Day 23

(You can click on picture for a larger view)

We arrived at Denali National Park and we were out walking around our camp site and ran across a mama and baby moose. The baby was so cute and mom was about 7' tall!! This was about 25' from us.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we're heading deep into the National Park. It's a four hour bus ride (there are ones that go further) to the ranger station and we'll do some hiking there. It's supposed to rain so we're hoping that the cool weather will bring out the wildlife. The last bus ride back to camp is at 11:00 p.m......hey at least it will be light outside.


We drove 4.5 hours to get to the Arctic Circle. If we wanted to continue on to Prudhoe Bay (Arctic Ocean) it would have been another 225 miles. A total of 414 miles one way from Fairbanks. We were so sore and stiff from riding the unpaved roads that we decided the Arctic Circle was far enough....for now :) The mosquito's were terrible here. The bug spray helped, but I think some of the "no see ums" got us! This is the road we spent 4.5 hours on. Some of it was paved, but with the frost heaves it was actually smoother to ride on the gravel/dirt/muddy road. You should have seen my car. We had mud from the windows down. The people on the tour buses were staring at our car wondering if we had been out 4-wheeling.

Talk to everyone soon, Love Sue, Vern and Dug

Howdy everyone,
Well we finally made it to Fairbanks Alaska. 3,678 miles one way. Tomorrow we are going to drive to the Arctic Circle which is about 160 miles north of Fairbanks. We are going to drive Sue's CR-V there and leave the motor home behind. We were told the only thing there is a nice sign to take your picture next to (we will post our Arctic Circle photo in a few days) although the drive is beautiful.



We met a very nice couple (Andrew & Theresa) in Delta Junction Alaska. He is a retired Air Force soldier and she is a teacher. I will talk more about them in the next post, but suffice to say, they are a blast to hang out with and they will be going with us to the Arctic Circle.

We went to Chena Hot Springs today to soak in the natural hot pools. Other than the sulfer smell it was very relaxing. While there, we saw this old snowmobile from 1959. My how technology has changed.

Here is Dug soaking up the limelight with a shot of the sign and the official end of the Alaska Highway in Fairbanks.


As we drove in from the Canadian border we ran into delays because of a forest fire that was burning next to the highway near the town of Tok. We only had to wait about 30 minutes. As you can see from the photo above, that area of the forest was devastated. I'm sure Smokey Bear was in tears somewhere. We later found out there were 87 separate fires burning in Alaska. So far every day the sky have been partially obscured from the smoke haze.
Today was the clearest day so far.

Here Dug is trying to hold back his excitement as we approach the US-Canadian border into Alaska. Dug was slightly scolded for slobbering all over the windshield.

Here is a Trumpeter Swan we saw nesting about 30 foot from the road. This is one of the biggest birds I have ever seen (outside an ostrich). The male swan is just outside of the photo eating whatever they eat in the pond.

We spotted this porcupine scampering across the road in front of us so we slowed for the photo. As we slowed up near it, it raised up all of it's quills on his back in a defensive posture. Luckily we were in the motorhome taking the picture through a telephoto lens.

We found PaPa bear eating grass on the side of the road near Beaver Creek Yukon. This Black Bear was big. I am guessing it weighed at least 400lbs. By the way it was walking, I don't think anyone or anything would want to tangle with him, for sure not me.

We found this and a few other Buffalo grazing next to the highway outside Whitehorse Yukon. They are large as well (probably 1,000lbs) but they look friendlier that the bears.

Good-bye for now. Vern, Sue and Dug

This photo shows some of the damaged roads we experienced on our drive from Whitehorse Yukon to Beaver Creek Yukon. Notice the guardrail in the distance, that is what the road looked like before they repaved. Most of the road was like a continuous whoop de doo. Our average speed through this strech was about 40 mph. We still have about 60 miles of rough road left. We cheated and followed a truck pulling a fifth wheel trailer. As the truck and trailer bounced up and down off of the ground, we slowed down to avoid the same fate.

This is a view of Kluane Lake in the Yukon. Pictures and words truly do not do it justice. The scenery is just unbelieveable.

I caught Dug scratching his behind on the rocks of Muncho Lake at our camp site. He was scolded and sent back to the RV .... Bad Dog.


