Meet Grizzly Chisholm. Simply photos this time.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Over the Border to Alaska - June 22
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Dawson City & The Dempster Highway - June 19 - 21
The Dempster Highway is the only road in the Yukon that goes north over the Arctic Circle and out to Inuvik, a 470 mile journey on a gravel road. We hoped to do part of it and spend the summer solstice along the way but after talking to a guy who had just returned after getting 4 flat tires and a broken leaf spring, we rethought the wisdom of beating our vans up.
The first 45 to 60 miles were reported to be OK so we headed up to Tombstone Territorial Park and stayed at the Tombstone Mtn. CG for a couple nights. The first night, a fire caused by lightning spread across the road 284 km. to the north which closed the road and any further discussion for a change of mind. Photos posted are of an evening walk (8 - 9 pm) on the solstice to a mini glacier and the sunrise colors at 3:45 a.m. the next morning. If we were on one of the mountains, we could have seen the sun just touch the horizon and come back up again.
Dues have been paid to the Dempster on the way out with one flat tire on S & E’s van. Another visit to Dawson City for a replacement and ferry ride across the Klondike River just as we were getting hit with a pretty bad thunderstorm with lots of hail. Just around the corner, home for the night was at the Klondike River CG. Luckily no cracked solar panels but several trees came down in the campground. Tomorrow we head to Top of the World and the Taylor Hwy across the border to Alaska.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Northern Rockies in BC to Dawson City, Yukon - June 13 - 18
Driving north from Jasper picking up Rte 40 and 43 brought us along the Northern Rockies back into British Columbia and Dawson Creek, mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. The highway is a 1500 mile road that was constructed in 1942 in less than 9 months by the US military and civilians for the purpose of facilitating military defenses in Alaska after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The road conditions varied from paved, chip sealed, gravel, potholes, patches and sections under construction. Most were chip sealed, a layer of gravel over tar. We hit many miles where this had recently been done with sand spread on top, plowed in and swept to the side with signage warning of “extreme dust” and “loose gravel”, all so true.
Coming out of the Rockies into the Southern Lakes of BC & the Yukon, we saw more animals including wood bison, elk, moose and black bears. I had really hoped to see the bison and we came across them when we pulled into a service area for fuel. On the Alaska Hwy., the service areas are low key usually with a general store, sometimes a small restaurant and gas pumps nearby with above ground tanks. Many of the buildings are old and of log cabin construction. Just as we were getting ready to leave, one bison came out, then another and several more with three calves walking all around the parking lot and vans. During calving season, they hang around the roads like the elk in Jasper for the protection against predators. Once the calves are older, they go back into the woods. These animals are similar to the bison of the plains but a little bigger with a bigger hump and live in the woods.
Both in Alberta and BC, the state parks are provincial parks that are quite a bit more managed compared to the Yukon. Here they are called government camps. The campgrounds are simple, clean and well designed in very nice locations and all offer the same - vault toilets, central water and firewood for $9/night. Rest areas along the highway seem to be an alternative but we have enjoyed the camps and will stay in more.
After another round of re-provisioning, laundry, dump, water and fuel in Whitehorse and a turn up the Klondike Highway, we are headed for Dawson City (gold rush territory) and the start of the Dempster Highway. A photo is included that shows the beautiful wildflowers along the highway, mostly bear root and lupine with dandelions and some kind of yellow daisy mixed in. Last night was spent near the Stewart River between the Klondike and Silver Trail regions. We’ve stopped along the way in museums, cultural centers, shops and restaurants that each serve the world’s biggest, best, worldwide famous cinnamon buns.
The Yukon is the land of the midnight sun. Today the sunset was at 12:28 a.m. and sunrise at 3:50 a.m. Takes some getting used to especially losing track of time and staying up too late but we have sleep masks, dark curtains and for Harry, sleep has never been a problem.
Monday, June 12, 2017
Icefields Parkway to Jasper - June 11 - 12
Click for photos
People ask why we would want to drive to Alaska. Traveling the length of the Icefields Parkway from Banff to Jasper is one remarkable reason why. This drive raises the bar on "spectacular". With an early start, sunshine, wisps of fog, clouds and the dramatic Canadian Rockies, the 150 miles to Jasper made for a perfect day. At the northern end, there was light rain and less light, the mountains seemed lower, spaced further apart with the rock layers cocked at different angles adding a different type of drama.
Campsites at Wapiti CG in Jasper National Park were so-so but close to town and had everything we needed. As I was just finishing up this evening w/dishes , an elk walked by. Warnings are posted for the female elk who are calving from middle May through June. They have learned to come where it is busy with people such as our campground to avoid predators like wolves and bears but they are also very protective and dangerous this time of year.
Tomorrow we will head as far north as we can. We all feel this is the start of something special - more wilderness, less towns, varying road conditions and a big push out of our comfort zone. Internet could be sketching but the Spot will continue to show where we are.
New bird for my list - a boreal chickadee.
People ask why we would want to drive to Alaska. Traveling the length of the Icefields Parkway from Banff to Jasper is one remarkable reason why. This drive raises the bar on "spectacular". With an early start, sunshine, wisps of fog, clouds and the dramatic Canadian Rockies, the 150 miles to Jasper made for a perfect day. At the northern end, there was light rain and less light, the mountains seemed lower, spaced further apart with the rock layers cocked at different angles adding a different type of drama.
Campsites at Wapiti CG in Jasper National Park were so-so but close to town and had everything we needed. As I was just finishing up this evening w/dishes , an elk walked by. Warnings are posted for the female elk who are calving from middle May through June. They have learned to come where it is busy with people such as our campground to avoid predators like wolves and bears but they are also very protective and dangerous this time of year.
