Today is August 31.  We have been home for a little over a week and I thought it was time to take care of business and finish this wonderful last leg of our trip.  We spent our last day in Canada traveling though Manitoba.  Turtle Mountain Provincial Park was the place we found to stay in before going back into the states (also known as the lower 48!).  We really enjoyed staying in Canada's provincial parks. They are beautiful.  









On Aug. 17, after a good night's rest in a very quiet spot, we headed to the border. Before crossing the border, we paid a visit to the International Peace Gardens. Half of the gardens are in Canada and the other half is in the United States.  It covers over 3.6 miles of area with over 150,000 flowers planted each year.  It was towards the end of summer, so the garden was past its peak, but there was still a lot of beautiful landscaping to enjoy. 

We spent a couple of hours at the gardens and then headed to customs to see just what they might want to ask us about where we had been and just what we might be sneaking back with us!  The border guards asked a few questions, checked the back of our truck, and also had Rich open the trailer for them to inspect. With a friendly "have a good day", we were on our way.  



We traveled along Hwy. 2 through North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and then into Michigan.  We didn't take much time to be tourist at this point in our trip since that wasn't what was on our minds to do anymore.  Once we saw the "Welcome to Pure Michigan" welcome sign, we felt like we were back home, and home sounded really good.  We stayed at one of our favorite Upper Michigan parks on Aug. 20, which is Indian Lake State Park.   On Thursday, Aug. 21, we saw one of the best sites I can think of. It was the Mackinaw bridge! It is beautiful.  

Lake Mitchel State Park is another campground we like to spend time at. Our last night camping was spent there. My brother John lives near here, so a visit with him and wife Diane was a great way to spend our last night on the trail.  
After 12,500 miles of traveling down the road, seeing so much of God's awesome creation of mountains, rivers, and wildlife, we feel so blessed to have taken this trip without any problems with our truck and trailer, as well as both Rich and myself having nothing more than a bit of a head cold for a few days.  


We planned for our Alaskan trip for quite a few months.  It is a trip that we shall always feel was one of the best times of our life.  Something we didn't expect along the way was the vastness of the country which amazed us; the miles and miles of just land, trees and mountains that are in between the towns and the "no-man's-land" we saw. One of the amazing things about Alaska to us was the beauty that we saw. We would stand and look at the mountains and feel we were overwhelmed with trying to absorb it all.  The pleasant experience we had was meeting so many people from so many different parts of the world. We now have friends all over the U.S. and Canada that we spent time with and shared our trip with. Their friendship will always be a part of what made this trip so special.   


We would like to give our friends a huge "thank-you" who, before we left home, helped us plan for our trip   First and last, we give God the praise and thanks for covering us with His protection and guidance over the many miles of roads and spectacular ocean waters we traveled.  We look forward to planning another trip; just not 12,500 miles!  

Aug. 9 & 10:     There have been some pretty neat places we have stopped at along the roads that have so much history to them. On our way from Dawson City down the Klondike Hwy. there is an old roadhouse that used to be so important to many travelers. It is the Montague Roadhouse. It was built in the early 1900s and was used as a stop for the winter mail delivery.  The roadhouse partially stands yet today.  

We also met some cute little critters along the roads when we would make a stop. This little guy was so busy he really didn't have much time to spend chatting with us. We met him when we were headed back to Whitehorse where we made another night's stay at Hi-Country Campground. 

Rancheria Falls

Moss & lichens 

We couldn't possibly stop at all the waterfalls we went by, but this particular waterfall we made sure to stop at. It is called Rancheria Falls which is located south of Whitehorse. It was so nice to take a walk on a great trail through the woods to see the falls. The Alaska and Yukon mountain sides have a constant cascade of falls down them all summer long. The forest floor was covered with this awesome carpet of moss and lichens that were fun to step on; it was like a spongy carpet.

Along the way down to Watson Lake, we stopped to get a pop from out of the trailer. Rich waited for me in the truck while I went to the trailer. When I stepped back out of the trailer I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. When I looked, here was a black bear running from the woods in back of the trailer. I yelled to Rich, "There's a bear out here!" Then I thought I should get in the truck to get my camera. By the time I did that the bear was across the road and into the woods on the other side of the road. Boy, he sure didn't waste any time and he sure didn't care about me. Whew!  No, I didn't get a picture.

Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake

Aug. 11     We stayed just outside of Watson Lake last night.  We wanted to check out a very popular place in Watson Lake called "The Sign Post Forest". We tried to find the Scholma's sign that they had posted a few years ago. After spending probably 1-1/2 to 2 hours searching, we just plain gave up.  There are over 78,000 signs that through the years people have put up. At least is was fun looking.

