July 11, 2018This was a once in a lifetime event for us, and so deserves it’s own blog post- we have some incredible photos. We used a guide service, here in Kennecott to hike the Root Glacier, one of the many, many glaciers in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This is the biggest NPS park, and the least visited- 35,000 people a year and only a small portion of them hike onto the glacier.

The hike was moderately hard- 2 miles in to the glacier on loose rock and some steep climbs. Then we put on crampons to spend 2 hours hiking 2 miles around the glacier. And then 2 miles back out. It was a 6+ hours trip, however we were so absorbed by this awe-inspiring experience that we didn’t even notice the time, just how tired we were getting:-)

 

Taber, our guide was awesome, one other couple about our age and hiking ability was with us. Safety came first, as glaciers can be deadly, then glacial information, and mine history. He took us up and down and around the glacier and showed us so many features and made us tea from glacier water.

 

 

We hope you enjoy these photos and that they give you a small taste of what we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

Kenny Lake, AK, getting ready for 4 days up in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The Salmon run has started here- just one weekend for this type of salmon-

and they can only be caught using dipnets from shore or boat and only by Alaskans- native peoples can take more fish. And apparently, some people forgot to move their campers away from where spring high water could reach!

This is the biggest park in the US- bigger than NH and VT together, but very difficult to access.

A 60 mile drive on a gravel road to McCarthy where there is one tiny campground which sits on a glacial moraine- we had reservations. Along the road was this huge bridge over river, with a suspended walkway under the bridge that, of course, we just had to get to!

Once in McCarthy, one must walk down the hill to the footbridge to cross the river into McCarthy. Only locals have vehicles on the other side- which they bring over by paying to use the one lane private bridge down stream from the footbridge. In McCarthy there are 3 restaurants, a small grocery- but it has hard ice cream! a jewelry store, and two outfitters. Free range dogs and kids everywhere, too. You can take the shuttle up to Kennecott 4.5 miles up the valley.
Kennecott was a HUGE copper mine in the early 1900s- mining very pure copper in the millions of tons over 30+ years. The town was a “company” town and housed about 550 workers for the mine and mill. McCarthy was down the hill and supplied the workers with leisure activities- a saloon and women!
We took the mill tour which included inside looks at several of the buildings-

The National Park Service has restored, replicated or conserved many buildings.

The tour took us up to the top of the 14 story mill and brought us down through it stopping at each level to see how the copper ore was processed. This building is pretty much as it was in the 1930s except for safety and stability work.

The views are pretty spectacular, to say the least. The pic on the left is an “ice fall” , a part of the Root Glacier, 1000s of feet tall, a frozen waterfall of ice that is part of the glacier. The pic on the right is off the glacial moraine- ice and rock and gravel 100s of feet thick for several miles along the valley at Kennecott- two glaciers merge here- Kennecott and Root.

July 4

Top of the World Highway from Dawson City, YT to Chicken AK. To leave Dawson City we had to take a ferry- a free ferry, but a small one- and we were told that there could be an hour wait during busy times. Well, we had a three hour wait! They only load one camper each trip and about 4 cars. We got there at 8:45am and waited three hours! Those behind us would have over a 4 hour wait. All this to cross the Yukon River and then have the privilege of driving 120 km on a gravel road up, over and through the mountains!

 
The Canada side of the road was in decent shape, but once we hit the border crossing- the most northernmost in the US- the road became steep long down and curvy, rough gravel and a bit of paving. The topography on this side was steeper and harsher, partially explaining the worsening road conditions.

And then we arrived in Chicken, Alaska. A tiny little town, and I mean tiny! A couple of RV Parks, gold panning places and a “strip mall” LOL One woman owns 4 attached businesses, not more than 100 ft wide which included the live “attack” chicken pen! A gift shop with lots of chicken stuff, a liqour store, a saloon and a cafe where we bought reindeer bratwurst. We could have parked out back for the night for free and listened to the generator run ’til they closed- but since it was July 4 and they expected everyone from the town bbq to show up to drink and party later, we moved on to a BLM campground.
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July, 2018
From Whitehorse we have chosen the “road less traveled” as we head north to Dawson City on the Klondike Highway, and then over the “Top of the World Highway” to Chicken Alaska.
Beautiful scenery, very remote, but with waysides every 100-200kms, so there is always food, fuel and Yukon Territory campgrounds.
Dawson City is where the Klondike Goldrush in the 1890s happened. Clare hiked the Midnight Dome in 1965…we drove up!

Parks Canada has restored and manages about 15 sites in the area- one being Claim #6 on the Bonanza Creek just up from the Discovery Claim (the first one here), where we panned for gold.

