Edmonton - Winnipeg - Lower 48

From Edmonton we needed to decide if we would travel the shortest route back to the lower 48, straight south to Montana, or go through Winnipeg.  Going through Montana added 325 miles to the trip to WashPA, an extra day of driving.  Going through Winnipeg made the trip shorter, but it meant more miles in Canada and one last topping off with more expensive Canadian fuel.  By going through Winnipeg we would also get to see friends, so that option won out.  What's a few more dollars for fuel after a summer of high prices, right?  It was another three day's drive covering the 850 miles to Winnipeg.  On day one we stayed at Wally World in Saskatoon and the second night we found a free community RV park in Russell, Manitoba. These free stops helped ease the pain of the higher fuel costs.

Just outside of Edmonton we saw a few buffalo at Elk Island National Park.  Maybe our last look at big animals along the road.

We drove many miles with rain and threatening weather.  Check it out, they even cut and bale the grass in the median.

The fields were alive with the color of the canola plants in bloom.

We lost track of how many grain elevators we saw.  You can tell when you were approaching a town when an elevator comes into view.

There were thousands of ducks that were enjoying all the water from the record rainfall.  The water was very close to the highway in several places.

More roadside oddities that welcomed us to many small towns.  The bicycle is the world's longest.

There is a large Eastern European population in the prairie.  This old Orthodox church reminded us of ones we had seen in Alaska.  

When traveling in farm country you never know what you will encounter on the road.

While there are no soaring mountains the plains have there own unique beauty.

We met Gary and Anita at Betty's in 2008 and have seen them a few times since on our travels.  We only got to spend a couple of days with them as we were on a mission to get back to WashPA.  We had a fun time as they showed us around Winnipeg.

We went to the Forks, an area along the river with shops, restaurants, and walking trails.  The water taxi was operating even with the high water.

A neat display of several sculptures with each pointing to a different constellations or other celestial event like the equinox and solstice.  Stories about each were carved into the stone. 

When we were here two years ago the new Human Rights Museum was under construction.  The exterior is now complete and it will be opening next month.  Something to add to our to do list for another visit.

We got together for a toddy with Gary and Anita, and Marcel and Sonya, who we met in Alaska and who also live in Winnipeg.  We had a fun time getting caught up with all our travel adventures.  As we say many times, making and seeing friends along the way is the best part of the fulltiming lifestyle.

Back to the lower 48.  87 days after crossing into Canada from Montana we crossed into North Dakota and are still 1350 miles from WashPA.  Unfortunately, they confiscated many of our veggies, even the cherry tomatoes that Gary and Anita gave us that day fresh off the vine.  Such a pity, we were soooo looking forward to those:-(   On the bright side, all in all it was a fantastic experience and we are looking forward to spending time with family and friends before heading off on our next adventure.

Hyder to Edmonton

We left Hyder August 1st with over 3,000 miles between us and WashPA where we want to be by the middle on the month.  Since that is a lot of miles in a short time for us, (a normal day is 200 miles or less) we decided we would drive three longer days and then stop for two to catch up with laundry and other chores.

Going back up the Hyder spur there was still a lot of snow right off the road.  

We did see some wildlife on the way to Edmonton, another black bear.

The sign at the south end of the Cassiar.  We did the whole 450 miles and the road got better the farther south we drove.  We then turned east on the Yellowhead Highway toward Edmonton.  About 20 miles outside of Smithers we began seeing signs every mile or so for an RV wash.  Opus sure needed it after the trip down the Cassiar so we stopped and gave him a good bath.  No pictures as we were both working.

The first night we stopped at a rest area along the road to spend the night.  When we pulled in, surprise, surprise, there was Bjorn and Britta who had stopped to take a break.  We chatted a bit and they were on their way.  How neat!!

Many towns across North America celebrate their heritage.  Here, it was the railroad....

and here, I'm not sure, still interesting.  It may have been a mascot for the Prince George curling team.  Passing through Prince George, the largest city we had been in in quite a while, we stopped at Wally World to refill our larder.  Nanc was shopping and I was in McDonald's checking email and guess who walked in, Bjorn and Britta.  That is probablily the last time we will see them, though we tried to convince them to stop in WashPA on their way to Toronto.  Not really that far out of the way for someone who has travelled to Alaska from Germany. 

On  the second day after leaving Hyder we spent the night at another rest area along this river and had a fun evening with two couples who were staying there.

Darren is a gold miner who was on his way back to Edmonton after working his claim in BC.  He had buckets of sand that he had collected and planned to spend the winter getting the gold out of it.  Here he is showing me the proper technique.

