Travelin' Tracy's Busy On-The-Road

We made it back home to Fleetwood on September 27th after 125 days on the most fantastic trip ever! We put over 12,800 miles on the RV and several thousand more on the Saturn and best of all we are still BEST FRIENDS and anxious to get off on another trip!

NOTE: Please check our 2010 Trip to Alaska at the following

www.mytripjournal.com/Tracys2010Alaska

NOTE: You can now check out our 2007 trip to the Olympic Peninsula and on to Florida at our Trip Journal site

www.mytripjournal.com/Tracys2007PAtoFLviaOlympicPeninsula

We have started a new blog for our trip west in 2014 that can be found on Blogger at
Travelintracys2014tripwest.blogspot.com 

The following is a listing of where we went in Sept 05 but have not yet posted. I am working on posting them, although very slowly....

Sept 8-11 Visiting family and friends in Oregon and travel to California via the Redwood Highway. Includes sightings of California elk herds.

Sept 12-18 Visiting Pat's brother and family in California

Sept 19-20 Reno and Nevada

Sept 21-23 Wyoming and South Dakota Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park etc.

Sept 24-27 Heading home via MN, WI, IL, IN, OH, and PA

Stay tuned and please add your comments to any posting!

Visit in Moscow Idaho with Dick’s Fraternity Brother

After enjoying our trip down through the Canadian Rockies we headed back in the USA crossing at US Route 95 into northern Idaho.  The crossing itself was uneventful and it felt good to be back in the US, although we certainly had enjoyed every minute of our visit through Canada’s western provinces.

We stopped in a nice campground along US 95 near Sandpoint, ID and made plans to visit with Dick’s former college roommate, George Branson and his wife Becky in Moscow, ID.  Moscow is home to the University of Idaho where Dick graduated in 1966.  We have not seen George in many years and look forward to seeing them and the old campus and the Palouse Country of Eastern Washington and Idaho.

We found George and Becky at their home and place of business, the Hillcrest Motel, located right on Rt 95 toward the north end of Moscow’s main street.  It was a wonderful warm greeting that we received and it only took a few minutes to park the RV in the lot behind the motel and for Dick and George to start gabbing about the old times and who each of them had been in contact with from the Lambda Chi Alpha gang of the early and mid 1960’s.  It was great to see both George and Becky and to meet their two sons.  We spent several days taking in the sights and sounds of Moscow and the U of I as well as a visit to Washington State University only about a dozen miles away in Pullman, Washington. 

One afternoon we took a long drive down to the Nez Perce Idaho area and the town where George grew up in and Dick had shared a visit to his parent’s farm.  What beautiful country the rolling hills are, with small towns nestled into some areas. The golden color of the grains awaiting harvest and the vast cultivated fields are splendid and bring home the realization of the hard work of farming. George owns a quarter section of really fine Idaho farm land which he was given by his biological dad who was killed in WWII shortly after George was born.  George farms it and has a motor home that he uses for a residence while he is in Nez Perce performing his farm chores.  Their RV is a nice Foretravel and George can be a bit rough on it when he comes in from the fields after a long day on the tractor or combine.  Someday we hope to be able to join George and Becky on an RV trip either to Canada, Alaska or the Olympic Peninsula.  I will post some photos of the area and the Branson’s shortly.

Jasper & Banff BC

Off on our way to the famous Canadian National Parks of Jasper and Banff we took our time and spent an evening in the delightful BC town of Smithers where we stayed in the town's municipal Riverside Campground. This is a very pleasant and clean campground that was filled mostly with local Canadians who were very friendly. There are salmon running in this river even though we are many miles from the Pacific coast. Our next night found us at heading for a Wal-Mart in Prince George but local ordinances prohibit camping overnight there so we pushed on to Purdon Lake Provincial Park which had a nice swimming beach being used by many local families. Again a very nice and inexpensive park. The park contains many trails and of course the large lake that looked like it would be a great place to fish. Had our first Whoops on our way out of the park when making a very sharp right turn I rode over a large stone that struck the bottom of the side panel behind the right rear tire. No real damage but too close for comfort. Along the way we got the great view above of beautiful Mt. Robson in Mt. Robson NP adjacent to Jasper NP.(photo above)

Diesel prices had dropped to $.959 per liter when we filled up in St. Bride, BC. As we got to the entrance to Jasper NP we lost an hour due to time zone change. For an entrance fee of $32 CN we got a two day pass to the park. We pulled into Whistler Campground in the park and they had only dry camping spaces available for $24 per night. A big and very clean and busy park. After dinner in the town of Jasper we drove out to Maigne Lake area (see photo) to look for bears and the scenery. No bears but did see our first porcupine and of course some very beautiful scenery as the sun settled into the west about 10 pm.

