Back in the USA

Coming back to the States was a bit like coming back into civilization: people everywhere, cars, traffic jams.... That wasn't helped by the fact that it was peak holiday season there, which made it quite hard to find vacant sites on campgrounds at all, not to speak of the beautiful, spots on the seashore we had envisaged to occupy all by ourselves! Bummer!  The other thing is a phenomenon we hadn't know about before: Quite reliably every afternoon  there is a cold breeze coming in from the Pacific Ocean - and I mean, really cold, so maybe 10 to 13 degrees Celsius -, bringing with it dense fog  to kill off the warmth the sun might provide otherwise. This is a real killer. Combine this with the overcrowded beaches and parks you'll see our reasoning in leaving the coast after a drive around the Olympic National Park east of Seattle and through some - actually quite amazing - redwood forest in the South of the park. We tried a bit of the Oregon coast before retiring for a week at Eugene, Oregon.

 Fog moving in near Astoria, Oregon

It wasn't all bad on the tour around Mount Olympus, at the start we had a couple of nice days at the Victorian town of Port Townsend, some arty community with cozy town center, old beautifully redecorated cinema, a marina in walking distance to the center, all nice and enjoyable. As mentioned, there was the Redwood Highway, a smallish road amongst huuuuge Redwood trees and lots of short walks into the forest.

That little red bug at the tree is Claudia and she's 1.6 m or 5'4" tall

Seattle: left after 2 hours or so, not ugly, but not great either, didn't do it for us.


In Oregon we had hoped for a bit of space, still no way to get some, so we finally gave up on the coast at Newport, heading for Eugene. We just wanted some place to rest after a lot of driving through Yukon, British Columbia, then Washington and now Oregon. In Eugene we found the right spot. They have a well kept county park close to town there, great service, not too busy and still close enough that we could do most of our stuff by bicycle. Eugene itself is ok, nothing special, a farmers market to visit, a cinema to visit...
After a week here we felt ready to attack our next destination: Crater Lake National Park.

Back to Yukon and British Columbia

It is an incredible ride from Tok, Alaska, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. For about 100 miles the road is often deformed by frost heaves, forcing especially trailers to a speed of sometimes no more than 20 mph, definitely making for an interesting ride otherwise ;-) .
 
Claudia and I love Yukon, lots of  space, nice people should you happen to meet some, magnificent landscapes! As the road via Chicken and Dawson City is closed near the Alaska-Canada border due to  a washed out road since spring, we return the same way we went up to Alaska.

Wildfire smoke at Highway 37 near Boya Lake

When we entered British Columbia shortly after visiting Whitehorse again, we just made it onto Highway 37 South to Prince George and later Whistler and Vancouver. Shortly after we passed the junction onto HW 37 wildfires closed that junction and it remained closed for the next 3 days. We saw the huge smoke clouds from quite a distance in the evening, an amazing sight. Initially I thought it was a thunderstorm brewing but it became clear not much later that this must be a wildfire... and actually an early end to our trip through British Columbia.

Salmon near Hyder, Alaska

We stayed for 2 nights at this beautiful provincial park on Boya Lake before returning to the road. On our trip South it became more and more obvious that there must be a lot more wildfires because the sky got hazy first and then smoke was clearly visible against the mountain tops and later like fog down to ground level. We decided that it can't be healthy to stay in that smoke for a prolonged time and rather rushed through to get out of it.

 Marshland near Stewart, British Columbia

A short relief from the smoke came in form of  a little side trip to Stewart and Hyder in Alaska again, at the Southern end of Highway 37. Stewart is a nice little township on the Canadian side of the border with Hyder being in Alaska. In Hyder, there is another Salmon spawning creek where grizzlies are supposed to wait for them and .... You get the picture! Again, there were of course no grizzlies, at least we saw some 30 or so salmon swimming around and preparing their nest, whatever they do in those creeks. However, some really good thing came of our trip to Hyder: unbeknown to us there is a glacier, called Salmon Glacier, where you can drive a gravel road up to a peak high in the mountains with a beautiful vista over the glacier and the surrounding mountains. So that's what we did and boy, was it worth the drive and even more the cleanup required on Shorty afterward. All that dust.....
If I have never mentioned it before: Alaska offers some incredible landscapes!

That's the road up the peak at Salmon Glacier, the glacier below

 IT was also very interesting to drive through Hyder. We spoke to a local running a kind of visitors information 'office' and he told us that there is actually no law enforcement in that part of Alaska, nobody pays tax, no police, no nothing, just a couple of ramshackle huts and some tourists indulging themselves on cheap booze.

Some 50 kilometers on that road got some dust on good old Shorty

After this side trip it still took us a couple of days to get out of the increasingly dense smoke as it only cleared out when we approached Squamish and Vancouver. This was a real shame as we missed out on the views on a beautiful stretch of road on Highway 99 from Lilloeet  to Whistler.

