The Snowy Range of Wyoming

From Rawlins, Wyoming, we took a drive into the mountains, along the “Snowy Range Loop”. This is a 400+ mile loop which goes through Saratoga, Laramie and Medicine Bow. We only did about 1/3 of it, going only as far as an overlook of the Snowy Range and the Libby Flats. This took us up to 10,800 ft., a height we did not reach while in Alaska. Our highest heights in AK were below the 4000 ft. mark. We could definitely feel it when we exerted ourselves even a little bit to walk from the car to the overlooks. The Snowy Range itself was quite spectacular once the sun decided to come out. Part of our trip was accompanied by rain but, we did have some moments of sun, which we were able to take advantage of and get some nice photos. The Aspen trees in the mountains were quite a bright shade of yellow. We even ran into real cowboys doing a real cattle drive. They were moving the cows from their Summer to Winter pastures and they were moving right along the road.

It was a nice break from the driving to take a day and do a little sight seeing again.

California, Nevada, Utah

Heading out of San Francisco on I-80 East, we had our first stop already planned; the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. We had been there last year and did the factory tour already, but we also knew they had a good café in their visitor’s center and plenty of RV parking, so we stopped there. Needless to say, we also purchased too much candy.

Soon, we were in Nevada. After crossing some of the steeper mountain passes, we were in the desert plains. Pretty flat and boring here, compared to where we have been this summer, but the weather here is much warmer than most of the weather we had in Alaska. Soon it was necessary to start the A/C. Our first overnight was in Sparks, NV near Reno. We didn’t have to unhook the car, but we wanted to go out to dinner and do a little shopping. We got a coupon at the RV park for the local Fuddruckers and then went to Target and the world’s largest sporting goods store, Scheels. Although we did not need to buy any sporting goods, we did find some pet supplies.

More hot, boring driving the second day. We stopped off in Lovelock, NV for lunch at a nice little Mexican & American restaurant. Then on to Wells, NV. The next morning, Geoff discovered we had stayed at a different RV park at this same exit from I-80 in 2009 when we were traveling westbound.

Day three, got a late start because we were only going to Salt Lake City. Ellyn is going to stock up on some sewing supplies for a quilting class she is taking in Des Moines, IA. We stopped off in West Wendover, NV, just before hitting Utah, for some inexpensive buffet at one of the casinos. Of course we blew it by stopping at the one-armed bandits on the way out. Ellyn lost $20 in short order but Geoff won $5 at video poker, so we only paid $15 extra for our lunch. D’oh!

Next, a long, nearly straight, drive across the Bonneville Salt Flats, at nowhere near a land speed record, around the end of the Great Salt Lake, and into Salt Lake City. We’ll be setting up here for 3 nights before heading into Wyoming, the first of three states we have not yet visited since starting RVing 3 1/2 years ago.

A Week of Rest

We just finished a week at the San Francisco RV Resort in Pacifica, CA, just a couple of blocks from Ellyn’s sister’s house. This was a great time to relax a bit and stop driving nearly every day for a change. Geoff got to play some guitar with Ellyn’s Brother-in-law, Jay, and complete the update on our video system. We took a long walk along the beach in Pacifica with Jordy and dipped his toes in the Pacific Ocean. We also took in a San Francisco Giants baseball game (Giants won!). We had a couple of meals with Ellyn’s Father and his wife, and a brunch with a childhood friend of Ellyn’s that she had not seen in 40 years.

Our plans now are to follow I-80 East all the way to Iowa before turning south toward Florida. Today we drove the first 240 miles of that into Nevada and are staying at an RV Resort in Reno. We probably will not hit any casinos but we might go out for dinner and a little shopping at the outlet stores nearby.

While We Were Away…

Our satellite TV system died. Well, one standard definition receiver died and, when we tried to get the remaining one to work when we got back to the Lower 48, the satellite dome antenna on the roof of the RV would not seek properly and started resetting itself. We already had plans to upgrade the whole AV system to HD when we got to Florida, so this forced our hand a bit. We stopped at a Camping World store in Washington and bought a Winegard Slimline automatic satellite antenna and Geoff installed it in a couple of days. Now, it is hooked up to the remaining, working standard def receiver and we are able to get our satellite channels again.

Next, we called DirecTV and ordered a HD DVR. They gave it to us for free for being such good customers, and 3 months free service on it. We also plan on getting a new TiVo HD DVR which will be able to record from cable and over-the-air signals. We did not get the DirecTV DVR with TiVo, because the free one was a big plus and Geoff found out there is really no advantage to the TiVo software, since it will not interact with other TiVos on the same network, like the old Series 2 devices would. This should give us a pretty nice system when it is all installed and working. When we get to Pacifica, California, DirecTV will come to us and install the new DVR and give us a manual HD dish as a back-up for the Winegard dish.

Alaska Wildlife

Click an image for a full size view.

The Last Days of the Great Alaskan Caravan

From Chicken, AK, we crossed the bumpy, winding, graveled, muddy, dusty “Top of the World” highway to Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. This little town was a key player in the Gold Rush of 1898. Actually, it got started when gold was discovered near there in 1897, and by the time people got there the next year, most of the good claims were already taken. The ones who did not leave either worked for the ones who had good paying claims, or sold their services in other ways, as blacksmiths, dentist, doctors, or whatever their skills were. Dawson City was built as a jumping-off point on the Yukon River for gold prospector “wanna-be”s.

From Dawson, we continued to Whitehorse, Yukon, where we filled up on fuel, grabbed some groceries, and hoped to do some internet updates. Sadly, the park we stayed at had changed their set up and we could only use a meager amount of bandwidth. Enough to check email, but not enough to do some blogging and photo uploads (this blog entry will probably not get to the web until we get to the U.S. again).