Jasper the town is a very commercial tourist place but very pleasant and reasonably easy to get around in. It appeared to be very skiing oriented and there is a tram lift up to the top of a mountain where you can get a great view of the whole area.

Saturday morning August 27 we awoke and after breakfast headed south on the Icefield Highway toward Banff and Lake Louise. Our first stop was a Athabasca Falls. It is a beautiful and popular stop where you can walk directly out on nicely built walkways to see the falls and the many potholes the river has carved out in the bedrock. This is a must see stop if you are in the area. All along the Icefield Highway the scenery is really beautiful just as seen in all the books and literature for the area. It's no wonder that so many people from all over the world come to Banff and Jasper.

A bit further down the highway we stopped at the renoun Columbia Ice Fields area where we took a ride in a specially built giant enclosed tracked snow vehicle onto the Athabasca Glacier. This is still part of Jasper NP. The scenery along this highway is without a doubt some of the most breathtaking in the North American continent. Once again the good Lord has been on our side with the weather to take this portion of the trip. Today's temperature was in the mid to upper 60's and warmer in the brilliant sun, tomorrow they predict some rain. We arrived at the Lake Louise campground about 7:30 and settled in with electric and water service in this very large park.

Our XM radio service is working again, has been since and in Hyder, and we are starting to hear news of Hurricane Katrina which may damage New Orleans. (Little did we know then!) We drove to the city of Banff from Lake Louise via the Bow Valley Parkway which is a very scenic route with no commercial traffic. The weatherman had been wrong and today is another beautiful day! Had a great lunch in a Banff pub then shopped for several hours in the nice shops that fill the downtown area. Our return trip to the RV was again along the Bow Valley Parkway where Dick took photos while Pat drove. The mountains along this road are rugged with beautiful rock faces and provide an amazing backdrop to the aqua blue glacier fed river that runs the length of the valley.

Back at camp we unloaded the gifts we bought and took off for the beautiful Lake Louise Lodge and its mountain lake setting. We had visited this area in 1972 when our son was 3 and daughter was only 9 months old and we had loved the beautiful setting and particularly the beautiful flower garden with the reflecting ball. Most unfortunately the gardens were totally torn up and being replaced as the government had directed that the flowers be replaced with only locally native flowers! The staff we met sure weren't happy with that action. Makes no sense at all!! There is only a 4 month growing season here.

Next morning we awoke to rain and spent the AM listening to the XM Radio about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast tragedy that was occurring. Taking a down day today to catch up on postings and housekeeping. Next morning after hooking up the toad we drove to the Lake Louise Ski lodge and took the lift to the top of the mountain to see the view. The lift cost $28 CN each including a lunch buffet at the ski lodge. The temperature was only about 50 degeres and windy so very cold on the lift. Then we were off again, heading Southwest toward Radium Hot Springs to stay and then pick up highway 95 back into Idaho and the USA!

Hyder Alaska, Bears and the Beautiful Salmon Glacier

Our last stop in Alaska....Hyder, the tiny unguarded town with some of the best scenery and friendliest people in Alaska. We had spoken to many people along the way on this trip and the most excited tales that we heard were from people who had taken the time to go out of the way to visit Hyder. We just had to do it ourselves and boy are we glad we did!

We camped at Camp Run A Muck RV Park at the eastern edge of the few dozen buildings that make up Hyder. Entering Hyder from British Columbia from the small town of Stewart, BC we got out our passports expecting to go through US Customs as we had in all other border crossings into the USA...BUT... there is no US Customs on entering Hyder! Nope, the town is tiny and there is nothing after it but hundreds of miles of steep mountains, glaciers, raging rivers and lots of wildlife so I guess that customs thinks there is no threat of illegal entry here! The streets are mud (they prefer to call them gravel or dirt) and the post office is in a trailer under a snow shed covering supported by substantive wooden poles. There is a rumor that they will pave the roads in 2006. There are several nice places to eat in town in tourist season and of course on visit would be complete without going to "The Bus" for great Halibut Fish and Chips.

