Waterton Lakes National Park

Neither BJ nor I had ever visited Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. We've visited its southern neighbor Glacier National Park but this time we came to Waterton. The views from lake level were wonderful.

No matter where you went, the mountains framed the beautiful lakes. We heard that the wind often blows but it was not that way when we were there.

The park has a geotrail of eight caches that changes each year. We were early enough that we caught the end of the 2016 trail. One of the caches was located on Bear's Hump. It's about 3/4 of a mile hike to the cache - with a 750' elevation gain.

The views from the top were very much worth the hike. Once again, a cache conned me into doing a hike I might not have bothered with otherwise, and the payoff was incredible beauty!

This park is different from most in that there is a small town in the center of it that is privately owned. Many of the local businesses are 4th, 5th, or even 6th generation.

The Townsite campground includes over 250 sites. Nearly 100 of those are 35 amp pull-through, full hookup sites. We are the little white spec at the far right about midway up this picture.

The sites were essentially level, and had all the services. The one unusual thing was that the sewer connection was located in the center of the pad rather than off to the side like the electrical and water.

The views from the back window were special as the weather would change rapidly.

The other special thing about the campground was the four foot drive lawnmowers that would come though each afternoon. In addition to the mountain sheep, we also saw quite a few deer

Cameron Falls is within walking distance of the campground. The campground is bisected by Cameron creek.

All of the caches that were placed by the park were well done, well concealed, and in locations of special interest. We really loved our time in the park and we're already talking about how to include more time here next year.

Like most of the older national parks on either side of the border, there is a fancy lodge that is often a focal point in advertising pictures. We drove up to get this picture, but didn't stop.

Finding all of the caches in the annual trail meant that we qualified for one of their beautiful coins. The design changes each year. The one slight disappointment was that these coins are not trackable. None the less, they were an enticement to come and visit, and resulted in yet another family that wants to come back. Great marketing!

August 19 - Back in the Lower 48

After a beautiful traverse of western Canada, we're back in the land of data and connectivity. We left Skihist Provincial Park this morning and stopped by the Visitor Centre in Lytton where they weren't open yet but the wi-fi could be easily reached from across the street by the caboose.

As we continued down the Fraser River Canyon, the upstream wind offset the downhill advantage but we enjoyed the views and the minimal traffic.  Traffic increased once we got on the four lane but moved along with everyone playing nicely.

The signs on the freeway said waiting time was 20 minutes for Customs at Sumas and 80 minutes at Blaine so we joined the line in Sumas and watched it continue to build behind us. Wait was 45 minutes but the actual chat took about a minute and we were on our way again.

I thought it was nice of them to provide something shiny to look at while we waited.

The world changed on the south side of the border. By the time we approached the freeway in Bellingham the traffic was just nasty. I think it's going to take some time to get used to crowded streets again!

Home for the night is Washington Park in Anacortes, Washington. It was an excuse to drive through Mt. Vernon and see how much it has changed since I was last on the west side of town. 'Sides that, we got to check out the progress on the replacement span for the Skagit river bridge while driving across the temporary span.

August 17 & 18 - Quesnel & Skihist Provincial Park

We left Smithers the morning of the 17th after discovering that the bakery in the Safeway store wouldn’t have any donuts until after 10 a.m.  Most of the day was spent traveling through rolling hills with pastures interspersed with stands of birch or evergreen trees.

Lots of places had the hay baled but still in the fields. Some farms were storing the bales in long tubes of vinyl, while others were stacking it.

There were quite a few places with large herds of beef cattle although we didn’t get a picture of the cattle as we sped. Weather was varied all day, sometimes bright sun, occasionally hard rain.

We intended to overnight in Prince George but got there early and weren’t impressed with the crowds of RVs at the Walmart so we turned and continued south.

Over the past couple days we’ve seen lots of vehicles with canoes, generally very nice, light weight canoes. When I spotted this sign, it all went together. Bowren Lakes is a famous canoe circuit attracting paddlers from all over the world.

Quesnal claims to have the world’s largest gold pan as does Burwash Landing in the Yukon. There is no question that Quesnal has much nicer flowers around theirs!  Quesnal is also home to large fleets of logging trucks and several large saw mills.

Home for the night was the Wallyworld in South Quesnal. Nice.

Between Quesnal and Cache Creek we saw lots of old log cabins and barns as well as relatively new log homes – way too large to be termed a “cabin” in my mind. We’ve run further than originally planned on several days and today was the same. We’re nicely positioned for a border crossing tomorrow in Sumas.

We stopped for our last Canadian gas in 100 Mile House and started hitting a headwind shortly thereafter. Once we got into the Cache Creek area, we started seeing sagebrush on the hills.

We stopped in Spences Bridge where the Thompson and the Fraser Rivers join, just to get a picture of the sign. It’s too bad they didn’t spell it correctly! Just one letter off.

