Day 10 Just relaxing in Whitehorse,Yukon

Here is some history for you all.....

Welcome to Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon, and home to some of the most spectacular scenery in Canada. Named by some the Wilderness City, Whitehorse nestles on the banks of the famous Yukon River surrounded by mountains and clear mountain lakes.

Over one hundred years ago, reckless adventurers fought their way down the Yukon River by boat on their voyage to the goldfields. Many struggled through the choppy waters of the White Horse Rapids. Exciting times! Fearless men and women traversed great distances to arrive at their goal- the Klondike.
The Yukon River is the longest river in Yukon & Alaska. Third longest river in North America, flowing northwest from the Coastal Range mountains of northern British Columbia, through the Yukon Territory and Alaska to the Bering Sea.

During the Klondike Gold Rush the Yukon River was one of the principal means of transportation. Paddle-wheel riverboats continued to ply the river until the 1950s, when the Klondike Highway was completed.

Yukon means "great river" in Gwich'in. The river was called Kwiguk, or "large stream", in Yupik. The Lewes River is the former name of the upper course of the Yukon, from Marsh Lake to the confluence of the Pelly River at Fort Selkirk.

We are day 10 of our trip and today was just a kickback day in Whitehorse, we walked the river checked out the town, and then came back and did some wash. Now just  relaxing, until we take off for the next town called Cottonwood, in Destruction Bay, Yukon Territory.
Here are some pictures of our campsite and Whitehorse, and the Yukon River.

Our spot at Hi Country RV Park.

Here I am along the Yukon River as well as Bob below.

This is the orginal Train Depot, where it took people from Skagwy to Whitehorse.

This is Lake Schwatka to the left, they fly the sea planes in to this lake.

This is the steamboat called the Klondike, it was used to take people and goods from Whitehorse to Dawson City, durining the gold rush.

some of the old bulidings.

Day 9 we made it to Whitehorse!

On our way to Whithorse, these are the mountains to the continental Divide.

Bob stopped at a stream

The 1st palce Bob wanted to fish was not good so we saw this place called Smart River, there we are.

Here is Bob on the Smart River trying his luck again, I had more fun just looking at the river.

We finally caught a glimps of this Black bear, I had to zoom to get this.

This is what we see as we head into the town of Teslin,with Atlin Lake

These next 2 pictures are of Marsh Lake, we get to see all this from the road.

Finally we are here, it took 5 hours with a few stops for Bob and zippie, ok me too. We had beatiful weather and great roads today. We will stay here for 2 days, so more will come.

Alaska Day's 7 and 8...Still going North!

Day 7 Friday July 20^th, Left Dawson Creek at 8:30am clear sky’s no wind .

After we left Dawson Creek, we drove and saw lots of road and trees,the town of Fort St John was a small town as well as Ft Taylor we breezed past Pink mountain and then we arrived at Fort Nelson 285 miles later, Stopped for Gas, not much there,so we said lets keep going, maybe 45 miles out of town and in the middle of nowhere we had road construction, the road was being paved over a 10 mile span, lots of dust and rocks as well as oil, what a mess, we were going to stay at a place called Toad River, but it was too much and Bob was wondering what did we get ourselves into, then we saw a little park on the side of the road called Stone Mountain Summit Lake. This place is gorgeous!

Summit Lake is at an elevation of 4250 feet it is the highest point on the Alaska Highway!

Bob and I went in the lake after our long day, it was cold but felt great, Zippie loved it.

We meet the nicest camp host as well here. Told us were the cheap gas is on our way to Fairbanks.

The Sun stayed up until late, the sun started to go down around 11:30pm. Around 2am Zippie started to growl and when I looked out the big back window there was the biggest Moose I ever saw right next to the trailer, Zippie was going nuts, it just keep going across the lake to the other side. That was awesome!

Yes that's me and YES it was COLD!

