May 31, 2013

Today we got up did laundry and cleaned the camper than we went to explore Fairbanks.  We started off at the University of Alaska Museum which was pretty neat.  They were a couple art galleries, a section on the history of Alaska and a quiet room where you could hear the "sounds of the earth" which was really cool but I am so glad we don't actually hear those sounds all the time as it would drive me crazy!  We also walked around downtown which is okay.

Tomorrow we are going to a farmer's market and check out a couple quilt shops that I have heard about.  We will put the camper back on the truck and go wash it as it is really dirty and then get ready to leave Sunday morning for Denali.  Today was a very  nice relaxing day.

This arch is made of more than 100 moose and caribous antlers

World War II Memorial

Street in the North Pole - notice all the candy canes and Christmas banners
 

May 30, 2013
We are now in Fairbanks.  We are staying at the Riverview RV Park; the lady that checked us in was very nice.  She had a quilt hanging in her office and I asked her about it so she gave me the pattern.  It is really cool - I can't wait to try it.  Before we left our campsite this morning we got to see a guy running his sled dogs.  He had a sled on wheels and was running them around the park.  I tried to get a picture but wasn't very successful.  We did see a moose today but I wasn't able to get a picture - hopefully we will be seeing many more.  We reached the end of the Alaska highway today - we were on it from beginning to end.

We went to the North Pole today and I got to sit on Santa's lap.  It is the official North Pole and is where letters are sent if you send a letter to Santa at the North Pole.  It was great to see him in the summer so relaxed and all.

Other than that we just drove around Fairbanks a bit.  We are here until Sunday morning and then are off to Denali National Park where we will be camping for 4 nights.  We got mosquito coils, citronella candles and Off sonic protectors.  We have been using this great stuff Sallie gave us and so far neither one of us has had a bite.  It was 80 something here today so they will be coming out in force soon.

Here are a couple pictures from today.

Dog Sled Practice

Official end of the Alaska Highway

The Alaskan Pipeline

North Pole city limit sign

Reindeer resting

Santa's House

Santa and I

Christmas will be here before you know it!!!

May 29, 2013

It only took us two weeks but we are in ALASKA!!!  We crossed the border about 10:30 this morning.  We are currently staying in Tok, AK and will be going on to Fairbanks tomorrow where we plan to stay for two or three days.  The drive today was pretty normal (our new normal of seeing amazing scenery every direction we look!!).  We did see a wolf today which is something we had not seen before.  The good news it we only paid $4.62 for a gallon of diesel (as compared with the $5 - $7 a gallon everywhere in Canada), however, diesel is now about 10 cents a gallon more than unleaded.  Our campsite tonight is really nice and the weather is perfect.  It rained for about 10 minutes but then cleared and is now sunny and beautiful.  Sunrise this morning was 3:40 and sunset is midnight (just a normal day).

FYI there is a website you should check out.  We learned about it while we were in Whitehorse, YT.  It is a live feed of a bald eagle and 3 babies.  The address is www.yecleagles.com and is pretty cool.

I will post a couple pictures from today.

Our view when we woke up this morning

Mission made from a Quonset hut in Beaver Creek, YT

YEAH we made it to Alaska!

Me standing in Canada and the USA at the same time

Our first lunch in Alaska

May 28, 2013

Let me start today by finishing up with last night.  We did go to Diamond Tooth Gertie's and had a good time.  I won $20 on a slot machine and the floor show was actually pretty good.  The coolest thing about this place is that it is a not for profit and all the proceeds go back into the community - guess that is why they can have gambling.  We experienced our first 23 hours of daylight day (check out the picture from yesterday).  It never actually gets dark just like dusk for a bit.  I could get used to that much daylight but I don't think I could survive when there is 23 hours of darkness.

