Sunday, June 28th

Wow and wow (again)...Jasper is incredible. We hiked around the Athbasca Falls - thru the rain, yes, rain again. It was clearly snowing on top of most of the mountains. Just a beautiful site. Went thru the town of Lake Louise but did not see the lake - very disappointed but a large sign advised against RVs and trailers so, I did not push it. Now in Calgary - the outskirts. Real highways with crazy drivers - might just be me not used to so many on the roads. I do have lots of photos and will go thru a 100+ tonight and post tomorrow if possible. Should be in Great Falls, Montana by tomorrow afternoon. All is good...

Saturday, June 27th

Long time without wifi. Have not had any wifi for several days. Had a rough trip from Whitehorse, Yukon. The road construction that I went thru a few weeks ago is much larger and the roads much rougher. Plus lots of rain. A lodge and campground that I stayed at on the way up was out of gas and no vacancies. So, we headed down to another lodge per Milepost and it was open - 2 spots left and gas at 1.58 a liter...but no choice, I was down to 65 miles left on the tank I had. From there to Fort St. John on Thursday, no wifi, and Friday at Prince George where I had the truck fixed. Wifi but could not get it to work. $248 for the light assy and they put it in for me no charge.
In Jasper, Alberta National Park today/tonight. Unbelievable. Canadian Rockies are incredible. Completely different than Denali and much more dynamic than Rocky Mountain Natl Park. Tomorrow, Sunday we drive down Highway 93, Icefields Parkway thru Jasper and Banff Natl Parks into Calgary. Hope to stop often, hike and see all the sites and there are many.

I should be in Montana on Monday, and back to Colorado by Wednesday.

Sorry, no new pictures...won't download. All ok...later

Tuesday, June 23

Been out of wifi range. Place I stayed in Beaver Creek, Yukon (same one as trip west 2 weeks ago), did not have the wifi working.

Well, my first problem finally occured. Between Burwash Landing and Haines Junction (thru Destruction Bay - beautiful area along Kluane Lake), the Alaska Hiway is the worst. I thought it was bad going West 2 weeks ago, but going East is much worse. The gravel I can deal with - the miles of washboard is horrible. Even going at 10 miles an hour, somehow the passenger side taillight assembly came loose from the truck; dangled for miles and was melted by the exhaust. Completely ruined. I am back in Whitehorse, Yukon tonight and they have a Chevy dealer which I went right to, but they do not stock them. If they ordered it would come from Vancouver and maybe get here Thursday...not. So, I called a Chevy dealership in Prince George - the next major town I'll come to on Friday - and they have ordered it and I will go right there on Friday.

Weather has been crazy...may get down to 32 degrees tonight. Rain off and on all day. Tomorrow I will make the turn south on the Cassair Hiway at Upper Laird, British Columbia. That 500 mile highway will save me 200 miles in back-tracking. Wifi here is not strong enough to download photos...may have to wait until I'm in Prince George Friday. I don't plan on having hookups tomorrow night - plan on staying at a Provencial Park along the Cassair Hiway. Hang tight... I'll be back. All is good!

Well, I Lied....

Soltice, today/tonight is 21 hours and 50 minutes of daylight, I gave you incorrect info earlier. It is now 10:28 pm and the sun is still bright and shining. Rain stopped and our Riverboat ride, sternwheeler, was great. Learned a lot about the native people, Athabaskans - still many in the Fairbanks area with most still in villages in Fort Yukon about 130 miles north of Fairbanks (toward the Arctic Circle). Very interesting. We also met Susan Butcher's husband who still raises sled dogs with his 2 daughters. She passed in 2006 of leukemia. They gave a great demonstration using the actual dogs up close and personal. The dogs are quite amazing.

More pictures from Denali National Park:

Now, this one is definitely dorky..however, w/o the nets we would have been eaten alive by huge mosquitos.

Heading South and East tomorrow - will update with more photos when I can.

