July 23rd through August 12th -

davis676
Oct 6, 2024
7 min read

Long time no see or talk! Sorry about that... Lots of stuff going on!

To recap since my last post on July 21st, we:

Completed the trip to the Arctic Ocean; Ann, by flying to Denver from Seattle on June 6, and me, on August 12, by driving from Seattle, via Bend, OR, where I had some work done on the truck for five days, to our Colorado home in Berthoud.
Took a week to overland through some beautiful Colorado back country with Ann's sister, Mary, and her husband, Ted (they have a similar rig to ours)
Spent the next week in our fractional ownership in Beaver Creek with Mary and Ted
The next weekend, I took my two older Grandkids on a 327-mile loop, one-night camping trip through the Colorado Rockies
Four days later, on August 27th and 28th, I took a day and a half to drive Ann's fully loaded car, towing a nearly fully loaded trailer, to our new Arizona home, a now very spiffy townhouse in Cave Creek, about eight minutes from Desert Mountain's Front Gate. She had had her fill of driving and flew down the morning of the 27th.

With the Alaska trip a shade over 10,000 miles, I figure I have driven close to 15,000 miles since leaving Arizona last May. Time for a short "time out"! The truck is tucked into a heated garage in Loveland, CO, along with Ted's truck, awaiting its next assignment, hopefully a winter camping trip with some skiing thrown in for fun.

Our Cave Creek home is rounding into shape, needing (mostly) a dining room table and chairs, an office chair for me, and some furniture on the back patio. The back patio may have to wait for a while, but the other items should be in place fairly soon. Have played a couple of rounds of golf, and am making at least a little headway on getting caught up on all the things that I otherwise would have been doing had I not been on the road so much.

Here are a few further details, plus some photographs. Hope you enjoy them!

July 21 through July 23, successfully drove from Girdwood, about an hour south of Anchorage, back to and through Anchorage, to Tok, Chicken, and the Canadian Border Crossing, to a spectacular and incredibly isolated campsite on the aptly named "Top of the World Highway", a couple of hours short of Dawson City, in the Yukon Territories. Short hop to Dawson City, YT on the 24th, on the banks of the mighty Yukon River, where we spent the only hot night of the entire trip. Here's the roughly 3,520-mile route I drove from Dawson City to Berthoud:

Lots of great places along the way...

July 23rd - Drive from Gulkana River campsite to site back in CA, on the "Top of the World" highway.. Went through the "funky" town of Chicken to one of the most isolated and quiet places on the planet.

Another porcupine...

A bad day for someone (didn't look like there were any injuries)...

A handy target, apparently...

A view, somewhat smoky, from our campsite on the Top of the World Highway...

July 24th - 38 miles into Dawson City

View to east before we left camp...

Approaching the ferry across the Yukon River...

View from the truck as we head across...

Looking downstream...

A beached, restored sternwheeler parked on the town side of the ferry...

An old building with flattened barrels for siding...

Looking back across the Yukon from the levee in town....

July 25th - Dawson City to a nice campground south of Whitehorse. The only photo I took that day, overlooking the Pelly River... Pretty flat country.

The private campground we found was, well, pretty "campy"...

The owner used to be a banker back in Toronto. Lots of goodies and services here!

July 26th - From Whitehorse, 226 miles to a nice site overlooking the Rancheria River. Saw a bear crossing the road (you'll have to guess why he wanted to cross the road...)

July 27th - 251 miles from the Rancheria River site to one on Dease Lake, via Watson Lake, where we visited the "World Famous" (and I have no doubt this claim is true!) Signpost City.

Had one of our porcupine sightings along the way...

Campsite at Dease Lake:

July 28th - 287 miles from Dease Lake to Salmon Glacier Overlook

And some from the next morning...

July 29th - Salmon Glacier Overlook, via Stewart, BC, to Smithers, BC

On the way off the mountain on our roughly twelve-mile trip to Stewart, took this shot of a garbage can, covered with travel stickers.

Got coffee in Stewart, found an interesting-looking van, and ducked into a large logging operation on the way out of town...

Made it to a hotel in Smithers, BC that night. A very interesting, outdoors-oriented place with a ski area about ten minutes out of town. Had my hair cut by a very earnest young guy who had recently emigrated from India. Nice shop, young family, big dreams in a new country. Got some laundry done and enjoyed the town's laid-back vibe.