We are headed for Liard River Hot Springs today. After spending some time in Watson Lake, we headed down the road, which was such a beautiful drive.  What really made it fun was that we saw 3 black bears and a herd of bison. They think they own the road!  

Liard River Hot Springs 

We got to Liard River Hot Springs late in the afternoon and found a very nice spot to camp in the provincial park there.  After having some supper we took our towels and headed for the hot springs. It was like sitting in a very hot hot tub!  It smells of sulfur from the minerals in the water that come from the bottom of the springs. We slept good that night after relaxing in the steamy water.  It was a fun day.


Aug. 12:     The area we were going through today had so many different types of landscape.  A lot of it was extremely rocky. We had some pretty steep mountain roads to go over and many places along the way looked as if the mountains had a stone fight with each other!  There were places that had what looked like stone avalanches. One area is called Stone Mountain where you usually will see stone sheep.  We were lucky to see three of them. Isn't she pretty? She is real even if she does look like stone!

We spotted two more black bears and also got pretty close to a moose along the road. We have seen quite a few different animals during our trip. It's always a thrill to all of a sudden see an animal just enjoying themselves eating and not caring too much about all those crazy tourists stopping to take their picture.





Another special place to get a terrific picture is by the Muncho Lake area.  The water has so many different colors.  This is a favorite of many people to stop and stay awhile.  

Muncho Lake

One of the oil trucks

Aug. 13     We had heard so many stories of all the oil field workers and the problems with the trucks from Ft. Nelson down to Dawson Creek.  We were amazed at all the trucks connected with the oil fields for miles and miles. We never had a problem with them or their trucks.  We stayed last night in a campground along the Sikanni River where some of the workers were staying. I was concerned that it might be a party bunch at night, but they were all in bed before we were :) One of the things that I noticed in this whole area was that is seemed to be very dry and the dust was terrible.  Things just seemed so dirty because of all the dust flying from the trucks.

Aug. 14      Another issue we started to notice before we left the Sikanni area was the haze as we looked out at the mountains. It soon became apparent that it wasn't fog or haze, but it was smoke from forest fires that have been burning in the Yukon. The different people we talked to said that there were so many fires burning and many fires had started from lightning strikes. Along with the dry conditions, it was starting to be a big problem. We had plans to stay in the Dawson Creek area, but the smoke was so bad, we decided to continue driving to try to get away from the heavy smoke.  We ended up driving to Grande Prairie, Alberta.  There still was some smoke, but not that it caused us any problems.

Smoke in Dawson City

Before getting to Grande Prairie, we did stop in Dawson Creek because we had to have our picture taken by the Mile 0 sign. We found a nice couple who was more than happy to snap a picture of us by the sign.





Aug. 15:     It was a longer day of travel today from Grande Prairie to Vermilion, Alberta.  The mountains are in our rear view mirror now and the countryside is mostly on the flatter side in this part of the country.  The stone and water falls have now become fields of wheat and other crops.  We still are seeing a lot of oil field related machinery and trucks. The oil sure has taken over this part of the country. The roads are responding to the heavy traffic of the trucks by arching their backs and providing a VERY bumpy ride.  We got to travel through Edmonton, Alberta, which really wasn't very difficult at all. It would have been fun to go see the big Edmonton Mall, but we decided to just boogie through and just wave at Edmonton.

Aug. 16:     Saskatchewan, we have you in our sites!  We can tell we are aiming our route towards home the last couple of days.  Saskatchewan is like the upper northern route through the states. The land is quite flat with some very interesting areas of hills and valleys. It really is pleasant to ride along and see the miles of wheat fields and canola blossoming out in its yellow flowers.  The colors of the crops are a delight to the eyes.

Tonight we are staying in the capital of Saskatchewan, which is Regina. Tomorrow we will be continuing on Canada Hwy 1. We decided to take this road instead of following Hwy. 16, because after Saskatoon, Hwy 16 becomes a two-lane road. We thought we would enjoy traveling on a divided highway instead.  We will probably be in Canada one more day before we get to the International Peace Gardens on the border of Canada and the U.S.  We hope to take a little time enjoying the gardens and then drop down into the U.S. and taking Hwy. 2 all the way through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and then on home.  I'll try to make one more post before we get home. Here are a couple of pictures I thought you might enjoy.

Old barn along the road in Saskatchewan

Rich's new way of wearing his hat!

