Rocky Goes to Alaska: August 2015

Day 91, 24 August 2015

Skagway, AK to Whitehorse, YT 116 miles

The South Klondike Highway north from Skagway was very scenic. It parallels the White Pass route that the world renowned train takes through the pass along the river. And it is well paved. We left Alaska here and entered Canada once more. The Canadian guard was really only interested in firearms. Since we had none, we were free to go in minutes. We’ve been to Whitehorse on the way up, so it was familiar. This was a chance to provision for food, liquor, and fuel, before heading on.

Lake along the Klondike Hwy

The changing aspens where beautiful

Mountain view with fireweed

Goat Lake

Skagway River and into Canada again

Winding highway

Campground in Whitehorse

Day 92, 25 August 2015

Whitehorse, YT to Dease Lake, BC 402 miles

Lots of driving today, south on the Alaska Highway to the Cassiar Junction, then the Cassiar Highway south, which is quite scenic. The road was a little rough in spots, but much of it was just resurfaced with blacktop, so it was really smooth through those sections. Memorable scenic spots were the Cassiar Mountains, Good Hope Lake, Simmons Lake, and Dease Lake. We saw a bear cub, but did not get his picture. We also saw a linx, a ptarmigan, and a strange looking creature, perhaps a marmot. We passed Jade City, which isn’t really a town, but a stone cutting facility and gift shop, selling jade products mined in the nearby mountains. News to me was that 92% of the world’s jade comes from the Cassiar Mountains, and half of that is exported. Jade is not cheap, at least it wasn’t at the store. Dease Lake started out as a trading post, then a gold rush settlement, then a connection for supplies for the Alaska Highway construction. Today, it is a government center and supply point. Northern Lights College (University of British Columbia) has a campus here. We ran into a caravan of retired military folks at the Dease Lake RV Park. Luckily there was a spot for us.

Good Hope Lake

Cassiar Mountains

Cassiar Highway

Machine used to cut Jade

An area of forest fire bare except for the fireweed

Patch of Aspen on the mountain

Day 93, 26 August 2015

Dease Lake, BC to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK 244 miles

Continued down the Cassiar Highway. There was a short stretch of reconstruction, but most of the road surface was very good, perhaps the best road so far. We saw a nice view of the Skeena and Cassiar Mountains. We caught a picture of a lone motorcyclist traveling down the highway after he passed us. For sure he was having a blast on the narrow winding road. Caught up with him later at a gas station in Stewart – he loved the shot and asked for a copy. The lakes are crystal clear. Interestingly, people actually drink out of Lake Eddontenajon, so folks are asked not to contaminate it. We saw a black bear cross the highway – not unusual for this stretch. At the Eastman Creek rest stop, we were surprised to learn that the creek was named after George Eastman, of Eastman-Kodak fame, who hunted big game here, long before the road was built. The Bear Glacier, Bear Lake, and the Bear River Canyon in Stewart were beautiful. We crossed the border into Alaska again, this time into Hyder – a town that doesn’t have a staffed US border patrol, just bear watching and, if you take the dirt roads into the mountains, the Salmon Glacier and some gold mines – one that is about to start mining a newly discovered vein. Got “Hyderized” at the Glacier Inn – a shot of 151 proof moonshine. And we saw a black bear eating salmon in the river at the observation boardwalk that the National Park Service maintains. – a nice way to commemorate our final peek into Alaska on this trip.

Skeena Mountains

Cassiar Mountains

Motorcyclist from North Dakota on the Cassiar Highway

Nice waterfall

Lake Eddontenajon

Eastman Creek

Bear Glacier feeding into Bear Lake

Entry to Hyder Alaska

The old Glacier Inn in Hyder

A shot of 151 proof moonshine

Waiting for the bears

We finally spotted one coming out of the woods

We watched as he ate his salmon dinner

Sea gull cleaning up after the bear

All sorts of folks travel to Alaska

Day 94, 27 August 2015

Stewart, BC to Terrace, BC 197 miles

The drive was still quite scenic, including views of the Seven Sisters Mountain Range. The Cassiar Highway ends at the Yellowhead Highway connecting Edmonton with Prince Rupert. We had thoughts of taking the BC ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, but the ferry had limited service and did not run the week we were there. We did go as far as Terrace, a nice town about a third of the way to Prince Rupert. It’s a scenic drive along the Skeena River where from 1889 to 1912, sternwheelers used to carry men and supplies upstream and furs and gold downstream, until the Grand Trunk railroad was completed. Terrace was a logging town, known at one time as “the cedar pole capital of the world.”

