June 28, 2022
Elusive fish – Dee and Doug went out at 3 am from Glennallen to the Copper River, but returned empty handed. Later we headed to Anchorage to take care of camper business and had a delicious late lunch at The Lucky Wishbone Diner.
More views of Matanuska River and Glacier and thanks to Cheryl for photos that include Judy!
June 27, 2022
We went northwest on the Alaska Highway Route 2 from our road pullout campground towards Tok. Some of the potholes in the road were cavernous, though it is tough to get that in a photo. Other evidence is the continuous reconstruction and road patches.
There is windblown glacial silt covering large areas. It allowed some plant life to grow and feed wild life. It also is used as background for “Alaskan graffiti” using rocks to spell out messages.
There was evidence of the telegraph system that once carried all messages from the border to the towns. This pole is in decent shape, but many others were sunk in the softened permafrost.
The first significant town in Alaska on the Highway is Tok, with a large information center, gift shop, and a vehicle wash – always a welcome sight after highway dust and bugs covered the van.
Everywhere we have been there are extremely lush pots and hanging baskets of flowers decorating businesses and homes. I know that 20 hours of sunlight is great, but I can’t help but think that some flower booster fertilizer is in heavy use to support the growth! We at a delicious Thai lunch from a mobile restaurant, a common sight.
We arrived at Northern Nights Campground in Glennallen, which would prove to be our base for six nights.
July 22, 2022
Here are a couple of maps to give readers some guidance on where we are, especially if you are not familiar with Alaska. My blog entries won’t catch up with the maps for awhile.
The first map is on an old postcard, and doesn’t have all the roads, but does give an overall view. We drove the loop from Edmonton to Jasper and back to Calgary, all in the Province of Edmonton, then joined up with our friends Dee and Cheryl. We went northwest from Calgary to Whitecourt, between Edmonton and Dawson City. The Alaskan Highway officially begins in Dawson City, in the province of British Columbia. We followed it through Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and the northern part of BC to Watson Lake, in the province of Yukon. We continued on the more southern route in Yukon through Whitehorse, Haines Junction and Beaver Creek. After Beaver Creek we crossed into the US, in Alaska, and went to Tok, then on to Glennallen, which was a base for nearly a week as we went to different places in the area. There is now a “Tok Cutoff” highway directly from Tok to Glennallen, and another highway from Glennallen to Palmer.
The next map shows part of southeastern Alaska, and is highlighted with some of the routes we have taken. The pink was all by Sylvee Van or in Dee’s truck. The orange green was a ferry ride we took Sylvee on from Valdez to Whittier.
There’s lots more to tell you about all our adventures, so stay tuned!
June 26, 2022
Sunday morning we headed northwest from Whitehorse, hoping to get to Beaver Creek, YK for the night. The road was rougher, with long dusty segments, and there were warning signs about the beasts. We were impressed with the many cyclists we were seeing, here and everywhere.
The Kluane Mountain Range in southern Yukon showed up with its glaciers. Soon after we went through Haynes Junction, a major intersection in the Alaska Highway.
Dee knew of the perfect spot for a late lunch, on the south shore of Kluane Lake. The interesting history here is that as the Kaskawulsh Glacier advanced between 300 and 400 hundred years ago, it closed the drainage outlet of the lake, which had gone southwest to the not too distant Gulf of Alaska. The water level rose more than 30 feet and the lake drainage reversed. The lake now drains north into the Yukon River system. Instead of traveling 140 miles south to the Pacific Ocean in the Gulf of Alaska, the water flows more than 10 times that distance north to the Bering Sea.
North – northwest we drove, with the road getting rougher. Later we learned that this was the worst stretch of road on the entire Alaska Highway, from the Donjek River to the border. The problem stems from melting of the permafrost under the highway, which is a recent phenomenon. There are many scientists studying the problem and experimenting with various mechanics to prevent the road cratering, but no luck so far.
We had left about 9 am in the morning and driven for a long day, over 300 miles, and not at 65 mph. It doesn’t get dark, so how would you know? We hoped to stay in Beaver Creek, Yukon, near the Alaska border, and cross the next day. Our hopes were dashed to find that the only campground in town was closed, in spite of substantial and recent advertising. No Buckshot Betty’s for us! I’m not sure we would have chosen to stay anyway, from the looks of the place!
So on we drove, happily seeing five moose, two cows each with a calf, and another.
We arrived at the Alaska border at 5:29pm Yukon time and 4:29 pm Alaska time.. Before you cross officially there is a photo op and international relations boost.