Day 8 Sat July 21^st, We left 9am from Summit Lake, we had only got about 5 miles from the camp and saw a caribou running along the road. As we drove North to Alaska, we drove by towns called Toad River, and a big beautiful lake called Muncho Lake, known for its beautiful deep green and blue waters. We stopped and Bob to try his hand at fishing (no bites) as we headed toward Watson Lake, we came up on a heard of Buffalo on the road, 2 black bears,and some more Caribou. We also had the Liard River along side of us most of the time and once again Bob wanted to try his luck at fishing ( again nothing)

We went by towns  places called Coal River, and Contact Creek, this is where we got the cheapest gas, 135.9 a liter compared to 179.9 a liter. So far we have spent $1100.00 in gas.( I hope we can make it home) The gas stations will charge a 10% mark up if you use American cash. This really got Bob's goat! We finally got to Watson Lake, where we were going to stay when we started to drive to the RV park it turned into a long dirt road with washboard ground, needless to say we turned around before we got to the end. We did stop by the world famous Watson Lake Signpost Forest. We found a nice place with WIFI ya! Called Baby Nugget RV Park in the town of Nugget City just up the road a ways.

Muncho Lake

Watson Lake signposts

And a Buffalo

Alaska day 6 arrived in Dawson Creek

Day 6, thur 7/19/12 left at 9am from Hixon, on our way to Dawson Creek 275 miles away, the road was great no construction, we went through Prince George and got gas at $4.77 a gal, we followed the Crooked river, saw the Red Rocky Lake, the McLeod Lake, saw Mountain Sheep.

Went by Pine pass ski area which gets 30 ft of snow every year. Stopped at MacKenzie rest area,

Williston Lake is the largest man made lake in north america. After seeing lots of small lakes and streams, we went through Chetwynd another small town, Went over the Pine River just before we arrived into Dawson Creek, found the Mile 0 campground whitch is our ½ way point. 1500 more miles to Fairbanks. Here is some information of interest.

Prince George is the fourth largest city in BC, and a gateway to the great North by Northwest.The area around Prince George is the traditional territory of the Carrier Sekani First Nations people, who made their livelihood off the bountiful rivers, lakes and forests of the region.In 1793, the great explorer Alexander Mackenzie explored the area on his first crossing of the North American continent. However, it wasn't until 1807 that European explorer Simon Fraser wintered over here, and before long, a trading post turned into a town. Originally called Fort George, after King George lll, the town flourished as a trading post, and was officially incorporated as a town in 1915

Location: Prince George is located at the junction of Highway 97 and the Yellowhead Highway 16, Highway 97 runs south to Vancouver and north to Dawson Creek, where it joins up with the Alaska Highway. Highway 16, or the Trans Canada Yellowhead Highway, extends from Prince Rupert through Prince George to the Rockies, and on to its conclusion in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In a quiet valley, surrounded by beautiful green mountains and lush forests, is the picturesque community of Quesnel. Located at the confluence of the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers, Quesnel is the commercial centre of the North Cariboo. Once the last stop on the Fraser River for the Gold Rush trail, Quesnel became a boomtown in the late 1800s, with the discovery of gold in the area, and was the service centre for gold prospectors stocking up with supplies before heading east for gold towns such as William's Creek and Barkerville, the centre of the Great Cariboo Gold Rush.

 

Above is Williston Lake,  and to the right is Mcleod Lake

Welcome to Mile Zero! Dawson Creek is the point of origin of the Historic Alaska Highway, which streches 2400km north to Fairbanks in Alaska.
 The Alaska Highway begins in the Mile O City, Dawson Creek, and traverses almost 1000 km of diverse terrain before the traveller enters the Yukon Territory.

Zippie all tired out from driving and yes he is laying between us asleep.

Pictures from days 3,4,and 5

Here is the campsite at Wenberg, nice grass area in the back of us,

 Here are the Boarder Patrol being nice and letting us take a picture of them after they went through a 45 min inspection.

 This is Frazier River that we were following for most of the trip.

Bob finally relaxing after he caught the Box that the generator was in on fire.

This is the river by Hells Gate on the Frazier River

Lac la Hache lake

North to Alaska days,2,3,4,and 5

Ok, here is the update since we left Redding.Day 2 Stayed at Eugene Elks.
Day 3, Hit a lot of traffic in Portland and Seattle, stayed at Wen-berg State Park in Lakewood.

 Day 4, 60 miles to boarder near Abbots fords, BC answered all questions politely but got pulled over for a through search, I think Bob answered with too many No Sir's and Yes Sir's if you asked me.

