by the end of the day it was very clear that was not true.

We shopped a little and looked around Dawson Creek a little. We stopped by the Alaska Mile 0 post downtown.

We had decided to divert into Alberta to go through Banff and Jaster National Parks. This morning we drove to Cache Creek, Alberta. This was an easy drive, less than 200 miles, through the prarie county then south into the mountains again. We stopped for fuel at Fas Gas just past the Alberta border and were happy that it was nearly a dollar less than our last diesel purchase in the Yukon.
what a long winding road, bad weather coming in.

Just so beautiful to look at even in the rain.

We stopped at the Cache Creek Municipal Campground and are very pleased. It is a friendly, well managed campground with large wooded sites and easy to maneuver. We were also happy that the wifi here though a bit slow works consistently as we had been essentially off line for 3 days. It would be a nice spot to stay and relax for a few days but we will be moving on tomorrow.

Almost to Mile Zero

Tonight we are at the mile 80 rest area on the Alaska Highway. The highway was curvy with a number of steep grades some of which we had to climb in first gear. But we got an early start and might have made it to Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek but we had more construction stops than we have seen before. We followed pilot cars 5 or 6 times, some after long waits. It makes for slow traveling and a long day.

We drove through the Rocky Mountain section of the highway. We had many great views of the mountains and saw more variety of wildlife than we had seen on any day except when we took the tour bus at Denali.

The wildlife that we saw included buffalo, elk, caribou, and stone sheep.
These stone sheep were really cool, they walked in front of the bus as we pulled over, then they ran down the side of the road, almost disappearing in all the rocks.
these two were on the other side of the road and the one seem to be saying talk to the butt!!
this is a lone caribou

Hot Springs Tonight

We had an easy drive today from Watson Lake to Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park. We had heard a lot about the hot springs here as being a don't miss along the Alaska Highway. We got here about noon and it seemed too soon to stay but we weren't sure we would feel like driving after a good soak in the hot springs, so we took a spot for the night. It was $19 for a no hookup spot for the night which seems high, but it includes free use of the hot spa which is ordinarily $5/person, so in a sense we are only paying $9 for the campsite. In any case, the campsites are large and wooded, a pleasant setting, and easy to maneuver in our bus. We enjoyed the hot springs in the afternoon so much we returned again in the evening.

Looks like Dennis needs to get back in the sun and improve his tan.


The drive over was easy. The highlight was a close look at this buffalo walking along the road.


this is a really big guy.

Watson Lake

Today we drove from Whitehorse to Watson Lake most of which involved the only portion of the Alaska highway that we had already driven. We hit an area of thick smoke around Teslin but it cleared up to the point that there is no smoke in Watson Lake. We are parked at the Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake which seems to be a good choice for an overnight stop. We are next to the nice First Wye Lake City Park.

first wye lake city park

We made a couple of stops at the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Center and the George Johnston Museum. The George Johnston Museum had the best coffee that we have had for a while. We drove the Old Alaska Highway for a mile or 2 at Teslin then got back on and went over this bridge which is the longest one on the Alaska Highway.
The longest bridge in the Yukon

side view of the bridge, there is a lot of smoke, visibility was very poor.

We had really good coffee here and the young girl who worked there was very informative about the area

One of several totem poles



More totem poles



After getting parked at the RV park we looked around Watson Lake a little and went to the Northern Lights Center where we saw a video and light display focused on the aurora borealis and a somewhat disconnected but interesting video on astronaut training.

We went to the only fast food place in town and were pleased to see that they had pizza listed on the menu as we have not had one for a while. As soon as we mentioned pizza the proprietor/cook said "no pizza." We said "but it's on the menu". She said that she was too busy and essentially threated that she would burn it if she made it. So we decided to order something else from their limited menu (since its the only place in town).

Whitehorse, Yukon

Fortunately the smoke eased up by the time we got to Whitehorse making is easier to enjoy our visit. We are staying at Pioneer RV Park near Whitehorse. This is a nice park with large full hookup sites and good wifi and cable tv included in the price. They also have amenities like discount fuel, car wash and pet wash, all of which we have had occasion to use. They even have an oil change facility and mechanic at the park. Dennis was happy about this as we are due for an oil change, grease and general servicing which he was going to himself at his parents house when we get back to Washington. He talked with the shop where they are quite familiar with MCI buses as the park owner also has a tour bus service. And their prices were good so we had them do the needed maintenance and also do an inspections for any other potential problems. The bad news is that they did identify a couple of items that will need attention but not urgently, so we will get them taken care of later.

