Note - 3

September 28th, 2005 | By April | 1 Comment »

I uploaded a few pics of Denali - Aug 15/16 blog entry.

Below are some pics of when we were driving through Canada to AK and back through Canada to WA.

Banff National Park

Jasper National Park, our first night camping in Canada!

Jasper National Park

Canadian School Bus

Jason in Jasper National Park

Yukon, Canada

Yukon, Canada

View from our tent on our 2nd night camping in Canada

Sept. 12 - YT, Canada/AK

September 15th, 2005 | By April | 1 Comment »

Day 42 – Our last day on the Alaska Highway. We decided it would be nice for us to find a place to shower up since we haven’t showered since we left Salt Lake City. It’s not that we are trying to go all natural or anything – just the campgrounds that we have been staying at have not had showers or any water facilities. We didn’t want to offend my Aunt and her family arriving with five days of dirt and grime on us. It felt really good to shower! And our drive continued and we successfully crossed the boarder into the states again with no problems at all, some of the nicest boarder guards we have met. There is something comforting about all of a sudden driving in your home country – even though Canada isn’t that different with driving. I also noticed that in Canada we never saw a mounty or anything – and you could tell because no one went the speed limit. Once we were in AK for a few hours I had already spotted two highway troopers. We arrived just in time for dinner at my aunt’s house in Fairbanks – well planned huh?

Sept. 11 - BC, Canada/YT, Canada

September 15th, 2005 | By April | No Comments »

Day 41 – The trees started to turn a light shade of orange, but mostly still yellow and we are constantly driving through mountains and countryside. It is a really great drive and I think more lonelier than highway 50 in the states. We have seen a lot of wild animals on our drive, more than we saw at Yellowstone – our sightings include: a bunch of caribou (these guys are so cute and beautiful), a moose who tried to chase a semi, a bear running into the forest, deer, and a bunch of bison. We were constantly watching the road for animals to make sure they didn’t run out in front of us. We stopped right before nightfall outside of Whitehorse at Marsh Lake Provincial Campground.

Sept 10 - AB, Canada/BC, Canada

September 15th, 2005 | By April | No Comments »

Day 40 – The clouds were still hanging around so we didn’t get to view the icefield or much else of Jasper National Park. We continued our way out of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and up highway 40 to the Alaska Highway. Now our serious drive is ahead of us, we are trying to drive as much as we can to get to Fairbanks, AK as soon as we can, to cut down the costs of day to day living like food and camping. Since the prices of gas went up and in Canada they were up as high as $4.56 a gallon (much more than we expected) our trip is based on a shorter amount of traveling days. The drive along the side of the rocky mountains was covered in yellow trees, contrasting against the evergreens and letting us know fall is here and it is much colder outside of the car. We camped tonight at Buckinghorse River, a provincial park of British Columbia. There we met some nice people from Edmonton, Mark and Wanda – originally from New Zealand. We sent the night chatting with them about various items and learned that Wanda does small trekking tours in Nepal - check out her website for more information www.hihimalayas.com . They also gave us some great information on Alaska.

Sept 9 - MT/AB, Canada

September 15th, 2005 | By April | No Comments »

Day 39 - We have hit the fall of the north and are no longer wearing shorts and tank tops – though I am sticking to my flip flops for awhile longer. We tried out the seat warmers that came in the car – I have to say that was a great invention. Felt like someone was rubbing the soreness out of my lower back and my body got thoroughly warmed up. It is refreshing to be in the cooler weather and Jason is definitely enjoying the non-sticky humid climate.

We woke up in Glacier National Park with clouds all around us and a dew soaked tent. Haven’t have dew in a long time, I almost forgot about that part of nature. As we maneuver up through the mountains, the parks’ stunning beauty and sharp features kept us in awe and driving slow. The lack of guardrails and the drop of 3,000 vertical feet through the clouds below at the edge of the road also kept us in awe and driving slow. As we drove up to the pass the clouds frolicked up out of the valley and along the road, starting to clear up the higher we climbed. At the pass we had a great view of the sun coming over the horizon and dappling some color on the mountain tops. One of the more untouched national parks we have. I can’t wait to go back.

Canada!! Yay, the guards let us cross the boarder into the wonderful land of moose, maple, and friendly people. Though, we had to be questioned up in the customs office first, but no car search was done – thank god, because I am sick of repacking the car. Right as we started driving north to Calgary the clouds started to settle in more and there wasn’t much to look at. Calgary was all shrouded in clouds so we only saw a faint outline of a few buildings. We moved onto Banff and the clouds got thicker. As we drove through the park the only part we could see was the base of the mountains, but we could tell that they looked enormous and astounding even if they were covered in clouds. The whole trip through Banff and Jasper National Park was cloudy, so we will have to come back again. Our camping tonight happened right as we crossed into Jasper Park, next to the Columbia Icefield. The whole landscape was blanketed in snow. It was really exciting to be in snow, since I never really got enough of it growing up. I had my first experience snow camping and our tent became an igloo because during the night it snowed about 2-1/2 inches or so.