Alaska Highway Day 2 & 3

Day 2 on the highway was a lot more exciting then the the first. We hit the Rocky Mountians. The road got a lot steeper and curvier, it also got a lot prettier. The road is also getting a little ruffer. Starting to see some frost heaves now. They seem to be marked far enough in advance that we can get slowed down before hitting them. We started seeing moose, stone sheep and deer. I was able to get a picture of some of them. The end of the day found us at Liard Hot Springs Park. We got there early afternoon and after lunch headed for the water. The water was crystal clear and HOT. There were 3 pools in a row. The first was warm, the second hot, the third real HOT. The third was so hot neither of us could stand it. I spent most of my time in the hot one, Louise spent most of hers in the cooler one. After the dip we hiked around the park for a while. I decided to walk down the road a piece to get a picture of the mountians. I came to an abrupt stopped. The buffalo that you see in the 2nd pic were right in my path. I took some pictures and back out of there. Later that evening we went for another dip in the hot spring before going to bed. It felt great. The last 4 pics are from today. Lots of great scenery to look at. Had to stop in the road to let the buffalo cross, they don't stop for you. Stopped at the famous Sign Post Forrest in Watson Lake, Yukon to take a few pics, found Kilgore, TX. There are 61,000 signs at last count. Anyone can hang a sign there, pretty cool. The road got a lot ruffer today. Went through 3 long gravel areas that were under construction and of coarse, met 4 semis throwing gravel everywhere. I wish I had invested in a shield for the Jeep. We are now in the Yukon about 150 miles from Whitehorse. I think we will spend a day there, then turn north to Dawson City, Yukon. We weren't planning to detour there but several people has told us that it was a don't miss place. The bad part is the Top of the World highway from Dawson City to Tok, Alaska has about 70 miles of gravel road, wish us luck...lol

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Alaskan Highway

Left Dawson City this morning heading up the Alaskan Highway. If you look real close at the first pic you can see one of the moose that we saw today. Saw a total of 3 moose and 4 deer. The first moose we saw I couldn't get off the road to get a picture of. This one let me stop, get the camera, point it at him, then high-tailed it for the trees. She didn't stay long enough for a good pic, guess she was camera shy. This part of the highway is pretty flat. You drive along on top of the ridge for a long way then all of a sudden it's down to the next river. The grades going down are 6 to 8 percent, so they are pretty steep and curvy. Then it's back up the other side to the ridge top again. The pavement is real good for the most part. You hit short stretches of kind of ruff road, not bad so far. We're in Fort Nelson tonight parked along the road. They have lots of parking on the access roads for rvs and it's free. Tomorrow we hope to get a site at Liard Hot Springs for the night. The sites are first come so we have to try and get an early start in the morning. So good night for now.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Dawson Creek

We left Lillooet, BC on Thursday heading on north. Stayed at a Walmart last night in Quesnel, BC. Today was spent on the road. Drove more then I like to in one day, 325 miles. That is very unusual for us. Went over the mountain and was high enough that the lake was still frozen up there. We did see 5 black bear along the road. I didn't get a picture of any of them because there was no place to stop without stopping in the middle of the road. With all the curves and hills we were in I didn't think stopping was a good idea. Someone could come around the curve at 60 and BANG, not good. The country up here is beautiful so far, of coarse, we have been in the mountians all the time. A little nerve racking at times on the down grades with all the curves, but not to bad. I now think straight roads are a bore...lol... We reached the Alaska Highway tonight "mile post 0". We are going stay here till Monday before heading on. You would not believe the number of rvs on the road heading north. We called the 3rd campground before we could get a site. Seems as if everybody is going to Alaska. We have to get in the habit of stopping early to make sure we can get a site. We don't mind Walmart 2 or 3 days in a row, but then we like to plug in somewhere for a day or to. Having a great time!!!!