Just outside of Hyder the US Park Service has constructed a bear watching wooden walkway, well constructed and elevated from the salmon laden stream and alongside it are some absolutely huge spruce trees (see photo). It is about a mile or so from town via the only road west and while we were there the first night we just missed seeing the bears...well almost.... we got into our car to drive back and as we rounded a bend there in the road directly ahead of us was a large grizzly bear walking straight toward us. We stopped and took many photos as it approached and then sniffed the car under Dick's window and went on by. A very neat experience!

Tuesday the 23rd we got out early to go visit the bear watching stand and to our most pleasant surprise ran into Roy & Linda Dean, with their two dogs. They are a very nice couple from Texas who we had spent some time with in Fort Richardson. After watching a small bear and getting some nice photos we were off together to get breakfast but the restaurant had closed for breakfast so we made up some pancakes and eggs in our RV and had a nice chat. Dick looked out the window and who should pull in but Jim and Bonnie Larson in their Discovery. The two couples we had most enjoyed both in the same remote spot at the same time - a nice feeling of friendship!

About 2 pm Pat and I took off to drive to Salmon Glacier which was an unexpected delight and again one of the highlights of our whole trip. The road to the glacier, dirt of course, is an active mining road of sorts with lots of very sharp turns and steep drop offs along the very edge of the road to the left when driving out to the glacier. We had been told not to try to go to the Salmon Glacier when the weather was bad but we had one of the most gorgeous days of the entire trip with blue sky and some nice puffy white clouds and temperatures in the upper 60's or above. We took lots of photos of this most beautiful unspoiled glacier. (See photos which really don't allow you to get the huge size of the place) This is one of the very few if not only places in the world where one can drive along and be significantly above one beautiful big glacier that fills the lower valley and then further up turns and goes for several miles to its source in a large ice field. At the best viewing spot across from where the glacier turns into the valley to go toward the icefield we met "The Bear Man". He has published several books on bears and was selling them and DVDs of bears and the gracier. One book is on local bears here by Hyder and the other is on the bears of North America. We will let the photos of the glacier speak for themselves.

On our way back we had a Fisher cross the road in front of us.. a rare treat but not time to get a photo.

This was our last morning in Alaska and we were certainly sad to be leaving but we do have to head home eventually, although full timing again sounds enticing! We took the car to Stewart to check out where to get gas and stopped and had some great pastries from a bakery in Stewart. Then back to the RV to pack it up for travel again.

The car and the RV were both very dirty and in Stewart there was a place that offered to wash them. Did the RV for $1CN per foot in length and $8CN for the car. I thought $50CN for the two was a good deal and what a difference in appearance!They did a very nice job using steam and pressure washers. We ran into Roy and Linda there doing the same thing. We joined Roy and Linda for lunch at the bakery in Stewart while they washed the units, Then it was good by to Roy and Linda and off down the rest of the Cassiar Highway. We saw three more bears along that stretch of road. At the end of the Cassiar at Kitwanga, BC, we turned East onto to "YellowHead Highway" headed toward Jasper and Banff in BC.

On toward Stewart BC and Hyder

We are realizing that our time in Alaska is drawing to a close with only one more stop actually in the state. That will be in Hyder, the only town on the eastern side of the lower panhandle of Alaska. Our drive from Skagway to Hyder will take us over a bit of the ALCAN highway in British columbia that we had travelled coming north. We planned to stop again at Mukluk Annie's near Teslin south of the Teslin bridge seen in the photo. However, we got there earlier than we wanted to stop so continued on to Continental Divide RV Park. Pat's arm was beginning to be very painful.

We continued on to Watson Lake where we viewed the Signpost Forrest again and bought diesel fuel at $1.15 CN pe liter and some groceries. Backtracking a few miles, we left the Alaska Highway turning south onto the Cassiar Highway, It runs through a long and sparsely populated area of western British Columbia, really beautiful and isolated country with both broad and narrow valleys and some very nice lakes.

