Wednesday, July 20 after cleaning house we headed out planning to stay in a pull out. The road south was
The pullouts were few and small. One stop we made was at the
south end of the old road over Trutch Mountain. The new road was built in 2000 and cut off the highest summit of the Alaska Highway and many steep pulls and curves. Another part of the old road had been bypassed also. We were glad to have the nice highway of the present. Olivia read in her dad’s book of traveling this old road in a bus. The dust was so bad in the bus they were all breathing through handkerchiefs and painter’s masks. In fact, at that time nearly all the roads to and in Alaska were gravel. Today it is all paved. The only gravel spots are due to roadwork—re-paving.
We passed Wonowon named for mile marker 101 and a new kind of 
lodge built for all the gas workers. Oil and gas exploration and production started about 100 miles north and extended almost to the USA border. It looked like 30-40 portable school rooms attached for a big complex. The sign said “room and board.” The traffic picked up. This area was very busy with gas production. We saw signs for all the big names and some signs that said, “No trespassing, Poison Gas.” Of course they were roads into the back country and didn’t entice us.
After a rest area proved too busy with big trucks, we headed to Charlie Lake Provincial Park and found a nice quiet spot. We ended up driving 220 miles and the last 120 we were hunting for a place to stay. Yes, we could have pulled into another RV or provincial park, but our tanks were full so didn’t need all those services. Guess we were just too close to civilization. DRATS! That had been a plus being remote where no one bothered us.
Thursday, July 21, was an uneventful travel day passing fields of
Canola and seeing the Al-Can 
“Mile 0” monument in Dawson Creek. We ended at a Wal-Mart in the town of Grand Prairie. We bought groceries and had the oil changed.
Friday, July 22 We followed highway 40 south to Grande Cache where we bought gas and stopped at the visitor center to use their Wi-Fi. All along this road, as we also saw north of here, were drilling rigs and heavy trucks. The town of Grand Cache appeared to be a real working town. Lots of apartments and a huge trailer park, along with a provincial prison.
Olivia had been following along with the “Milepost” and we looked at 4-5 free campgrounds with user-maintained status. Some were too early and others weren’t appealing. After Grande Cache we found just the right one, along the
Muskeg River. There were several other trailers in among the trees, but no owners visible. We found just the right “Jo Atkins” spot with only a few willows and pines between us and the river.
After supper the owners of one trailer came with their ATV vehicles and three teenage boys. Then two other rigs came in along with a motor home. We felt we would all have a party, except we were ready for bed.
Saturday, July 23, we woke up to a slow gentle rain. Two of the rigs were gone by the time we arose. The third left around ten. The teens didn’t make an appearance, nor the ATVs. We decided to stay put as our next destination was the Rockies and they wouldn’t be visible in this overcast weather. We read, read, and read some more. About two Fred plugged in the generator to charge the batteries.
We did meet the father of the boys. He is employed by Conoco-Phillips and told us about remoteness of his work assignments. This is the main road and all the rigs are back in the bush. He had a four wheel vehicle enabling him to get to the rigs. All the side roads are ones we wouldn’t want to go down. We had noticed trucks that were coated solid with mud and knew they had been on a side road.
He said Grande Cashe had one grocery store with high prices. There was a state prison down the hill from the town. There were five subdivisions, called phases, and they were full. It was two hours to Grand Prairie and 1.5 hours to Hinton for other shopping, but not worth the gas to make the trip just for lower grocery prices. Alberta is the wealthiest province and they feel they aid other Canadian Provinces in supporting Canada’s economy. Their taxes are high. He must have a good paying job as he had a big fifth wheel, a big generator, two vehicles, and two ATVs with their own trailer.
Sunday, July 24, the Lord blessed us with the sun and blue skies. We pulled out of the free user maintained campground and we took only pictures. On our way to Hinton we stopped to see
Kelly’s Bathtub, Curious to find out what it would be. We were pleasantly surprised to see two beautiful little lakes. We headed to Hinton, then on to Jasper. Shortly after paying the admission to the national park, we saw a small herd of reindeer, two deer and a
big horn sheep. The mountains were all in their glory and we looked forward to seeing the Ice field highway to the south.
After setting up camp in the huge (over 900 sites) Whistler campground, we drove the few miles back to Jasper to find Wi-Fi. Three years ago we obtained it at the library, but being Sunday it was closed. The information center recommended the pizza place and that struck our taste buds, too bad their internet didn’t work for us, but the pizza was tasty.
We walked the main street stopping in a few stores then headed back to camp. We were ready for bed at 6:30. It’s a good thing we have learned to sleep while it is still daylight. However, it is getting dark earlier as we move south. In camps with no street lights it gets really dark during the night, which is a disadvantage if you need to get up at night.
Monday, July 25 we arose early so we could be at the Jasper tram before the first run at 9am. The view north from the tram gave us a view of the
Yellowhead mountains including Mt Robson, which is the tallest mountain in BC and is the white top peering over the range. The road in the valley is the Yellowhead highway which we were on in western BC before we took the Cassiar Hwy north.
Check out time was 11 am and we barely made it because Olivia just had to chat with four ladies in the rig across the road from us. They had traveled more than we have! Good for them!
Then we turned our rig south to travel the Ice Field Highway. We traveled this highway three years ago when Olivia first retired. That year we made all the side roads seeing all the waterfalls, lakes and glaciers. This time we just wanted to see the mountains. The sky was clear as we headed out with a few clouds coming in as we progressed.
Our first stop was to see
Mt Fryatt on the other side of the Athabasca River, then 
three more pretty mountains.
