Homeward Bound

My FB friends saw my photo of the cute little yurt-cabin we stayed in at Heber City UT. The campground section of RiversEdge Camp was filled for Saturday night so the manager suggested we put the TT in their storage area and sleep in a yurt. It was great fun but at bedtime I was ready for “my” bed in the camper.

The good part was the yurt had a table and seating for four. Wayne and Gay came over and we had dinner guests for the first time in months. They had just moved out of their Park City house and into their new place on Wed. We celebrated by going to our mutual favorite restaurant in Kamas Friday night so on Saturday night we “entertained”.

Saturday morning I was sitting outside with my feet propped on the picnic table drinking coffee when a teenager from the next site came over with a huge bottle of ketchup. They were a family of six from Germany traveling in a rented RV and they were going to Salt Lake City to turn it in. She offered me the ketchup and I lacked sufficient German to refuse, so I accepted it with many thanks. I sat it on the table and returned to my musings. Suddenly the flutter of tiny wings cooled my toes. A hummingbird, very interested in the ketchup bottle was buzzing my feet! What if I had turned down the ketchup? I would have missed a Happening.

Sunday morning found us totally without firm plans. The weather had turned cool and we wondered about going back to the Four Corners area for a few days. Then we debated about the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone but we lacked enthusiasm for more hordes of vacationers. So we got on I-80 and headed east.

Sunday we crossed Wyoming and stayed at an “ok for overnight” CG right on I-80 near Cheyenne. Yesterday we crossed most of Nebraska and camped at Pawnee State Recreational Area near Lincoln. We got off the interstate this morning and took secondary roads through eastern NB, crossing the Big Mo for the first time near Browning. Back on the four-lane on I-29 to north of Kansas City and I-70 across Missouri.  We are at Graham Cave State Park west of St. Louis tonight. The weather is still cool enough but the humidity hit us hard this afternoon.

I think it is official: we are going home.

(photo is of 1988 Land Rover Defender being driven around the world by the Young Rovers, Shayne and Sandra Young of Ft. Lauderdale. We met them three times in Alaska.)

One day I walk in flowers, One day I walk on stones

"One day I walk in flowers, One day I walk on stones.   (Bruce Cockburn)

The Canadian Rockies were just as spectacular as we remembered them to be but we are so happy that we had such a wonderful early season visit three years ago. The number of people and vehicles was overwhelming. Parking lots, scenic attractions, wildlife spotting, everything was mobbed. I suppose that we are spoiled by the vastness of British Columbia, Alaska, and the Yukon.  It is best to visit here during the “shoulder seasons” (May-June, Mid-August to Sept.)

We did drive over the Icefields Parkway to Banff. Both Jasper NP and Lake Louise have paved overflow parking areas for RV’s but this did not appeal to us. We left Canada Highway 1, which was bumper-to-bumper, and took AB 22 south along the eastern face of the Rockies, called “Kananaski Country”. We avoided Calgary this way and saw some fantastic country. We camped at a lovely provincial park, Chain Lakes, out in the middle of nowhere. It was set in rolling meadows covered with wildflowers overlooking a series of lakes with the Kananaski Mountains like a row of sentinels in the background.  Early Sunday morning Percy and I went for a walk.  I could stand in one place and count a dozen different varieties of flowers. Percy was literally up to her ears in flowers! We walked in flowers.

By noon Sunday we had arrived at Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, set up camp and quickly drove up to Red Rock Canyon to hike. We found the loop trail along the canyon edge but we also learned that in mid-summer, folks are allowed to wade in the river up to the canyon’s end. Back to the truck for Teva’s and shorts and we were on our way. This is one of those situations where there are dozens of people for the first ¼ mile, and then only the hardy continue.  It is like a slot canyon but only has one spot that requires crawling on hands and knees (due to a huge log jam). The walls are brilliant shades of red streaked with white and bands of deep brown all in wild and crazy swirls and patterns.  We gladly walked on stones.

In the evening we took the boat tour up Waterton Lake to Ghost Haunt, which is in Glacier National Park. There is a border station there but you have to hike into it from the Glacier side and it was closed. Several people on the boat had never been in the US before and were very excited to be allowed to get out and walk around on US soil. It made me realize again how very special it is to possess a US passport.  We come and go as we please.

On Monday we made our fifth border crossing (not counting the boat ride), at a seasonal crossing on a spur road in the NP’s.  We have managed to stay on secondary roads most of the time as we travel south. We were on I-15 for a short time Monday afternoon and on I-80 for only a few miles today. We have had some good camping spots as well. A welcome relief from the many gravel parking lots we have occupied in the past weeks.