 Salmon Glacier, it definitely was worth the effort!

We had stayed in Vancouver for a week last year so this time we only did some shopping for groceries before continuing to the Canada-USA border.

Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula

Oh dear, I'm running behind 2 or 3 weeks now with my blog... Well, anyhow: 

On our arrival in Anchorage is was raining again. This may have influenced our view of the town but it seemed pretty bland, boring. The funniest thing is actually the main visitor center. It is guarded like Fort Knox, x-ray for Claudia's backpack and metal detector for us humans, all that supervised by 2 officers. Maybe that's the way they welcome visitors in Anchorage ;-) ?

 Cook Inlet on our way back to Anchorage

We had to wait out the weekend to have some tires replaced. The previous owner had put on new tires before selling the RV and apparently had gone for some rel cheapies. One of these had a blow out at Denali so we decided to replace them all with a more trustworthy brand.

 Same location, 2 monkeys in the image

Once this business was finished we headed off to Seward, around 125 miles along Cook Inlet and through the mountains of Kenai Peninsula. This is supposed to be an impressive drive, but on this day the weather was what we learned at the Seward Visitor information: overcast with a few showers. That's obvious their summer weather! When I asked the lady about the photos of a boat trip we wanted to do the next day, all showing blue skies, she just smiled and said:' These people select their photos very, very carefully'. Well , there you go!

 In Resurrection Bay, off Seward

It promptly had started to rain on the way to Seward and kept doing so for the rest of the day. We went to see a creek  where salmon was supposed to be spawning, the place being fitted with a underwater camera. The only fish we saw were some smaller salmons swimming lazily around that camera. Ok....
We found a nice place on a smaller road to stay for the night, close to riverbed. There, the highlight of the day showed up in form of a bald eagle landing on a tree stump in the middle of the river and sitting there for an hour or so, not bothered by our interest.

 Bear Glacier at Resurrection Bay

As the forecast was for more of the same weather we decided to sit out the rain because we definitely wanted to go on a 9 hour boat trip  into Prince William Sound to see glaciers calving into the sea, sea otters and maybe a whale. The next morning, however, against the weather forecast, we woke up to an almost clear blue sky. So we hurried to the ticket office for that boat trip and organized the tickets. After getting rid of Shorty at the public campground in Seward we walked to the boat and the tour would start soon after.

 The coastline at Resurrection Bay

This was absolutely the best boat tour we have ever done, even Milford Sound in New Zealand can't compare to the beauty of Kenai on a clear day. The landscape is just amazing, wildlife all over the place. First we were 'greeted' by a couple of sea otters swimming lazily on their backs in the bay. We also saw huge glaciers , smaller ones calving small icebergs into the sea, a couple of humpback whales, porpoises, sea lions by the dozens, puffins, several kinds of seagulls, more birds than I can remember, some mountain goats on the seashore, it was unbelievable. One of the best days of our whole trip!

 approaching a calving glacier at Aialik Bay

Next morning it was back to rain, so there was no point in staying at Seward. The next destination was Russian River, famous for salmon returning from the sea at this time of the year and grizzlies waiting there for them to eat them. To keep it short: we saw the river, didn't see any salmon and no grizzlies as well. It didn't bother us too much, though, we were still relishing the day on the boat.

 I knew that beanie would come handy

After one night there we decided to call it quits and try our luck at Valdez.After a beautiful drive with wet tundra, mountains and glaciers we stayed for the night at some state park along the road. The weather had cleared  and we hoped to make Thompson Pass in sunny skies  the next morning as there are supposedly some amazing views onto glaciers and the mountains.

Humpback whale going for a dive



On our approach to the pass it started raining again, the pass itself covered in  thick fog, only to revert to proper rain at Valdez.  Apparently it rains a lot in Valdez, the forecast was for a lot more rain, so the next day we were back on the road to Tok to leave Alaska for good.

A puffin

Alaska seems to be very beautiful in  parts, however most of the beautiful parts are accessible only by plane or boat. This makes things slightly expensive. We had considered visiting Katmai National Park, but at a cost of $ 1.500 per person for a 2 night trip this simply was outside our budget. Nevertheless we saw some impressive landscapes, a lot of wildlife, the changes caused to permafrost grounds by rising temperatures.... it was definitely worth the drive!

Denali National Park

On our way from Fairbanks to Denali the weather was still fine, providing us with some good views onto Mount Denali from around 120 miles distance. Even that far away this is a huge bugger! Apparently it's the highest mountain on earth if the actual elevation from the base is measured , some 16.000 feet.