To get here, most prospectors landed in Skagway and head to go over the Chilkoot Pass – 30-40 times to get the law required gear up to Bennet Mtn. (there are famous photos of the ice steps over the pass with hundreds of men packing gear up and over) 100,000 prospectors said they were going to the Klondike, 30,000 actually made it, and about 4,000 actually found gold! Dawson City peaked at 30,000 pop (2,000 now) and Grand Forks up on Bonanza Creek had 10,000!
After the small claim placer panning and sluicing was done, hydraulic mining took place and then the big companies with huge dredges took over. Check out this tailings pic:

That is on the Klondike River- the tailings stretch for 10km and are 1km wide in places. The river runs thrugh there somewhere.  Giant dredges did this well after the goldrush days of panning and small sluices.
We went to the local Saloon and Casino for the Can-Can Show

perhaps similar to the old days, probably tamer, but entertaining anyway. And we had a great dinner of local game sausage and artic char fish at one of the many restaurants.

There have been great wildflowers along the roadside for weeks and weeks, for miles and miles.

Mountain lupine is blooming here now.

June 20, 2018

Watson Lake, Yukon Territory- only 37,000 people live in the whole territory! Here is the famous Signpost Forest

Clare and his grandparents added a signpost in 1965, all of the original posts and signs are long gone, but he remembers seeing about 20 posts, now there are over 77,000 signs here! The first one was put up by a homesick soldier working on the Alaska Highway in 1942. We added our Maine license plate (from before we registered in South Dakota).
Yukon, being a territory, does not have provincial parks, they have Government Campgrounds- they are small, self-registering, no services and very nice!
We took a side trip down to Carcross, pop. 400!

It is a historic site for original settlers, indigenous, the gold rush and the narrow gauge railway that still operates to Skagway. It is a beautiful little village surrounded by mountains with the river following through. Totem carving is demonstrated here, but not the Saturday we were there.
Whitehorse – the biggest city in Yukon Territory- 22,000K. And they are all packed in a small area between the river and the hills. Very busy place, at least in the summer- a big RVer stopover before continuing on the Alaska Highway or heading up to Dawson City as we will be. And there are “local” Rvers going to the remote fishing areas. We are seeing “RV Caravans” from the states- 20 RVs with a lead “staff” RV- everything is planned out for them, they just have to drive…some of them are driving way below the speed limit and it can be tricky to pass them…

 

These Milepost markers used to be every mile, however now there are only a few and of course they are new ones. This one was at Johnson’s Wayside, which also had “world famous cinmamon buns”, which of course we had to try, as well as their scones and cookies! Cinnamon buns and scones are really big in BC and Yukon- we are guessing that the buns were a sweet treat made from leftover sourdough. The scones are so rich and moist- made with lots of butter!

June 23-28, 2018
Dawson Creek- “0” milepost for the Alaskan Highway- this road, about 1500 miles, was built during WWII to protect Alaska from Japanese attack (they were already in the Aleutian Islands). 16,000 US soldiers, 11,000 civilians and more built this road in 8 months in temps from minus 50 to 90- it was said it could not be done at all, let alone in 8 months. Google it if you want to see some great photos and videos and read the details.
The visitor center in Dawson Creek is pretty cool! The college women hired to run it are smart, informed, friendly and helpful. They station one outside to take your picture with the Alaska Highway sign (she even went into the road to take Rhylee’s pic at the 0 milepost).

The original 0 Milepost has been moved to the middle of the intersection of downtown, and another visitor center person comes out of the museum to take your pic there, too! It is a hoot! And the locals all seen tolerant of tourists in the middle of their busy streets!
Remote, desolate and isolated…have I said that before about other places? Not even any side roads, an occassional truck stop- thank goodness! and oil/gas/logging roads. The road has been well paved 2 full lanes with breakdown lanes down to 2 narrow lanes, no edges, no lines and gravelled tar- It is a feat of engineering, however not meant for fast travel. The speeds are 30 to 100kph.

However, there are a lot of people here on the Alaska Highway- lots of semi- trucks as this IS the road to AK, motorcycles, SUVS and RVs. So many that at our last fuel stop (services are actually fairly frequent!) there were at least 30 RVs gettting fuel or food!
We had hoped to drive up into the Northwest Territory and camp for one night at Fort Liard- just to say we’d been there- we knew the NW side would be a gravel road, so the rain convinced it was not worth the stress and strain! Which will give us a couple extra days somewhere else.
Summit Lake at Stone Mountain a beautiful little mountain lake campground, right off the road. 24 hours of heavy rain and temps in the 40s- we’ve been looking for snow on the mountain top. This is when remote gets scary- the travel van in the next site has a dead battery- no cell service here, no park staff here, cold and rain. We can’t get to him with our truck to jump him…he is in a pickle. The park staff was here last night at 8pm to make sure everyone had self registere;, don’t expect him back until tonight. He can’t get the battery out of his rig for us to charge it off our truck. I suggest he go over to the really big 5th wheel- they look like they may be backcountry types- and yes, he has a portable battery charger. We are well prepared, well informed, tank up often and stay alert…not so for so many others we see.

And this is what was on the road in the morning. In one place a boulder was in the middle of our lane on a curvy, downhill section of the road!
Bears and Wood Bison are the roadside wildlife, so far.