Tonight we are at Rivers Edge on the Provo River near Heber City UT. It is a private place but looks like a state park. We have to take the truck to Salt Lake City tomorrow to have the brakes checked and plan to visit with friends over the weekend.

I think that we are headed home. (Photo is a stone in Red Rock Canyon)

Going with the Flow

This has been a peaceful easy week as we call ourselves “going home”. There is no point in even thinking about how many miles we plan to drive in a day or where we plan to spend the night. The mindboggling amount of road construction makes those plans for us. It is not unusual to wait 15 or 20 minutes at a road block or to drive 35 mph for ages. We get up when we are ready, drive until we are tired, and stop wherever we can. I can’t image the amount of stress that could be generated if we were on a schedule.

On Monday (7/15) we left the CG at Nisutin Bay (Teslin) and continued east on the Alaska Highway toward Watson Lake and Ft. Nelson. We stopped at the Teslin Tlingil Heritage Center and saw the most beautiful masks and textiles of our trip. We have tried to take advantage of the opportunities to talk with the First Nation citizens when we can. The young people have a difficult time. They call their parents the “gap generation”, the group that did not learn the native languages because they were sent to government schools. As a result, there are now few native speakers and some languages are almost extinct.

We were fortunate to find a spot at Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park (BC) that night. The springs are really something! A very nice break after a day of driving. Tuesday we drove to Ft. Nelson, Wednesday to Dawson Creek. We were then at Mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway, 1,422 miles from Delta Junction. Every day we would see a few special things; maybe a bear or a moose or a hike to a waterfall, but mostly highway.

Yesterday we drove Alberta Highway 40, the Bighorn Road, to Hinton. We passed through Grande Prairie and Grande Cache. From Dawson Creek to Grande Prairie we saw rolling hills covered with the yellow blooms of the Canola plant. We had hoped to camp in a PP last night but we tried three and all the sites were either reserved or taken. Fortunately we found a very nice spot in Hinton and plan to stay here until Sunday. We are just 25 miles from Jasper National Park, in the middle of July, with no advance reservations. Need I say more!

I love the small town Visitor Centers. Not only do they have maps and brochures, they often have very savvy locals to help you find things to do. A young lady in Hinton suggested we drive out  the Forestry Trunk Rd. It is only paved for about 25 miles but runs south along the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies all the way to Canmore (near Banff). We drove about 40 miles and had a great day. Saw lots of wildlife, gorgeous views, and almost no people. It would be an adventure to drive the entire distance. 

We plan to go to Jasper tomorrow and have pizza at our favorite pizza place. I think we had pizza there three nights in a row in 2010. Yes, it is GOOD.

 (Butch in the Alpha Spring at Laird Hot Springs)

You Don't Always Get What You Want

Sunday, July 14: We have come full circle and are at the Yukon Motel and Lakeside RV Park again in Teslin, YK. We were here on June 10^th and it was almost deserted, not so now. We passed the 10,000 mile mark today. Tomorrow we will retrace our path for 17 miles on the ALCAN and then will be in new territory as we continue east toward BC.  We are going home but we have big plans for the next few weeks.

You don’t get everything you want and it looked as if we were going to have to miss driving the Taylor Highway to “Beautiful Downtown Chicken” and on to Dawson City. We stayed over in Tok trying to outwait the rain but were getting shacky wacky. There had been wildfires in that part of Alaska for over a month and no rain since the first of May. We could see the fires from the highway coming down from Delta Junction and the smoke made driving very difficult. The rain was such a blessing that I was ashamed to wish that it would go away. The few vehicles that came in from Chicken-Dawson were not just dirty they were literally coated with an oily mud. The advice in the campground was “don’t even think about it”. We were dejected.

Then, a happening! The SMART Caravan pulled in and I remembered that one of my internet friends was on it. We found Sherry and Jim in their View and got a whole different story. They said the big rigs were having problems but we would be fine. We were elated.

Wednesday we drove 180 miles on the Taylor Highway through Chicken to Dawson over the Top of the World and it was outstanding. The day started out overcast but we rolled into Dawson in full sun. We stopped several times to rock hound and found some nice specimens of Dendrites and beautiful banded rhyolite but we didn’t really know what a labradorite looked like so just picked up some pretty stones. The views from the highway are amazing. It was hard to realize that there was nothing to the north of us but mountain ranges and tundra all the way to the Artic Ocean.