Tomorrow we will head as far north as we can. We all feel this is the start of something special - more wilderness, less towns, varying road conditions and a big push out of our comfort zone. Internet could be sketching but the Spot will continue to show where we are.
New bird for my list - a boreal chickadee.
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, CA - June 7 - 10
Crossing back into Canada at Eureka, MT, we spent the night in Kootenay National Park at the Redstreak CG in Radium, British Columbia. The area is known for their hot pools but they are well developed “swimming pools”. Leaving early to avoid thunderstorms, we passed back across the Continental Divide and the Rockies into Alberta and Banff. Beautiful drive through the pass with bighorn sheep and deer beside the road safely behind wildlife fencing with their own bridges for crossing.
This year is the 150th anniversary for the Canadian National Parks. The good part is that day use fees are waived for the entire year in the national parks. On the flip side, this means more people. We saw this immediately when we tried to navigate around the town of Banff. Rental RVs and people everywhere made parking a challenge. We strolled around, had lunch and decided to move further north for several nights.
Settling at Lake Louise CG still in Banff National Park, we chose the more rustic section in the tent/soft sided vehicle area surrounded by an electric fence - a serious reminder that we are in one of the 3 main areas with concentrations of grizzly bears. Two nights back, the electricity went out due to a lightning strike but the park service got the essentials up and running including the fence with generators. Eery feeling and yes we are all carrying bear spray!
Yesterday we took the shuttle up to Lake Louise and the Chateau Lake Louise for a hike along the Agnes Lake Trail. We thought it would be a good one for Harry but proved to be a challenge with 6 miles RT, a 1280’ elevation gain, snow and ice and again lots of people on the trail. The draw was spectacular views and the european style tea house at the top serving tea of course and hot chocolate, sandwiches, soup and many other things. There is no electricity and food, supplies and garbage are hiked in and out. Most everything including bread and humus are made on site. This tea house was built in 1901 by the Canadian Pacific Railroad as a refuge for hikers.
We have since learned that aside from the crowds taking advantage of the 150th anniversary, many trails are closed due to avalanches concerns. There was a lot of snow this past winter and it is still hanging on. I included one photo that shows the snow and a crack line where it will eventually fall off.
With a bit more cold rain in the forecast, Harry traded in his heavy foul weather gear for a lighter hiking raincoat, S & E added a few items and for me a more rain resistant warm coat. We’ll hang for another day to get through the weekend and rain then move along the Icefields Parkway to Jasper.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Fish Creek Campground, Glacier NP - June 2 - 6
Here we sit patiently waiting for the part to come in to fix our refrig. We couldn’t be stuck in a more beautiful place. Glacier National Park is one of the jewels of our park system and we planned to stay here for a week anyway so life is good. Because the Roadtrek dealer is in Kalispell on the western side of Glacier, this is where we stayed at the Fish Creek Campground next to McDonald Lake.
Harry and Steve found some good fishing spots. No fishing licenses are required as long as you stay in the park. Ellen and I took daily walks looking for birds and found many new to us. Olive-sided flycatchers, MacGillivray’s warbler, western tanager, cassin’s vireo, violet-green swallows, american dippers and the spruce grouse that rushes out of the woods in attack mode guarding his territory. He ran after Speedy pecking the tires, Steve on his bike another day and I ran into him later on.
Storms come and go quickly, warm days, cool nights, hikes, bear claw pastries and BBQ. We explored Bowman Lake & campground (a must stay next time around) and enjoyed perhaps a bit too much the pastries at the Polebridge Merchantile.
The part is in so tomorrow all will be fixed, another round of laundry and provisioning and off to Canada. We have enjoyed Western Glacier so have decided to stay this side of the Rockies and move north from here instead of our original plan circling back around to the east of the park.
Friday, June 2, 2017
Crossing the Divide, MT - May 31 - June 1
Hopefully our next night will find us up in Glacier NP. In the meantime, we wait in the RV dealer catching up on blogs.
Theodore Roosevelt NP - May 29 - 30
The eastern part of ND is agricultural land with big fields and small towns. As we got closer to T. Roosevelt NP, there was an abundance of oil rigs everywhere in fields with crops and cattle. Closer to the park, towns New Town and Watford had that temporary, popup look presumably to support the oil workers. We came through on Memorial Day and although some stores & restaurants were open, the streets were oddly empty.
TRNP is an oasis of beauty surrounded by the rigs. We stayed in the north unit which has high cliffs carved down by the Little Missouri River. The campground was along the river in amongst cottonwood trees and the park mellow with bison, big horn sheep that we were lucky to see, deer and other critters.
I kept running into Ranger Jeff during his off hours who gave me good tips on birding spots. One place was where the sharp-tailed grouse do their courtship dance just before sunrise. Determined to find them, I convinced Harry to sleep in while I drove the van at 4:45 a.m. in the dark, deer all around, rabbits cutting across the street and the possibility of bison in the road. Bison eyes are on the side of their head so no “eye shine” as a warning. I misunderstood the directions and after bouncing Harry and Nina over numerous rough spots from land slides for 8 miles, I gave up. During the day, we again ran into Jeff who cleared up my confusion.
S & E arrived with new brakes that evening and I convinced them to make this crazy, early morning drive the next day as this was a new bird for us all. Success! An added benefit was enjoying the sunrise at River Bend Overlook, one of the highest spots in the park . It was eery seeing the circle of lights from the rigs off to the NE, a reminder of how everything on this planet is interconnected and why we need to move now to become better stewards of this land. We topped off 5 gal. of water in our 22 gal. tank and dumped it all 100 miles later in MT because the taste was awful even though it had passed through 2 filters. Makes you wonder . . .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)