WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS
June 23, 2024
We have been on the road 3 weeks yesterday and are almost to Alaska
We headed out Monday morning the 17th to continue our trip North.
We ran into a wintery mix of snow. It didn't interfere with driving at all and was beautiful on the tips of all the evergreen trees.
We have seen countless logging trucks
The next several days were pretty much just driving. We spent Monday night at a Walmart in Prince George, BC and Tuesday night in a super cute little city run campground in Smithers, BC
And then we spent two nights in Mezadian Lake Provincial Park - it was beyond beautiful
The kind of place you just don't really want to leave
We drank our coffee both mornings just taking in the beauty - I loved how the reflection in the water even showed the snow on top of the mountain.
We stayed there two nights so that on Thursday we could take a drive to see
We saw many waterfalls - with it being spring here the water is really flowing from all the snow melting
This is Bear Glacier
Large carved bear with a salmon in his mouth. If we had been a month later we would have been able to see the bear catching all of the salmon for real.
It was a cute little town and once again we found everyone to be so friendly
These colorful benches were over town
I took this picture trying to show all of the shopping carts on top of the building
Note the American and Canadian flags as we were right on the border of Alaska
We enjoyed a picnic lunch at their Convention and Visitors Bureau
It was then a very short drive to Hyder, Alaska. Don't ask me to explain it but the way the border runs this little tiny town is actually in Alaska. You can't go anywhere from Hyder except back to Stuart, BC It was actually kind of a sad little town that has obviously seen better days. Don't think we saw anyone at all but it is suppose to have about 100 residents or did at one time anyway. These little tiny towns are not uncommon. You drive and drive and there is nothing - including much traffic and then all of a sudden is a tiny town with 100 and some residents.
This is the sign as you drive out of town.
When we crossed into Hyder there were no American Border Patrol but when we came back out there were Canadian Border Patrol and we had to show our passports
Friday was probably our worst day of driving - very rough roads - we were both exhausted by the time we got to Dease Lake, BC and had only gone a little over 200 miles - and there are more bad roads in a few days. The only fun part of Friday was we saw 2 bears.
This little cub scared us to death. Our guess is mama had probably already crossed over and he just came up over the side and into the road. Jerry had to really hit the brakes hard to keep from hitting him. I just picture mama bear on the other side giving him a good scolding! It all happened so fast there was no way to even think about taking a picture but our dash cam got one for us.
The 2nd bear did the same thing but we were much further back when we spotted him so even though we stopped to take a picture there was no slamming of brakes required
Saturday we made it to Watson Lake, Yukon and fortunately the roads were some better and we made several stops that helped break up the drive
Finally in the Yukon after having traveled through Alberta and British Columbia
After the Yukon is finally Alaska
While we were stopped to take this picture a nice young man in a pickup truck stopped and asked if were okay and did we need any help.
And another two bears - these two were together but crossed a few minutes apart.
We visited Jade City
It is amazing the beautiful pieces of jade that come from these huge chunks
And wanting to help the local economy I have small jade earrings and a necklace of - bears
For days all along the road have been these beautiful wild flowers
One of the reason's we went to Watson Lake was to hang our sign, that Jerry made, in the Sign Post Forest along with 100,000 other signs
Ours is at the bottom of the tree - it is hard to find someplace to hang a sign
The place is enormous - I took this to try and show how wide it is and it is just as deep.
The forest was actually started back in 1942 by a homesick soldier from Danville, IL. He was working on the construction of the Alaska Hwy. and added his hometown sign to an army mileage post
Today Sunday the 23rd we arrived in White Horse, YT. We are spending two nights here and will go into town tomorrow and check out a few sights that look interesting.
If all goes as planned when we leave here Tuesday or more likely Wednesday we will cross into Alaska. the roads get worse from here until well past the Alaskan border. Many frost heaves and pot holes. We are keeping up with people traveling ahead of us and some say it isn't that bad and others make it sound terrible so please say a prayer we are some that say it wasn't that bad!
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