July 30th - 361 miles from Smithers, BC to a campsite on the Dore River, just outside of

July 31st - 66 miles from Dore River site through McBride to Mt. Robson Provincial Park

McBride is a really cool spot! Went to Uncle Mark's Eatery to look around and maybe get breakfast. "No", said the owner/chief butcher, "for that, you want to go down the street to the Beanery, in the Train Station, and let Andy and Donna take care of you." Well, we did, and it was fantastic. A terrific breakfast and some new friends.

We drove on from there to a campsite in Mt. Robson Provincial Park. Mt. Robson is spectacular, and the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies:

I remembered it fondly from a backpacking trip I took there with a buddy about forty years ago. We had good weather then, but this time around it was socked in. No views whatsoever and raining hard. Ann, Tuck, and I went for a nice 7 km hike to a lake, "enjoying" the scenery. That part of the day was sort of fun, but the park was depressing due to having virtually no on there. Big fires further down the road in Jasper Townsite and Jasper National Park made driving past the entrance into the Park towards Jasper and Banff impossible. The short summer season was destroyed for the folks who live and work there. We were merely inconvenienced, since we were supposed to meet some Desert Mountain friends at a home they own in Jasper. About thirty percent of the town burned down but our friend's home was spared. Lucky for us, they own another home, in Kelowna, BC, so we met them their, instead, to enjoy three days of fun and sightseeing. He's a pilot, and wound up flying us from Calgary (to which we flew commercial the morning of August 2) north to near Jasper in his Cirrus plane, and then southwest across "the Rocks" to Kelowna. Seeing those mountains from a relatively low altitude of 10,000 to 13,000' was just spectacular, as you will see, below.

The Dore River as we were driving back to the highway to head down to Mt. Robson....

Andy is doing the cooking, in the back...

We were soaked to the skin, but the sun came out and we had a lovey afternoon. Tuck got some grooming and was content to lay out on the right-rear locker door, soaking up the sun, for a couple of hours.

August 1 - Drove 344 miles to Kelowna

LOTS of smoke today, but otherwise a lovely drive...

August 2nd - the day we flew over the Canadian Rockies. Ann was co-pilot, and I sat in the back, furiously taking pictures most of the two-hour and twenty-one minute flight. Here's a partial depiction of the flight (I didn't remember to turn on my GPS tracking software until well after takeoff):

Couple of shots of the plane and crew...

Amazing electronics...

Take-off roll...

Fires were everywhere...

Jasper Townsite is below...

But I still was able to get some great shots of these spectacular mountains...

Mt. Robson is in the distance, below...

Hard to beat!!!

August 3, 2024 - Took a 2.06 mile hike through a previously burned area, fell down, and got dirty...

But, saw some pretty things along the way...

Our hosts' son has a nice home on a big lake, on which we took about a three-hour cruise on a lovely afternoon...

August 4 - 352 miles from Kelowna to a friend's home in Woodinville, WA

The "Bon Voyage" picture...

The sun was a little bright for Ann... Didn't bother Tuck too much! He doesn't look too happy about getting back in truck, though...

August 5 - 371 mile drive from Woodinvile, WA to Bend, OR, via SEATAC and Portland

Portland was pretty to drive through, but I-5 was a complete BEAR! Made our couple of weeks on I-95 two years ago look like a walk in the park.

August 6th through 9th - Was in Bend, OR, having work done on Tuck's Truck.

August 10th - 416 miles to Little Camas Reservoir in Idaho...

A nice spot, very quiet.

August 11 - 290 miles from Little Camas Reservoir to a golf friend's home in Jackson, WY, through an area in Idaho that has Craters of the Moon National Monument (think lava, lots of it)..

My "campsite" for the night. Too bad you can't see the trout stream on the other side of the house...

August 12 - 477 miles from Jackson, WY to 1530 Stoneseed Street, Berthoud, CO, via the totally amazing, astounding, National Museum of Militrary Vehicles, in Dubois, WY.

A nice drive through Grand Teton National Park (cloudy and socked in), then on to Dubois, WY, to spend just two and a half hours in the National Museum of Military Vehicles. Mind boggling. Could spend two days there. Very emotional experience, at least for me.