We then back-tracked a bit on the Alaska highway to near Watson Lake, and were able to cross the wash-out that we barely missed coming north back in June. This wash-out is still only a one lane track across the rocky area left behind, and may not be fully repaired until in 2013. We then turned off the highway for the last time and took route 37 into British Columbia toward Prince George. This stretch is known as the Cassiar Highway. It was a bit more narrow than the Alaska highway and somewhat more bumpy, although mostly paved, and we were only able to do about 45-50 mph in the rigs. We drove for five days on this road, and made a stop about half way down to take a short side trip to Hyder, Alaska. This town keeps Canada time, uses Canada currency, but is just over the border from Stewart, BC. Here we took in the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site, our last National Park System location in Alaska, where we hoped to view bears fishing for the salmon which were running. We only saw one small Black Bear, which was more interested in the salmon berries than in the salmon in the stream.

One more stop on the way to Prince George is Smithers, BC, one of the largest towns we have been in in a while. They have two supermarkets within spitting distance of each other, and we are staying at the municipal park at the river’s edge and the wi-fi is free and fast! We are SO looking forward to the amenities of traveling in the “lower 48” again including 4G service on our phones almost everywhere we go, and satellite TV connectivity again. We have been able to get cable TV in many places but the TiVo has had limited use without a regular, reliable connection to the internet and without our regular satellite lineup. We feel like we are returning from a trip to the wilderness and are dying for a taste of Coca-Cola.

We will miss traveling with Ken and Martha. It has been a lot of good times, good laughs, and fun adventures. It will be nice to be on our own schedule again but it was a wonderful trip and we would not have missed it for the world. And we will always be able to continue enjoying their adventures by tuning into their monthly (and sometimes bi-monthly) podcasts at RVNavigator.com.

Ellyn and I parted company with Ken and Martha in Price George, BC. They continued on their way back to their home in Romeoville, IL, and whatever adventures await them in the future, and we start a trip which will take us to Gig Harbor, WA to see her Brother and Sister-in-law’s new home, then on to San Francisco, to visit with her Sister and Father before heading to Florida for a well deserved, long Winter’s nap. Every one we meet in the next year can expect to be subjected to our photo albums and slide shows. They will not be disappointed.

Winding Down

Now that we have reached the last week of August, we are starting to feel our Alaskan adventure winding down. We are back in Fairbanks, one of the places where it all started. We were her two months ago, at the beginning of the Summer, and so much has happened since then. We have been to the southern coast, we have seen salmon running and eagles and bears fishing, glaciers calving and whales fluting. We have enjoyed kayaking on Kodiak Island with puffins and fishing for halibut in Cook Inlet. We have been wowed by high mountains and bear cubs.

Things are not completely over yet in Alaska. We will go from Fairbanks to Tok and then take the Top-Of-The-World Highway out of Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon, one of the icon towns of the Gold Rush. Then really begins the long, long drive back through Canada to the lower 48. Our current plan at that point is to visit Ellyn’s siblings and Father on the West Coast, mainly because we may not be out this way for a long time. After two long trips these past two years, we will be restricting our travels mostly to the East Coast for the next year and a half at least. To get to our Winter home in Sarasota, Florida, we will have to drive nearly as far as we have already traveled in our journey since we left Boston in May, about 7,000 miles.

In Fairbanks, we did a few errands, got some supplies, and rested up for the long journey that remains. We got Jordy groomed, picked up some Alaskan beers for our “beer-snob” sons (their term), and replaced our 20 pound propane tank, which Geoff somehow left at our campground in Palmer. Geoff got to see a little auto racing at the “Northern Most Paved Race Track in North America”. Our friends, Ken and Martha returned from their adventure to the Arctic Ocean and we got to share our experience of seeing Mount Denali in all its glory. We drove around to the Creamer’s Field Waterfowl Refuge and saw Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes gathering for their migration south. We will be joining them.

Chicken and Eagle

On our way out of Alaska, we visited some of the most remote parts you can get to by road…Chicken and Eagle. Chicken is a tiny gold mining town on the Taylor Highway, also known as the “Top of the World” Highway. This route eventually leads to Dawson City, Yukon, and is mostly graveled. Chicken is very small and quaint, consisting mainly of a gas station, a couple of eating establishments, an RV park, and a tourist attraction in the form of a gold dredge. The dredge was hauled here from a more remote area. The town was supposed to be called “Ptarmigan”, named for the small, Alaskan bird, but the residents could not spell it. The café near the dredge has a wonderful bakery, where they make very good pies, cookies, and pastries. We had dinner there our first night and followed it up with pie ala mode. Yum!

The second day in Chicken, we piled into Ken and Martha’s car and drove to Eagle, an even more remote town in Alaska, on the Yukon River, right on the border of Yukon Territory, Canada. Eagle was once a thriving town, key in river traffic from Dawson City along the Yukon River, and an Army Outpost. Now it is struggling. Tourist traffic does not come here much any more because of problems with the road going there not being able to handle heavy tour buses. We took in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Visitor’s Center, and a walking tour through the town and the old Army Fort buildings.

The drive in and out was a grueling, 3 hour each way, ordeal. A lot of twists and turns and switch-backs. Although the terrain was interesting and possibly quite photogenic, the combination of poor weather (cloudy and spritzing rain off and on) and the devastation of fire several years ago, made most pictures drab, at best. Just the same, we were taken by the splash of Autumn colors over the hills. The ever-present fireweed, that we had seen in various stages of bloom over the entire state, were devoid of their flowers here, with their leaves turning bright red, and seed pod fuzz starting to show.

Next, we drive the rigs over most of this same terrain and gravel highway, out of Alaska, into Yukon, and on to Dawson City.