Day 25, July 30 Haines

Today was a walk and explore kind of day.   Don and I have a sixth sense and a few pounds from being able to find a good bakery.   Not often that one can find a Bakery and Thai restaurant in the same place.

Karen liked the flowers at the restaurant.

Locals carving totems.

If ever there was a wild Iris!

A glimpse at our RV Park.

John  not catching fish.

Don catching fish.

One of the weirdest things we have encountered in our travels so far is a German Roaming Motel.  It holds 35 people,  The sit up front when moving and have a 3x3x6 berth for evening.   Go on the internet and find it.   They call it ROTEL for Roaming Motel.

Day 24 July 29 Garden City RV Skagway, AK to Hitch-Up RV Park Haines, AK

Today was much different than the rest as we were going from Skagway, AK to Haines, AK via the Alaska Marine Highway ferry.   Our plan was to spend three nights in Haines so that we could catch a whale watching trip to Juneau.   To our dismay, but not surprise, these excursions are all booked by the thousands of people that arrive every day on the cruise ships.  We did get to see some natives as you can see from the picture below...can you guess which one is not a totem? 

This picture shows the line-up of cruise ships on one side of the port.   There are two other big ones on the other side of the port.   You can see that we did not have clear views as the clouds, fog, etc were quite low and thick.  It rained off and on for two days.,

Here is our ferry coming in.  The actual ferry ride was just 1 hour, but we had to be in line 1 1/2 hours before and it took us almost an hour to unload.

Here is our first glimpse of Haines.  We really loved this place after the bustle of Skagway.  Only one cruise ship can enter Haines which limits the number of tourists wondering around town.

Another view, notice the clear blue sky and bright sun....NOT!

Our drive/ferry:

Day 23 July 28 Pioneer RV Campground Whitehorse YT to Garden City RV Skagway, AK

Today was our big day...our first excursion into Alaska.   We started our drive down the highway to Skagway.   We essentially drove down steep valleys dropping 2400 feet in a very short distance.   We found many lakes like this one which had a perfect mirror finish, reflecting the mountains and trees.

One area near the US Canada border consisted of piles of rocks that people had stacked for their own little zen garden.  Karen had to be work on one as she felt she needed all the positive forces she could muster.   This area had some of the same karma as Buddha beach in Sedona, AZ.

The sign says it all, we made it!

There are the T-shirts that Autumn, our daughter-in-law made for us.   The logo is from our camper - Aliner- and combines to spell out Alaska!   SHE IS CLEVER and we love her.

This the gold nugget we found at the Gold Rush Cemetery.  This is the grave of a PT Barnum type character from Skagway.

This is a waterfall which was located directly behind the cemetery.

The sign and smile says it all

all this traveling made us thirsty so we stopped at the Skagway Brewing Company for a local brew.

Our Drive:

Day 22 July 27 Golden Nugget Alaska Highway Yukon Territory to Pioneer RV Campground Whitehorse YT

We promise that we will not keep posting bear pictures, but they still are exciting to  us.

Karen by a waterfall that was at the end of an amazing boardwalk they had built into the middle of the forest.  The boardwalk seemed to be about a quarter of a mile long and it didn't seem as if many people would have found this spot in the first place.   We are sure that it was someone's great idea and we are thankful we got to see it.   Worth the effort?!

Made it to Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon Territory.  The big news is that tomorrow we will finally be in Alaska.

Here are the intrepid pioneers at the Pioneer RV Park

Our Drive

Day 21 July 26 Iskut, BC to Golden Nugget Alaska Highway Yukon Territory

Moving along.  Today we head into the Yukon Territory for the first time.   We are excited as always to move one step or in this case Territory closer.   We are seeing more and more wildlife.  Today we saw our first moose crossing the highway.   We pretended he/she had a large set of antlers...maybe later.   

Lunch at Boya Provincial Park gave Karen time to regress and play on a very weird swing.  We find each park even prettier than the others.   Canada has given us many images that we hope we never forget.

We walked onto a dock to get a picture of our wagon train and those brave pioneers who are trying to help the economies of Canada and Alaska.

Well, here is proof that we made it to the Yukon Territory!

Our Drive:

Day 20 July 25 'Ksan to Iskut

We finally made it to our official/unofficial turn towards Alaska.  We had been driving across Alberta and British Columbia to reach the start of the Cassiar Highway.   The  Pacific Ocean is within reach and we are ecstatic.

We have now seen several bears.   This one was the easiest to photograph.   He is clearly on the payroll of the Canadian Tourist Board.

We continue to lunch at roadside stops or provincial parks.   Here is a typical setting for our lunches.  

This is the view from our campsite at Mountain Shadow RV Park in Iskut.   It is a dirty job to enjoy these views, but we will continue to work on it.

Our Drive:

Day 19 July 24 Perdon Lake Provincial Park BC to ‘Ksan Campground Hazelton, BC

After a long drive that included a stop at an A & W Drive-in (just like we remembered them), we stopped at the K’San RV Park.

Not only is the park nice, with great facilities (showers!), but there is a raspberry patch along the road.  Reminded us of the bushes at John’s home in Port Byron, IL. 

“Hold on tight, John, and don’t look down!”  The suspension bridge, a one laner, crosses a very deep gorge. We celebrated John’s ability to overcome his fear of heights by buying ice cream bars at the Esso Station.  We are such party animals!

Between sprinkles and showers, we caught this view of the river from the bridge. 

Our Drive

Day 18 July 23 Wapiti Campground Jasper, AL to Perdon Lake Provincial Park BC

iDay 18 had us leaving Jasper, our personal favorite spot so far.   We made a couple of stops, but pretty much put the pedal to the metal.   Our first spot was Rearguard Falls.  The sign pretty much describes what happens here, but unfortunately we were not there at the right time to see the fish moving upstream.

This gives you a little idea of the falls.  We tried to get Karen to attempt swimming up stream, but she refused.

Our second turnout was to see Mt. Robson, the highest mountain in British Columbia.  The only problem was that it was totally socked in by clouds, so we enjoyed the others and claimed that they were really taller!

It appears that John is about the same size as a one year old moose.  Hmmmm

Our last major tourist spot was the home of the Ancient Cedars.   The amazing thing about them is not only their age but their size.  One would never guess these trees were in the forests if you didn’t make this stop.

Don double dared John to go into the lake with him, in they both went.  Guess who has the camera.  

Our Drive