Home for the night is the Skihist Provincial Park in the Fraser River canyon about 50 miles south of Cache Creek. The sites are in a Ponderosa pine forest on the hillside above the Fraser river and the highway. If we’re quiet we can just hear the trains down in the canyon.

This post made possible by the public wi-fi at the Visitor Centre in Lytton.

August 16 – Smithers, B.C.

We went back to Hyder this morning early to see if there were any bears at the creek. The only one we saw was a small black bear wandering through the bushes on the slope across the road. Most of the time, all you could see was wiggling bushes.

We drove up the road towards the glacier, finding old mill remnants

and were welcomed back into British Columbia but when headed the other way, Alaska didn’t care if you were welcome or not.

Approaching the south end of the Cassiar we stopped in the First Nations town of Gitanyow to see their totem poles. This was the first time I’d ever seen one with a hole designed into it.

We were fortunate enough to see a new one in progress. These were different than the ones I’d seen as a child in that the back of the pole is carved away rather than keeping the log solid. The carver said it would take six months to complete.

We stopped in Gitwangak as well but found photographing the totems to be very challenging due to their size so

we got a picture of their Anglican Church instead. The bell tower in the front dates from the 1880s.

Home for the night is the Safeway parking lot in Smithers, British Columbia. 

This post made possible by the free wi-fi at the Visitor Centre in Quesnel, B. C.

August 15 – Stewart, BC

We started out this morning from a little rest area on the north side of the Cottonwood River. It was a really nice private spot where stays were supposed to be limited to 8 hours but I didn’t see the sign until we left. We had the place to ourselves except for the first of four bears in a 24 hours period. He wandered by about 8 feet from the trailer. I was too busy closing the door on the other side of the trailer to get a picture.

The second bear wasn’t very helpful but we got a picture to prove we saw it. The third was also a black bear that dove into the berry bushes as we came to a stop. Decided not to take a picture of the berry bushes.

We stretched our drive today when we didn’t like the looks of the wayside that was penciled into the plan based on distance. Instead, we continued on to Stewart, BC / Hyder, Alaska in hopes of finally seeing brown bears. The drive to Stewart passes through a very steep walled, narrow valley with a number of hanging glaciers.

The biggest glacier was Bear Glacier. At one time it extended all the way across the valley.

Hyder (and Stewart) are located at the head of the Portland Canal. Hyder is accessible via water or by driving through Stewart. The US doesn’t bother with a Customs & Immigration station here, but you do go through Canadian customs when you return from Hyder.

The pink salmon were still running in Fish Creek. I chose this picture because they are relatively obvious, but there were many places where the fish were much more dense.

The US Forest Service constructed a board wall to try to keep the bears separated from the people wanting to watch them. I commented to the ranger about the number of fish and asked about viewing times. He stated they haven’t seen any bears for the last two days and they think it’s because there are so many fish the bears are getting them in other areas.

After we left the bear viewing area we figured out the problem. Apparently the bears need some berries in their diet to go along with all the salmon! We spotted this one about two miles from the bear viewing area!

I wanted to have dinner at the famous bus in Hyder

but she was closed today. I’m debating about hanging around until noon Alaska time tomorrow in hopes of being first in line.

I couldn’t resist a rust picture. I don’t think this RV is worth the effort to restore, but it is unique.

We haven’t seen any humming birds around, and based on the size of this humming bird feeder, I don’t think I want to!

Home for the night is Rainey Creek Campground in downtown Stewart, BC.

This post made possible by the wifi at McD in Smithers, B.C.

Alaska! - 5/25/2013

It was a one bear day today, apparently one that had been asked to take a sobriety test. Yes, that very faint yellow is the center line!

I kept looking for an opportunity to document the use of orange flags to mark road hazards, but there were lots more hazards than flags, especially in the Beaver Creek Highway maintenance area. We couldn't decide if someone forgot to order flags, they couldn't afford them, or that tourists were taking them for souvenirs. This is by far the roughest paved road I've driven. Keep the speed down and use whichever section looks the smoothest.

In spite of the rough road, it was very beautiful country that we were putting in the rear view mirrors.

You actually get to the border, change from kilometers to miles, and change time zones before you get to the customs checkpoint. If anything, customs was even easier than it was when we entered Canada. He did ask about rabies vaccination for the dog but didn't want to see the paperwork.

This is where the road from Dawson and Chicken meets up with the Alaska highway, east of Tok. The road and customs at Top of the World are still closed so it looks like we made the right, (but painful) decision.

Home for the night is the back lot at Young's Chevron in Tok. Free parking and dump with a fill-up (but the dump station is still frozen...). We're back in the land of Verizon, posting this directly from our Millenicom hotspot.