We visited the Copperbelt Railway and Mining Museum including a train ride. We visited some of the interesting parks and saw the world's largest fish ladder.


this is some old copper mining equipment used to work the mine below.

We also stopped by the see the SS KLONDIKE
and also visited the old log church in downtown Whitehorse:


Dennis spent a couple of fascinating hours going through the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center today. We could easily have spent more time in Whitehorse but we need to move on tomorrow.

Back to Yukon

We left Fairbanks yesterday after refueling and started the long drive back to the lower 48. We wanted to get to Tok before the Post Office closed as we had mail including a replacement GPS waiting for us there. We were in smoky conditions until shortly before we reached Delta Junction. We had hoped that we might see some buffalo in that area but apparently the prime viewing area was not on our route. We did stop at the Delta Information Center and saw the end of the Alaska Highway signposts. Now we just have to get to the beginning as we drove only a couple short sections of the Alaska Highway on the way up.

We arrived at Tok in mid afternoon to find that our mail including the new GPS unit was in fact there. We decided to go on.

We entered Canada at BeaverCreek without difficulty and only a short wait for 5 or 6 vehicles ahead of us. Around that time we started to see smoke again. We drove on looking for a place to stop and nothing met our needs. We were surprised to find that most businesses along this route seemed to have been closed. We were looking for a good pullout along the road to stop for the night but found nothing suitable. We ended up stopping at the Lake Creek Yukon Government Campground. It was a nice quiet campground in the woods along the creek. We did not notice the smoke when we were stopped but the mosquitoes were everywhere.

We continued on this morning having decided that we would probably stop at Haines Junction. We had reluctantly decided not to make the 300 mile trip down to Haines and back even though we understand that it is a nice drive and an interesting town. The smoke was getting worse and we had decided that we would prefer to keep going than to stop in so much smoke. We did stop at the visitor center in Haines Junction and talked to a couple of people who told us that the smoke was worse going on to Whitehorse so that didn't make sense. So we turned about and drove about a half mile back to the Klaune RV Kampground in Haines Junction. This afternoon the smoke had eased a little and we looked around Haines Junction and drove about 30 miles down the highway toward Haines and stopped at Kathleen Lake in Klaune National Park and also walked part of the Rock Glacier Trail.

This is a statue that is located at the intersection of the Alaska hwy and Haines junction.

Mushing in Carcross

We spent the day today in Carcross. The highlight was going to Caribou Crossing Wildlife Museum and Attractions Center. They have an excellent taxidermy display of Yukon and Alaska mammals including Ice Age mammals.

We took advantage of the opportunity to take a dog sled (actually cart) ride with a team of dogs belonging to Michelle Phillips who is training for the Iditerod. The 5 dogs pulled the cart with 3 people surprising fast and were controlled only by a foot brake and voice commands. The five dogs pulling our cart were Tracker and June the lead dogs, Fuzzy and Ry in the middle and K2 was the brake dog.

We stopped what is billed as the world's smallest desert with an oddly varied wind swept terrain.

We visited the historic railway station, hundred year old general store, a surprising helpful visitor information center, and visited the local post office which is the only one in Canada that is open seven days a week. We were able to get a nice stamp on our passports there.

We took Roxie to the mile long beach on Bennet Lake. She loved it a good chance to run and run and run. Oh yea she liked the water too.

Up the Cassiar

We were a little slow in deciding whether to stay another day at Stewart. It was nice there, but we felt that we had seen most of what we could see in the area and we were aware of having a lot of miles to go, so we decided to move on. We didn't get out till 11 am which seems late but since there was still 12 hours of daylight it didn't seem to matter much.

We were delayed a few minutes out of town by a construction crew repairing the road from an avalanche that had wiped out a section of one lane of the road the night before. It reminded us again that the Avalanche Area signs in the area are a serious matter. From there our travel was uneventful.