He put a table spoon of sand in my pan and after a few minutes of working it I had isolated a few small specks of gold.  Very neat, but it sure is a lot of work.

Nanc, Tina and Ben (from Germany) and Joanie and Darren.  It proves again you never know what will happen or who you will met along the road..

On day three we drove through beautiful Jasper National Park.  Many of the vistas looked smoggy, but it was the smoke from distant forest fires.

More of Jasper.  We did not spend any time here as we had been here for an extended visit two years ago.

A bit of the smoke blew away for a better view of the mountains.

The road through Jasper is part of the Trans Canadian Highway so when there is an animal jam it really ties up traffic.  The ranger soon appeared to save the idiots from the wild elk.

A mom and baby goat running along the road caused another major jam.  Just our luck, it was also a holiday weekend.  In Edmonton we just took it easy for a couple of days and did some chores before three more long driving days to Winnipeg and the US border in North Dakota.  A very scenic and interesting beginning for our journey back to WashPA.

On to Dawson Creek and Milepost 0

We left Cardston and the mountains and headed north across open prairie.  Unfortunately, our plan to go to Grand Cache to see Earl and Kathleen, who we met in Mesa this winter, did not work out so we headed straight to Edmonton.  That was a 340 mile day, more than we usually do, but our goal was to get to Dawson Creek.  Most of the drive was uneventful with heavy traffic through Calgary.  After a couple of nights in Edmonton we drove 200 miles to Valleyview and then 155 miles to Dawson Creek, BC, the official start of the Alaska Highway at Milepost 0.  We have traveled 715 miles since crossing the border.

While the exchange rate is in our favor we are finding prices to be higher than when we were here two years ago.  I think part of it is because the Canadian north country economy is booming with energy production.  Glowing Embers RV Park where we stayed now has many workers living there and the price was $7.00 a night higher.  Nanc got a haircut and the beautician, who was from Whitehorse, Yukon, told her they are leaving Edmonton because it has become so expensive.  We filled up with diesel at the same station we used on the last visit and the fuel was $.97 a gallon more, while the price we payed in Montana for our last US fill up was actually a few cents cheaper then the last time.  We did something we have never done in the RV, we filled the tank two days in a row to take advantage of Alberta's cheaper, only $5.05 a gallon in Grand Prairie as opposed to $5.70 in Dawson Creek, prices. And it is only going to get more expensive the farther north we go until we are in Fairbanks where it is presently around $4.10.

Weather wise, the temperatures have been fine with highs in the mid to upper 60's and lows in the 40's and 50's with not a lot of wind.  It has been one of those if you don't like the weather wait five minutes and it will change kind of experiences.  For three days in a row it has been sunny, partly cloudy and raining all within a matter of a couple of hours.  That is still much better than the weather they had here last week when it s**wed.

We saw a lot of this with huge farms on the prairie.

An iconic symbol of the plains is the grain elevator as every town seems to have one that can be spotted from miles away.  

And in the middle of many of those farmers fields you will often see one of these.  As I said, the economy here is booming.

Nanc did some more time behind the wheel and I discovered something.  I have thought for a long time that she tells me to many time that I am going to fast.  Well I discovered that it must be the passengers chair because I found myself saying the same thing to her.  She is getting more confident with more time at the wheel.

Some scenes from along the road.

The Rochfort Bridge Trestle is the second longest wooden railway trestle in the world.  It has been in service since 1914.

And a horse enjoying the view.  We did have an encounter with a cattle truck.  We are often passed by these trucks filled with cattle on their last ride and I usually slow down to let them get by as the sides are always covered with poo.  On our way to Edmonton one passed us, and as usual I slowed, but as soon as the truck pulled back in front of us the whole front of Opus was covered with a spray. YUCK!!!  It was not a fun clean up, but as they say, SH*T HAPPENS.

Our first moose and it was a flying one.  I guess it is that high so it will look like it is walking on the snow in the winter.

Our first gravel road, though it was only one mile off the pavement to the campground.

Most of the construction we have hit so far is just making the highway from Edmonton to Grand Prairie four lanes.  We expect to hit more construction as we get further north.  There have been a few frost heaves, but they have all been well marked with plenty of time to slow down.  This is also typical of the traffic since leaving Edmonton. 

 All over North America towns seem to have some kind of huge monument to the regions history and culture.  Beaverlodge is no different with its big beaver.  Made me think toothpaste:)

We were welcomed to BC with the usual nice sign and the distant rain that caught us. Even though we were travelling on a paved road the rain totally ruined the nice wash job that I had done on the CRV and Opus in Montana.  There are at least two RV wash businesses in Dawson Creek and more along the Alaska Highway, so it must be a regular occurrence.

