We are in Dawson Creek, the traditional start of the Alaska Highway.

We had a rest, did shopping, laundry, found a nice butcher and cleaned.

I spent time putting together our Provincial Park stops until we get to Tok, Alaska. 1300 miles distant. All on the Alaska highway.

We have been seeing some wildlife on this drive. Moose, bear, deer. Today was saw a fox crossing the road. Neat. Of course, we didn't get any pictures.

This is one of the original bridges on the Alaskan Hwy, still in use today.

The bridge has a fairly major curve

We are in awe that this is a totally wood bridge and how well the roadbed was constructed

Dawson Creek Area, Beginning of Alaska Highway

This ends the first major phase of our trip. We now begin the Alaska section.

We are now in Dawson Creek, BC the starting point of the Alaska Highway, Mile 0. We have traveled 3200 miles in 40 days. A busy schedule for us. We left a month later than planned so we didn't do everything that was planned. We will do some of what we skipped next year as we have a rally in Montana we plan to go to in late June.

BC is a province everyone should visit. Beautiful mountains, waterfalls and scenery. Roads go from very good to so-so. Not much traffic. Plenty of provincial parks for camping.

Wells Gray Provincial Park, Tumbler Ridge

Wednesday

This was a driving day to get to Wells Gray Provencial Park. Only 200 miles but it took 6+ hours. A lot of construction with single lanes and flag men, then the crowning touch, a rock fall that blocked the entire highway. Nothing to do but sit it out, no way to turn around nor any other road to take. We finally entered North Thompson Provincial Park and found a site for the night.

Thursday

We visited Wells Gray, the nickname for this park is the Waterfall Park. Well deserved. So many wonderful waterfalls, we were only able to see a few of the waterfalls, many were a significant hike from the full-service. We didn’t have time for those and most were beyond our abilities. The waterfalls we saw were magnificent, a well-deserved nickname for the park. At the end of the road(after 25 miles of paved, then 25 miles of dirt) was Clearwater Lake, from what we could see a perfect name. Surprisingly, the Cafe was open and had some great food. Also offered was a boat ride but we didn’t have time for this.

 

By the time we were back at the camper a small rainstorm appeared. Just out of nowhere.

Tomorrow we are only driving about 100 miles to a full-service campground(we think). Time to dump the tanks and do laundry. We are slowly working our way to Dawson Creek and the start of the Al-Can Highway. Mile Marker 0. Probably about another week until we get there. Not many miles, just a lot to see.

Friday

We stopped at a full-service campground and was pleasantly surprised. Most Canadian full service campgrounds are a bit rustic. This campground was relatively new and was created by someone who has camped in the USA quite a bit. Bet CG we have encountered in Canada so far. We did our laundry, organized things in the MH, etc.

Saturday

Today was a driving day. Based on the conditions of the road 200 miles or so is about all we can take without getting very tired. We found a campground in Prince George and did some basic shopping just to keep us going until we reach Dawson Creek. Shopping in new supermarkets is always a challenge, throw in Canadian and we just hope for the best.  We will be in Alaska in the next 2-3 weeks so life should be better.

We have been seeing moose and bear as we drive down the road. Hard to get a picture, almost had one today. The moose was trotting parallel to the road going in the same direction as us. I stopped, got the camera up and she must have been bashful, she stopped and turned around, trotted down the road away from us.

Sunday

Today we are just doing a short hop. Saw some deer on the road but that is all. We set up camp and then went looking for the Kinuseo Falls. After many miles on dirt roads and the roads getting worse we gave up. As I have said before, BC needs to give better access to its sites. 

Kinsueo Falls, I copied this from the web

Today we crossed over to the Columbia Valley, 3 significant mountains to cross at an 8% grade plus we were on Trans-Canada 1 which is being upgraded to 4 lanes where possible. We also discovered that British Columbia does not stripe roads very well. We finally figured out that if the road appears to be more than one lane it probably is.