Mary enjoying her outdoor kitchen

July 30:    The famous Alaska Highway sign says "End of the Alaskan Highway".  Most people who travel this highway makes sure that they get their picture taken at this spot, and we were no exception!  Just has to be done -- so we did.  It just so happened that another fellow traveler was there at the same time, so we helped each other out with the picture taking.  






We are on our way to Tok, which brings us through Delta Junction. The Granite Mountains seen along the Alaskan Highway are so beautiful and I had many places along the way to photograph them. Here is a picture of one of those photos.

On our way from Delta Junction to Tok, we were treated to seeing three moose along the highway. It is really exciting when all of a sudden as your traveling down the road two moose run across the road in front of you.  It gives your heart an extra beat or two!

For the most part the drive to Tok was a ride through some nice country side and straighter roads than what we had been used to.  We stayed in the same campground as we had on our way through about a month earlier.  



July 31:     Today is the day we are saying goodbye to Alaska.  We sure have enjoyed all the places we visited and the many memories of the people who we made friends with and the towns that we made our home even for just a day or so. There are so many home sites that were someones home but now sit abandoned along the roadside. I wondered often about the stories these places hold. 





We crossed the border back into the Yukon with thoughts of dread! We remembered how the road was when we had come through about four weeks earlier and had heard that it had not improved, but had gotten a lot worse. That was certainly the case. Often, we could not go over 15-20 miles an hour due to asphalt that was now just gravel with lots of potholes and large frost heaves. It was slow progress. We got to see these trucks in front of us a few times along the way.  We really shouldn't complain because the roads are a lot better than back in the early 60s when most of the roads were just gravel.  Can you imagine what it was like to have been part of the crew that first had to break though the wilderness to even put the first roads in.


August 1 & 2:  We traveled back down to Kluane Lake and are staying at Cottonwood RV Park.  We decided to stay at this beautiful place for a couple of days. The color of the water is Caribbean blue and the mountains around it are so pleasant to just sit and look at.  In the afternoon I sat with a good book in a white Adirondack chair under some wonderful warm sunshine watching and listening to a pair of loons on the lake.  A little chipmunk was "talking" to me about her thoughts on the coming winter days.  Now that I think of it, she must have been scolding me for just sitting there while she was trying to store away a supply of goodies for the winter. 




 We always enjoy getting to know the people who we are camping next to at the campgrounds. There have been many from the U.S. and others from Germany, Scotland, Switzerland and other countries that we have had the joy of sharing a conversation with. We were camping here at Kluane Lake next to a couple from Florida. Gary and Barb soon became good friends and we sat around talking about family and past experiences. On the other side of our camper was a couple from Maryland, Mark and Jean. Rich helped Mark with some trailer problems and they soon were part of our camping family too.  After talking with both of these couples and a few others as well, we have decided to take a few days to go to Haines. We just have to go there, so we will be heading to Haines next.

Aug 3, 4 & 5: The Haines Highway taking us to Haines has been one of our favorite drives on our trip. It has so many breathtaking views that we got to see. We are so glad that we took the time to drive the extra miles. An added bonus was to see two grizzly bears walking along the side of the road up near the tundra area. We had also seen another huge grizzly walking along the road before we got to Haines Junction. They are very impressive when you see them outside of a zoo in their own habitat. 

 We camped at Haines Hitch-Up RV Park. It was an exceptionally nice RV park with beautiful landscaping and flowers that just made you happy to be there. At night we took a drive to Chilkat Lake Recreation area. We had hopes of seeing some bears and eagles, but the local people we talked with said that the bears were not coming down to the river like they usually do because of the mild winter that occurred this year. Winter was different not only in Michigan, but Alaska as well. We did get to watch some eagles and the Chilkat Lake is such a relaxing place to be. We went back a couple of times just to be there – oh, and possibly have a chance to see a bear or two. Didn't happen.

Tuesday was such a great day. We decided to take a day cruise on the Fjord Express to Juneau. While waiting to board the boat the two couples that we had camped with back in Cottonwood RV Park were there waiting for the boat too. It was great to see them and we got to spend the day with them on the trip. When we got to Juneau, we boarded a bus to town so that we could get lunch there and spend a short time touring it.

We really had a great time having lunch at Tracy's King Crab Shack. I ate the best piece of crab I have ever had. After lunch, we had to get back on the bus, which took us to see the Mendenhall Glacier. We saw many glaciers on our trip and learned the difference between hanging, retreating, and advancing glaciers. Mendenhall Glacier is a retreating glacier, meaning that it is melting. It has formed a large lake where the glacier used to be. On our trip back to Hanies, we were watching for whales. We did get to see about eight different humpback whales. 