We left Dawson City early this morning and are now at a campsite in Destruction Bay, YT.  We were going to stay at a different campground but it was closed because the lake is still frozen.  We pulled in here and the owner came out and said he just had electricity and Wi-Fi because all the water and sewer lines were still frozen!  Lucky for us we have our own water and are good to go.  It is raining and has been for a couple hours.  We look out one side of the camper and see gorgeous mountains with snow on them and we look out the other window and see a beautiful lake.  We are the only people at the campground so guess we don't have to worry about loud neighbors!  We are 130 miles from the Alaska border but have been told there is lots of construction between here and there so it will be a slow day - lucky for us we are not in a hurry.  We are so glad we decided not to stay in Dawson City till Thursday to go on the Top of the World road - if this weather is there (which it probably is) the road would be really bad even if they did open it.  Wayne has also informed me that Dawson City is 64 degrees north and the Artic circle is 70 degrees north so I guess we were almost as north as you can go!

Here are a few pictures from today and a couple from the show last night.  At least with the clouds and rain it will look a little like nighttime.

Cancan Girls

Gertie with the Cancan Girls

Wayne looking for gold!!!

Mountains that are around us tonight

Lake Kluane - across the road from us tonight

May 27, 2013

 

Today we drove from Whitehorse, YT to Dawson City, YT (about a 7 hour drive) and we saw absolutely no wildlife and the road was not very good.  Our goal was to get to Dawson City tonight and then drive on the “Top of the World” road tomorrow into Alaska.  When we got to Dawson City we were informed that the “Top of the World” road was not open yet because they had 12 feet of snow on the road they were trying to clear – it should be open Thursday morning at 9. We would hang out here but are afraid they will not get the road open or if they do the road will be a mess so we have now decided to drive back to Whitehorse tomorrow and go into Alaska by way of Haines Junction instead.   Normally the road is open by the 1^st of May but apparently they have had a really heavy snow this winter and it is taking them longer to get it open.  We did not even think to check before we left Whitehorse and there were no signs posted along the way to let us know.

On the good side, Dawson City is a truly unique town.  All the buildings look old and most of the roads are gravel.  They have built a wooden boardwalk that goes all over town to walk on.   There is also a casino called Diamond Tooth Gerties that has 3 shows a night of girls doing the cancan so we are thinking we may go there tonight just to see how it is. It reminds me of an old western town in the old movies.

So tomorrow we will be doing some backtracking but, hopefully, we will make it to Alaska in a couple days.

 

Our view for most of the day

Pelly River

Dawson City, YT

This picture was taken at 9:15 p.m. in Dawson City

 

May 26, 2013

Today we have stayed "home" and did no substantial driving.  We went into Whitehorse and walked around, took a tour of a "sternwheeler" had A&W for lunch and came back to the campsite.  There are A&W's all over Canada (a few McDonald's) but it was $18 for two hamburgers, two root beers and an order of sweet potato fries.  Most things are really expensive here - meat and mushrooms, however, are not.  Milk is around $6 for 4 liters - a little more than a gallon.  We did find some broccoli today for $2 and are having it for dinner tonight.  Our campsites have been really reasonable - average is about $30-35 a night.  Hopefully, when we get to Alaska food will be cheaper.  There is a Wal-Mart here so that was really nice.  We have found out that there is a bear that likes our current campground but we have not seen it.

Here are a couple pictures from today.  The sternwheeler is the S.S. Klondike.  It cost $30 - $75 to ride it back in the day and wages at the time were about $25/month; so it was a treat to cruise on it.  The best part was that it was free to tour and they were very helpful answering our questions.

We are off to Dawson City tomorrow where we are thinking we may stay a couple days so we should be in Alaska Wednesday or Thursday next week.

S. S. Klondike

Observation Deck

Dining Hall

Guy fishing in the river

May 25, 2013

We are now in Whitehorse, Yukon and have decided we will stay here two nights.  We are tired of driving and this is a pretty neat spot with lots of stuff to look at.  It is a little funny, last night there was a couple from New Mexico camped next to us in Watson Lake.  They were a little older but very nice.  When we stopped for gas today, they pulled in behind us and when we got to our campsite tonight they are here to.  Her name is Betty but we haven't got his name yet.  They are also on their way to Alaska but are thinking they will stay here 3 nights so we probably won't meet up with them again.  The drive today was an okay drive.  We did see some young caribou and a black bear but that was it.  We had lunch by Teslin River which is beautiful and we followed it for a while.

