Yellowstone to Salt Lake City

Yellowstone

From the Canadian border we traveled south through Montana to Yellowstone National Park.  Home of geysers, hot springs, mud pots and wildlife.  All of which we saw on our exploring.   Stayed in West Yellowstone at a really nice private campground and drove into the park daily to explore.  The park was crowded, but not too bad.   Took the time to go see Old Faithful erupt along with the other hords of tourists.   Will certainly not go back in July again.  That's the height of their tourist time.  


Part of Mammoth Hot Springs

Geothermal pool

Waterfall in Yellowstone

Old Faithful going off

Yellowstone Lake in background

Buffalo making himself at home

After our time in Yellowstone we drove south into the Grand Tetons.   What a spectacular chain of mountains.   So rugged and still had a little snow on them.  I can remember coming here with my Mom and Dad way back in the 60's and it was just as impressive then as it is now.   David and I have never camped in Grand Tetons so we decided to stay in the National Park.   The campground was pretty nice.   We did our exploring there too.

Teton Peak

My Ansel Adams look

So majestic

After Grand Tetons we went further south to Crater of the Moons National Monument near Arco, Utah.  This is an area of tremendous basalt flows and cinder cone volcanoes that erupted about 2,000 years ago.  The location was used by NASA astronauts back in 1969 to train for their moon mission.   Since they weren't geologists, but fighter pilots, NASA wanted them to learn what rock samples they were supposed to collect.   What a place to do that.   David and I hiked out to lava tubes, up a cinder cone (well ok, he went all the way up and I went part way) and just enjoyed the beauty of the place.




On the Cinder Cone

Hiking out to Lava Tube

From Craters of the Moon we went on to Salt Lake City.   We've never been there before and wanted to see the Morman Temple and of course the Great Salt Lake.   We also had the opportunity to go out to the Kennecott Bingham Canyon Copper Mine.   Boy that place is HUGE.   It can actually be seen from space.  The Morman Temple downtown in Salt Lake city is really something to see.   We learned that it took 40 years to build creating each stone by hand.   The architecture is really outstanding.   Of course there were Mormans all over the place.  They were extremely friendly and were more than willing to tell you anything you wanted to know about the temple grounds.



Taken from observation deck

Kennecott Copper Mine

Tires cost $25,000 each

After going to Kennecott Mine we drove out to Antelope Island State Park near Ogden, Utah.   Here we actually went in the Great Salt Lake water.....boy is it truly salty.  25% salt content.   You would need about a 50 pound weight belt if you wanted to dive in this lake. 


The water is so still it's hard to tell where it is



David floating in the salty water

Me wading in the water of Salt Lake

After Salt Lake we are heading to Vernal, Utah.  Home of Dinosaur National Monument.   We will stay there a few days and then decide where we will head from there.   More later.   Love, Felicia and David (aka  Mom and Dad, Nana and Papa)


ALCAN Highway Heading South

Fairbanks at 12:07 A.M.

Well it finally came time to leave the land of the midnight sun (as seen in the picture of David) and start for home.  We left Fairbanks on July 1st and started down the ALCAN highway.   We heard all kinds of stories about the road and hopefully were prepared.   Frost heaves, gravel, busted windshields, blown tires, construction, wildlife encounters were just some of the things we were told.   Some of them came true as you will read about below. 

Delta Junction, AK

We started backwards with our image of the ALCAN Highway sign in Delta Junction showing the END of the highway.   We will get to our pictures at the other end in Dawson Creek, BC a little later in the blog.

S. S. Klondike

S. S. Klondike in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

Spent a little time in Whitehorse, Yukon because we had to get out furnace fixed.  Only blew cold air.  $400 later we were ready to continue south. (Yes, we still needed heat at that point)

In Watson Lake, BC we encountered the Sign Post Forest.  What a place.   Over 72,000 sign post put up since the beginning of the construction of the ALCAN Highway in 1942.  That's when one lonely construction worker decided to put up a sign to his home town.  

Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, BC

Our sign in down by my right hand

We, of course, added our sign.

After our stop at the Sign Post Forest we had the WILDLIFE ENCOUNTER of a lifetime.   Saw 1 grizzly; 8 black bears; 6 buffalo; 4 caribou; 2 moose; 1 deer; 1 stone sheep and a marmot all in ONE DAY!

Grizzly right on the side of the road

Black Bear IN the road

Buffalo on side of the road (they are really huge)

Caribou running down the road

Stone sheep licking the road (who knew???)

Ended our ALCAN Highway trip in Dawson Creek, BC.   That's where the road actually starts.   Construction of the highway began in 1942.   Of course the part we were on was a whole lot better than the original highway.  Wonder what the road was like 41 years ago when my mom, dad and sister took the same trip.   We actually found a section of the old highway with a wooden bridge near Dawson Creek.   Mom and Dad must have had a hard time on a mostly GRAVEL road for thousands and thousands of miles.   We had it easy compared to that.