Rich & I said to each other a couple different times that we never expected that we would be on a cruise down to Juneau and back on this trip. Such special times like this we will never forget.

Aug. 6 & 7:     If I were to move to Alaska, the one place I would consider calling home would be Haines.  But, I am not moving to Alaska!  We are leaving Alaska (again) and have decided that our trip will not be complete if we don't include a trip to Dawson City.  It is totally out of the way, but we "need" to make this trip!  We drove from Haines to Whitehorse and from there traveled up the Klondike Hwy. to Twin Lakes C.G.  We found a great site right on the lake.  Later at night, I could hear some loons calling.  It is a wonderful sound.

The drive to Dawson City has been v-e-r-y l-o-n-g! We were so happy to have finally made it to Dawson. The road had many places that were gravel and frost heaves came in families!! When we opened our closet at night many of the clothes hangers had actually fallen down. Rich said that he is going to drive 25-30 miles an hour back down the Klondike.  Dawson City is such a neat town.  It is a town that is, in a way, new but it looks old.  Many of the buildings have been redone, but still have retained the look of early days when the gold rush gang was in town.  The main street is paved but the rest of the town is all dirt. What I found fun was that the sidewalks are all made of wood.  We are going to be here for two nights and then leave on Saturday. 

Do you see the Indian face on the mountain?
One of my favorite things to do while we're traveling
 is to find faces in the mountains!

 July 27:     It's been a nice visit to Denali, but now it's time to get moving again.  Our plans are to go to Fairbanks for a couple of days. This will be the farthest north we will be going, so from Fairbanks on it will be a slow trek towards home. Oh my goodness, did I mention home?  I think both Rich & I have become overloaded by the expanse and majesty of what we have experienced all around us. From the grandeur of the mountains to the tiniest things like the colorful lichens that cover the forest floor. We have enjoyed every minute.  Going back home does sound rather nice, but not just yet. We have a few more miles and a few places we still want to visit before we make that final turn in the road that brings us back to Michigan.

Rich & I standing by our sign!!

Alaska's giant sized cabbage

July 28:  We arrived in Fairbanks in the late afternoon yesterday and got a campsite in River's Edge RV Resort.  Our idea today was to take a ride on the Dalton Hwy. that goes north out of Fairbanks up to Prudhoe Bay by Deadhorse.  After starting down the road, we discovered that out of Fairbanks you have to go another 64 miles to even get to the start of the Dalton Hwy.!  (That is the road the Iceroad Truckers drive)  We decided that gas cost too much to just take a drive up to the Dalton just to say we drove on the Dalton!! We paid $4.28 today for mid-grade gas.   What we did discover was a place where you can stop and have a get-up-close experience with the Trans-Alaska pipeline. We stopped there and took some pictures and had a good look at it. Oh, we even had our picture taken at this spot.

A place that beckons you to come sit awhile.

 
We also took time to go to the botanical gardens at the University of Alaska. It is an area that is still developing, with a lot of studying being done on Alaskan plants and trees.  There is always beauty in a garden of flowers no matter how well groomed they are (or maybe not quite as neat and tidy as I imagined the gardens were going to be).
















July 29:  We went for a riverboat ride today on the paddlewheel boat Discovery.  It was the most beautiful sunny, low 70s day. The boat cruises down the Chena River up to the Tanana River. It used to also go on the Tanana River, but that river is too shallow now for the boat to go on.  






We were treated to a demonstration by a bush pilot with info on just how they are such a necessary part of the Alaskan life. 

Just down the river a bit, we got to see Susan Butcher's Iditarod champion dog sled team perform. They are such a great team of dogs to watch. They sure get excited when they are hitched up for a practice run. Susan Butcher won the Iditarod four times, but in her early 50s, she passed away from cancer. Her husband and family have kept the dog kennels going since then.


There was also a place where we got to get off the boat and walk through an authentic  Athabaskan Indian village and fish camp and hear how things were done by the natives in the past. We find it pretty interesting to hear how things were done and possibly are done somewhat today.  This girl is modeling a coat made of many different furs for us. It is a beautiful coat and a lovely girl.  




Tomorrow we will be starting out for Tok. We have been there before on our trip, but to go anywhere in Alaska you have to go through Tok. That is unless you travel by the inland marine boat system, which we won't be doing.  That is another way of traveling that a lot of people choose to do. I hear it is a beautiful trip. We are on the lookout for some animals that seem to have not been around when we traveled in that direction early. I need to get my bear eyes on!!