A good day out in Prince George

We have done very little the last couple of days, a little shopping catching up with emails, we have wifi that works, first time for weeks. Today our third day here we will have a day out and visit the park of a 100 different trees - they are into trees in a big way here. We arrive at the turn off to the park, its closed, they are putting in a new road, or dear what are we going to do now, she says.  Off to the visiter centre to see what else PG has to offer and we find this place -

 

Just up my street

 

A super old Dodge truck

 

Smashing old car, now isn't that better than looking at trees

 

This one is for the couple of retired firemen who read the blog, can you imagine ridding that to a fire in a Canadian winter, this was used up to 1928.

 

How about that for a snow plow it was built in 1902 & used until the 80s.

 

And another

 

This monster is a plow come grader, those things on the side come out and the move the snow which has been moved off the tracks further away, in the summer its used to grade the gravel on the side of the track.

 

Lots of old graders.

 

Not much comfort driving this grader.

 

A big Mack Truck from the 40s.

 

Inside the cab, my back started hurting just at the thought of driving this.

 

It wasn't all engines and machines, there are dinning cars and old railway stations and pots and pans and stuff.

 

 A great man day out. tomorrow we move on down highway 97.

Stewart to Prince George BC.

Sunday evening in Prince George, an enjoyable 2 day drive, the scenery somewhat different from the last few weeks - less wild - Ruth missing the wilderness already after only 2days, for me driving past Tim Hortons and even the dreaded arches is quite relaxing - not having to worry about huge potholes and washboard roads is quite a relief in its self.
We stayed Saturday night at Fort Telkwa, a good camping in a lovely village.

 

The Buckley River as it runs through the village of Telkwa.

 

The river again the camping can just be seen left of centre.

 

How about that for an old fire engine.

 

Road grader come snow plough?

 

Lovely old church I think Saint Stephens Anglican Church 1909, read the plaque above the arch but didn't take a pic.

 

Happy shopper.

 

Our Sunday picnic place - - look at that sky.

 

More sky, I think the sky's are wonderful.

 

This pic. is for my son- in- law Dave, who is an electrician at one of the biggest sawmills in the Dordogne, not as big as this enterprise just outside Prince George.

 

Lot of wood! a lot of sky as well.

Todays milage was 347km. yesterday 342KM. 2815km since we left Valdez and just under 13000 since we left Ottawa. I darn't add up the gas bill!

A non event in Alaska.

Got up early (before 7am - thats early) and off we went,  East to Alaska. No border formalities here -   the road only goes a few kilometers to Fish Creek to watch the feeding frenzy along with dozens of other happy holiday makers. Big problem - the Forest Rangers forgot to tell the bears. Some people had hauled up huge cameras on stands covered with camouflage. Ruth had the little Canon that fits in your pocket and I had the Fuji imitation big boy and we all stood there waiting and waiting, lots of fish but no hungry bears. by this time the Canon

 had slipped out of site. I edged between all the tripods looking if I knew what I was doing and took a few photos of fish and mountains (they are not very good). After about an hour of hanging around, dejected we slunk away with our two little toys to Stewart, found a cafe and made up for the disappointment by gorging on muffins and very sticky buns.

 

Fish Creek complete with fish.

This part of Fish Creek is called The Blue Lagoon

 

 

Mountains passed these on the way back to Stewart.

After sinning in the cafe we went for a walk along the boardwalk that runs out into the estuary of The Portland Canal, Its along narrow fiord, perhaps because it so narrow its called a canal.

 

Took these pics on the walk,  we think these are Red Crossbills

 

And is this the female?

Tomorrow, Saturday we are back on the road, direction Prince George hoping to make it as far as Smithers.

Down Highway 37 to Stewart, BC.

A wet start again, but only for the first 100km. or so, this road is amazing, a little scary in places, but the  views make up for it, even in the rain.

  

One of the things we have noticed about western Canada is no matter what the weather, there is always

something going on with the sky. Some of the cloud formations are just out of this world.

 

The Bear Glacier, you drive past this glacier on the road into Stewart.

 

More mountains and sky, lots of both here in British Columbia.

 

When I was setting up the trailer yesterday afternoon when we arrived in Stewart this little caterpillar walked by, funny looking guy. The butterfly was flying around our picnic place

 

Today we are crossing over to the Alaska side (leaving the trailer in Stewart, theres only a road for a few kilometers) to watch the (teddy) bears picnic on fish creek and look at more mountains and glaciers.

Dease Lake, British Columbia.

The last few days have brought a change in the weather, our temperatures  have dropped from the mid 20s down into the mid teens, about time to go back into long sleeves.

 

This pic. was taken around 4pm Sunday when we arrived at the campground in Haines Junction.

 

The mountain on the right of the first pic. taken 8am. Monday, low cloud and a sprinkling of new snow.

 

Same view taken around 10am. just before we left, direction Whitehorse.  The weather improved and after a few kilometers we drove into sunshine.

 

Arrived in Whitehorse at the HiCountry Campground in time for a late lunch and then spent the afternoon stocking up the cupboards for our next long trip to Prince George down highway 37.

 

We had our picnic lunch here after leaving Whitehorse on the drive to Jct.37

 

We passed this mountain only 3 weeks ago coming from the other direction, I don't think it looked as good from the other side. We spent the night at Jct. 37 RV campground ready for the drive into BC. 

A sunny start, but the clouds came over mid morning, not good for taking pics which is a shame because this drive is every bit as good as the Richardson

 

Big forest fire here in 2010, nature slowly repairing its self.

 

Camped up in Dease Lake RV Park, ready for the next leg tomorrow.

Valdez, Alaska to Haines junction, Yukon

We left Valdez on Friday morning, the weather man said it was going to rain all day Saturday so after a bit of thought we decided it was better to drive back in the sun than the rain. As it happened Friday morning was grey and showery and we didn't see much of the scenery till well past the Thompson Pass, when the sun broke through the clouds and the rest of the drive to Tok was in glorious sunshine.

 

The sky line as we climbed the Thompson Pass. 

 

Another one of those pesky pilot cars - at least the suns shining.

 

Lovely views on this Highway.        Saturday morning, nice and sunny, about 5km. down the road, warning signs, wild fires, we drove through smoke for about 50km. Just after the sign came up for the all clear the rain came down all the way to the Canadian border.

 

Around halfway from the border to Beaver Creek we came on this Moose which cheered us up no end.

 

The road from the border to Beaver Creek is awful, the worst road we have been on in North America . I am sure I have been on worse, maybe some of the back roads in Tenerife or some of the other islands but I can't recall at this moment anything as bad.

 

Our neighbours last night, cute eh!

The rain stopped overnight and we continue to Haines Jct. The weather brightened but the road didn't, it got worse, I didn't think it could be possible. Shake rattle and roll, broken plates, furniture all over the place -and they where tied down, didn't make any difference. This part of the Alcan is a disgrace.

But and the but is positive, the scenery is magnificent

as good as the Richardson, mountains with glaciers, lakes and rivers truly awesome (learning some american english)

The distance between Valdez and Haines Junction is 878km. A truly great drive (except for the awful surface)