Finally, Alaska

Finally, at about 4,920 miles into our journey, we've made it into Alaska. Today's trip was only a total of 110 miles from Dawson City, YT to Chicken, AK, but it took us 7-1/2 hours. There is no bridge across the Yukon River from Dawson City to the Top of the World Highway, only a small ferry. Our 15 coaches were in line for the ferry shortly after 7:00 a.m., but unfortunately, there was already a long line ahead of us. It was 4 hours before my coach made the trip across the river.

For the next hour or so, we climbed up to the Top of the World Highway. Even though it is a gravel road for 66 miles to the US Customs Station, Canada does a great job on their gravel roads. We were able to cruise along at 40-45 miles an hours fairly smoothly. Once past customs, into the US (Alaska), it was a different story. For the next 44 miles, it was a maximum of 20 miles per hour, all the while being shaken, rattled and rolled. A heavy downpour for a while didn't help either, turning the gravel road into mud. After driving for hours on the narrow, pot holed, gravel road, through the muck, with sheer drop-offs to the side at times, Marcia was ready to jump out of the rig and kiss the ground upon arrival at the campground in Chicken, AK.

Dawson City, YT

A bonus on this afternoon's trip to Dredge No. 4 was the sighting of a moose and her two calves in a pond adjacent to the dredge.

After lunch today, along with two other couples, I went up to Discovery Mine, the 1st gold find that started the Gold Rush, then on to Dredge No. 4 National Historic Site. Dredge No. 4 is the largest wooden hulled, bucket line dredge in North America. For 60 years these huge machines dug up the ground of the Klondike region to extract gold. Dredge No. 4 ceased operating in 1960 when it sunk into the silt and mud of Bonanza Creek. During its operation, it mined over $1B of gold. Park Canada undertook a project in the early 1990's to recover and restore the dredge. The tour of the dredge took a little over an hour and was followed by a movie showing it in operation. See pictures attached to the email forwarding this blog.

Whitehorse, YT to Dawson City, YT

The picture is Dawson City, YT taken from the Top of the Midnight Dome which overlooks Dawson City at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers. The Klondike River is coming in from the left and is the darker water. The Yukon River is the lighter water.

We turned off the Alaska Highway just 12 miles out of Whitehorse, onto the Klondike Highway. The trip from Whitehorse, YT to Dawson City, YT, was a bit too long for a one day trip, so we we stopped midway at Telly Crossing where we circled the wagons and dry camped for one night. We help a pot luck dinner so all can get rid of some of the food items you can't take into the US (Alaska).

In Dawson City Friday evening, the group had a wonderful dinner at the Aurora Inn. Marcia had salmon and I had cranberry stuffed chicken. After dinner, the whole group went to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall for a show. After the show, many of us went up to the Top of the Midnight Dome where, especially around the Summer Soltice, you can watch the sun set, then rise again shortly thereafter.

On Saturday morning, Marcia and I went to the Visitor's Center, then spent the rest of the morning wandering around town, stopping in many of the shops. We purchased some fresh sourdough bread and made sourdough french toast for lunch. After lunch, many of us went to Discovery Mine, the 1st gold find that started the Gold Rush, then on to Dredge No.4, which I'll cover in my next blog.

Whitehorse, YT - SS Klondike

This afternoon, we were given a tour of the SS Klondike, the largest of the sternwheelers to operate on the Yukon River, now a National Historic Landmark. The river was frozen 6 to 7 months of every year, so when it thawed, the riverboats were busy. Smaller riverboats ofter handled extra freight by pushing a barge which was very difficult in parts of the river. The SS Klondike was large enough to handle freight needs without pushing a barge. She required 1 chord of wood per hour to run, so up and down the river every 30 or 40 miles, wood was cut and stacked on the side and the boats would have to pull over to the side and load on more fuel, usually around 12 chords. She is no longer in the water, and has been completely restored.

Whitehorse, YT - Yukon River

Today in Whitehorse, YT, we took a 2-hour scenic tour of Miles Canyon on the Yukon River while listening to an original narration of the history and points of interest along the way. Whitehorse got its name from the historic rapids on the Yukon River which resembled the flowing manes of charging white horses. The construction of the Whitehorse hydro-electric dam in 1958 tamed Miles Canyon and has replaced the once foaming White Horse Rapids with Schwatka Lake reservoir.

Before the Gold Rush, this area was a First Nations' campsite. In 1900, construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway from Skagway to a point past the rapids was completed and Whitehorse came into being as its railhead. For years, Whitehorse continued its role connecting rail service with riverboat traffic to Dawson. In 1942, thousands of American Army personnel arrived to build the Alaska Highway. I a record breaking 8 months and 23 days, 1534 miles of highway was laid down. The boom ceased by the end of the war, but Whitehorse had become an important center of communications and transportation, was incorporated as a city in 1950. In 1953 the capital of Yukon was transferred from Dawson City to Whitehorse.

