Week 663-664 - Favorite Photos #30 Yukon & British Columbia - 05-05-2019

Favorite Photos #30 Yukon & British Columbia

We are home in Atascadero mowing, blowing and whacking; boring! So we bring you more favorite photos for your entertainment. We always present the favorites chronologically. Even though this is the 30th edition of favorites, we are still in July, 2009. Obviously, with 88,699 photos to choose from, we will never run out. So why are these favorites? Many are just pleasant to look at. Others bring back a great memory and others tell a story.

We start off with Valdez, Alaska. For many people "Valdez" says "oil spill, a mess, a disaster". But, if you didn't know about the Valdez's oil tanker spill, you'd never know it happened. The City of Valdez is a beautiful harbor city surrounded almost 360 degrees by mountains. And it is full of beautiful flowers.

Allison Point Campground is on Port Valdez where this otter family enjoyed the day.

Highway 4 is your only way to and from Valdez and it offers you endless beauty. We are leaving Valdez on this day.

Heading Northeast Hwy 4 joins the Alaskan Highway at Tok. Ending our three months in Alaska we journeyed back through Yukon. At 158 square miles Kluane Lake is Yukon's largest.

A must buy and read is The Milepost which details everything, mile by mile, along the Alaskan Highway. That's how we found Soda Lake. Following the Milepost, we darted between the bushes to have this lake to ourselves.

With 3,000,000 lakes in Alaska you can find yours and enjoy it alone.

Ellen captured this sunrise on Soda Lake at 5:15 am.

The Duck family came along an hour later.

The British Columbia Cassiar Hwy is 450 miles long. In the spring 100's of miles are not paved as the road is damaged every year from frost heaves. We came down the highway in July/August and only 12 miles were smooth gravel, the rest was paved. There is no cell service and fuel is scarce so plan ahead. You will enjoy this beautiful trip.

Our trip down the Cassiar was with our SOWER friends, here at Bell II RV park. Pete/Ellen, Jay/Naomi, John/Rosie. Somehow John and Rosie just keep showing up in our travelogues.

More of Cassiar's continuous gorgeousness.

Mountains . . .

. . . Glaciers . . .

. . . and more mountains.

Hyder, Alaska is near the southern tip of the Alaskan Panhandle. This landlocked city is only accessible by traveling through Stewart, British Columbia. You go to Hyder because you see bears everyday.

The bear(s) wander down the creek daily for food. There is an elevated walkway along the creeks giving you great views.

Hyder is roughly 2 miles wide and 8 miles long. When you enter Hyder there are no American border agents to greet you. However, when you leave the Canadian border patrol stands ready to interrogate you. The young Canadian stopped us and asked, "Where are you coming from?" Pete perplexed, took a guess, "Hyder?". The guard said "Okay, have a nice day."

We stayed one day in Hyder and continued on Hwy 16 toward Smithers, BC. We traveled only a few miles when our right rear tire blew out! It was August 3, 2009, our 35th wedding anniversary. Ouch! We managed to "crawl" down the road a couple of miles to a rest stop. Amazingly we had just entered a cell phone area. We called several tire shops in Smithers with no answer. Finally, a lady from Tatlow tire answered and asked how she could help. We mentioned that no one else answered and she let is know it was "Provincial Day", a holiday. Nonetheless, she told us we would have a tire in the morning. This rest stop did not allow overnight parking, but we had to choice. We did however have the view a glacier out our big windows.

And a waterfall just outside the MotherShip.

We were set. We had just stocked up on food and fuel. We had cell service and a beautiful sunset. All we lacked was the Internet. But, wait "what is this signal we see?". Somewhere close was a unsecured WiFi signal. Yes, we have Internet. Happy 35th!

As promised, Brad was out at 7am in the morning with a tire. Sean, the owner of Tatlow, had been salmon fishing on Provincial Day and noticed our motorhome as he was going home.

Pete, Susan, Sean and Brad. Getting the tire repaired was good, but getting a big bag of the best freshly smoked salmon we every had was a day to remember.

We were truly blessed on this anniversary.

Next week we will be at Chad and Emily's house near Paradise to spend time with them and the grandkids.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from July/August 2009