July 2001
1 July - Canada Day. Friendly little town. Girl mountie raised the flag was from England, family in Newcastle. Enjoyed watching local picnicking and live music. Old timers playing country. Went to small cinema, everyone knew each other. We met Gordon and ShielaCook. He was retiring from mounties and returning to New Brunswick. Their son George was there for new mountie posting to Fort St John. Very nice family.
The route to Prince Rupert. Was very pleasant, we saw snow on distant mountains, thought it was hot on our way. Yellowhead Route. We saw our first hummingbirds, we thought at first they were big bees. Smithers is a big ski area, beautiful view of glacier. A bottle of maple syrup was spilt in van and we noticed we had a mouse.
In Terrace we stopped on Safeways carpark and had Engish fish and chips. Fellow was ex Brit but fish and chips were not good.
We stayed in Prince Rupert 10 days and it rained 8. We booked bed on ferry (actually it was a cupboard) £42 for 2 nights
Fridge was leaking ammonia, had to have it removed, no time to have one fitted so bought ice box type plug into cigarette lighter.
Met Bill & Linda from Long Beach and family from Alberta, who were on fishing trip. Halibut 1 day, salmon 1 day. Quite expensive but fun. Doug & Cindy had sold reindeer herd to pay for trip.
16 July - On ferry to Haines, an experience in itself. At times we could not believe the system. Cars. Busses. Trucks. Campers. Had stick on to where their destination but loading did not seem to match so at some parts, someone had to reverse off to allow one to pass, then reboard. Schedule was all to pot depending on how many had to be moved. Not Roll on Roll Off.
The ferry trip was great. Everything on board. Scenery, film shows. We saw glaciers, eagles, bears, whales, dolphins, seals. We met Carol and Ken from Wisconsin. We got off ferry in Haines and booked into Hitchup camping for a week.
We met up with Bill and Linda again. Haines was a filmset for the film White Fang and Dalton City is there are a tourist attraction. Lots of eagles nested around Haines. We took boat taxi to Scagway. It is as it was in the Gold Rush Days. We took train over pass to Carcruss. Amazed how gold miners walked and had to carry 1 year supply of goods into Yukon. Must have been a special breed of people.
25 July - On 25 July we left Haines towards Haines Junction. Rainy and mosquitoes. We saw a few bears in distant river.
The Alaska Highway was not as bad as we had been led to believe, though in parts under construction, we had to drive slowly. We had no problems, we felt the people with problems were trying to go too fast. We only averaged 100 mls a day, and stopped often, photos, coffees, any excuse. The Provincial Parks on that stretch were about £5. basic camping but for 1 night we did not need electrics. July we found was the rainy month in Alaska so of course MOSQUITOES.
28th July - back into USA Alaska to Tok. We enjoyed a salmon bake dinner (barbeque). We did not want to travel too far from Highway and gravel roads though later we wished we had visited Valdez. We walked on a glacier Montanuska. Very good. Could have camped at foot of it.
As we approached Talkneeta we saw Mt McKinley. It is usually covered by clouds, but it was clear. From Talkneeta climbers book on for Mt McKinley climb. A small historic town, camping was just a patch of land in Main Street.
North on Park Highway to Denali Park. We stayed just outside at Riverside RV Park and booked for 11 hour bus trip through park. Can drive part way in. Day before we went a MALE GRISLEY BEAR. Had killed a yr old cub and would sit on mound to eat him, maybe a week. He would have killed the cub so he would have access to mother, normally cubs stay with mother 2 years and in that time she won't mate. But if cub is gone, she will.
We saw him on our tour to Wonder Lake. We saw lots of caribou, moose, bears and one wolf really close. A marvelous experience. Bus driver was very good and backed up a few times so we could view animals. DALL SHEEP. BEAVERS and again we were lucky to see McKinley again, though mid section was clouded.
Met up with Bill and Linda and Carol and Ken again.
We watched DOG SLED demonstration. Even though it was height of season, nothing was crowded. Some camping places were just us.
In Fairbanks we parked Alaska Land outdoor museum and theme park, it was $10, restrooms were availables. We visited GOLDRUSH gold mine and panned for gold, ended up with $10 worth, had it put into locket for Vicky (granddaughter) for Christmas.
Near there, we saw OIL PIPELINE, enormous from North Alaska to Valdez.