The next 42 miles had a lot of washboard and pothole sections, but it was considerably better than the first 17 miles. At the parking lot we saw this beautiful glacier, which was not many miles away. We signed up for a mine tour; and while waiting for it to start. we had lunch and spotted this little Wilson's Warbler. It kept flitting around in the tree and chirping. I think it wanted to feed it's young and did not want to go to the nest while it was being watched. After several pictures, we left it alone.
Copper was discovered near Kennecott Glacier in 1900 and was one of the richest copper deposits ever found. It was 1911 before they were able to transport the ore out of this remote location. They had to lay over 100 miles of railroad track through mountains and across streams, where trestles were washed out with the spring breakup of ice. The mine was in operation from 1911 to 1938. The first train out was filled with $250,000 worth of copper. When the mine closed, the workers had mined and concentrated at least $200,000,000 worth of ore. Kennecott had grown into one of the largest mineral companies in the world. Most of the property is now owned by the National Park Service. We visited Kennecott's huge, open-pit copper mine near Salt Lake City last summer.
When we were almost back to the paved road, we had stopped for a possible picture. A van stopped and the lady got out and told us there had just been a landslide between us and the paved road. They were the 20th vehicle that we had met during the 56 miles we had traveled on the way out. They doubted we would be able to get through before the road department came out the next morning to clear it. When we got there, we found a lot of material similar to peat moss with a lot of limbs, rocks and roots covering the road. Behind us was a car with a couple from Germany. John had a small shovel; and with the help of the man from Germany, they were able to clear enough of it to get through. This area was on a high bluff, which isn't evident in the picture.

Today we paralled the trans-Alaska pipeline on the Richardson Highway. This pipeline carries oil 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic to Port Valdez, where it is loaded on tankers and transported to the lower 48. None of this oil is exported. We left the Richardson Highway to make a side trip to Chitna, McCarthy and Kennicott Mine. The first 33 miles to Chitna were paved, and we saw this Lynx run across the road and up a bank. It turned and watched us until we drove away. John was able to get four pictures before we had to move, as we were stopped on a hill with a double-yellow line. Luckily, no cars came along. From Chitna it is 59 miles of gravel road to McCarthy. It was so bad the first 17 miles that it took over one hour. We stopped at mile 17 to spend the night in a primative campground.

Today we drove through Salcha. This is an unincorporated town of 995 residents that extends along the highway for 12 miles. Because there are few interior roads, they construct all their homes and businesses along the highway. Thus the town stretches for many miles. We have encountered a few other towns like it. Salcha was having a fair, and they had signs along the road for 17 miles advertising it. We have not seen many moose. This one tried to hide from us. We also drove into the town of North Pole. This large Santa was outside the Santa Claus house, where they sold all sorts of Christmas items. Santa had the day off, so we didn't get to talk to him. Otherwise we would include a picture of the "real" Santa.

The Fairbanks Church has outgrown their sanctuary, so they meet in their school gymnasium. Their new pastor was to arrive the following week, so a retired pastor came from Anchorage. They had a fellowship dinner for visitors. The menu for the day was Mexican food. In the afternoon we went to Creamers Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. The main birds in residence
at this time of year are Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese. The large field had an abundance of hese pretty yellow flowers. This time of year beautiful wild flowers are in bloom all over Alaska.

Before leaving Delta Junction, we visited Rika's Roadhouse, one of the best preserved roadhouses in Alaska. It was built in 1910. In 1923 a Swedish emigrant, who had managed it since 1917, purchased the roadhouse and ran it until the late 1940's. She was a remarkable woman. It was interesting to read all she had accomplished. We drove to Fairbanks and spent the night at the Ice Park Campground, where they have ice carving competetions in the winter.

