North to Alaska and Yukon
We left Vancouver Island and headed north through BC with a short stop in Whistler -where bugger me dead they’re STILL skiing – and will be until 3 June. It’s amazing,, they have the ski runs open higher up on the mountain,
and mountain biking on the lower slopes! Crazy. We then drove through what we regard as amongst the most spectacular scenery we have seen in Canada – the drive to Lillooet and Pemberton via the Duffy Lake Rd was 
incredible. And we had a terrific view of a grazing black bear, then a little later a grizzly. North again through Prince George on to Prince Rupert– purported to be the 3rd largest deep water ice free harbor in the world. Stopped for a look at the wharf which is very cute, and went to Totem Park. The Haida First Nations group are represented here and are a very powerful proud and strong culture. They are from the Queen Charlotte Islands just off shore – the islands are UNESCO listed for a couple of reasons – firstly the continuous presence for 7000 years of the Haida – but also the area is distinctly separated in it’s fauna and flora from the mainland as it’s geologically separated from the mainland. We also visited their museum – the Museum of Northern BC which was excellent.
Before heading on up the Stewart – Cassier Hwy we had a night at Kleenza Ck just 14km east of the town of Terrace. That morning we left unusually early – we were on the road by 7am. When we arrived at our camp that night we were shocked to hear about a devastating rock slide that has cut the highway 37km east of Terrace at 8am that morning. We figure we must’ve missed it by about 30mins. The hwy is shut for about 4 days – the slide is enormous! This is the 2nd time we have passed through a huge avalanche/slide just before hand – we’re hoping our luck continues.
We arrived at the sleepy village of Steward and set up camp – there’s a big sign saying No Tents and No Soft Sided Trailers – no shit Sherlock! In the lonely planet 
guide it says of a particular motel here that you can watch the bears wandering down the street from your window! We believe it – so far we’ve seen about 20 bears!. We then went for a drive into Alaska and the town of Hyder. We took our passports – but there was no customs checkpoint going in (but there was for Canada coming out!) which we thought was hilarious. We had planned to go for a view to the famous grizzly salmon eating platform and Salmon Glacier – the 3rd longest in the world, which is about 20 miles away – but thought we’d be lucky when after only about 200m the road turned to a single lane of ploughed snow that was about 15 ft high on the side of the road! We only got about 5 miles in before running into the dozer – apparently it won’t open until July at te earliest as they’ve had 80 ft of snow up here! The townships of Hyder and Stewart had 38ft of snow ths year and there’s still heaps of snow sitting around. The snow was also quite heavy (as interspersed with rain) and caused several garages to collapse under the weight
Keeping on heading north we finally hit the (in) famous Alaska Highway on 31 May. Over 2500kms long and built during WW2 in only 8 months it is considered a marvel of human endeavour. We intend to travel the entire highway over the next month or so. We took a short side trip for 2 days down to Skagway Alaska in the hope of visiting the UNESCO site of Glacier Bay. We had expected that there’d be day trips on a boat, but were disappointed to learn there’s a bit of a monopoly happening here with cruise ships and just one company with a lodge in the park itself allowed into the marine park – which of course means they can charge what they want – $500/day for a sightseeing trip we decided to pass (Oh well – will just have to come back and do a cruise up the Inside Passage one day!) It was a great visit though and the drive in to Skagway over White’s Pass was absolutely stunning – I have taken about a thousand piccis!
So we are in Whitehorse on the mighty Yukon River at the moment before heading to the incredible Kluane National Park (also UNESCO site) for a few days, then into Anchorage Alaska.
Wildlife count so far – 27 bears, 9 moose, 4 wolves, 2 coyotes, 4 bald eagles, 4 hoary marmots and about a thousand deer, rabbits and squirrels.
and mountain biking on the lower slopes! Crazy. We then drove through what we regard as amongst the most spectacular scenery we have seen in Canada – the drive to Lillooet and Pemberton via the Duffy Lake Rd was 
incredible. And we had a terrific view of a grazing black bear, then a little later a grizzly. North again through Prince George on to Prince Rupert– purported to be the 3rd largest deep water ice free harbor in the world. Stopped for a look at the wharf which is very cute, and went to Totem Park. The Haida First Nations group are represented here and are a very powerful proud and strong culture. They are from the Queen Charlotte Islands just off shore – the islands are UNESCO listed for a couple of reasons – firstly the continuous presence for 7000 years of the Haida – but also the area is distinctly separated in it’s fauna and flora from the mainland as it’s geologically separated from the mainland. We also visited their museum – the Museum of Northern BC which was excellent.
Before heading on up the Stewart – Cassier Hwy we had a night at Kleenza Ck just 14km east of the town of Terrace. That morning we left unusually early – we were on the road by 7am. When we arrived at our camp that night we were shocked to hear about a devastating rock slide that has cut the highway 37km east of Terrace at 8am that morning. We figure we must’ve missed it by about 30mins. The hwy is shut for about 4 days – the slide is enormous! This is the 2nd time we have passed through a huge avalanche/slide just before hand – we’re hoping our luck continues.
We arrived at the sleepy village of Steward and set up camp – there’s a big sign saying No Tents and No Soft Sided Trailers – no shit Sherlock! In the lonely planet 
guide it says of a particular motel here that you can watch the bears wandering down the street from your window! We believe it – so far we’ve seen about 20 bears!. We then went for a drive into Alaska and the town of Hyder. We took our passports – but there was no customs checkpoint going in (but there was for Canada coming out!) which we thought was hilarious. We had planned to go for a view to the famous grizzly salmon eating platform and Salmon Glacier – the 3rd longest in the world, which is about 20 miles away – but thought we’d be lucky when after only about 200m the road turned to a single lane of ploughed snow that was about 15 ft high on the side of the road! We only got about 5 miles in before running into the dozer – apparently it won’t open until July at te earliest as they’ve had 80 ft of snow up here! The townships of Hyder and Stewart had 38ft of snow ths year and there’s still heaps of snow sitting around. The snow was also quite heavy (as interspersed with rain) and caused several garages to collapse under the weightKeeping on heading north we finally hit the (in) famous Alaska Highway on 31 May. Over 2500kms long and built during WW2 in only 8 months it is considered a marvel of human endeavour. We intend to travel the entire highway over the next month or so. We took a short side trip for 2 days down to Skagway Alaska in the hope of visiting the UNESCO site of Glacier Bay. We had expected that there’d be day trips on a boat, but were disappointed to learn there’s a bit of a monopoly happening here with cruise ships and just one company with a lodge in the park itself allowed into the marine park – which of course means they can charge what they want – $500/day for a sightseeing trip we decided to pass (Oh well – will just have to come back and do a cruise up the Inside Passage one day!) It was a great visit though and the drive in to Skagway over White’s Pass was absolutely stunning – I have taken about a thousand piccis!
So we are in Whitehorse on the mighty Yukon River at the moment before heading to the incredible Kluane National Park (also UNESCO site) for a few days, then into Anchorage Alaska.
Wildlife count so far – 27 bears, 9 moose, 4 wolves, 2 coyotes, 4 bald eagles, 4 hoary marmots and about a thousand deer, rabbits and squirrels.
posted by Ian and Jen @ 30 below at
5:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home