Travels West: July 2013

Denali to Glenallen, Alaska

Cloudy and misty again, and could not see Mt .McKinley at either the North or South viewing sites off the Parks Highway. At Wasilla, we turned onto the Glenn Highway towards Palmer and Glenallen. Stopped just outside of Palmer at a viewpoint for the Matanuska River (runs into the Cook Inlet, Pacific Ocean). Passed by the Matanuska Glacier, with snowy Chugach Mountains appearing above the clouds. Photos of iron-stained limestone mountains en route to Glenallen, which is at the junction of the Tok Cutoff, and the road to Valdez with a good view of snowy Mt. Drum in the Wrangell Range.

Mt. Drum

Matanuska River

Iron-stained Limestone Mountains

Matanuska Glacier

Valdez
On the road to Valdez, we passed by the Worthington Glacier at Thompson Pass, which was in the clouds going to Valdez, but in the sun on the return trip. When we reached Valdez, we took Dayville Road which leads to the Alaska Oil Pipeline Terminal on Prince William Sound. Valdez itself has a ferry dock and marina for small craft and fishing vessels (salmon & halibut), which unload at the PeterPan canning and freezing factory. On our return to Glenallen, the weather had cleared a bit, so we took photos of Bridal Veil Falls, in Keystone Canyon. At Thompson Pass the temperature was 14 degrees, and it was sunny and out of the mist.

Worthington Glacier

Alaska Oil Pipeline Terminal, Valdez

Valdez Marina

Fishing boat coming into Harbour

Bridal Veil Falls, Keystone Canyon

Tok Cut-Off and Alaska Highway.

Another sunny day, and we followed the Copper River to Slana, with good views of Mt Drum & Mt Sanford in the Wrangell Range; after Slana we had the Alaska Range to the north and Mentasta Mtns to the south. Once in Tok we could see much smoke from forest fires in the east. Continuing on the Alaska Highway we drove back into Canada at Port Alcan in Yukon Territories. South of Beaver Creek, we saw a female moose swimming in lake and bull moose browsing on shore (too far away to photograph from a moving vehicle). We took photos of Mt. St-Elias Range (snow covered) and were then on the edge of Kluane National Park and Kluane Lake. We stopped in Haines Junction for the night, and in the morning we went into Haines Junction Visitor's Centre and Da Ku Cultural Centre, a lovely building only recently opened with interesting displays for Kluane National Park and registration for those planning to going on the wilderness trails. The history of the Champagne and Aishihik Nations was interesting as was the large map on the floor with the geography of the region, trapping trails, rivers & glaciers etc. In a separate climate controlled room there were some really nice examples of ceremonial & everyday clothing with intricate beading, and the First Nations Guide explained that coloured porcupine quills and moose sinew were used for decoration before glass beads were introduced. Back on the road, we travelled through the Takhini valley and salt flats before reaching Whitehorse again.

Kluane Lake & Mountains

Haines Junction

Da Ku Cultural & Kluane Park Visitor's Centre

Plaque re: Mountains & Icefields in Kluane National Park

From the Alaska Highway to the Cassiar-Stewart Highway in Northern BC
We travelled again on the Alaska Highway, across the Continental Divide, passing through Teslin and across the Nisutlin Bay Bridge towards Watson Lake. The Junction with Highway 37, the Cassiar-Stewart Highway, comes just before Watson Lake. Highway 37 in northern BC is like a secondary road, no painted lines and poor surface, and several roadworks. South of Good Hope on Dease River, there was evidence of gold mining activity with mechanized shaker boxes, and excavators etc. We stopped at Jade City, the jade is mined at Cassiar Mtn, and cut and shaped in various places including the village of Jade City. We stopped at a lovely campground on Dease Lake - parked on the edge of the lake (20 foot drop), no services were available, so it was dry camping.

Nisutlin Bay Bridge at Teslin

Evidence of a forest fire at Blue Lakes

Jade City

Dease Lake campground

Glaciers Galore - Stewart, BC / Hyder, Alaska.
Everything is very green, the trees are getting taller (lodge pole pine, aspens and poplars) and the road improved south of Kinaskin Lake. At Beaver Creek, there was a helicopter working to remove cut trees on a slope to make room for a new power line. Stopped at Bell 2 Lodge for coffee, a popular heli-skiing lodge in the winter time with some neat chalets. Stopped at Meziadin Provincial Park & dropped off the trailer at a beautiful site at the edge of the lake (dry camping again). After lunch we took a side trip to Stewart / Hyder and took photos of the hanging glaciers at Strohn Creek Bridge, and photos of Bear Glacier & Lake, apparently a wooden house was built in Bear Lake for the movie "Insomnia" starring Robin Williams & others.

Stewart is a small town at the tip of the Portland Canal, a narrow saltwater fjord approx 145 Km long. The fjord forms a natural boundary between US (Alaska) and Canada. We drove through Stewart to Hyder (in US) and up to Salmon Glacier summit viewpoint (back in Canada).