We crossed the border late yesterday. Tok, population 1,435, was the next town on our route. At Delta Junction we completed the 1,422-mile Alaska Highway. Notice the distance to Miami at the top of the sign. We spent the night at Smith's Green Acres RV Park. The Smiths are an Adventist family. We stayed at their park in 2007. The picture of the trumpeter swans was taken on a previous day. Some of you probably wonder about the highway. Here are two examples. It has all been paved, however, summer is when they do their maintenance. This means they are either patching or replacing. Where they are replacing, there is gravel and dust. As we got farther north we ran into dips, called frost heaves. These are caused due to the permafrost under the road melting causing the road to sink. If a vehicle is traveling too fast when the dips are encountered it can be quite a thrill.

Day Four of the Alaska Highway

At the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, north of Whitehorse, they offer tours of their 750-acre wildlife park. Mountain goats, woodland caribou, moose, elk, wood bison, mule deer and mountain sheep roam in their natural habitats. We saw Cleo, a five-day old moose, who had been abanboned by her mother along the highway. That is where the mother birthed her, and then momma moose crossed the highway. There was too much traffic, so she did not get back to bond with her baby. It was hard to believe Cleo could have grown so much in only five days.

Whithorse, Yukon

Today was another laundry day. We also went to the Yukon Transportation Museum that featured everything from First Nations snowshoes to Alaska Highway army trucks. They even had a White Pass & Yukon train car and a plane, the Queen of the Yukon, which was a sister ship to Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. Just down the road was an airplane weathervane that was located at the entrance to the Whitehorse International Airport. !

Dawson City back to Whitehorse

This morning we drove around Dawson City and took pictures. The Jack London Interpretive Center features a cabin built with some of the original logs from the one where he stayed in 1897. The other object is a cache, pronounced "cash." These were used to store food out of reach of animals. In the afternoon we drove back to Whitehorse to continue traveling on the Alaska Highway.

Sunday morning we were up early to board a boat that would take us roundtrip from Dawson to Eagle, AK. We had driven a horrible road to reach Eagle in '07 and wanted to return but not by car. It was a very relaxing trip. However, we were saddened to see the destruction the little town had suffered when the Yukon River ice broke up during early May. They had a levee, but it did very little good. There was no record of anything like that happening before. Many homes were demolished. It looked like a tornado had hit the town. There are a number of First Nation residents there; and,as a whole, their homes were affected the most.

Yukon River Campground

Sabbath we slept in and then watched a DVD of a Kenneth Cox sermon. In the afternoon we took a long hike. Late in the afternoon the boat we will take tomorrow passed the campground.

Detour from the Alaska Highway

Friday morning the motorhome got a bath for Sabbath. It really needed cleaning,and then we left for Dawson City,Yukon. We wanted to spend Sabbath at Yukon River Government Park across the Yukon River from Dawson. The Yukon Territory provides a small free ferry to cross the river--guess it is cheaper than building a bridge. We had stayed at this park when we made our 2007 trip to Alaska and knew it would be a wonderful place to spend Sabbath. Dawson Creek has only two churches. So many of the small towns up here do not have Seventh-day Adventist congregations.

Day Three of the Alaska Highway

This was a travel day. We traveled 212 miles and did not encounter any animals. We stopped at the Teslin Wildlife Gallery to see their outstanding collection of mounted animals and birds. We arrived at Whitehorse,Yukon and did some grocery shopping at Canadian Super Store--similar to WalMart. In the evening we attended "Frantic Follies," a vaudeville revue. It was hilarious.The male star kept us laughing the entire evening. It was unreal how he could distort his face. The whole cast was so very talented.

Day Two of the Alaska Highway

Our first stop was Liard Hot Springs. It was like a large hot tub. The temperature was just over 100 degrees. Once in it felt really good. Along the way we saw a bison all by himself. This Stone Sheep was up on a cliff above the road and no other was in sight. It seemed to be posing for us. Next we saw a bear alone feeding by the road. The highlight of the day was this momma bear with her twins. The twins were having a romping good time while momma was feeding on the grass. Later in the day we visited Signpost Forest at Watson Lake. It was started in 1942 by an army soldier who was working on the Alaska Highway. There are over 61,000 signs, from all over the world. We located two signs from Frostproof and a sign from Tanglewood, Sebring, Florida.

