Views along they way on Alaskan Highway Day 15

I must say this was one of my favorite drives of the whole 4800 miles of the journey - we saw a lot of wildlife and the scenery was spectacular. This was between Johnson's crossing just outside of Whitehorse and Fort Nelson.

The Wild Life

An Elk, one of the latter critters to be seen.

Mountain Sheep.

A moose.

Cariboo

Bison

No Explanation needed

Wild Amarican Geese crossing the border

Hence the sign

A black bear

A strange sort of cow like creature.

Black bear and cub, Aaron said I could have had a really good picture if I jumped out of the truck and stood between mama and cub and took picture, I didn't fall for it.

Wild horses, they had no shoes.

Watson Lake

Day 15

On the road by 8:30!! Saw lots and lots of critters today. Stopped at Liard Hot Springs – Way too hot – Upper springs was 126 degrees and lower was not much cooler. Was a nice stop though to help break up the day. Destination Fort Nelson. Had to travel extra miles today to make up for yesterday. What a beautiful drive it was – great scenery and lots of wild life. Stayed at an RV park in Fort Nelson – no messing around – just eat and sleep.


Look Newport WA - Duh we did not even think to bring a sign, they now have over 60,000 signs here, this was started by a homesick soldier during the construction of the highway.

Dawson City

Day 14 Thursday

Visited Dawson City. Panned for gold at Claim #6. Did not strike it rich. Did not get out of town until almost 1:00pm. Another long day in the truck. Did not get as far as we wanted to. Had hoped to make it to Teslin, but by 8:30 we decided to call it a day and camped at Johnson’s crossing. This was the worse place for mosquitoes so far. They we so thick you could shoot them with a shot gun – that’s what Logan said anyway. They were bad. Luckily before our trip we had bought a screened in easy up just for this reason. We ate a late dinner and all headed for bed hoping to get an earlier start on the next day. I read the day away – “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer, a story about a young lad that thinks he can servive off the wilderness in Alaska, good read - tragic ending - movie was not as good as the book as usual, once I started I couldn’t put it down – read the whole thing in one day.

Panning for gold @ claim # 6.

FYI

Dredge @ claim #4. This was a pretty awesome, although the attraction was closed, I am not sure what more we could have seen if it was open. As you can tell Aaron is checking out his strength again and seeing if he could move this rather large chunk of steel.

Robert Service's cabin, a famous author of the Yukon - his most famous poems "Shooting of Dan McGrew" & "The Cremation of Sam McGee" We bought one of his books and read some of his poems out loud during our journery.

Picuture of downtown Dawson.

Another picture of a building in Dawson City, there's grass growing on the roof.

Dawson City & The Yukon River

This picture was taken from the Ferry as we were crossing over the Yukon River.

Aaron snapped this one of the four of us.

The above picture is the Ferry we took across the river, the first night we walked to it, in the morning we took the truck - does not hold many vehicles so if there is a lot of traffic you could have a long wait.

Picture of Dawson City from across the Yukon River

Our camp sight.

The Tuckers

I did not want to forget to mention the Tuckers, Robert worked for Matt many years ago on a fire crew, he is married to Candace and they have two daughters, this is Olivia age 3 and they have Madoline 7 months. They were excellant hosts, this is a picture of Olivia and the Tuckers home that they just had built 2 years ago. The picture of the house was taken just after midnight (can you believe how light it is still).

Chicken, Alaska

Day 13 Wednesday

On to Dawson City

We were on the road by 8:00am, first thing heading out of Fairbanks we had to slam on our brakes on the highway to keep from hitting a moose that was running across the road. What a way to start the day.

First stop Chicken, Alaska; population 21 in summer and 6 in winter, and over Top of the World Highway. Chicken - named so because they initially wanted to name it ptarmigan but were not sure how to spell it so settled for Chicken. (which I believe is the Alaskan State bird, or is it the mosquito??) No city water, sewer or electric, all from wells, generators and outhouses.

I had to force Aaron to do this picture with me.... hee hee hee, as you can tell he was real thrilled.

Hi From Canada

Sorry, have not been able to keep up with my blog - Today is Friday, nearly Saturday. Just wanted to let you all know we are doing great, we have no cell phone and not much Internet so can't post much on my blog with out it canceling out on me, so I guess you will have to wait until I get home for the rest of the journey, I have some great pictures to share with you all. We should be home by Monday - But I have to work on Monday so you may not get much more from me until after that as I have to work Tues & Wednesday and will have to catch up on garden, and lawn and.... and .... and... and then there is the jacks of course, can not wait to see them. I hear they are doing well and their grandparents are taking very good care of them Sparky is being his normal Jack A**, and Jasper doesn't even realize we are gone, too young I guess, remember we have only had him for just a bit over 4 months so we haven't had him totally spoiled rotten yet. Will be talking to you all soon.

Day 12

The friendly polarbear

Santas house

Day 12 Tuesday
Visited Santa Land in North Pole. Could have sat on Santa’s lap and told him what we wanted for Christmas. There was a friendly polar bear in the gift shop. From there we went to Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, visited Gold Rush Town, an air museum, another museum, and a restored stern-wheeler. After Lunch we made it down to Eileson Air Force Base for the Thunder Birds Air Show. Stopped off and did laundry and stocked up on groceries for the next leg of the journey. Went out to dinner one of Fairbank’s popular fine dining attractions, the Pump House, with the Tuckers. They had good Alaskan Seafood.

Denali

Aaron at Rose's Cafe devouring a 1 pound hambuger.

ATV in Denali, Matt & Cyndi road on a rhino and Logan and Aaron on 4 wheelers.

Logan, probably the only time you will ever catch him in a flannel shirt.

Cyndi, ready to ride.

Matt, the driver.

Logan & Aaron on their 4 wheelers.

The boys at the Denali sign, Aaron was happy he had to dance.

Moose on the loose in the park.

The boys took a hike in the park.

Mr. Marmot posing to have his picture taken.

Day 11 Monday Visited Denali National Park. Saw a moose in the park, a marmot, and lots of snowshoe rabbits. We went on an ATV tour, had lots of fun playing in the mud and the streams, was raining for the ride. Stopped at Rose’s Café in Healy, just north of the park, for dinner. Aaron got his picture on the wall of fame for eating the One Pound Grizzly burger – one pound of beef, egg, ham, and cheese, this was no problem for Aaron at all, as a matter of fact he had a piece of pie afterwards. We did not get to see Mt. McKinnley (Denali) as the weather was too cloudy.