At Dawson, there is a government ferry to get travelers across the Yukon River in the summer. In the winter they make an ice road. The ferry runs 24 hours a day “on demand” and holds four cars/trucks and two RV’s. We crossed with just us and an ATV.

We had fun in Dawson. They make the most of their short summer and there is a lot of activity going on.  Folks never stopped gold mining in this area and with the price of gold escalating interest has revived. We have seen everything from panning to huge dredges. We took a trip on the paddle wheeler on the Yukon River, watched the show at Gertie’s, went out to the goldfields and pretended to pan. 

What we didn’t get is an opportunity to drive the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Circle. It was closed due to a landslide.  Like the famous Dalton Highway in Alaska (the “haul road” to Prudo Bay), it is unpaved for over 400 miles to the village of Inuvit and is the only road in Canada that goes to the Arctic Circle. There weren’t any flights either, all taken up by people who really need to go to Inuvit and points north.

We also did not get a chance to paddle on the Yukon River. We spent last night in Carmacks after arranging for a shuttle for today. The forest fires are so bad that the valley was filled with smoke and this morning the visibility was nil.  The smoke did contribute to a beautiful "sunset" last night about 9 p.m. Of course the sun didn't really set for hours.

What we did get? Just about everything on our Bucket List, visits with good friends, meeting lots of new people, fabulous scenery, and constant overwhelming amazement at the wonder of God’s creation.  And it ain’t over.

 

 

Riding the Wendy Bus

This blog is mainly about Happenings. It is about roads taken, serendipity, coincidence, and astonishment. At least one of these things occurs on a daily basis for us and on some days, they all do.

We have logged in another wonderful week. Leaving the Kanai we got to Anchorage in time to share Pizza Night with Carol. I love her so much that I endured another night at the Golden Nugget RV Park. I hope she appreciates my sacrifice. Monday we drove up to Eagle River and parked our TT at Lulie and Bud’s place. It is True Alaska! Lulie and I were canoeing buddies in Tallahassee over 30 years ago. We had a lot of catching up to do. Had a good hike with Lulie and three of her eight dogs. This was our first exposure to the true nature of Alaskan mosquitos; big, slow, plentiful, and relentless.

On Tuesday we wandered up toward Talkeetna, a wonderful village located at the junction with the Talkeetna, Susitna, and Chulita Rivers. It also has an active train depot and is the jumping-off point for climbing expeditions to Mt McKinley/Denali. With the holiday weekend coming up it was a “happening place”.

Wednesday we drove on up the Parks Highway to Denali. No camping spaces in the Park of course, so we settled on Denali Rainbow Village RV Park. Mere words cannot explain to the uninitiated how awful an Alaskan commercial RV park can be. Our expectations are very low but this place sank below them. The one positive note was their excellent dog-walker who gave Percy four walks and put out her supper when we were away for $20.

This brings us up to the Wendy Bus and serendipity, coincidence, and astonishment. Denali NP has only one road that leads 95 miles into the interior. Vehicle access is limited to the first 15 miles, as is the pavement. The Park provides a variety of shuttle busses but have only two choices for going the entire route to Kantishna. One is the Kantishna Experience ($162 per seat), an upgraded school bus with shocks and springs that provides a park service naturalist and a box lunch. The other is a green school bus with a driver ($50 per seat)

 Considering our old bones we felt that 190 miles and 12 hours on a school bus might be a bit much so we decided to spring for the expensive ride. Holy Serendipity! They were sold out. It was the Green Bus or nothing. Drivers of the Green busses are just hired to drive the bus. They don’t have to say a word all day, but we got Wendy Hester. No PhD naturalist could have been better. She has been driving a bus in the Park for over 20 years and nothing slips by her. (She has also been driving a public school bus in Anchorage for 20 years and has eyes in the back of her head). We saw all the requisite animals and we saw The Mountain, over and over again. It was an amazing and astonishing day. We are so lucky to have spent it on the Wendy Bus.

When we left the Rainbow RV Park we were so starved for space that we towed over the Denali Highway (nothing to do with the Park), to Paxson on the Richardson Highway. It is 135 miles, 105 of which is unpaved. It is a beautiful road and worth every bump. Last night we dry-camped at a BLM parking area beside Tangle Lake. There was a snow bank right outside our window.

At Delta Junction we turned east on the ALCAN and returned to Tok. Turning east for the first time in over two months and completing the circle back to Tok makes me feel that we are “going out” as the Alaskans say. We have a lot of happenings ahead of us however, and tomorrow we are off to Chicken.