We chose to stop and camp at Kinaskan Provincial Park south of Iskut, BC. the park is on a beautiful lake and we had a very clean campsite right on the water with great views of the scenery from the lakeshore. The park fee was taken in US currency as $11.

In the morning we were off down the Cassiar to the turn to Stewart and Hyder.

An unexpected trip to Juneau

While we were in Haines we found a brochure advertising a relatively recently initiated high speed catamaran trip being offered on a daily roundtrip basis to Juneau. Although Juneau is the state capital of Alaska we had not expected to be able to go there unless we were to take the very expensive ferry and, as stated in an earlier post, we had decided to not do that. Juneau can only be reached by air or sea as there are no roads into Juneau from the rest of the mainland due to the steep mountain ranges and glaciers surrounding the entire area of the southern Alaska panhandle. The catamaran trip offered a new option and we decided to stay an extra night in Skagway and enjoy the opportunity.

Most unfortunately, Pat slipped while going down a very steep gangway to a lower pier to board the catamaran and wrenched her shoulder, causing a problem that would plague her for the rest of the trip and longer. She did not realize at the time how much it was going to bother her and we did go on the trip. The 2 1/2 hour boat ride was delightful, sighting seals and dolphins along the way while served by a freindly crew. Include in the day long package was a bus tour of Juneau, shopping time and a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier shown in photo and the information center where we viewed a nice film on the glacier and area. We lunched at the historic and quaint Red Dog Saloon located in the center of the intown photo. That photo also shows the mountains close behind the city. Of course we took full advantage of the shopping to buy the last of our Alaska trip gifts for family and friends.


Our return trip was very plesant yeilding views of a large rainbow and a particularly picturesque lighthouse. We also enjoyed a light meal of smoked salmon chowder served by the crew. We arrived back home about 8 PM still enjoying the extended daylight.

On to Haines, and ferry to Skagway

Leaving Wrangel-St Elias area was tough as it had been so beautiful and adventerous but on we go.

Before we left Kenny Lake RV Park we took time to go out and gather some Diamond Willow branches ourselves in the area the park owners had told us was OK for us to cut. Diamond Willow is actually a half tree half large bush willow that has a disease that causes the places where the branches shoot off the main trunks to be indented in a diamond shape. It is harvested in this part of Alaska and sold in gift and tourist spots after the branches have been debarked and polished up. Often used for walking sticks and is strikingly attractive when finished properly. Dick will have to wet and bark them once we get back to PA and make a walking stick for each of the 6 grandkids.

One other major plus we had at Kenny Lake RV Park was meeting and getting aquainted with Jim & Bonnie Larson, full time RVers who also own a Discovery. These delightful folks have been full timing for 2 1/2 years and listening to them makes us want to consider it even more. We hope to see them again along the way.

Heading down highway 4 and highway 1 toward Tok Junction we finally happened upon a moose and her calf in a pond alongside the road. We kept meeting folks who have seen losts of moose but while we have seen many bears and the wolves in Denali we just had not seen moose other than in Anchorage. Strange luck I guess.

After spending a night in Tok and seeing Jim & Bonnie again we headed toward Haines. When one drives to visit Haines as we did, you have a choice to drive back up the same road to Tok Junction and then take a two day drive around the mountains to go to Skagway or elect to take the ferry for 17 miles between the two seaports. Given the current high cost of fuel we have elected to take on a new adventure and try totake the RV and car onto the ferry.

Driving on toward Haines we entered back into Canada with no problems at customs and pushed on thorugh this beautiful country toward Haines Junction, which while a major milestone on the road is a very small community. We turned south at the junction looking for a place to stay the night. We chose to dry camp along the highway in a pull out by Rock Glacier Trail. This was a first for us to be so openly camped by ourselves in such a very desolate place along the highway but it was sure quiet. While we have experienced many glaciers this one is different in that it is actually a large "river of sharp rocks" with a nice boardwalk erected to lead visitors up to a good vantage point. As always Pat snapped photos of wildflowers along the way.

To continue on to Haines the road first took us back into Yukon Territory, then back to BC and finally into Alaska again. God this is BIG COUNTRY up here and the distances are immense! WE LOVE IT!