Day One of the Alaska Highway

Soon after leaving Dawson Creek, we took a detour to drive a short distance on a section of the 0riginal Alaska Highway which has been rerouted. This was so we could cross the curved wooden Kiskatinaw River Bridge. This 531-foot long structure is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Highway that is still in use today. We can't recall ever hearing of a curved bridge before. It is very unique and interesting to see. Since the original military highway was built it has been shortened from 1671 miles to 1422 miles. This was done by taking out curves and straightening the road.

Hinton, Alberta to Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Another travel day to Dawson Creek where tomorrow we will begin our journey up the Alaska Highway.

Jasper to Hinton, Alberta, CA

This was a travel day. The highlight was encountering a group of mountain goats along the highway. There were two babies who were running all over the place. They would find one female, and it appeared she wasn't the right mother; so the babies would run to other females. It was hilarious. Here they are standing still, which was not the norm.

Banff & Jasper National Parks, Alberta, CA

Sabbath morning we had our church service, which was a Kenneth Cox DVD of the Second Coming of Christ. We left our campsite at Lake Louise and drove the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. It is called "Icefields" because of all the glaciers along the route. We took our time and made a number of stops to take pictures. We passed a SUV that had "Bear Guardian" on its sides and also pictures of bears. Volunteers patrol the park's roads to help protect both the bears and bear watchers. A bear just happened to be within sight of the vehicle. There are a number of lakes along the drive. Peyto Lake looked unreal. Had we not known better, we would have thought someone had dumped bottles of blue coloring into it. The blue and green colors of the lakes and rivers are caused by various minerals. A few of the lakes still had ice on the surface. The "Weeping Wall" is created by melting snowfields that find their way through cracks in the mountain wall and emerge as a series of graceful waterfalls--just some of the falls we saw.

Friday, June 12, 2009

The picture of the white cross was taken in Montana. The state erects these at the locations where people have lost their lives in traffic accidents. We think this is so special. Many of the crosses have flowers or other mementos hanging on them.

Friday was a long, 351-mile day. Our goal was to reach Lake Louise campground in Banff National Park. We had tried to get a reservation there and were told the campground was full but there was an overflow area on a first come, first served basis. We hit Calgary at the evening peak traffic and experienced quite a delay. When we reached the campground around 7:30, we found they had plenty of spaces available. The check-in person said they were not on the reservation system yet because it was too early in the season. I guess the reservation people, who are not on site, assumed it was full.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Today we spent a few hours at a laundromat in the capitol of Montana, Helena, and then drove north to Shelby, which is just south of the border crossing.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

We forgot to include a picture of Old Faithful with the previous post.
After driving to a few more geysers, Fountain Paint Pots (that looked more like "mud pots") and seeing a coyote searching for its dinner in a meadow, we were stopped by two Bison walking down the middle of the road. We had been in Yellowstone for three days. Before heading north into Montana, we made a short detour to Idaho's Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. The upper and lower falls were a few miles apart. The picture is of the lower falls. It was smaller, but John thought it had more character. A little while later Carol noticed a lot of blue objects in a field, and then she realized there were dogs beside them. She asked John to stop,and she made her way to a house close by. When a lady opened the door, Carol introduced herself and asked if she could take some pictures. Janet said she would put on her boots and go out with Carol to the fenced-in area. She also invited Carol to go inside the enclosure so she could pet some of them. She has 50 dogs and does participate in sled-dog racing. Carol gave her a big hug as a thank you. The blue objects were plastic barrels used as dog houses. In the afternoon we drove to the headwaters of the Missouri River, located at a Montana state park. The three rivers that merge to form the Missouri are the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison.

Monday & Tuesday, June 8 & 9, 2009, Yellowstone

The weather ranged from rain, sleet and snow in the higher elevations; but the roads were open. Our first stop was Yellowstone Falls, which we viewed from both the south and north rims. We stopped for pictures of a herd of bison. There were calves, and one was nursing. On two occasions we saw grizzly bears. On a short hike we were surprised to see mountain goats on both sides of the valley. The ones on our side were only three or four hundred feet below us and there was a baby. We stopped at a traffic jam and saw a black bear digging around rocks for something to eat. Then he/she started walking toward the road. Carol wasn't very smart and kept snapping pictures. Someone hollered that the bear was getting ready to come up the bank and cross the road. Everyone scrambled for their vehicles. John got inside first; and when Carol had barely gotten inside, the bear galloped across the road in front of us. It appeared the bear only wanted to get across the road, but it certainly taught us that we need to be more cautious. Further up the road a bighorn sheep was lying down under some trees chewing its cud. We saw a large number of bison each day we were in the park. We spent the night at Norris CG.