We considered a side trip on the Telegraph Creek Road but decided against it based on the cautious descriptions in the Milepost and some of the road problems we had been seeing on the Cassiar and the road above Hyder. These made us think the trip would be more suitable for an SUV or pickup than our Camry sedan. We did not see Mark's recommendation to take this road until after we had gone past and may have reconsidered if we had.

The highlight was that we saw 2 more black bears along the road and got a picture of one while the other ran as soon as we stopped.






The road was narrow but good with little traffic until about the mid point. Then we hit the first gravel section of about 10 kilometers and started to run into occasional road heaves. The forests, lakes and snow covered mountains made great scenery. We managed to get the bus and tow car maneuvered into the large parking lot of a restaurant and went in for dinner. We enjoyed a meal that was good with large portions but a bit expensive in our view. It was a pleasant meal during which we talked with several other Alaska/Yukon travelers. We traveled a bit late and had passed what seemed to be the best campgrounds for an RV the size of ours. We decided to stay at an isolated pullout on the road overlooking a wooded lake. We thought that it would give us a good chance of viewing some wildlife. That turned out not to be the case, but we did see a bright rainbow.

SMITHERS BC

VIEW FROM OUR OVERNIGHT STOP IN SMITHERS, BC, THESE ARE DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF US.


After stopping sooner than expected the day before, we tried to make up time by driving a long day. We drove up to Prince George and picked up the Yellowhead Highway 16. We stopped and made dinner at a pullout on the highway and considered staying there for the night as there was no sign saying that it was not allowed. But after eating, walking the dog and relaxing for a while we felt like moving on. We drove another hour and a half to the town of Smithers, B.C. where the Smithers Mall with a Safeway store had a sign saying "free overnight RV parking." So we stopped for the night (and shopped a little at Safeway). We were even able to use free WiFi from Safeway. The photos above give you some idea of the great views we had of snow capped mountains that appeared to be right over the town.

Tropical Canada

Tonight we are in Clinton, B.C. We are having hot weather in B.C. That was a factor in our staying here. We had planned to drive a long day and stop several hours up the road from here. But we our engine was heating up in the 90 plus degree afternoon (uh, excuse me 32 plus Celsius) and it is my understanding that there is a long hill ahead. Rather than stop to cool the engine before and perhaps after the hill we decided to stop for the night.

We are staying at the Gold Trail campground in Clinton. It is a basics kind of place, but we are in a long pull through with 30 amp service and full hookup. They have wifi but it is not working today. But we have internet thanks to Hughes Net which is still working well at this latitude.


We stopped for lunch at a scenic rest area over Lake Kamloops.





















Clinton seems to be a quaint town oriented to tourists.These are some of the sign posts in this small town.

Canada

Although we have traveled internationally it has been a while. We are getting oriented to being in Canada. We have been doing some shopping and prices generally have seemed high to us. High that is even after the currency exchange rate. Some things worse than others. I went to the liquor store to get some wine and was surprised that prices seemed more than double what we have been paying. No wonder some try to sneak a few bottles of their favorite drinks across the border. I found out on a brief visit to Canadian side of Niagra Falls last year that the credit card I usually use now adds a 3% international exchange charge. So I called them and our 2 other credit cards. Only one of them (from a credit union, not a large bank) said they do not add such a charge for international purchases, so we are trying to use that card for most purchases. We tried a cash purchase at a chain store and found that the exchange was actually better for us than expected based on internet quote that we had seen. We are also making the adjustment for kilometers/miles. We know the relationship between them and even have the small kilometer/hour markings on the speedometer but it seems we have to be constantly thinking of this. And lets not even get into the local weather talk of it being a balmy 30 degrees.

We enjoyed a good Mexican restaurant called Hectors Cafe, in the Pandosy neighborhood. Good food and great Margaritas. We recommend it highly.

Kelowna is one of the larger cities in B.C. According to the local tourist guidebook Kelowna is an Indian word for grizzly bear. It is along Lake Okanogan which is known among other things for the lake monster Ogpogo. We were fortunate enough to get a picture.

The campground itself is on Duck Lake. This is Roxie in Duck Lake.

We will be leaving this park and area tomorrow thinking that we should have spent more time here. Maybe on our way back. The large sailboat on the road makes the Holiday Park easy to find.