Working Helicopter

Chalet at Bell 2 Lodge

Site at Meziadin Lake

Meziadin Lake

Bear Glacier and Lake

Salmon Glacier

Close up of Salmon Glacier

Forest, Mountain & Clouds

Terrace & Kitimat BC.
From Meziadin Lake we drove to Kitwanga, at the end of the Cassiar-Stewart Highway. After parking the trailer again, we set off on the Yellowhead Highway 16, following the Skeena River to Terrace, BC, which is a mining, forestry, railway town with a good smattering of familiar stores . We turned off the Yellowhead which ends in Prince Rupert, and took Hway #37 to Kitimat, stopping at Lakelse Lake Provincial Park for a walk to the lake through large trees and rainforest type vegetation. Also went to their fish viewing platform, but no spawning salmon to be seen. This area of BC is known for the sighting of white bears or kermodie, and there was a statue of a kermodie at the Visitors Centre in Kitimat. Kitimat is a deep water port, ice free all year on an inlet, 90 km from the Pacific Ocean. The town was planned town around workings of Alcan/Rio Tinto Aluminium Smelter. Much more variety in trees and plants that can grow here, because of a more temperate climate. Kitimat also has a LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) plant. Drove over to Kitamaat - First Nations village and marina on the other side of the inlet.

Kitimat Visitors Centre Displays

Kermodie

Smelter and other industry at edge of Kitimat

Kitamaat Marina

First Nations fishing for Salmon in Kitimat River

Onward to Prince George.
Another sunny day as we left Kitwanga and drove east on the Yellowhead Hway to Prince George, through the Hazeltons (twisty road), seeing much more pastureland, ranches etc. Smithers came next and is the largest town in Bulkley River valley, with alpine-themed storefronts as the winter skiing resort for Hudson Bay Mtn. Passed through Telkwa, Houston (steelhead {trout} capital of the world), Burns Lake - cute village & interesting street through town, and a Mennonite wedding taking place at one church. A moose ambled across the road on front of us east of Vanderhoof , the geographical centre of BC, and distribution centre for agriculture, forestry and mining in this region. Then we came to Prince George which is at the confluence of the Fraser & Nechako Rivers. We did not drive into Prince George as Highway 97 to Vancouver (The Cariboo Highway) turned off the Yellowhead west of Prince George, it was getting late and we needed to find an RV Park.

Cariboo Region
We were now in the Cariboo region of BC, a mining, forestry & lumber products area. Quesnel boasts the world's largest gold pan at it's entrance to the town, and there is a viewing platform for forest industry saw mills, planers, pulp mills in the area, plus nursery for new trees. One company uses pines damaged by the pine beetle. Quesnel is located at the confluence of the Fraser and Quesnel rivers. Next stop was Williams Lake with a spectacular log building for the Tourism Discovery Centre, and an interesting idea for what to pack for camping on top of a car. We passed through 150 Mile House, Lac la Hache (village stretches for 11 km along the Lake), ate lunch and took photos at 108 Mile House Heritage Site. Then we were back into the mountains at Clinton (Lillooet Range), with desert, sandy like areas on lower slopes, Clinton (47 mile roadhouse) was once a stopping place at junction of two roads leading to the Cariboo goldfields.

Hudson Bay Mountain

Quesnel's world's largest gold pan

An example of Forestry Industry in Quesnel

Product waiting to be shipped

Williams Lake Discovery Centre

Necessities for camping

108 Mile House Heritage Village

Sea to Sky Highway
We turned onto Highway 99 (Sea to Sky Highway) just north of Cache Creek. The road was twisty, gravelly in spots with steep up and down grades (worst was 14% grade south of Lillooet). We travelled part of the way along the Fraser Canyon, which has almost desert-like vegetation, and many farmers have to irrigate their grass fields before they cut them for hay. Passed Lillooet, we were driving along the Cayoosh Creek and Canyon, which was very picturesque with tall western cedar trees. We stopped for the night just south of Pemberton at Nairn Falls Provincial Park. Lovely campsite in a cedar forest, dry camping again.

Fraser Canyon

Near Lillooett

Nairn Falls

Mt. Currie, Nairn Falls Provincial Park

Whistler to Victoria
Next morning was a lovely, sunny day and we took the 3 km walking trail to Nairn Falls on the Green River which was quite a chute of water flowing through a narrow gorge before leaving our site (see photos above). We then drove 15 km to Whistler, site of the Winter Olympics in 2010, and had a walk around Whistler Village, taking some photos. Blue jeans were definitely not the correct attire in this resort. Back on the road to Squamish, we took photos of snowy peaks at Tantalus Lookout, and of Howe Sound, south of Squamish, close to Britannia Beach. We toured the Britannia Copper Mine Museum, which was interesting and included a ride into an old tunnel and demos of the equipment that was used to break into the rock for the copper. Also included was Mill #3 which crushed the rock and retrieved the copper using water /foam. We arrived at Horseshoe Bay, Vancouver in time for 2:30 pm ferry to Nanaimo which was full, so we got onto the 3:10 pm ferry (Queen of Oak Bay). It took one hour and forty minutes to sail to Nanaimo. We were off the ferry by 5:00pm, and drove to our destination in Victoria. For the first two nights we were in Goldstream Provincial Park dry camping in an old growth forest, then to an RV park on the edge of the harbour, close to the West Shore boardwalk. Mission accomplished.