Mile "0" in Dawson Creek, BC

Old section of ALCAN Highway (have picture with me of WHOLE family - mom, dad, Debby & my kids & grandkids)

After Dawson Creek we continued on south towards Jasper and Banff National Parks.  We followed the Ice Field Highway.   The scenary was beautiful, mountains, glaciers, mountain lakes and very LITTLE wildlife.

Athabasca Falls Jasper National Park

Bow Lake

Columbia Ice Field

Stayed in Banff National Park campground and it was nice, but the town of Banff was WAY too crowded for us.  Guess we got used to the wide open spaces of Alaska.   Too many tourists milling around (other than us).   Left the Jasper-Banff area, drove through Calgary, Alberta and headed to Drumheller site of the famous Royal Tyrrell Museum.   The most famous fossil museum that I've ever heard of.  Located in the Alberta Badlands it is quite impressive.   Lots and lots of dinosaur fossils for the science nerd in me along with fossils of many, many marine organisms, plants, other reptiles, & mammals. 

"Black Beauty" famous T-Rex skeleton

Whooly Mammoth

SCIENCE NERDS UNITE!!!!

Drumheller was our final stop north of the "Lower 48 States".   We are now in Montana and headed to Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton's and points elsewhere.   Don't know exactly which route we will take to get home.  Still have about a month on the road before we get there.   Boy what an adventure so far.  Have put over 14,000 miles on the truck and we are STILL in Montana.  More later.  Hope you enjoy this latest blog.  Love to all,  Felicia and David (aka Mom & Dad, Nana and Papa)

Denali and Arctic Circle

Matanuska Glacier

Before heading towards Denali we did a little more exploring out of Wasilla (no Sarah Palin). 



Geocaching near Matanuska Glacier area



Mount McKinley

After such a wonderful time on the Kenai Peninsula and around Wasilla we headed up towards Denali National Park.  Got several opportunities to get to see Mount McKinley without cloud cover.   The park rangers say that it is actually rare to get to see the summit.  Only about 30% of visitors see it.   We saw is several times so I guess we used up someone elses turn. 



Mount McKinley from different location

We stayed at a local RV park for a couple days, then we moved into the campground in Denali National Park.  The campground was really nice, no services, but lots of views.  We had visitors in the campground on a couple different days.  

Mommy Moose and baby in campground

We hiked, drove, hiked some more, drove some more and saw a lot of beautiful country.  We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife.   We did see some Dall Sheep from a distance (see a google image, I didn't get a picture), a beautiful golden eagle from a distance and this cute little fellow up close on a hike.

Arctic Ground Squirrel

The trail we hiked had been closed the day before because of a bear kill.   Don't know if the bear was killed or did the killing???

Savage River Hike in Denali

You can drive 15 miles into Denali and then if you want to go farther you have to take a bus.  Could not get over my bus phobia and get on a bus for 8 to 12 hours.   Just not going to happen.

After spending time at Denali we headed north towards Fairbanks.  We planned on staying here a couple days and drive up to the Arctic Circle.  From Fairbanks it's about 200 miles up there (one way) on mostly a DIRT road.   The Dalton Highway is the road used by Ice Road Truckers going up to Prudhoe Bay.  It follows the Alaskan Pipeline and was pretty awesome.  Were hoping to see some wildlife, but only saw a falcon.   Had to drive part of the way through REALLY thick fog, which was pretty hairy. 


Such a lovely road (Dalton Highway going to Arctic Circle)



Store along Dalton Highway (open 6:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.)

Alaskan Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez

Seeing the pipeline was extremely cool.   It zigzags to allow for temperature changes.  What an engineering marvel.



Putting hand in the Yukon River



Yukon River Bridge

Fireweed in bloom

David drove most of the way, but actually let me drive for a little while.  I drove over the Yukon River and for another 20 miles or so.   Then it started getting narrow and washboardy (is that a word?) We had to pass several wide load trucks so he took over again.  Thank God he's such a good driver :)


Type of vehicle we passed often (move over let them by)



Needless to say we got a LITTLE dirty!!

All in all it was an absolutely wonderful experience.  We actually drove passed the Arctic Circle a little farther north just so we could say that we drove "passed the Arctic Circle".   We are such geeks. 

What an OUTSTANDING DAY exploring!!

We are leaving Sunday and starting back south (have been in Alaska since May 12th).  Will head back down the Alaskan Highway into Yukon Territory, British Columbia and finally the good ole USA.  Don't know how long it will take.  Told Rachel today that we would be back by August 15th or before.   Will continue the blog and see where it takes us.   Love to all Felicia and David (aka Mom and Dad)