 45 min later we are back on the road again to Hope, BC, took Hwy 97 North along the Frazier River canyon and stayed 40 mile of Cache Creek south at Skihist park,it was at least a 100 degrees we just got the air on and started to cool down when we almost burned down the park, when the box holding the generator caught fire. We put out and later checked to make sure the generator was still working, needless to say we didn't put it back on so the night was hot and long.

 Day 5 a day of lots of lakes the Frazier River along side of us and forests.

Drove through the towns of Cache Creek, Clinton, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Quesnel, and stayed in Hixon called Canyon Creek Campgrounds,right on the river, this place is so cute with all its flowers and nicknacks all around the park. So, for a total 262 miles and 6 hours. The drive it self was easy, great roads. I'm glad we stopped here it has wifi, slow but it works to check e-mails putting pictures on the blog not so good it is from a satellite. We will add pictures when we get another place with wifi, keep posted.

Day one North to Alaska

 Our 1st day we were getting the last of things in the trailer and we couldn't find Zippie!
He got out of the house and went right to the truck, we could not get him to come out and eat his breakfast, he wanted to go so bad.

 I finally got the last of the things packed and now we are off it is 10:30am.
and we are finally ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

 We made it to our 1st stop the Redding Elks, if you look hard enough you will see us next to the one with the awing out.

 Here is some of the pictures I took along the river path just to the back of the Elks parking lot, there is a great bike and walking path.

 Looking up the Sacramento River.

This is the railroad bridge looking up the Sacramento River the other way down stream. It was a beatiful day, Hot, but nice.  We also went to check out the casino Winn River, we got $5.00 each and we we put in our own $20.00 and we both won and walked away $20.00 up! No to bad for the 1st day.  I aslo got to spend sometime with my son Ben, had dinner and a great time visiting.

Here is our Itinerary we hope...

OK, we are now looking at less than a week to go. I know some of you wanted to know where we will be going along the way, so here is a list of the planned stops.
1st we will go to the Redding Elks, this will be our 1st night, I will get to see my son Ben while we are there.
2nd stop will be at the Valley of the Rouge River State Park in Oregon
3rd will be the Elks Club RV park in Kelso, WA which is a 320 mile trip.
4th will be the Sasquatch Prov Park in Hope, BC which is about 250 miles, now the hard part of driving is behind us, we will be driving less than 200 miles a day taking our time to enjoy the sites along the rest of the way.
5th we will be at Williams Lake, BC
6th will be Prince George, BC
7th will be Dawson Creek, Alaska, which is the start of the Alskan Hwy #1, from here it is 1500 miles to our last stop before we turn around in Fair banks, Alaska.
While we are going this 1500 miles we will stop along the way in, Pink Mountain, BC, Fort Nelson, BC, Muncho Lake, BC, Watson lake, YT, Whitehorse, YT ,Teslin, YT, Destruction Bay, YT, Tok, AK, Delta Junction, AK and finally Fairbanks Alaska!
We will be taking a different route back home I will post that later...
So keep checking for the newest info of our adventure.

Here is our theme song

http://youtu.be/JSt0NEESrUA

We wanted you all to here and see our theme song, so we attached the link. Enjoy!

Let the count down begin...

We just got the 5th wheel back from the shop, all was fixed and we are ready to go, Oh but wait we still have to wait until next month.  We are putting in things as well as taking out things, I just hope what I'm taking out I won't need. Poor Zippie (our dog) is confused he thinks we are going now.
So the count down is 22 days, Alaska or Bust! Or as Bob says North to Alaska.....

Alaska soon to come...

We are getting ready for our trip to Alaska, we will post as we go, so stay tune....for our on the road again with Bob and Lil.

Benbow and ( Porto) Bodega Bay

Well, we just got home from a wonderful trip with Bob and Kathy.  Our 1st stop was a place called Benbow Rv park and Golf course, located along the 101 Redwood Hwy in Garberville. while we were there we went through the Avenue of Giants the Redwoods.  We stayed there for 2 days, then decided to go to ocean, so on our way to Porto Bodega in Bodega Bay, we stopped to see my brother Ed at the Northwood Restaurant in Monte Rio. We stopped at Goat Rock on the way. Once we got to our Rv place we settled in. Big Bob and Little Bob as we call them went crabbing, caught 2 nice ones.