Kleanza Creek

Seven Sisters Mountains

Skeena River

Downtown Stewart

Day 95, 28 August 2015

Terrace, BC to Vanderhoof, BC 299 miles

This was a marathon driving day, first in the rain, then it turned sunny about 2/3 of the way through the drive. With no cell phone service and no wifi, we were anxious to get connected, so we drove as far as we could. Too wet to take pictures at first. We did pass some interesting things, like a tiny, one-room, all-denomination church that floated away in a flood of the Skeena River. The church was found, as was a bible floating on a wooden table near it. That motorcyclist whose picture we got a couple of days ago passed us a few times, playing leapfrog between stops. The Tintagel Cairn was at a rest stop near Francois Lake. The central stone in the cairn was once part of the Norman walls of Tintagel Castle where King Authur was born. As we headed east, we left the mountains behind us, and it looked more like Pennsylvania – rolling hills, more deciduous trees, and some lakes. Not a disparaging comment, since we are from PA, and we think the state is really nice, just different from the steep mountains near the coast. We followed the path of the Grand Trunk Railroad, which connected interior British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. The last spike was driven in the rail at Fort Fraser in 1914. They commemorate it with the “Last Spike Pub,” and the “Last Spike Motel,” etc. We camped in a town called Vanderhoof, named after Chicago publisher Herbert Vanderhoof who was associated in some way with the Grand Trunk Railroad. Venderhoof is the geographical center of British Columbia and is a distribution hub for agriculture, forestry, and mining. There were huge piles of logs near town, waiting to be shipped out, either by truck or rail.

Our same motorcyclist passed us again in the rain

Titagel Cairn

Beautiful glacier along the highway

Reminiscent of Pennsylvania

Forestry is big around here

Day 96, 29 August 2015

Vanderhoof, BC to Cache Creek, BC 333 miles

What started out as a cloudy, cool day, quickly turned into a rainy, wet day, but it did clear later in the afternoon. Route 16, the Yellowhead Highway, that we’ve been traveling connects Prince Rupert on the coast to Edmonton, Alberta. We followed it to Prince George, then headed south toward Vancouver on Route 97, also known as the Cariboo. Prince George was named after the reigning English monarch in the late 1800s. BC’s 4^th largest city, local signage called it “the capital of northern BC.” The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and its associated boom, turned the original small trading post into a bustling community. The Cariboo Highway is the west access route to the Alaska Highway (heading north would take you to Dawson Creek and the beginning of the Alaska Highway). Some of the towns along the way look like they would be fun to explore. Quesnel, for instance had a Saturday Farmer’s Market and a restored 130-building gold rush town. But it was raining so hard, we just didn’t feel like getting wet. In the 1800s, the Cariboo gold rush brought lots of travelers up this pioneer trail with mule trains, freight wagons, and stage coaches, so at the time there were roadhouses every 10-15 miles along the way. Some of the towns are still named after their roadhouses, e.g., 100 Mile House, 70 Mile House, etc. There were several lakes along the way, including Williams Lake. The town named after it had hillside homes overlooking the water. Forestry is big here, with several sawmills and stacks of logs waiting to be built into log homes. As we drove south, forests and farmland on gently sloped hills changed into grazing pastures on steeper terrain. We spent the night in Cache Creek, a town at the confluence of Cache Creek and the Bonaparte River, which began as a major supply point on the Cariboo Wagon Road. The Brookside RV Park even had a heated pool – nice to take a dip after a long drive.

Yellowhead Highway

Cute little church in Clinton

Towns were named after their roadhouses along the stagecoach trail

Starting to see farmland going south

Williams Lake

The highway followed the river and the railroad tracks

Relaxing in the heated pool after a long driving day

Day 97, 30 August 2015

Cache Creek, BC to Bellingham, WA 199 miles

Weather today flipped from yesterday – it was sunny in the morning, then it rained in the afternoon. We enjoyed breakfast outside for change. Interesting that, during the drive south over the last couple of days, we saw a gradual change in the flora, starting with mountains and a rain forest near the coast, changing to rolling hills and more deciduous trees in the central interior, then almost desert south of Cache Creek, where irrigation was needed for growing crops. We passed the beautiful Thompson River Valley. Funny, there was a Jackass Mountain. And Hell’s Gate, which is the narrowest spot on the Fraser River, was eye catching. They even had a tram and suspension bridge over it, as well as rafters and sightseeing boats going to it, relating the story of the sternwheelers who went upstream through Hell’s Gate by pulling on ropes tied to the canyon walls. Border patrol was not painful. They took away our citrus fruit and firewood – no great loss. But it was so nice to be back in the USA! Fuel at $2.79 per gallon, vs $1.49 per liter! And cell phone service – thank you AT&T! And wifi – our campground, the Bellingham RV Park, actually had wifi that worked!