The End of the Alaska Highway

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End of Alaska Highway..............And that's what our poor vehicles feel like
Another milestone - we finished the Alaska Highway. The official end of the highway is in Delta Junction, AK, about 100 miles west of Tok.

Before we moved west, though, we visited Chicken, Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon.

Chicken started out as a Gold Rush camp. These days it is a very small community of miners and people who provide services for tourists driving from Dawson City to Tok. There one place there called Downtown Chicken - a souvenir store, liquor store, bar, gas station and cafe all in one building.


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Tom at Chicken...............................................Original Miner Cabin



The original mining camp is still there - they offer a daily tour of the townsite. It was in use up till the late 60's. Earlier in the century people lived there year round. They dug up "paydirt" in the winter and "sluiced" out the gold in the spring. Later on, they shut down in the winter. One year, they packed up for the winter and the company that owned to claims just never went back to do any more mining. The gold is still there but it costs too much to mine and they can't make a profit. Many of the cabins and buildings are in pretty bad shape, but you can still go into some of them and get an appreciation for what it meant to live up there. If you want to know more about Chicken in the time period, there is a book called Tisha - a true story about a teacher who taught in the school in Chicken in 1927.



Dawson from the air....The Ferry.............Tom on Stage



Dawson City is another mining town - it was once the biggest city in the west of Canada, over 30,000 people lived there but the mining is very limited these days and the main industry is tourism. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit - Tom especially. We went to the show at Diamond Tooth Gertie's Saloon and Tom participated in one of the acts. As a prize for being a good sport he got to keep the dancing girl's garter. You guessed it - he had to take the garter off in order to keep it! Well, we have a garter souvenir.

.................On Top of the World .............

The drive back and forth from Chicken to Dawson is called "The Top of the World Highway". Not sure whether that's because it's so far north or because so much of it is above treeline. At any rate, the views were spectacular. The road was pretty good - mostly gravel but not too rough.

Reunion at Tok

After visiting Chicken and Dawson City, we stayed in Tok for an extra day in order to meet up with Warren and Carolyn. They worked with us last summer in Bethel and are going to work this summer down in Homer at the Fish and Wildlife Service Visitor Center. We had a nice visit and made plans to head down to Homer after we finish up our job in Healy.


Speaking of Healy, we are less than 150 miles from there right now. We're spending a few days in North Pole visiting museums and stocking up on "stuff" we'll need. Yes, that's right - the North Pole. We are parked right next to Santa Claus House.


See you!






Travel Log:

5/25 - Tok
5/26 - Chicken
5/27 - Dawson City
5/28 - Chicken
5/29 - 31 - Tok
6/1 - Delta Junction
6/2 - 6 - North Pole (Fairbanks)

We're in Alaska!

We made it!

Construction Scenes

Frost Heaves present a challenge
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Tom - Posting our sign at ...Sign Forest .............And another one from Anniston

Well, we finally made it to Alaska. We are in Tok, the first town you come to on the highway after crossing the border.

This trip is incredible – I wish everyone could have the experience!

We have spent the night in some really beautiful, picturesque spots – Liard Springs, on the shores of Teslin Lake – and some not so picturesque. Some of the parks have been little more than a gravel lot with electricity wired to posts at each parking place. But even at the most simple parks, there are the mountains, forests and lakes in the background to divert us.

We’ve seen animals and birds that we would never see at home – caribou, elk, wood bison, trumpeter swans, bears, beavers, arctic terns, stone sheep, Dall Sheep, mountain goats, Big Horn Sheep… And Sally finally got to see a moose live. (The picture is rotten, but the moose was real. There was even a baby that sprinted for the trees before we could get the camera out).

We have seen some of the most beautiful scenery there is and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly experiencing what the highway has to offer:
- We’ve enjoyed a natural hot springs less than 10 minutes walk from the highway (really hot – 40 degrees Celsius hot) at Liard Hotsprings Park.
-We went to a museum that featured a wooly mammoth fossil skeleton (among other prehistoric skeletons). We learned about the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. The museum even has working “atlatls” which are devices that the early people used to increase the power behind their spear throws so that they could kill larger and faster animals in order to survive.
- We hiked to the ruins of Canyon City where the gold rushers coming up to the Yukon had to portage around the White Horse Rapids in the Yukon River.
- We have tasted the cinnamon buns that are a highlight of the Alaska Highway trip. I think Toad River has the best and Tom likes the ones at Johnson Crossing.
- We put up our sign in the signpost forest at Watson Lake. The “forest” is about an acre I would guess. It consists of 10 foot high poles covered with signs that Alaska travelers from all over the world have left behind.
- We have killed our first mosquitos - they really are the size of small birds. They sell mosquito traps and claim that you can make a mosquite-fur coat with only a few pelts ;-)

We had heard that the Alaska Highway was a very tough road to travel, but for the first two weeks we didn’t see what people were talking about. There are rougher roads in Maine or Louisiana or (insert state name here). BUT – now we know what they mean. The last two days, we have sometimes been reduced to 5 mph to get over the worst of the frost heaves. We traveled about 110 miles yesterday in a little over 4 hours. The math is pretty simple – even if you subtract about an hour for lunch and photo ops it's less than 30 MPH!