Before long we saw the
back side of uplifts, formed over 50 million years ago, called the big chain.
Mushroom mountain came in to view next, followed by a view of the 
Columbia Ice field, over 200’ deep, peering over the top of a mountain with the Athabasca River in the foreground. Then another
mountain with ice field icing.
Every curve brought 
another beautiful mountain. We stopped at the
Athabasca Glacier to visit in the visitor center to ask a few questions and gaze some more.
The >
Columbia Ice field is a sheet of glacial ice that is trapped by higher surrounding land, which feeds more than six glaciers. It is the meeting point of three continent-wide watersheds. The meltwaters flow into the Columbia River and on to the Pacific Ocean. On the eastern side the waters flow into both the North Saskatchewan which empties into Hudson’s Bay, then the Atlantic. Also the Athabasca-McKenzie system empties to the Artic Ocean. WOW! All from the same place.
A 
flat top mountain caught the camera lens before we saw the
rest of the story.
Is this really the Alps?
And now a
glacier lake in the foreground. Judy & Joe did you see all these?
Man oh Man,how many are there?
At one visitor center we learned that some of these mountains are dolomite. We thought they were in Italy. Well, dolomite is a mineral. It is unaltered limestone and is harder. Calcium has replaced the magnesium.
Olivia decided tonight was the night to try some of the frozen halibut from Alaska. We both liked the tempura mix we had several times previously in Alaska. Several days ago she had bought the powdered mix. Fred took the skin from the halibut, then dried it and cut it into small pieces.
She did a wonderful job. Fred said it was delicious! Cooked just right. Maybe we will treat some to a sample when we get home.
Now you have seen all our pictures from our travels. You decide, Which is prettier, the Alaskan Mountains or the Canadian Rockies? We have enjoyed them both. Let us know what you think.
Tuesday, July 26 it rained last night and was still raining this morning. As we were preparing to leave a little bit of blue sky showed
above the mountain on the other side of Mosquito creek. Low clouds were scattered around the mountain. Only a few mosquitos showed their face to us.
As we drove south through Lake Louise and to the highway turn off for Hwy 93 we saw several of the new 
animal bridges over the freeway. The animals are using them and the underpasses too and it is saving many animals from being hit. This idea is starting to be used in other areas also. Sure saves on bear jams too.
We had forgotten what the cost of Jasper and Banff National Parks were. There is a $19 cost per day to be in the parks. Then the camping fee anywhere from $15.70 to $33. per night. If you have never been to these parks budget for at least 5 nights. Then go to all the waterfalls, lakes, glaciers, hot springs, and boat rides that can be squeezed into those days. Also plan on no internet except for library in Jasper for an hour fee or in Lake Louise for $5 at the post office. Most of all plan to fill your eyes with all the beauty God created in these mountains. He did a fantastic job. Enjoy!
We turned west into new territory for us, the Kootenay National park where we saw more
mountain bottoms as the cloud cover was hiding the tops. We stopped to see 
Marble Canyon and 
Nuka Falls before we twisted and turned down the mountain and through a 
rock cut to Radium Hot Springs.
We had kind of planned to stay in Radium Hot Springs, but it was 12:30 and the USA started calling. So we said our goodbyes to the 
Radium valley and headed south.
About 4:00 pm we stopped in a rest area about 40 miles north of the border.
Another rig stopped shortly after and when we woke up a motorcycle tenter was there too.
Wednesday, July 27 we were a short 40 miles from the border. When we crossed into the good ole USA, the only question the border patrol had was did we have fruit and vegetables. We answered only what was in the refrigerator, so he wanted to look. It didn’t take him long to look, so we were off to see Montana.
We pulled into Whitefish an hour later where our luck ran out. We finally found a bank to change our money and it ended up with us loosing $45 to change $400. What happened to our dollar? We still have more, but that’s all that bank would allow. Duh to us for having cashed so much in the first place.
We stopped at Safeway to buy wine and they didn’t have our flavor of Almanden. At least we still have a few glasses. We were able to buy Safeway gas for $.03 cheaper and considerably cheaper than Canadian.
We arrived at Glacier National Park about 2:30 pm and found the last spot! Yeah! BUT the rig in the next spot had the exit to our pull-through blocked! How rude! Olivia went to ask him to move up so we could get in, then unhook, “But I will have to re-level and I asked the folks in that spot last night if I could do this.” There was no convincing him. Another camper suggested we get the host to help and to tag the site in the meantime. We tagged and left a chair to claim the site and went back for the host. They were roaming the campground and finally came back. We explained and he went to talk. He came back, with us getting the site and the other folks adjusting. We think they have a better level now than they did. The lady came to tell us they were going to stay where they had moved. Now he is blocking the next site’s exit. In all our travels we have never had another camper so rude. Hope we never act like that. Oh, well this just wasn’t our day.
To add to all that, this campground in this beautiful National Park doesn’t have service, but we really didn’t expect it. Later we went into town and talked to our girls, Anna Kay and Patti.
Pam Stoker said she liked our
maps, so here is where we drove and drove! We hope you can see the highlighter even when it isn’t all the same color. Click or double click on it to enlarge. We tried to make the highlighted the most bold. Alaska is at the top left and Washington is at the bottom right. In between is the Yukon, BC and Alberta. We spent 36 days in Alaska and 35 days getting there and back. $3,874.67 for gas and $958.76 camping fees, remember lots of free nights. If you want more details or break down of cost, let us know.
Please tell us your comments about any of this Alaskan adventure and let us know what’s happening in your life. We love news and now that we should be able to have service more often, the ball is in your court!
Email us at Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com