One of the numerous logging operations we pass

We pulled into Martha Creek Provincial Park, found a site and Tom went to pay. There was an Iron Ranger so he put the money in the envelope, filled out the info. A few hours later the ranger came knocking at our door. Tom stopped reading the envelope that over 65 gets half price, never re­ad that you had to be a BC resident. This was actually a positive if the ranger collects the money we can charge the camp fee. Hoarding our Canadian money has become necessary. We had gone to an ATM and gotten money, went into the bank and exchanged some of the bills for $1 and $2 coins(called Loonies and Toonies). If we have to pay cash we don’t have enough Loonies($1) and Toonies($2). We stopped by 2 banks and neither would exchange our bills for coins unless we had an account. We had encountered this in the States and it is quite annoying. Banks and CU’s are going to put themselves out of business with this attitude. We have found several National Parks, Corp of Engineer Campground and State Campgrounds plus restaurants that have a credit card only policy. We pretty much charge everything as it is so much simpler. 

 

The view from our site at Martha Creek

The ranger also told us to put away our barbecue since there was a Grizzly that was visiting the campground at night so all sites need to be cleaned up. No barbecues, no food, no ice chests. She was going around to each site giving everyone the info and was going to be around later to make sure all our sites are clean. 


 

Yoho National Park

We stopped at Yoho National Park. Another beautiful park that ended at Lake Louis. Since we plan to stop at Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise on our way back from Alaska we just ate a quick lunch and turned around.

Here are some pictures of our drive.

The river is actually this color

This is a serpentine tunnel that was built due to the steep grade

 A view of one of the tunnels

Kootenay National Park

Amazing, we woke up to sunshine. Dropped all the plans for the day and took a drive. As usual, the mule deer were there to send us on our way and the sheep were in town, creating havoc for all drivers. Suppose to be sunny for the rest of the week. Ha!

In British Columbia, they provide animal crossings along the main roads. This involves miles of fencing to force the animals to cross either over or under the road. This will keep the animals safe and also the drivers. Ingenius idea and seems to work well.

Wildlife Bridge

Getting gas has become our next challenge. It is easy to find but many stations do not have card readers so we need to go inside, guess how much gas we need in liters and then the pump is started. So time-consuming.

Our other challenge is figuring out what signs are trying to tell us. There is no warning about upcoming pull-outs or rest areas. We aren’t exactly able to slow down rapidly since we are at 24,000 lbs. We have figured out that when we see a sign for the next rest area that means there is a rest area almost immediately.

Kootenay National Park

As we wait out the long weekend and miserable weather, no tv(in a dead zone), no satellite(trees in the way), no internet we are essentially back to basics. Getting things done that we kept putting off except that it keeps spritzing outside so we can’t do too much with the outside cabinets.

We went into town to use the internet and caught up on email. I do have the ability to use the internet with my phone as I have Canadian access. The question is how much do I really have in the way of data. The simplest solution seems to use free wifi when in town and not ours. Nothing critical in our emails but did learn that a few of the roads in Alaska that we might have taken were either under major construction or not open yet. We made notes of them on our maps.

Kootenay National Park

The weather forecast seemed to be OK so we did a long drive. It was a wonderful drive but the weather deteriorated as we went down the road. Still beautiful but gloomy. Canada has well-maintained roads but they need a lot more turnouts for us tourists, very few turnouts to pull over in. 

Here are a few of the picture:

We met some Big Horn Sheep on the road and had a sign warning us that bears have been sighted on the road. A mile or so after the bear warning we saw rangers with their antenna out trying to find the bears. All we saw were some deer and sheep, nothing exciting.

Last night we were reading the cautions for our campground. We have a major animal problem. We are in the woods so that is understandable. The animals we might encounter in the campground are: bear, deer, sheep, wolves, mountain lion. Ranger wants us to put everything away if you are not at your campsite. It is an all-inclusive clean-up: including dirty or clean barbecues, ice chests, pet bowls, etc. All that is really allowed are your chairs.