We are thinking about going to Skagway from here instead of on the way back.  We want to go to Juneau and the only way to get there is by boat or plane.  There is a tour we can take that begins on a ferry which goes to Haines and Juneau and we get a tour of Juneau all in one day.  We are thinking it would be better to do that now rather than wait as the crowds will be smaller.  It is nice to have some flexibility in our plans.

Here are some pictures from today.


Young Caribou



Black Bear



Teslin River

May 24, 2013

Today we find ourselves in Watson Lake, Yukon.  I find it hard to believe that we are in the Yukon!!!  We drove through some pretty interesting scenery today.  A big part of the road was curvy, narrow, mountain roads with no guardrails - most of the scenery was pretty good.  We saw lots of wild animals today - several black bears, lots of bison, lots of stone sheep and some moose.  The bison and the stone sheep just walk down the middle of the road-they don't seem to care that there are cars around.  Still no caribou but the guy that owns the park we are at tonight says we should see lots tomorrow.

We also saw Muncho Lake.  The lake was still mostly frozen but was the most incredible turquoise color.  I will attach a picture but the color doesn't come through very well. 

We went for a walk after we got here and found the "Signpost Forest".  They have taken road signs and all kinds of signs and put them on poles - there are thousands of them from every part of the world.  We found one from Waynesville, MO (I was born there), Surprise, AZ, Phoenix and Sedona, AZ.  We could not believe how many there were.

We are learning to adjust to lots of daylight; the sun rises around 520am and sets around 2200 (10 p.m.).  We have read that in June there are 22 1/2 hours of daylight a day!  Groceries are very expensive here so we have been eating lots of what we brought with us.  We bought some AAA batteries yesterday for the camera and 4 batteries were $15.  Where is Wal-Mart when you need it!

We are having a great time - we plan to be in White Horse, Yukon tomorrow.

Here are today's pictures:

Black Bear

Stone Mountain Sheep

Moose (we think)

More Stone Sheep

Bison and babies

Muncho Lake

Waynesville sign in Signpost Forest



Signpost Forest in Watson Lake

May 23, 2013

 

Today we drove from Grande Cache, Alberta to Fort Nelson, BC – it was a long day but we decided we could have a short day tomorrow – into Watson Lake, BC.  We hope to be in Alaska on Sunday.  Most of the scenery today was prairie with a couple big hills.  It was mostly farmland and forests.  We had hoped to see some wildlife today (Moose and Bear), however, we had to settle for a deer.  Hopefully, we will have more luck tomorrow.  The good news on fuel is that diesel is about 5 cents a liter cheaper than unleaded; however, the bad news is that diesel costs about $5.07/gallon!!  It is more here in BC because of additional taxes.

We took a side road today to see the only wooden bridge from the original Alaska Highway that is still in use – it was only about an 8 mile side trip. 

All is going well -

The entrance to the Alaska Highway

The original wooden bridge sign

The bridge

May 22, 2013

Today we drove from Canmore, Alberta to Grande Cache, Alberta.  We went through Banff National Park again and then drove on Ice fields Parkway to Jasper.  The scenery again was more than spectacular.  We saw several glaciers and lots of waterfalls along the road.  One of the glaciers we saw was Columbian Glacier which is very old and is as deep as the Eiffel Tower.  We also saw some wildlife today:  Elk, a BEAR, Mountain Goat, and Big Horn Sheep along the highway.  There are signs everywhere that caution for wild animal crossing and lots for caribou - but we didn't see any today.  Tomorrow we will again be on Hwy 40 and will reach the Alaskan Highway so we should see lots of animals.  We are camping at a small campground in Grande Cache tonight (yes, they Wi-Fi).  Tomorrow we are hoping to reach Fort St. Johns but who knows!!!

Here are some pictures from today - the pictures just don't do the scenery justice.

Misc. Waterfall

Another Misc. Waterfall

Waterfall - white spot below waterfall is Mountain Goat (trust me)

Bridal Veil Waterall 

Crowsfoot Glacier

Columbia Glacier (small dot in lower left corner is a bus)

Our spot for lunch

Mountain Sheep butts

Our home for the night.