After 715 miles we are at the beginning of The Alaska Highway, Milepost 0.  Only 1523 miles to Fairbanks.  We have met people in every campground who are on the same trek.  Some are soloing it and others are with caravans.  We are planning to do a bit of both.  At some point we will hook up with Dennis Hill's Loosey Goosey group for at least a couple of days, but for now they are a bit behind us.  I'm sure we will see them down the road.  

Cardston and Waterton Lakes National Park

We spent two nights at the Lee Creek Campground in Cardston, AB so we could drive to Waterton Lakes National Park to get a national park stamp in our book.  We now have several Parks Canada stamps in our book.  When we arrived I went to an ATM to get some Canadian cash and was happy to see the exchange rate was in our favor.  $300 CDN was only $277 US.  This will help a bit with higher Canadian prices and the fee the bank charges when we use the credit card.  One item I knew would be much higher was alcohol.  A 12 pack of beer was over $25.  No wonder they limit how much booze you can bring into the country.  I guess it's just our contribution to the Canadian health care system.

It turns out that little Cardston was the home of two famous people.  Fay Wray, the damsel in the original King Kong movie was born here and is honored with a fountain.  The other famous local was George Woolf who rode the famous racehorse, Seabiscuit, in several races including the famous win over War Admiral.  The statue of Woolf and Seabiscuit are at the Remington Carriage Museum.  We did not have the time to check out the museum.

Our main purpose for staying here was to visit Waterton Lakes National Park, part of the International Peace Park along with Glacier National Park in the US.  We were disappointed when we awoke to overcast skies but decided to make the trip anyway.  We have often heard how mountains make there own weather and in this case they seemed to be holding back the clouds so the closer we got the clearer the mountain peaks were.  How would you like to have the view the people in this house have everyday?

One of the iconic sights at Waterton is the Prince of Wales Hotel that sits alone above the lakes.  Unfortunately, we only got to peek through the window as the hotel does not open until the middle of June.

The view of Upper Waterton Lake from the hotel.  This lake goes all the way into Glacier.  During the summer you can hike from here to the US and then take a boat back.  Friends of ours did it and it sounds real neat.  A reason to return.

The Prince of Wales overlooking the lake.

A lot of wildlife have the run of the Waterton Village.  In the summer they use herding dogs to keep the deer away from tourist who are not smart enough to realize they are wild animals and this is not a zoo.

Beautiful Cameron Falls was flowing with snow melt.  The falls is right by the village.  We did walk around the town but did not do any longer hikes because many trails were still snowed in.

This harlequin duck was a first for us.  Along with his mate they were on a couple of rocks in the middle of the rapids.  Beautiful!!

The other animals that were roaming all over town were big horn sheep.  This magpie decided to take a break on this sheep and he does not appear to be to happy about it. 

A whole yard of big horns.  It is neat to see them up close but they are very destructive of any ornamental plants the locals plant.  Many homes had the shrubs fenced off.  The other downside of all the animals in town was the piles and pellets of poo everywhere.  Watch your step!!

One mountain road that was open was the Red Rock Parkway, a scenic drive where we were told we would see animals.   Not, there were more in town.  It was a beautiful drive through an ancient glacial canyon between towering snow capped peaks.

The spring flowers are just now blooming this far north.  Everything from daffodils to what we think is an orchid.  We have been following early spring flowers since we left Las Vegas a month ago. 

The creek along the drive was brown with all the silt it was carrying.

The drive ends at Red Rock Canyon where the silty water flows through ancient red rocks that were once part of the seabed.  They say the canyon erodes at about the depth of a nickle and a half each year, so if you return in ten years it would be 75 cents deeper. A different way to think about how erosion happens.

We could see a lot of avalanche runs in the mountains where the snow had wiped out all the trees.  At the bottom of the mountain what looks like a waterfall is a huge ice pack hanging on the side of the mountain.

One last look at the mountains of Waterton.  This is a place we could return to in the summer as there is so much to see and do in the park and the surrounding area.

There is a great lake side campground in the park.  It was overrun with these cute little ground squirrels.  They are fun to watch but you need to be careful where you walk so you don't step in a chuckhole.

As I write it is day four of our trek to Alaska and we have traveled 352 miles north of the border and are near Edmonton for a couple of days.  We hope to be at Mile Zero of the Alaskan Highway in Dawson Creek, BC on Monday.  The weather has been fine with cool nights and highs in the 60's.  Our adventure continues.