Watson Lake, YT to Whitehorse, YT

Our fourth and final travel day to Whitehorse, Yukon, we continued on through the Canadian Rockies, crossing over the Continental Divide. We stopped at Rancheria Falls which was a nice break from driving. We later stopped at a local Resort for lunch and dined on salmon chowder, a sandwich and bumbleberry pie. After lunch we stopped in the George Johnston Museum, a delightful museum featuring beautiful Tlingit Indian ceremonial robes, trade good and artifacts.

We're now in Whitehorse, YT for three nights and two days. The total population of the Yukon is 32,209 and 23,301 of them live in Whitehorse.

Muncho Lake, BC to Watson Lake, YT

On day three of four travel days from Dawson Creek, BC, to Whitehorse, YT, we continued across the Canadian Rockies, crossing the only suspension bridge on the Alaska Hwy, partly constructed from salvage from “Galloping Gertie”, the old Takoma (WA) Narrows Bridge. Just a few miles past this bridge, we stopped the the Liard River Hot Springs. It was almost a half-mile walk from the parking area to the hot springs, but it was well worth it. You start at the lower hot spring, which is cooler, then work you way up into the upper hot spring toward the water fall where the hot water comes from. Few people ever make it to the falls as the water is too hot (in the picture, I’m at the falls between the lower and upper hot spring).

Later we stopped off at a pull-off overlooking a wide stretch of rapids on the Liard River where we enjoyed lunch. At our destination, we had our usual Travel Meeting to prepare us for our final travel day to Whitehorse, YT, tomorrow, then enjoyed a dinner at the restaurant dining room followed by a Welcome to the Yukon Presentation.

Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

On day two of four travel days from Dawson Creek, BC, to Whitehorse, YT, we stopped for lunch at Toad River Lodge and dined on bison burgers. The hats? The restaurant has a unique cap collection, featuring over 7,300 caps stapled to the ceiling. Many years ago two travelers stopped in for lunch, and when one them went to the bathroom, the other stapled his friends hat to the ceiling….and thus started a tradition.

The “Toad River” got its name during the building of the Alaska Highway. There being no bridge over the river, all the supplies had to be towed across the river and the river was therefore called the “Towed River”. Later, when the river was officially named, “Towed” somehow became “Toad”.

This was our first day in the Canadian Rockies and I must say that are spectacular.

Muncho Lake, where we spent the night, is 7 miles long and 1 mile wide. It is know for its beautiful deep green and blue water. The colors are attributed to copper oxide leaching into the water. Marcia’s first comment upon arrival was, “just leave me here and pick me up on the way back”. It was beautiful (see picture attached to this email)

Dawson Creek, BC

This is the actual Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. The marker pictured in my last blog, a block away, has quite a history. Over the years it had been destroyed by a car, stolen by college kids, replaced by them with an outhouse, and had pink and blue handprints placed all over it by high school girls and boys.

I was not aware that the building of the Alaska Highway was a military undertaking. The threats of a Japanese invasion of Alaska during the Second World War initiated one of the greatest engineering feats of the century - the building of a 1,520 mile highway which would connect Alaska to Canada and the United States. Over 11,000 troops endured mosquitoes, black flies and extreme weather conditions to construct a route over muskeg, mud and river.

Day one of the 49 day caravan consisted of a group picture at the actual Mile 0 (pictured on this blog), a Welcome Presentation by the Dawson Creek Tourist Bureau (with more history of the highway), a Caravan Orientation and a dinner, followed by a Travel Meeting to get us ready for the next day's travel to Ft. Nelson, BC.

We Made It

We made it, 3,636 miles in total, to Dawson Creek, BC, Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. We arrived yesterday, two days early for the start of the caravan. We were the 8th coach to arrive and several more came in after us. Phase 2 gets underway tomorrow, the 49 day caravan through British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska.

A lot of miles, but I must say, the weather was wonderful for almost all of our travel days. On had the wipers on sever times on intermittent and only once full on (Castle Mountain). The weather here is Dawson Creek is beautiful, 70's in the day and 50's at night.

On to Canada

Day one of two travel days out of Yellowstone took us to Shelby, MT, just 32 miles short of the Canadian border. We had to leave at 7:00 a.m. as I had a noon appointment in Great Falls, MT, to get the 15,000 service on my rig. It was a beautiful drive out of the Yellowstone Valley, by between there and Great Falls, we had to cross Castle Mountain and, as you can see, we went up into snow. It was really beautiful, the pine trees all white with snow.