 Mount Denali

We reached the National Park in pouring rain, however and the forecast for the next day wasn't much better. As you can't travel through the park in your own vehicle and the trips in the shuttle buses are usually fully booked at this time of the year, we jumped on a bus for an 11 hour return trip the next morning. Forecast was for clouds with a 30% chance of rain. This turned out to be rain all day. Anyway, as the bus driver mentioned, at least if we saw some wildlife on this trip, it would be close :-). In the end the trip was quite enjoyable despite the rain. We saw some grizzly bears, moose, marmots, golden eagle, lots of mozzies, but not Mt. Denali.

 Two huge moose antlers hooked together after head-butting. They couldn't separate so both died 

After sitting out the rain for one day at the camp ground we tried again the day after. And boy, did we get lucky! Forecast was again for a 20% chance of rain, but no rain was to be seen that day. We did a shorter trip of about 9 hours and were just spoiled by wildlife sightings. 16 grizzlies, sometimes a sow with cubs,  caribou, moose, a wolf, mountain goats, the eagles, marmot, you name it, all were there to be seen. Claudia and I did a 2 hour hike up a mountain with amazing views onto Mt.Denali and the surrounding landscape.
This was Denali as good as it gets! What a day.....

So, the next day we were happy to leave for Anchorage.

Our trip so far (to 15 July 2010)

 

That's our trip so far, about 16.400 miles or 26.400 km. Not bad for a start ;-)

Alaska Highway

After a couple of days in Jasper we finally started for our trip on the Alaska Highway, a total of 1,422 miles (2,288 km) from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction. We want to travel on the Fairbanks, Alaska, and then to Denali National Park with Mt. McKinley or Denali, the highest mountain of North America.

Overall, the Alaska Highway was a beautiful trip, to be enjoyed again on our way back :-) . There are not too many towns along the way, most of them just plain and simple to cater for the needs of the people living in the area. Fort Nelson and Whitehorse, the Yukon capital, were rather nice, but most enjoyable is the scenery, forests, mountains, sometimes snow-covered, glaciers, creeks and streams, it's all there! Endless stretches of seemingly untouched landscape, no power lines, houses or other signs of civilization (besides the road, of course), every now and then some wildlife like bears, deer, elk, moose, bison, wild horses.....

In the evenings there almost always heaps of choice for a site on a state or provincial park. These are much nicer than  the commercial campgrounds, offering a lot of privacy in mostly stunning locations. The only slightly depressing part are the big number of run down or given-up service stations along the road. There must have been a time when it was easier to make a living here from the tourists.
Before we left people had told us to fill up on fuel at each and every location, we might run into trouble otherwise. That was obviously bullshit, at least with a fuel tank the size of  ours (~ 280 liters, good for at least 500 miles or 800 km's) .

 Bald eagle near Whitehorse

Fairbanks, Alaska, is good for restocking on groceries and fuel, and that's it. Ok, they probably have more days with temperatures below 0 Celsius,but still, I wouldn't want to live here. Anyway, its only a short 3 hour drive to Denali, so that's where we go next.

 The end of the Alaska Highway at mile 1422 or km 2288

Banff and Jasper National Parks

We had been to both National Parks last year, and surprise, they haven't changed all that much since! We travelled via Calgary where we did some wholefood shopping and made another visit to the Walmart Supercenter. Besides that we bypassed Calgary as apparently its main attractions are undercover/underground shopping and the 1988 Olympic venues, both not really our favourites. Shopping, well that's a no brainer, and the Olympic sites were used for the winter olympics so their main feature is not so obvious in summer.

  Our site near Banff

Anyway, we moved on and had a beautiful campsite at the Bow Valley Provincial Park, some 20 or so km's to Banff.  Next morning into Banff which is of course highly touristy yet still in a tolerable way. We managed to stay for a couple of hours before cold and rainy weather moved in and us out of Banff. The road from here to Lake Louise was still impressive despite the rather poor weather. At Lake Louise we went for a 3 hour hike up the mountain to  a small lake with amazing views over Lake Lousie and the surrounding mountains.

The next day the weather was still rather poor yet better than last year when we had a snow storm here in August. Still, the Glacier Highway is impressive, sometimes breathtaking, glaciers all over the place, waterfalls, bighorn sheep, mountain goats......

The next station was Jasper where we had to discover that our favourite Greek restaurant from last year had a new chef. The food was still ok, but we had hoped for a feast. Well, tough luck and it was back to home-cooking. We stayed at the Jasper campground for 5 nights, waiting for a spare part for our heater that is rather impulsive in deciding when to heat and when not to heat. Unfortunately, quite often it doesn't start up in the morning and we were at 1600 m in the mountains with all those glaciers.

 Biking near Jasper

We used that time for a couple of bike rides around the area, little bit of sightseeing at the Maligne Canyon ( which we had visited last year, so it was not as impressive now as it was then), some reading and housekeeping.

Our favourite spot for lunch

After five days the package still not had arrived so we had it forwarded to some village near the Alaskan border. Maybe we'll get it there!


From Jasper it's off the Dawson Creek, mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.