Liard River Hot Springs- a gift of nature. Beautiful hot springs- 127 degrees at the source- at a small provincial park. We’ve had 48 hours of rain, and another day or two of gray, so soaking in the hot springs is quite a treat! Most everyone is headed to Alaska, however we met a young woman that is a BC traveling nurse working remote hospitals in the north here. Some people are doing the “quick” trip, driving long, long days to spend 2-3 weeks in Alaska, others are more like us- taking our time with time to spare.

 

Although the original highway is still what is used today in all but about 35 miles of the entire length, we do keep seeing old sections of it:

And one more beautiful mountain lake- Muncho Lake

June 27, 2018

One year ago today, we left Rockland Harbor after closing on Clare’s house and hit the road. Now we are at Liard River Hot Springs, British Columbia one year later. It seems like we just left yesterday, or…that we have lived this way forever! We are still happy, healthy and curious about what is around the next corner. So, off we go headlong into year TWO! And we have tentative plans for the next two years, at least 🙂

June 20, 2018
And the scenery changes again…coming down out of Jasper we stopped at Mt. Robson visitor center- we saw this mountain from the top of Whistlers Mtn. What a great visitor center- we were able to speak to a very friendly and knowledgeable ranger about our trek to Alaska and she had a wealth of info, tips and brochures for the BC end of the journey.
This mountain pass is a huge valley with snow-capped mountains all around, farms all along the Fraser River, haymaking happening, and beautiful creeks running into the river. The road still good quality and almost no traffic. We did have a black bear cross the road right in front of us, too.
And we are continuely astounded by the size and ferocity of the mosquitos- these guys make our Maine ‘squitas look tame!
Prince George- haircuts by two lovely and funny female barbers, Canadian cash, groceries, supplies, diesel- getting ready for the trek north and west. We have had some wonderful conversations with local folks- they are intrigued by our “on the road” life and share info about their favorite places.
Stopped at Chetwynd-the Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World.

Tiny town of about 2000, but they host an annual carving event that is incredible! There are over 100 carvings about town. Here are a few of this year’s entries:

We had a close encounter with a very large black bear- at least 300 lbs- on the road into Dawson Creek- it was determined to cross the road and we were going 100km (68mph). Clare put on the brakes and the bear zigged and zagged a few times before it started across, but we were able to come to a complete stop. It was way too intense to even take a photo!

 

June 16-21

Jasper is amazing- spectacular scenery- lakes, river, mountains, snow, glaciers, and wildlife. It was a long, long drive to get here…

We decided to just do the “Jasper” end of the Jasper/Banff parks. It is shoulder season here, yet already the campgrounds are full, the town of Jasper was hopping and Jasper is the quiet part of this 200+ mile park system. Banff is more commercial, closer to the US and bigger cities- so we will save it for the fall some year- perhaps along with Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

We rode the Skytram up Whistler’s Mountain for these awesome views:

That is the small town of Jasper in the pic on the right, between the river and the foothills.
We are finding much of Jasper “commercialized”- including within the park. The Columbia Icefields Visitor Center is large and recently remodeled- it has 2or 3 restaurants and several places to buy tickets for excursions, but no intrepretive center (a small one is under construction). Fortunately, we found a great Park Ranger to “grill” with all our questions about the glaciers!

The Columbia Icefield is on a triple continental divide and is actually several glaciers, three of which are the headwaters of three major rivers and each flows to a different ocean. The Athabasca Glacier flows to the Artic Ocean.
The Columbia Glacier flows to the US through WA and OR to the Pacific Ocean- we spent several weeks along the Salmon River last summer which also, eventually, flows into the Columbia.
The Saskatchewan Glacier which flows to the Hudson Bay, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean.
Clare had an “ah ha” moment when we got here. He could see where he and his grandparents walked on the glacier in 1965- only today the glacier has receded several 100 feet back. This pic is about here the glacier was then:

 

We visited to sets of falls- Athabasca and Sunwapta- great access, but that means lots of people- pushy people with their “selfie sticks” rushing to get the pic and then on to the next item on their checklist.

 

However, Lower Sunwapta Falls was 1km hike down, and very few people went that way- it was beautiful- spray from the falls drifted up to us and cooled us from the hot days we have had here.

And we saw a lot of wildlife- hoary marmot, elk, mountain goat, deer and bighorn sheep.

 

Mid-June
Look at this giant Pysanka Egg! (see Rhylee at the bottom?)

We stayed at a city campground in a park in Vegreville AB- much of this area was settled by Ukranians- thus the egg. The park had an ice cream truck- YAY! and then a farmers market- we bought local, greenhouse tomatoes and baked goods- Haskap (native to this area) berry tart and lemon bread. Such treats! Everyone in this town was so friendly and helpful; several Walmart staff offered assistance (we must have looked confused or from away 🙂 as well as the park staff and farmers market vendors.
There are many small camping areas along the highway in this area- some are owned by the highway dept., some are local, some are provincial, some are free and some are not. Hornbeck Creek PP

right along the creek, nice spots, no services- but with all this SUN our solar power system is charged ever day by noon and Clare has the inverter system up and running and we can run everything but the AC and microwave!

Clare traveled this route 50 years ago with his grandparents on their way to Alaska. We found parts of the old road out this way.