H & P Alaska 2024

 The map shows our route from Ft. Nelson to Moberly Lk. with our stops between. It is a nice drive from Charlie Lk. to Moberly Lk. Lots of new road, they have moved it from the valley bottom to up the hill, to prepare for Site C Dam flooding. Most of this, they were building when we came through here last time.  This shows the valley bottom, with the old road to the left. We got to the campsite, got set up and just hung around for the rest of the afternoon. Next day we went off the Chetwynd, it is 23km from the campsite. Chetwynd's claim to fame, is Chainsaw Carvings. I took this off the internet. The 18th Annual Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Championship has visually shaped The District of Chetwynd into a one-of-a-kind locale. Artists from all over the world compete in this unique competition. The District of Chetwynd in BC keeps each intricately carved piece from the championship and places them throughout town. I was going to put pictures here but the cell se...

 Smoke, smoke, smoke all you could see is smoke. There were places that the smoke was so thick I couldn't see more than five or six hundred meters ahead.  Here it had thinned out a little.   We spent a night at Bucking Horse PP. Lots of wind, rain and lightning but good the next morning. Next we travelled to Charlie Lake PP. The smoke was less there, it was getting better as we head south.  The highway between Stone Mountain and Ft Nelson washed out two days after we got through - whew. We have been watching the forest fire situation closely and will change our route if necessary.  From here, Charlie Lake, we will head to Moberly Lake PP, outside of Chetwynd. Then down the 97 but we could change and go the 5 at Prince George if we have to. 14 degrees last night but calm and sunny now.

 Well, that didn't work out, we got to the campground (MacDonald at Muncho Lake) and there was a campground full sign. It was early, so we thought maybe they hadn't taken the sign down from last night, nope it was full. Just down the road is Strawberry Flats, nope campground full. About another hour and a half, there is Stone Mountain PP, we will try there. On the way we came across these guys. Notice how the adults move to protect their lambs. As we came around the corner to look down Summit Lake, we could see the campground and it looked full. Darn, oh well, lets go check it out. When we got to the turn off, there was no campground full sign, a good sign. We turned into the left loop and there was only one other camper there. We found a nice site and set up. After having something to eat, we went for a walk around the park. If we had turned left, instead of right, we could have camped right on the lake. Oh well, our site was nice. Here is a photo of Stone Mountain when we fir...

 Even though this is one of our favourite campgrounds, we only stayed two nights. The weather was not the greatest but not the worst either. Pat checked for Geo Caches in the area and found one at a cell tower between Teslin and the campground. We found the cache and I got some pictures from up the mountain. The first one is looking east to Teslin and the second back towards the campsite. Our campsite is just around the corner to the right of the photo. I could not see the tower from the campground, too many trees.  These are from a view point, on the lake, just out of Teslin. Pretty cool clouds in this one. We are now in Watson Lk., heading for Muncho LK. Hopefully we will find a spot there.

Yes, Whitehorse, not where we had planned but plans are always fluid on a trip like this. Our first stop after Soldotna was Bird Creek SP, just south of Anchorage, then we planned togo to Glennallen the next day. We knew of a campground just out of Glennallen that we would stop for the night. We got there and the gate was closed and I had already pulled off the road. Luckily, there was little traffic and I could back onto the highway with no issues. There was another park about halfway between Glennallen and Tok, we get there and it was closed, so we ended up just south of Tok at Eagle Trail Lake SP for the night. That was a long day, we normally try to keep our travel time to 2.5 to 3 hours, that was almost 8. Next day we head for the border at Beaver Creek. Just before the border the TPMS alarm goes off, rats another flat. That's one going into Alaska and one coming out. When I got the valve stem replaced, I did not put that tire back on, I left the spare on. It looked good, it h...

 It rained the night before we left Whittier, luckily for me it was very light as I hooked up the trailer. There is no RV dump in Whittier that we could find, we did find one on our way to Soldotna. We chose Swiftwater Municipal RV Pk for our stay here. $23  a night, fire pit, picnic table and garbage. They do have a dump but they want $20 to use it, on top of our camping fees so we will go back to the one we found on our way here at Quartz Creek SP.  Now, they say you get smarter as you get older, I don't know about that. We were handed a map of the town when we checked in and there was a meat market not too far away. Lets go take a look and see if we can find something different. I found some beef sticks, then we looked at the meat counter. There were these beef roll ups that looked good, meat, cheese and spinach, yum. I bought two and the beef sticks and handed over my credit card. We get back in the truck and Pat looks at the bill, $65 Can, guess I should have asked t...

 Happy Independence Day.  Today was explore Whittier day. The main road carries on past town about a mile, it goes to Emerald  Cove Trail. Some good views of the inlet from here. Town is to the left of the photos. We did find a cache just off the road, first one. I am not sure if you will be able to read the next photos, there is some interesting info on the buildings and town. Next we went back down toward the tunnel and airport. The airport is a grass runway 1480 ft. long. Ocean on one end and mountains on the other. Bush plane paradise. There are hundreds of boats here, mostly in the thirty and up size. They are parked on the land and sea. The below photo shows a fraction of the boats that are in parking lots. On Thursday we thought "so far the weather has been grey, with no rain, yea." I am sure that will change.  Friday, it did. It rained most of the night, grey again today and drizzling.  There are some waterfalls just up from the campground. The white spo...

We woke to bright blue skies, so we decided to take a day trip to Seward. You can see where that is on the previous posts map. Another beautiful drive, the roads down here are pretty good. It took us around two hours, we did stop and check out a couple of campgrounds. All full for Independence Day. That's why we are staying put in Whittier. A couple of shots from the beach front in Seward. To the left of this photo is the municipal campground. It goes the length of the town, along the beach front. Now, you might think that's cool, but you are packed in like sardines and it is only $78 US with no services. Not our cup of tea. This is a tourist town, the train, buses and cruise ships come here. There were two ships here when we were. Our plan was to have lunch, so we drove through town to see what was here. The main road makes a big loop around town, three streets up and the waterfront on the way back. The second time around, we came down a side street and lo and behold, there wa...