Arriving in Haines we needed to choose a campsite and chose to drive out through town to a beautiful place called Chilkat State Rec Area that offers beautiful over the sound views of two impressive glaciers, Davidson Glacier and Rainbow Glacier. (see photo). The only surprise was the 14% downgrade with several hairpin turns on the gravel road into the park. We detached the Saturn to take the grade and I still bottomed out the hitch on several places! But, it was worth it and we had our choice of almost all the spaces!

We toured downtown Haines and its few shops. Haines has an old US Army post that has been restored and converted into something of an artist area. Cruise ships can make port here although most do not preferring to go further up the water to Skagway. We visited Chilkoot State Rec Area, the other state run camping choice to look for Bears near the salmon counting wier across the river. We were fortunate to see a large female grizzly and her one cub very close to us right along the river and later observed her again on a tidal flatt where they fed on some grasses and berries. Took lots of pictures and videos of them and the fishermen that were fairly nearby in the river.

Next morning, after sleeping in to nearly 9AM, but before we were to take the ferry, Dick drove across town to go salmon fishing where we had seen the bears. He caught and landed 6 nice Pink salmon and lost a few more using a black and pink Mepps spinner. He had a ball and released them all as the freezer is rather full.

Our adventure on taking the ferry to Skagway hopefully is not typical of one should expect. The ferry (costing $152 for the RV and $77 for the Saturn) we scheduled to take was to leave Haines at 6:45 PM and after a short one hour trip over the 17 miles of water we planned to have dinner in Skagway after making the drip in daylight. Well not quite! Our ferry didn't leave until after 9PM. I drove the RV onto the ferry and was directed to park it where I would have to back it out of the very tight space and turn it around in order to drive it off. The ferry was not a drive on one end and off the other but a park it in the lower hold vessel! It got dark as we left the pier and we cold not enjoy the scenery so we attempted to get something to eat at the ship's galley. Well by the time we got there it was closing, seems that no one had told the cooks that loading was delayed and we had to beg our way to obtain something to eat as it was going to be too late to find a place to eat in Skagway. When we arriv ed at Skagway the ship couldn't get the brow to lower to drive the vehicles off and it took awhile until the crew managed to manually lower it.

Fortunately, we had made what was only our second advance reservation for a space on our whole trip to date, the other being in Denali Park, and Pat was able to use her cell phone to appraise the park of our delay. The gracious park owner was waiting for us when we finally arrived shortly after 11 PM.

Next morning, August 18, we toured around downtown Skagway, discovering that there were three large cruise ships in town that day. We picked up our second batch of forwarded mail at the Skagway post office, (Thanks to our son DJ) then decided to look in the shops. Big mistake??? Pat found a set of Alexandrite ear rings (her birthstone). Then off on the famous Skagway train ride up through the pass and dangers that the initial gold rush miners had to climb. It was a really neat train ride and most of the cruise ship passengers were riding in cars added to the back of the train after the train backed down right by the piers. Unfortunately the weather was one of the very few rainy days we experienced in the whole trip and the scenery, while very impressive, lost some of its beauty to the clouds and fog. We do strongly recommend however taht anyone coming to Alaska plan to include Skagway and the train ride in their plans.

A surprise trip to the Largest National Park

A surprise trip to the nations largest National Park

As was mentioned in the Valdez Blog, we passed the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park and National Preserve on the way to Valdez from Glenallen. Well we stopped at the visitor’s center on the way down to Valdez. After watching a beautiful video on the Park and seeing other information we decided we would change plans and visit Wrangell/St. Elias the day after Valdez. So on Saturday, August 13th we pulled the RV from Glenallen to Kenny Lake, AK where we parked it in the Kenny Lake RV park and immediately took off to drive into the park.

Wrangell/St. Elias NP is the nation’s largest National Park. It was established in 1980. It is over six times the size of Yellowstone Park, the largest park in the lower 48 states. It contains peaks and peaks of mountains and glaciers after glaciers. It is also one of only three national parks in Alaska that is accessible by road: Denali being one of the two others. The park is a national park and a national preserve that includes 13.2 million square acres. There is also some private land within the overall park boundaries. It in includes one full mountain range and parts of two others and numerous glaciers as well as the Wrangell and Bagley Icefields that spawn more glaciers. It includes nine of the 16 highest peaks in the US. It adjoins Kulane National Park in Canada. We bought a video and several other items showing the park which we want to share with family and friends when we finally return from this trip. The Park is absolutely beautiful and is unfortunately not visited by many tourists. Anyone visiting Alaska should include it on their “must visit” list. See photos for some of what we saw on the way into and within the park.