After our drive today we came back and did some housekeeping. I had been wanting to clean all my spice jars and re-label them so that was my afternoon project.

Kootenay National Park

Today we crossed into Canada. A non-event. We had camped close to the border so we didn’t have far to drive to get a campground since this is a 3 day weekend in Canada(Victoria Day) we wanted a spot and would stay there for the entire weekend. We tried one park and no spot would fit us. We then tried the Redstreak National Park Campground. I had looked this up a few days ago and nothing was available but I knew that a few sites were held out for first come/first serve. We took a chance and there was one site left, we took it. To our surprise we have full hookups, water, electric and sewer. Never expected that.

The campground has no internet which is to be expected. My phone supposedly is usable in Canada and Mexico both as a phone and a hot spot(internet). I tried but couldn’t get the link working. No TV of any sort either. Our neighbor told us we were in a dead spot.

We gave up on the phone and went to town to get money and some food shopping. In town my phone began to work and I found out what was wrong with it. I have the phone working now as a hot spot and downloading, everything appears normal. I will limit my use of the internet as I am not sure how many gigs I get.

On our way back from town we saw numerous Big Horn Sheep along the access road. Neat. The campground is up in the mountain, the road to the campground is up a very steep hill. The views of the Valley are terrific. 

Our Welcoming Committee

 

From my Visa account I receive an email for every charge. I was wondering what would happen with the Canadian charges. I get an email with the Canadian charge and the US dollar amount that will be deducted. Solves a problem in conversion.

Our neighbors are a family group of 4 rigs. The parents are Canadians but spend their winters in the Rio Grand Valley in Texas. We had a long chat with them.

We began wandering toward Canada via Glacier National Park. The Going-to-the-Sun Road does not open until late June due to construction. We will also be staying on the west side which is less popular.

I had a good Mother's Day. We are staying at an Elks Lodge and there was a Mother's Day Buffet. Had excellent waffles and good coffee plus received a carnation.

Our Daily Entertainment while at Elks Lodge

On Monday we went across the street to the Exxon station. They had water, a dump, and propane, plus we needed gas. Great! One stop shopping. They could not give us propane as there was only one person making the store. Went to dump and it was locked. Went in and got the key. Next was gas. We needed about 50 gals and it took forever Their pumps were very slow.  Not a good start to our day. Filled up with water fine. Down to the Farm store for propane. Just after we pulled in the propane refill truck showed up. He was nice and patiently waited for us to fill up. Finally, on our way, all of 40 miles is our move.

We were going to West Glacier and the park to wait for mail and prescriptions. It is best to use a small town so there is no confusion as to which post office has your mail. We pulled into Apgar Campground and it was essentially deserted, maybe 10 rigs in a 200 site campground. We wandered around and found a nice spot. All trees, no satellite, no over the air TV. Poor Tom.

Next day we went into town to collect mail, we were still missing on prescription. We went for a drive on the Going-to-the-Sun Roa The road was open for 16 miles. Beautiful..............We are both so happy there is still snow on the mountains, so very impressive. 16 miles seems short but it took us 3-4 hours to do the round trip.

The next day we stopped to check on our last package as I received a cryptic tet for the PO that the package was in Missoula and would be delivered on Sat(today is only Tuesday). Something was off and the PO agreed with me the package should be there on Tuesday.

We drove across the bottom of Glacier NP, nice scenic road but not exceptional. Thought we were going to eat lunch in East Glacier but not one restaurant(no fast food) was open yet.We decided not to go further as we will be visiting Glacier again on our way back from Alaska.

We knew the PO closed for lunch from 12:30-1:30 so we hurried back to get there before they closed. Our last prescription was there. We could leave the next day.