So now what? We plan to visit Chicken, Alaska, and take a side trip back into Canada to visit Dawson City - the gold rush town. then on to Faribanks and finally to our summer location near Denali National Park. Stay tuned for more adventures.

Daily Log:
-Sunday, 5/14 - Fort Nelson, BC
-Monday, 5/15 - Toad River, BC
-Tuesday, 5/16 - Liard Hotsprings, BC
-Wednesday, 5/17 - Watson Lake, Yukon
- Thursday, 5/18 - Teslin, Yukon
- Friday - Sunday, 5/19 - 5/21 - Whitehorse, Yukon
- Monday, 5/22 - Beaver Creek, Yukon
- Tuesday 5/23 and 5/24 - Tok, Alaska

A Week in Alberta

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Caribou in the Snow (5/10!)..........Mile 0 in Dawson Creek

We're on the Alaska Highway!

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View from our campground in Banff...............Tom in Banff Hotel
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Lake Louise..........................Parked on the glacier

Big Horn Sheep Babies
We have been in Canada since last Saturday morning - just a week. But it has been one filled with gorgeous scenery.
The border crossing was totally uneventful. We anticipated an inspection of our rigs, but they pretty much waved us through.
We stopped at Lethbridge at the visitor center and lunch and made our way to Smashed-in-Head Buffalo Jump. The ancient "first nations" people (that's Canadian for native american) would drive the buffalo herd toward the cliffs where they would fall to their deaths. This was before they had guns and was about the only way they could kill such large animals.

Sunday we drove through Calgary and on to Banff. We stopped breifly for a Costco shopping trip and lunch, but no sight-seeing. Calgary traffic was incredible for a Sunday afternoon. And Trans-Canada Highway 1 through town is more like highway 31 through Hoover or US highway 1 than an interstate like we expected.

Banff is one of Canada's most famous parks - it's in the Rocky Mountains. We stayed two nights in the park in a site with a remarkable view. The elk were right outside our door (we were asleep and missed them, but Glenn was up early and got pictures).

Tuesday we drove up the Icefields Parkway in Banff and Jasper National Parks. It was absolutely incredible. They claim it is the world's most beautiful highway and I believe it! We stopped at the Icefields Centre and took a tour of the Athabasca Glacier. They drive you out on the glacier in a 6 wheel drive bus and let you get out and walk around and take pictures. The area is groomed, of course, and there is no danger o falling into a crevasse but it was still a new experience.

Wednesday we made our way north to Grande Prairie, our last city in Alberta. Then on Thursday we drove up highway 40 to Dawson Creek. It had snowed the night before, but it did not stick on the roadway except for a little on the side of the road near the non-existent shooulder.

Dawson Creek is in British Columbia and is the beginning of the Alaska Highway. We spent Thursday and Friday sightseeing and taking a day of rest.

Today we actually start our Alaska Highway adventure. Only 1600 miles to go!

Pictures coming soon....

Log:
May 5 - Crossed into Canada. Stayed near Lethbridge
May 6 & 7 - Banff
May 8 - Icefields Parkway, stayed in Hinton, AB
May 9 - Stayed in Walmart in Grand Prairie
May 10 & 11 - Dawson Creek, BC

Wyoming and Montana

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Old Faithful ......................Bison everywhere - even in the road

Halfway to the North Pole!

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Strategy Session at Little Big Horn........The Last Stand Hill
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Devil's Thumb...........................................Another World

What beautiful country!
We left Denver the end of last week and stopped first in southern Wyoming at Little Big Horn.
It's quite a setting - you can actually see where the battle took place as well as a little museum that explains the background of the battle.

On Sunday we explored the Big Horn Canyon and then moved on to Yellowstone.

Monday afternoon after we arrived in Gardiner, MT, (the northern entrance to the park), we went to the visitor center and to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. What was supposed to be a quick trip to plan for our trip turned out to be more than 2 hours of exploration.

The hot springs in this area build gorgeous terraces of travertine - and some other-worldly scenery. We spotted a Western Meadowlark.

Tuesday we spent the whole day in Yellowstone. We started out looking for wildlife and saw plent. Elk in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, bison almost everywhere - and where there were no bison visible, you could tell they had been there :-) . We even got to see a wolf thanks to an expert wolf watcher at the side of the road who shared the view through her telescope. On the way we spotted a sandhill crane sitting on the nest and his mate feeding right around the corner.
Next we headed to Old Faithful and the other geysers. It's quite impressive. If you ever go, take binoculars so you can see the the small spurts of water that precede the main eruption.