The drive from Kenny Lake into the town of McCarthy located within Wrangell/St.Elias includes about 40 miles of paved roads and then an additional 60 mile drive on a dirt road ending at a parking area across the river from McCarthy. This is the worst road we have encountered in our entire trip, but worth every bump, rut and narrow bend. We drove our Saturn over this route and it is a 4 hour plus drive one way into McCarthy. We don’t recommend starting the drive after noon as we did unless you have arrangements to stay within the park! Our return trip to Kenny Lake, in the dark, after a delightful prime rib four-course dinner at the historic Kennecott Lodge within the park, was one adventure that we would prefer not to repeat. The road included lots of potholes, ruts, washboard sections and even fording one stream that flowed across the roadway. This is not meant for Saturns, and all the other vehicles we saw were 4 wheel drive or at least SUV’s or big pick-ups. But our Saturn held tough and we made it with no mishaps arriving back at the RV about 1 AM or so! We did see stars tonight for the first time since we’ve been in Alaska.

We’ll describe a few of the photos above. Right after entering the dirt road portion on the way into the park, we stopped and drove out on a gravel spot by the river bed to look at fish wheels actually in use catching salmon from the river. These wheels are operated by Alaskan native personnel and have been pretty much unchanged for hundreds if not thousands of years. We had hoped to see some of the wildlife that the park holds but did not see anything special until after we had parked the car and crossed the footbridge over the raging glacial Kennecott River to go on to McCarthy. Then, a few minutes later, while we were on a small bus taking us the 7 miles further to the Kennecott mining site, we saw a black bear cross the road in front of us (no photo). The mining site contains all of the old mining buildings that have now been acquired by the National Park Service and some are being restored. It also has the Kennecott Lodge which is in use as a fine hotel and dining room. Pat captured one photo of Dick wading in a very cold glacier stream in his Tevas too while walking around the mining site. The photos showing all the small dirty looking mound are actually of the foot of the Kennecott Glacier that passes right in front of the mining site. They are often confused by visitors as being mining tailings but are ice with dirt on top.

Valdez, Ice Bergs, Wildlife & Salmon Spawning

Valdez and more

After our trip to Whittier we returned to Fort Richardson’s Black Spruce RV Park for a several days of down time, catching up on laundry and restocking some supplies. Then it was off to Valdez on August 11th. This required a two-day trip to reach Valdez taking Highway 1, the Glenn Highway to Glenallen, and then taking Highway 4 south to Valdez. This trip took us through some more absolutely beautiful country and by some more glaciers while traveling over a lot of treacherous roadway on Highway 1. We spent one night at Glenallen near the junction of the two highways before proceeding to Valdez in the Saturn. Highway 4 took us past an entrance and visitors center for Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and through more wonderful scenery all the way to Valdez. Here are photos of some of the scenery along these two highways. I won’t bore you trying to describe each photo although there are many things to learn at each place. However, the first photo is one of Dick during one of his typical times cleaning the windshield of the RV while using his electrified “tennis racquet” to fend off the yellow jackets!

Everyone has heard of Valdez as it relates to the Exxon Valdez oil spill but there is much much more to Valdez and the beautiful Prince William Sound. We took a cruise on a wildlife and sightseeing tour ship, the Lulu Belle, to the Columbia Glacier and many spots in the Sound. Unfortunately a fog bank rolled in for part of the cruise, as you will see in some photos of Puffins and sea lions that appear a bit hazy. We could not actually reach the face of the Columbia Glacier where it calves into the sound as the icebergs and other small ice was too much to allow it. The skipper did pull the bow of his ship right up into some rock cave like places to allow us to get closer looks at birds.

PHOTOS 8/12 a- L

Dick found some particularly photographic small icebergs too. Due technical blog problems we'll add these photos later. (Photos 8/12 D1-D3 )

Also at Valdez we stopped at a salmon viewing spot and the pink salmon were there by the thousands spawning and trying to go up the small stream until they hit the falls as you can see in the pictures!