I found out that this coming weekend was Victoria Day Weekend and starts the Canadian camping season. Camping was going to be a challenge. Decided to move closer to the border on Wednesday, cross the border on Thursday making a bee-line for a Provincial Park, staying there until Monday or Tuesday. Flexibility is the key. This is where being self-contained is so nice. We are not dependent on having any hook-up like water or electric. We can last about a week before we need to replenish, need to be conservative though. Most campgrounds as you leave have a place to dump your tanks and fill up with water. Emphasis is "most".

We moved from Glacier to Eureka, MT, just before the Canadian Border. We will cross over tomorrow and head for our planned campground.

Today we topped off on gas(significantly less in the US than Canada), had lunch out and did laundry. Exciting day but had to be done.

The view from our campground is wonderful.

We are now in Kalispell, MT. We are staying at an Elks Lodge in town. All the other campgrounds were 10 miles out of town. Since we had to go to UPS, Walmart, AAA, Albertson's and Michaels this was a good stop and gave us a chance to do some major shopping.

The trip to Kalispell was great! We took a scenic byway and it was well worth it.

Had to be careful, deer were right on the road

Just Awesome!!!!

 Along the road we saw a big cat, thinking mountain lion, sauntering across the road. Disappeared into the woods before we could get a camera up for a picture.
 Once we were set up and checked in we went looking for the UPS Center. All my packages weren't there as I was told they would be via a text message. One was in Kalispell, one in Utah an one in Kentucky. We need to come back the next day.

The Elks Lodge campground backs up to a small airport, like Williamsburg, but a bit(not much) busier. We spent some time watching the planes take off and land. One must have been practicing his landings, he landed at last 6 times while we were watching.

Next day:

Here we go again, stopped at UPS and all my packages were there. Relieved. Tom's computer electric cord had broken and stopped charging so I had ordered a new one.

Next stop Michaels. We were looking for some glass paint to paint part of our front windows. The shades come down straight and the window is at an angle. We had a jury rig but painting seemed the way to go. Once Tom understood there was special paint just for glass(he didn't know this) he thought it was a good idea. Michael's had the paint. one-stop done.

AAA was next. I like to have a planning map and a driving map. I thought we had driving maps for Alaska and British Columbia but we didn't. AAA had a strange system compared to Williamsburg. In Williamsburg, all the maps and tour books are out and you help yourself and then check out in the front. Kalispell had some maps and tour book out to help yourself but the rest were behind the counter.

Next to Walmart Supercenter. This was a small supercenter and I couldn't find everything so I knew a stop at Alberson's was in our future. We were stocking up so we filled up the cart and then headed back to the MH.  I had planned on Albertson's for meat and chicken. They have really good pricing if what you want is on sale. That is on the schedule for tomorrow.

Saturday:

Albertson's was first on our list. I wanted a chuck roast for pot roast and none were out. The guy we were talking to didn't know what a chuck roast was. That is the only name I knew. We finally found the Supervisor and he knew what I was looking for. It is called an Under Blade roast!!! Bought that and some Chicken. We were really looking for Hormel pre-cooked bacon since I refuse to cook bacon in the MH and Tom won't do it on his barbecue. Walmart didn't have it and neither did Albertson's. All that was left was Costco.

We are not members of Costco but had heard you could shop there and just pay a premium at the register. That was fine with us. We were prepared to join since there are no Sams Clubs in Canada, Alaska or Washington, at least at this time. We procured a guest pass, found our bacon, and went to the register. The cashier never heard of the non-member premium, a supervisor came over, she hadn't heard of it either. So we joined Costco, figured we will keep the membership for 2-3 years to cover us while we are wandering the NW. They do have cheap gas so that is good.

We went back to the MH and the lawn cutting guy stopped by to chat. He invited us to a Mother's Day Brunch Sunday morning at the Lodge.
Our next stop will be West Glacier, MT. We know the Goin to the Sun Road is closed for construction but we will see how far we can get. We will be near Lake McDonald and hope to get some good sunsets. After this stop, Canada!