Finally we drove up to the Grand Canyon of the Rockies and viewed the Lower Falls.

Time just ran out - we spent almost 11 hours in the park! We'll have to come back someday. We definitely will plan our trip either early or late in the season. It was so pleasant without huge crowds.

As we left Gardiner, we are actually more than halfway from the Equator to the North Pole and have pictures to prove it.

Right now, we are in Great Falls, Montana. We are waiting to see if the snow will hold off and allow us a quick glimpse of Glacier National Park near the Canadian border. It's been quite cold, windy and rainy the past day and a half - a contrast with the wonderful weather we've had in the past week. Driving the RV in the wind is a real challenge!

Next we're heading across the border and up to Calgary. For the next few weeks, we may not be able to post often since facilities may be scarce on the road. We should be in Healy, AK by the end of May and we'll catch up any missing posts at that time.

Timeline:
Friday April 27: Left Denver. Stopped at the Sierra Trading Post Outlet in Cheyenne. Spent the night. Stayed in a Walmart parking lot in East Casper, Wyoming
Saturday, April 28: Visited Little Big Horn National Monument. Stayed at the Grandview RV Park in Hardin, MT
Sunday, April 29: Visited Big Horn Canyon Natl Recreation Area. Stayed another night at Grandview in Hardin.
Monday, April 30: Arrived in Gardiner, MT. Visited Mammoth Hot Springs and the Visitor Center in Yellowstone. Stayed at the Yellowstone RV Park on the Yellowstone River in Gardiner.
Tuesday, May 1: Toured Yellowstone. Another night in Gardiner.
Wednesday, May 2: Traveled to Helena, MT and stayed at the Walmart there. Very windy - a hard drive. Windy and wet all night.
Thursday, May 3: Were planning to make it to Cut Bank, but decided on a short day since it was still very windy and difficult driving for the motor home. Everyone was ready for a quiet day. Saying at Dick's RV Park in Great Falls MT.

Moving on - to the North from Denver

The view from Boyd Lake Campground


Breckinridge .......................Riding the Gondola


Tom at Bear Lake ......................The Elk in the Distance

We've been in Loveland since last Saturday - enjoying sightseeing and getting ready to head north together with Glenn & Karin.

The mountains and the foothills are spectacular - we can't get enough of them. FOrtunately, we'll be traveling through the Rockies for several more weeks. You may get tired of snow pictures before we get to Alaska!

We have been able to get together with another couple we met last year at BOA. Caroline and Warren went to Alaska in 2000. They shared stories, suggestions, pictures and a wonderful taco soup dinner on a very cold and rainy night this week.

Our itinerary included the Celestial Seasonings factory in Boulder. They take you out on the factory floor and show you everything but the mixing process (that is too dusty). Everyone wears hair nets and Tom had to wear a beard net too. No pictures - we forgot the camera that day!
We drove on to Golden through a snow/rain mix and toured the Coors factory. There were a lot of people on the tour on such a gloomy day. I guess the free beers at the end of the tour helped warm everyone up.

We also visited Glenn and Karin up at Breckinridge before they came down the mountain to join us. Fortunately there was no snow that day. Our poor little 4-cylinder truck took us up over 11,000 feet at the Eisenhower Tunnel near Loveland Pass. We went under the Continental Divide! It was the last day of the ski season so the gondola ride to the base of the ski area was free and we were able to get a flavor of the place.

Today was our last day in the area and we spent a few hours in Rocky Mountain National Park. Some parts are open year round and we took full advantage. The snowy pictures above were taken at Bear Lake. The snow is beginning to melt but was not icy yet. We walked about 250 feet from the parking lot to the still partially frozen lake. If we had had our real hiking boots, we might have tried the 1/2 mile trail around the lake. We spotted a herd of elk and a beautiful blue bird along with what appeared to be prairie dogs but are probably something called pikas.

Tomorrow we set off toward Wyoming. Cheyenne is only 50 miles up the road. WE are stopping there for some shopping at the Sierra Trading Post outlet store - Glenn and Karin want a tent for the back of their pickup. Then we are on to see the Little Big Horn Natl Monument and Yellowstone before crossing into Canada next week.

We are going to keep a daily log in the blog, just for our own reference. Read on if you wish...