In the morning, we walked the Norris Geyser Basin and then drove to Old Faithful. First we took a round-trip four-mile hike to Morning Glory Pool. We thought it was prettier than it was last year. Old Faithful erupted when we returned. We reached Madison CG about dark, which was closer to the west entrance--the direction we were going when we left the park.

Sunday, June7, 2009, Yellowstone NP

Today we woke up to a winter wonderland--two inches of snow, and there was still a lot of snow falling. We drove to the nearest ranger station at Fishing Bridge. While we were waiting for information, they were notified that all roads in the park were closed except for the one to the south entrance, which is where we entered the park. Fortunately, the campground at Fishing Bridge is the only one that has full hook ups, and they had openings. It was interesting being snowbound. We guessed there was at least 4" of snow that fell. The evergreen trees were beautiful. It quit snowing by noon, and by late afternoon the roads were clear for traffic.

Sabbath, June 6, 2009, Grand Teton National Park

We awoke to find the Tetons almost hidden from sight. Our plans were to observe nature during the early part of the day, because we assumed the weather would be better in the morning. However, it was rainy and overcast most of the day. If we had not taken pictures as we entered the park on Friday, we would not have gotten any that showed the peaks. Later in the day, we viewed a DVD of Kenneth Cox. Afterwards we drove from the Tetons into Yellowstone National Park, where we had previously reserved a campsite at Bridge Bay campground.

Friday, June 5, 2009--Travel day

We drove 320 miles to Jackson, WY, and on to Grand Teton National Park. We got some good pictures of snow on the Teton mountains. On our way to Signal Mountain Campground, we saw a few deer. At one of the scenic pullouts, a man had a spotting scope that he focused on a baby elk and a bald eagle perched in a tree. They were too far away to take pictures with 400 mm. We attended the evening interpretive program on fires in the park.

Thursday, June 4, 2009, Ft. Laramie, WY

We started the day with a visit to Ft. Laramie National Historic Site. It was abandoned in 1890 and sold at auction. The government reacquired it in 1938 and began the restoration. Soldiers were assigned to the Fort to protect the emigrants along the Oregon Trail. Then we drove to Register Cliff Monument, where the Oregon Trail pioneers carved their names. Unfortunately, visitors to the cliff since that time have defaced it; so it is difficult to locate many original names and dates. Nearby were the Guernsey Ruts that had been cut into the rock trail by the steel rims of the wagon wheels. The day ended with our driving into Casper, WY, and spending the night at our favorite campground (because it is free)--the local WalMart.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009, Oregon Trail

Today, we followed the Oregon Trail from western Nebraska into Wyoming. Chimney Rock was the one marker along the trail that was most mentioned by the travelers. We first visited Courthouse Rock and Jail House Rock that are a few hundred feet apart. Next we went to the Chimney Rock visitor center. They have a lot of information about the trail and the travelers in the mid 1800s. A little farther west is Scotts Bluff National Monument. Here we walked the trail for about one-half mile. You could not see evidence of the wagons ever passing here because the ground is so soft the ruts have filled in with dirt.

Monday & Tuesday, June 1 & 2, 2009, RMNP & Kimball, NB

The Aspen trees throughout the park were beautiful. Their new, green growth stood out in the midst of the dead trees that had been killed by a beetle infestation. We left RMNP in the morning and traveled to Kimball, NB. We are on our way to see some intersting sites in this area. Since it was raining on Tuesday morning, we decided to just stay put in this nice RV park. It gave us time to do the laundry and catch up on emails and this blog. There is good WiFi here.