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Lillooet

We walked up town today. Lillooet is a neat little town. There were tour buses setting all around, one full of people from Austrailia. Lillooet is where gold was first discovered in this part of Canada. They have a nice little museum and a few cool tourist stores. After the walk to town, about 3 miles round trip, we headed for the river to do a litttle panning. I found a few small flakes and I mean small.....but had a blast. The river is very high due to snow melt which made it hard to work in. I had to pan along the edge out of the current, not my first choice. Not easy to pan in all the current. We will be moving on today. Should get up around Prince George today if we don't find something to stop at along the way.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

British Columbia

We are now in British Columbia, Canada. We crossed over this morning. The border crossing went pretty good. They ask how long we were going to be in Canada about 5 times. They ask if I had any firearms, if I owned any, where they were, about 3 times. Other then that, it went good. We are in a rv park in Lillooet, BC. What a trip getting here. The road we took for 40 some miles was a 2 lane rough curvy steep horseshoe turns road. The main road, BC1, is hilly and curvy but nice. The first 2 pics are along the road getting here, the good road. We had no place to pull off the bad one. The rest are from the campground we are in. The good thing is this park has wifi so I can get email and update the blog. We will be here 2 or 3 days then head on north. The river is really high right now so I don't know if I'll get much panning in, but I'll try.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Movin' on

We left the Olympic peninsula today heading north. We took a ferry from Port Townsend to Keystone, then drove across an island to mainland Washington just above Seattle. The bottom pic is a tug pulling a 1950s U.S. submerine. The lighthouse is near the docking area where we landed. The top pics is from Desperation Pass bridge. We are not sure where it got it's name but the bridge is about 180 feet above the water. We are in a Walmart parking lot tonight. Not sure if we are going into Canada tomorrow or not. If we do, this may be the last post for a while. My cell phone internet will not work in Canada so I will have to rely on wifi hotspots to post and check our email. I will post as often as I can.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Day tripping

We went on a drive of the coast near here today. Some cool overlooks. Then we did a little geocaching. Found 3 out of 4 we went after. One of them eluded us. We looked for quit a while before giving up, may go back there tomorrow to look some more. There are several others we intend to go after while here. We will leave here on Monday, stopping before the border to load up on some things.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Olympic National Park

Today we went to Olympic National Park. The cloud cover was pretty thick going up the mountian, but when we got to the top we were above the clouds. The veiw of the mountian was awesome. The first pic of the mountian has Mt. Olympus in the middle. The second one is Mt. Carrie. The snow at the top had been DEEP. They say it can be 12 foot deep up there in the winter. The drift Louise is standing in front of is taller then she is. We saw deer and the grouse that is in the pic. The waterfall was along the road into the park, not real big, but pretty cool. After we left the park we drove down to the Puget Sound and walked on the beach looking for rocks and shell. We are going to drive the area tomorrow.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Mount Saint Helens

We are off again. After spending the weekend at the rv repair center, we got things fixed and are on the road. We spent last night in a campground outside Mount Saint Helens National Monument. When we got got set up for the night we headed to the volcano. The views were spectacular. The damage it caused when she blew 27 year ago is still very evident. On the way back we saw elk on top of the mountain (pic above). There were 4 in this group, 3 big ones and a baby. Saw 2 other elk in the woods but couldn't get a good pic of them. They say the blast of the eruption caused 700 mile an hour super heated wind clearing everything for miles around. You can see the mud flows around the base. Moved on to Olympic National Park area today. We will stay here for a few days to visit the park and look around the area. Hope to get a lot of pics in the park tomorrow. Taking it easy for the rest of today.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Junction City, OR

Stuck in Junction City. Took the coach in today to have the fuse problem fixed. The tech that worked on it could not get the fuse to blow, hence, he couldn't fix it. I took the rv back across the street to the campground they have for people to use while in for service. I had told them that I thought the step was the problem. After about 10 minutes of playing with the step, the fuse blow. Called the service guy back over, he called Monaco, after being on hold for EVER, he went back across the street. It's now 4:30......He comes back to the coach at 5:00 with the service tech. After talking to him, finally getting hold of a Monaco tech on the phone, they decide that the module that operates the the step is bad, can't get the part till Monday. So we will stay here till then. Free camping with electric hook up. If only they had listened to me ......oh well, hopefully we can get it fixed Monday.

Till next time
Duan and Louise

The fallsand GOLD

Went gold panning today,finally found a little piece!!!!!!!! It isn't much but I found it in a crack in the rock you see in the pic. We had a great time wading around in the water looking for that elusive first piece. We spent yesterday hiking in to the falls in the pics. Some were a mile off the road while others were very near the road. We hiked a total of 5 miles and drove a 70 miles one way to get to them. We would see one then drive to the next trail head and hike again. Great fun, great views. When we got to the end of our drive we were 5500 ft above sea level. There was snow on the ground. Wanted to go to Cater Lake National Park but the road was snowed in!!! The rabbit and the turkeys are more of the nature that wonders around the park we are in. Having a great time.

Till next time

Duane and Louise