April 21: Arrived in Loveland. Stayed two nights at Boyd Lake State Park. Nice park and very interesting bird watching. We saw two horned owls on a morning walk, along with our first black billed magpie. Also a Northern Flicker.
April 22: Drove up to Breckinridge to visit Glenn and Karin at Tiger Run Park. Two good meals - The Mint was great. We cooked our own steaks on a grill in the restaurant!
April 23: Got the oil changed in the RV and the car. Lots of driving around. Moved the RV to Riverside RV park out US 34 toward Estes Park.
April 24: Visited Celestial Seasonings factory in Boulder and Coors in Golden. Ate dinner at Caroline and Warren's with Glenn & Karin. Nasty weather. We had rain and cold wind in Loveland, but it snowed in the mountains and the Front Range.
April 25: An easy day. Mainly getting supplies together. Ate dinner with Glenn & Karin - a wonderful pork dish.
April 26: Rocky Mountain National Park. See above for description. Went to Fort Collins to find a tuner for the dulcimer.

We made it to Denver!

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At la Hacienda near Dallas ..... Route 66 in OK City

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Tom & the Hanging Tree on Boot Hill .... At the Long Branch

After leaving Louisiana last Thursday, we have made it to the first major milestone on our trip. We saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time as we headed due west into the Denver area.
On the way we sampled some of the local sites and were awed by the plains - we had always thought they were flat and boring. But Oklahoma and Kansas were really beautiful. Very different for those of us from the East.

Here's a log of what we've been up to:

Wednesday, April 11: Calvin Touchet's bar in Maurice, LA for a Cajun band (with the crowd from Betty's RV Park
Friday, April 13: Drove to Shreveport and spent two nights just chilling...
Sunday, April 15: Got to Dallas and checked into the Texas Sundown RV Ranch - spent the evening with friends who live in Corinth, TX just down the road
Monday, April 16: Still in Dallas - met up with Sally's college friend and her husband for dinner at la Hacienda in Frisco. Note that the bear in the pictures does not bite!
Wednesday, April 18: Left for Oklahoma City to get our refrigerator fixed. Unofrtunately the part wasn't there so we had to stay an extra day
Thursday, April 19: Visited the Route 66 park in OK City, drove on a really old Route 66 bridge and ate at the Route 66 Burger Shack
Friday, April 20: Dodge City - saw Boot Hill and a very intriguing museum. Slurped sarsparilla at the Long Branch! Almost got blown away by the wind " whipping down the plains" (but in Kansas, not Oklahoma).

The First Week

----House in NO ---- Tom & Tabasco --- Music at Betty's -- Tom Plays the Backpacker Guitar

We've had quite a week on the initial southern swing on our trip to Alaska.

We spent Thursday through Sunday visiting the"kids" in New Orleans. Their new home in the uptown area is very neat. It's a modified shotgun with a nice little yard.

While visiting, we attended our first crawfish boil - Stephen got the cooker for his birthday last year and has been honing his crawfish boil skills.

Saturday night we attended the Easter vigil service at St Patricks church in New Orleans. It was also very interesting - like an Easter candlelight service.

The next leg of our trip led us to Abbeville, LA and Betty's RV park. We visited the Tabasco factory at Avery Island. Lots more good food and visiting with a group of fellow full-timers. We ran into a lot of musicians - that led to a jam session on Thursday evening.

Next we're on to Shreveport and then Dallas on Sunday!

Westward Ho!

We're on the way!

Tom at Fence We Built Sally at GateWe Painted

The kids at play

Well, we have finished our stay at the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge and are on our way to Alaska!

We finally got to see the kids (goat kids!) and I have posted a couple of pictures here – we have many more. They are so cute.

On our last day, we also tried to compile a picture diary of work we had done at ENWR – and I posted a couple of those pictures as well.

But enough of the past – we are on our way at last. Go West, Young Retirees!

We’ll try to keep up to date on posting our itinerary and sample pictures. If you are interested in seeing more pics along the way, let us know and we’ll send you a link to the more complete set as we post them.

Hope everyone has a fine Easter and a wonderful summer, wherever you are!

Sally & Tom

Spring Down South

Spring is finally here!

It’s been warm in Eufaula the past two weeks and we have been working outside on the refuge. We’ve stained signposts, painted gates and put up a couple of fences. And thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and nice breezes.

Another springtime event: the goats at the refuge have been multiplying the past week. There are at least 5 “kids” running around. Pictures coming soon. (Mama goats tend to hide their babies at the beginning and we don’t have any pictures yet.)

Saturday we got to go sailing on Lake Lanier with some friends. The day started out pretty bleak and dreary with rain in Atlanta. By 10:30, though, the sn broke through and we had a beautiful afternoon – as the pictures here illustrate. The high was near 70 - just perfect.

Our time down south is getting shorter and we’re really excited about our next adventure – we’ll be starting on our trip to Alaska within a month. We have been moving stuff back into storage and reconfiguring the RV for the long trip. It won't be long now.

Stay tuned for the “rest of the story”.