We were assured by the US Border Patrol that if there is no sign saying “no camping” or “no overnight parking” anywhere in Alaska, it is fine to stay. So we went down the road a bit, found a large, paved, relatively flat turnout, had a nice spaghetti dinner and stayed the night. It was at Sweetwater Creek, Alaska Highway Milepost 1234.
June 24 and 25, 2022
Watson Lake is famous for its Sign Post Forest. We participated with an Old Maine Flag. If you are overwhelmed by the photos, it’s nothing like standing in the middle of it all. Dee and Cheryl have participated on past trips, but were not able to locate any of their prior contributions.
My early impressions of Yukon are very good. There are many more KM posts (every 2 KM) and other road signs. All of the Information Center people are friendly and very helpful. They provided the nails to hang up the flag. Dee hammered with his hatchet.
We stopped for lunch at Morley Lake in Northern British Columbia, then turned north to Yukon again.
We had a delicious dinner at Klondike Rib & Salmon on Friday night. Saturday Doug and Dee played golf and we toured Whitehorse.
There is a large hydropower dam at Whitehorse. The Fishway was not open because the salmon hadn’t made it that far up the Yukon River yet.
June 23, 2022
We took advantage of the Liard River Hotsprings across the road. Because it is also a campground the park is as protected as Jurassic Park.
We headed northwest, mostly west, on the Alaska Highway through British Columbia. Our first encounter was with a herd of buffalo along the highway. This herd would include female cows, younger males, and calves. The breeding males go off on their own for the summer.
The highway crosses the BC/Yukon boundary numerous times before the official welcome to Yukon Province and a first for me. This was the furthest north I had ever traveled!
We arrived at Watson Lake and stayed at the “Downtown” RV Park; Archie, the proprietor is a joker. He had a $45 bill with guess who’s name on it?
June 22, 2022
Our day in Sikanni Chief started out sunny and beautiful.
It was a long and busy day. We arrived at Liard River Hot Springs RV Park and could only stay in the overflow area – the equipment parking lot, next to a backhoe. Early the next morning we learned that the road we had crossed washed out in a couple of areas. We got through the Alaska Highway just in time!
June 21, 2022
On Tuesday, June 21, we left Grande Prairie and headed for the much anticipated Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek. On the way we saw a sign, “No Trespassing Without Permission.” Got that?
Here we are at the start of the famous Alaska Highway, in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The beginning of a 1387 mile journey; we went as far as Tok at historical milepost 1314 of the original Alaska Highway. Road straightening and rebuilds have changed the mileages up to 40 miles over the years.
We started up the Alaska Highway through the Peace River District.
Our campground was on the Sikanni River and featured mega mosquitos. We put up Dee and Cheryl’s screen tent, laughing the entire way, as they had never taken it out of the box before that. Dee gave Doug his first fishing lessons.
June 18 through 20, 2022
We left Okotoks after breakfast at Denny’s, heading north and went west of Edmonton through the prairies – long straight roads and beautiful scenery.
Our next campground was another Lions Club in Whitecourt, Alberta where we spent two nights.
Doug and Dee played golf at Whitecourt Golf and Country Club.
The town of Whitecourt has a very nice museum with a collection of farm implements, buildings, and memorabilia from the local area.
We hiked Hard Luck Canyon near Whitecourt. There are signs indicating how you are walking back in time.
As we left Whitecourt on Monday, June 20, we crossed the Athabaska River, downstream from where we had camped in Jasper Park. The rivers flow north around here.
The warning signs get more creative, but we saw just one deer. The farmland is beautiful, however.
After traversing many miles of construction we reached Good Sam Camp Tamarack RV Park south of Grande Prairie. There was so much construction we never went into that town at all.
June 15 through 17, 2022
The drive south from Lake Louise to the town of Banff was beautiful. Note the bridges over the highway for critter traffic.
We started our visit to Banff at the Cave and Basin, the birthplace of the Canadian National Park system. There are bubbling thermal hot springs that have been a special place for Indigenous Peoples for over ten thousand years.
The high walkway above the former pool area was a great platform of photos of the surrounding Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Banff has a fine bus system between the huge campgrounds and downtown, so we parked and camp into town to walk around and have an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Magpie and Stump.
The campground is a series of parallel extra wide roads with rigs large and small lined up along the sides. Lucee is quite content in her daybed in the back of the camper van.
On Thursday, June 16 we headed east to Calgary in anticipation of meeting up with our friends Dee and Cheryl for the adventure to Alaska. We tried a couple of campgrounds near Calgary that were not very inviting, but ended up at a very nice Lions campground in Okotoks south of Calgary, and Dee and Cheryl arrived on June 17. Doug greeted them with a nice campfire dinner.
On Board Sylvie 