Dug, seen here trying to make up for the previous days issues, is plotting our next days activities as we do laundry in Whitehorse Yukon. Ok, I forgive you Dug. :-)

On the way to Whitehorse from Dawson Creek, we saw this Mama Bear with her three cubs munching on grass at the roadside. Very cute.

We will post more photos in the next few days as 3G network becomes available. We have photos of Buffalo, Stone Sheep, Porcupine and others to share.

Thanks for looking,

Vern, Sue & Dug

Just a quick note as we enter the Yukon Territory. We camped last night a Straberry Flats Provential Camp Ground. Dug found us a spot right on the lake. I will post photos in a day or two. We will be staying somewhere between Watson Lake, YT and Whitehorse, YT tonight. More info soon,
Thanks for looking,
Vern, Sue & Dug

Howdy fellow BLOGGER followers.

We left Dawson Creek (mile zero of the Alaskan Highway) this morning and drove 283 miles to Fort Nelson, BC. We had our first encounter with a moose. A baby moose jumped out of the tree line and right in front of our motor home. As Sue was yelling "LOOK OUT", I was jamming on the brakes. Sue, without missing a beat, was able to hang onto all the stuff she had in her lap, grab the camera and snap a few photos of the moose. After the moose ran out in front of the motor home, it turned and began running down the highway in front of us. After about 50 yards it decided it wanted nothing more to do with us and ran off into the trees. The look on its face was priceless.

About 50 miles later, we saw three moose grazing on the side of the highway. These were all adults and seemed to care less that we stopped and took there photos.

After arriving in Fort Nelson, we parked in an RV park, unhitched the car and drove around town. Pretty much everything in the town is closed due to the holiday. We decided to check out a local golf course and ended up playing 9 holes. We had a blast even though our scores were well above par. In other words very bad.

As we leave Fort Nelson in the morning, we will be traveling some remote stretches of the Alaskan Highway (gas stations are about 200 miles apart) and may not have cell service or 3G service for the Internet. So if you don't hear from us for 3 or 4 days don't worry.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and keep them coming.

Vern, Sue & Dug

We left Prince George heading towards Dawson Creek knowing we would probably run into a lot of rain and maybe some snow.

About 100 miles from Dawson Creek we rain into light to moderate (does that sound familiar Fair workers!!) snow. No problem, but with the heavy snow we didn't see any wildlife.

Arrived in Dawson Creek and decided to stay at Walmart with the other (20) motorhomes. Very very cold. Today (5/23) Vern couldn't stand how dirty the motor home was and decided to take it for it's first bath.

This is the drive to Tumbler Ridge. It was partially sunny but still chilly (45 degrees). We wanted to go on a hike to see some prehistoric dinosaur tracks.

Of course Dug wanted to be the first one to see the dinosaur tracks. He also wanted to see how his paws matched up to theirs. In 2001 2 kids that were tubing down the river got out and stumbled onto the tracks. For you dinosaur buffs, they're ankylosaur tracks. They have found hundreds of these tracks.

We're staying another night at Walmart RV park. We've met a lot of nice people. The Canadians are very friendly. Vern usually has to come and get me as I'll be chatting away with the people inside the gas station or the laundromat!! We're heading to Fort Nelson in the morning. We're getting up early as we've heard that's the best time to see wildlife.

Day 9

It' been 9 days on the road and it feels like 2. We are having a wonderful time.

We found an out of the way golf course and hit the driving range. We did so well we decided to play 9 holes; what a beautiful course (see photo).

The weather has been great up until now. We parked overnight in the Walmart parking lot in Prince George. It rained all night and then sometime in the morning it started snowing. Not much stuck on the ground as the temp was about 35 degrees. (see photo).

We are now camped out in an RV Park just north of Prince George. We will be off to Dawson Creek in the morning (if it's not snowing).

We discovered that sunrise and sunset changes drastically as you drive north. Here in Prince George, sunrise is 5am and sunset is 9:20pm. When we get to Fairbanks in June, sunset is 12:34am and sunrise is a 3:09am. I think it will never actually get dark while we are there.

Thank all of you for the wonderful comments. It truly makes our day and we look forward to reading them.

Happy Birthday Vern!!! YeeeeeeHaaaawww!!