Sunday, June 21st...Soltice

Fairbanks: Population is pretty small 31,000 in the City (compared to Anchorage at 283,000), and 96,000 in the borough. Boroughs are counties. Eielson Air Force Base is here. Elmendorf was in Anchorage. Fairbanks is flat in comparison to Anchorage, and of course Denali. But still very green. Two major rivers converge here, the Tanana and the Chena. I am camped along the Chena River. Large RV Park, first one with trees in a while. Full hook ups including TV which is a treat. Going to take a 3 1/2 hour stern wheel boat tour up the rivers this afternoon. It's been raining since late yesterday afternoon. Not a downpour, but a steady rain.

All kinds of Soltice celebrations - midnight run, festivals, etc. Longest day of the year with over 20 hours of daylight in Fairbanks. Still strange, but actually getting used to daylight at 11:30 pm.

Some photos from Denali:

I'll post more later today...have to get to the Sternwheeler Boat trip down the Tanana and Chena Rivers.

Miss Me? Saturday, June 20th

Hi...no wifi in Denali. Arrived there on Wednesday afternoon. Pretty nice drive up from Anchorage on the George Parks Highway. There are so few highways in Alaska, that everyone of them is named for the "first" somebody.

Denali was absolutely fantastic, amazing and downright fabulous. (see, I'm running out of adjectives). I have tons of photos but need to get them from the camera to you.

Denali National Park and Preserve: much different from any other Natl Park I've been in. First, there is no "gate" as such, to pay your entry fee. You must go to the Wilderness Access Center and pick a plan. You can only drive in the first 15 miles of the park - total mileage on the road is 93. Everything else is by bus. You have a choice of about 4 different bus tours. Road is dirt and gravel and very, very narrow in many places. We decided on the full tour...13 hours all the way to the end. The end is an old mining town from the early 1900's called Kantishna. Wonderful history to this place. Denali NP is now over 6 million acres. The Alaska Range, 600 miles long, goes right thru it. This includes Mt. McKinley - which we could not see. In the summer the warm air from the Pacific hits the ice fields (the upper 10,000 feet are ice) and clouds are formed preventing anyone from seeing it. December is the best month. The town of Denali is about a 1/2 mile long. Not on roads, just dirt and gravel off the George Parks Highway with buildings that are only open from mid May to mid September. The road that goes thru Denali Natl Park takes 10 weeks to get ready for the tourist season. We saw, moose, grizzlies, beavers, golden eagles, dahl sheep and wolves. The park is a preserve. No human intervention at all with the land or wildlife...what a concept, huh? It is studied by the best and many discoveries have come from there. They literally let nature do it's thing - and only those who will sit on a bus can be a part of this fantastic environment.



Our driver and guide is a resident of Kodiak and was a commercial fisher person for 25 years and also participated in a couple of the Ididarod sled races. She now works the summers in Denali and raises and trains sled dogs. She's 50 - what a life!

I am in Fairbanks now. Left Denali this morning. Easy drive, 110 miles. Will stay here until Monday morning and then start the trek east and south. I'll tell you more about Denali when I add pictures later tonight/tomorrow. Wifi here seems to be working well.

More Photos From the Kenai Fjords Boat Trip

These are the endangered Stellar Sea Lions

Yes, I look dorky, but heck - it was very cold....

We are back in Anchorage after a great one day trip from Seward to Homer...what a place. Homer sits on the Cook Inlet with huge mountains off to the west. One of which is Mt Redoubt--the one that erupted in March of this year. Cold and windy and a much different town than Seward. Fishing is huge, but halibut is their fish right now. There is a piece of land that literally deadends in the water called the Spit. Some very funky, yet neat places there...Salty Dog is one of them. Homer is about twice the population of Seward - 3000 vs 6000. Both are on the Kenai Peninsula.

This may help:

We are leaving for Denali tomorrow and will stay until Sat. Then Fairbanks for 2 days and then the journey back....stay tuned...