Spent the night in Shelby, MT, then on travel day 2 crossed into Canada where, except for two towns, Lethbridge and Calgary, it was just mile after mile, hour after hour of grain fields as far as you could see. We're now in Cochrane, Alberta, a northern suburb of Calgary, 3,103 miles into our journey to Dawson Creek, Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. We're staying here for a day to shop and rest, then have two more travel days ahead to Dawson Creek, AB.

Yellowstone, Day 2

Dedicated For The Benefit and Enjoyment of the People. What a magnificent National Park. Diverse, unusual and beautiful. We ran into 3 elk grazing just up a small hill from the roadway and I was able to get up close to one and get a great picture. In addition, was saw a black bear and more buffalo.

We only had a half day today to get in what we could. Had to do some shopping, laundry, banking and find somewhere to get my rig serviced as I'm about to turn over 15,000 miles on it.

I hope to get back to Yellowstone again some day. You really need weeks to take it all in.

As always, there will be more pictures attached to the email forwarding the link to this blog update.

Yellowstone & Buffalo Butts

What a day. Our first day in Yellowstone and we, of course, decided to take in Old Faithful. It is located about 1-1/2 hours into the park from the North Entrance. Well, it took us 4-1/2 hours to get there. As you can see from the picture, a small herd of buffalo decided to migrate down the roadway. Luckily, we were close enough to see what the hold up was, but I bet the traffic backed up for miles behind us. The buffalo really had nowhere to go, a mountainside on the left and a river on the right. For 3 hours, we went at buffalo speed, let off the brakes, drift a few feet and stop again. We did finally make Old Faithful and it blew just about 10 minutes after we arrived (it goes off approx. every 96 minutes).

We did see other things along the way there and back, which you will see in the pictures included with the email notifying you of this blog update. There will be a second blog update on our next day Yellowstone following.

Oh, Those Rocky Mountains

We made it, but what a travel day it was going through the Rocky Mountains. We're now in Gardiner, MT, just a mile outside the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park, and yes, that's snow in the background. We're sitting at just above 5,000 feet here at the campground.

For those who have never driven an RV, it's really easy. Just sit back in your captains chair, put the rig in cruise control most of the time and aim it down the road. You've got a great view of the road ahead in that you are sitting up high. Driving up and down the mountains was anything but easy. This was 6 or 7 hours of high tension driving all the way. Climbing and descending 7 and 8 degree slopes with hairpin switchbacks, at times along the edge of a cliff, we climbed to 7,200 feet, back down to the valley, then back up to 8,300 feet and back down again, repeated several more times. The scenery was spectacular (I send a few photos via email). Awesome views along the way, and yes, there was snow at the higher elevations, but exhausting. We left Sheridan, WY at 8:30 a.m. and arrived at Gardiner, MT just in time for cocktails, which were much needed.

From Mt. Rushmore

Hello from Mt. Rushmore, SD. We are now 2004 miles into our journey to Alaska. We have now traveled through MN and SD, crossing the Missouri River midway through SD. So far, every day on the road has been beautiful. Any bad weather has occurred during the night or on a rest day.

Mt. Rushmore is quite spectacular. It took 400 men 14 years to construct it. The four men sculpted commemorate the founding, growth, preservation and development of the United States. George Washington signifies the struggle for independence and the birth of the republic; Thomas Jefferson the territorial expansion of our country; Abraham Lincoln the permanent union of the States and equality for all citizens; and Theodore Roosevelt the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs and the rights of the common man. One of the most interesting facts about the sculpture was that over 80 percent of it was accomplished with dynamite.

In addition to Mt. Rushmore, we spent the better part of a day on the road in the area. The first leg was the Needles Highway where we saw some beautiful granite spires, including The Needles Eye and Cathedral Towers. After a nice lunch at a lodge in Custer State Park, we took the Wildlife Loop through the park where we saw bison, deer and wild mules. We finished up the afternoon on Iron Mountain Road where we went through 3 single land tunnels carved through rock, one of them framing a view of Mt. Rushmore when looking through the tunnel.

Tomorrow we head off on a two-day trip to Yellowstone National Park where we will spend 3-days.

Getting There - Travel Update

We're 7 days, 1529 miles, into our journey to Alaska. We crossed the Mississippi River today and are currently in Jackson, MN, having left MA 7 days ago, traveling through NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, and WI on the way here. So far the weather has been good for all the days on the road.

Only one point of interest. While in Sylvan Beach, NY, we visited Fort Stanwix in Rome, NY. A must see for history buffs. It is in downtown Rome, NY, and is a National Monument operated by the Park Service. The history of the fort and the role it played in the Revolutionary War are presented amazingly well in the Visitor's Center and the fort itself has been completely restored. If you are ever near Rome, NY, this is a must see.

Jerry