We are really enjoying cruising through Canada on our way to Alaska! Sure, we’ve had a good bit of rain, and even driving through a mountain pass with heavy snowfall, but it’s all beautiful! One frustrating part is the lack of internet… It’s like pulling teeth to get stuff uploaded! (And you know I never liked that!)

Ok, serious disclaimer here. We are currently in Yukon Territory, way up in the middle of nowhere. The scenery is stupendous! But being so far from “civilization” has its downsides. My car, previously white, is now almost unrecognizable brown. The Motorhome is still brown, (OK, it started out brown) but absolutely filthy. There is one car wash in town, and the line is huge. Someone helpfully told me “you have to leave your city expectations at home.” Like clean cars and intact windshields. And Internet. They try hard to provide service here, but mostly it is “Dial Up” and very limited. I have spent hours trying to upload pictures, and I think 6 have successfully made it! So here are a few pictures, and a bit of text. I will plan on updating the pictures when I get some good internet… maybe that will be in September!!

I have gotten a few bear pictures up. Here is the mother Grizzly we saw when we first entered Canada. Her cub stayed farther from the road in the trees.

This blog is supposed to document our trip through Jasper, Dawson Creek (where the Alaska Highway starts), Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Muncho Lake, and Liard River Hot Springs.

Jasper has an adorable downtown area, with interesting architecture and a tremendous array of shops. We had rain during our time in town, but it was still pretty. And very crowded! I saw a Mercedes 300SL… This is one of the world’s most coveted cars… depending on condition, they can be worth 2 to 3 MILLION DOLLARS! This one looked great. It was raining when I saw the owners getting back in the car, but they said they were driving from somewhere in the lower 48 to Fairbanks and around. Amazing touring vehicle!!

Dawson Creek is famous for being the start of the Alaska Highway. The big Mile 0 sign is the highlight of the town. A very nice visitor center, and a great art gallery are off the same parking lot. Many people were posing for selfies in front of the Mile 0 sign, including us!

In Fort Nelson our campsite was adjacent to a preserved village. Houses have been moved there from around the area to create a small town like it would have been in the 40’s and earlier. One thing I thought was interesting was the police call system. At one point they had no radios, so if someone would call the police station on the phone, they couldn’t tell the cruiser about it. So the telephone operator would switch on a red light mounted on a pole high above the hotel. The policeman would check that light frequently on his patrol, and if it was lit up, he’d call the station on a phone for info. Fun!

Muncho Lake is where we stayed on our way to the Liard Hot Springs. It turns out to be far more beautiful than we’d expected! Our motorhome was backed up about 10 feet from the lake. It was raining like crazy when we got there, so we didn’t immediately scout around. From our bathroom window we could see around the corner of the shore – and there was a beautiful turbine powered float plane! Later we found there were two of them. It rained a lot while we were there, and I noticed the Lake was rising… I figure it takes a lot of water to raise the lake! I documented the water level with photos of the planes and the ground in front of them: it looks like the water must have risen 8 inches or so! It was fun once the weather broke to watch the planes take off. Incredibly beautiful scenery! If the picture below shows up, it is one of the rare ones! I think it will show a floatplane ready to take off.

Liard River Hot Springs is a great experience! A nice boardwalk leads you on a maybe 10 minute walk across a marshy area to the springs. We saw a moose munching in the marsh on our walk! Changing rooms and a deck have been added adjacent to the pool’s edge where the hot springs enter. The water is quite hot; the bottom is mostly smooth pebbles. It feels tremendous! We met some nice folks there, including one couple who are traveling about the same speed on the same route as we are. Great fun!