Top Of The World Highway

TOP OF THE WORLD HIGHWAY

DAWSON CITY, YUKON TERRITORY T0 TOK, ALASKA

Dawson City, Yukon Territory July 5th. 

As we left Dawson City on the start of the Top of the World Highway we had to take a ferry across the Yukon River. After the ferry ride we had sixty six miles of partical asphalt and mostly gravel roads to the border crossing into Alaska. Then we had about thirteen miles of very nice paved road, then we had about thirty miles of very rough, muddy, washboard, and construction inorder to get too Chicken Alaska.

 

Chicken Alaska, July 5th & July 6th

Chicken Alaska is an old gold mining town that is off the grid, (no phone, electricity, internet). Water has to be hauled in, and because of perm a-frost there is no septic, all sewer is in holding tanks and pumped then trucked out. Electricity is provided by generators, the campground had a large generator to run the store and provide power to the RV sites (20 amp service).

The outhouses in Chicken were labeled "Hens" or "Roosters" 

 This one was also called the "Poop Coop".

After one night in Chicken we headed to Tok, Alaska and the end of the Top of the World Highway.

Yukon Territory, Canada

Yukon Territory, Canada,  June 29th - July 5th

Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

 Watson Lake is home to the "Sign Post Forest" a few people placed signs in the visitors center and after a few years the City took over the sign posts and made the forest and keep adding post and people leave signs on the posts. If I have time I will make a sign and leave it on our return trip through Watson Lake.

Whitehorse Yukon Territory,  June 30th-July 3rd

We spent three nights in Whitehorse and on July 1st Canada was celebrating its 150th Birthday as an independent country. They had a large parade down town with lots of fun floats.

We also toured a old river boat used to bring cargo up and down the Yukon River. Before trains were extended to western Canada, and the Alaska Highway during World War II this area was very remote. The early trains came up Whitehorse Pass from Skagway Alaska during the gold rush in this area. The river boats were used to get good down river to Dawson City. We will learn more about Whitehorse Pass on our return trip through Skagway when we will take the train ride up the pass.

Dawson City, Yukon Territory,  July 3rd - July 5th

We had a walking tour of the old mining town of Dawson the entire town is a historic site and they maintain the old wood sidewalks with gravel roads and only the main highway is paved.

Family's were living in the one story building behind the car parked on the street.

British Columbia, Canada

British Columbia, Canada June 25th - June 29th

Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Dawson Creek is the beginning of the official "Alaska Highway" this is marked with mile post zero.

We made two other stops over night in Fort Nelson and Liard River where we visited some natural hot springs. Because it is now summer it almost gets dark between Midnight and 2:00 am in the early morning.

Alberta Canada

Alberta, Canada June 15th - June 25th

In Hill Springs we camped at the Great Canadian Barn Dance and Family Campground.

We had to stop on the road to the Campground for a cattle drive.

We had a tour to the Remington Carriage Museum, they have a very large collection of old carriages, work wagons, stage coaches, and covered wagons.

They have a workshop with old and new tools they use to restore carriages.

We also visited the "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump" in the Blackfeet Indian area.

The story behind the name was that young indian boy wanted to see the fallen buffalo at the bottom of the jump. So he was below the cliff and after the jump the adult Indian women came in to field dress the buffalo.  They discovered the little boy with a smashed head and dead. There was no evidence that this happened at this location but they thought it was a good name for the site.

 In Calgary we stayed a Riversedge Campground

We toured Heritage Park which included a Gasoline Alley. Which have a collection of old cars, tool shop, vintage travel trailer, and gas pumps.

In Banff we stayed at Thunder Mountain Campground

We toured Lake Louise this included a ride up a ski chair lift with a great view of the lake.

                                         We also had a free day to Geocache in downtown, one cache was near a farmers market another cache was inside a hotel atrium.

After Banff we stayed one night dry camping at the Columbia Ice Fields.

We toured one of the glaciers and sampled the water. The tour was in a special bus designed for driving across the ice fields, and gravel roads. One gravel road went up and down a 32% grade that is 32 feet of fall in 100 feet.

We also visited the sky walk over a canyon with mountain goats on the side of the canyon walls under the sky walk.

First week on Alaska trip 2017

Since we left CORA, we traveled to Glendo WY.  We stayed the night in Glendo Lakeside RV Park. The park was nice with very large roads to get to your site.

The next morning we made our way to Buffalo WY and stayed in Indian Campground.  We needed to do some shopping for our week that we were going to stay up at Joe's family cabin at Dull Knife Reservoir.  It was great seeing Joe's family and catching up with them.  The cabin is a summer only get away.  We were definitely off the grid.  There was no cell service, internet or electricity.  We had water that was pumped from a well and a hot water heater, propane for cooking on stove and lights. and a generator to run the occasional power tool. Oh yeah, it has an outhouse, if any of you remember what those are. The one thing it had in abundance was food. No one starved and we had a huge selection of food, beverages, wine and beer.  In this day of age, we actually sat down at meals and carried on conversations with each other.  Joe, his brother Mike, and brother in law Mel went fishing in Dull Knife Reservoir almost everyday.  A lot of catch and release was had by all.

Dull  Knife Reservoir from front porch

After that week we returned to Indian Campground and did the mundane chores of laundry, food shopping, cleaning and checking to make sure everything was ready for our trip.  We went to dinner with Katrina and Harold Anton, owners of Indian Campground and caught up on both our winters.  They restored a vintage Shasta trailer and took it to Las Vegas. Katrina said they had a good time except for extremely close quarters. I do believe it's great for weekends but probably not extended travel. Maybe one day we might think about restoring one.

On our way to Big Timber, we stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.We really wanted to check it out and spend a little time there.  The problem: NO PETS ALLOWED OUTSIDE OF VEHICLE. Fortunately the temperature outside was in the 60's so Kyoto and Osaka would be okay for a little bit.  We hurried thru the Monument and really didn't read anything or look at any of the dioramas.  Just wished we had more time, there is a lot of history here, but we couldn't leave the dogs for long.

Our next stop is in Big Timber. We will spend the night then on to Great Falls where we spend the next 3 nights and will meet everyone on the tour

New property and trip prep

For the last few weeks we have been staying at our new property in CORA (Campground of the Rockies) which is close to Fairplay, CO.

We brought Joe's utility trailer up and parked it behind the shed that was on the property.  We have unloaded both our trailer basement and the utility trailer. Rearranged everything and put everything in its place. He brought electricity to both the shed and the utility trailer. He now has a more or less working wood shop.  Still on the small side but definitely workable.

Joe's small workshop in an utility trailer

Joe got a Colorado fishing licence for the first time in 4 years.  Found out that for a resident over 64 years of age, the annual license cost is $1.00.  Needless to say he has been fishing.
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In the last week the aspen trees and all the plants have started to bud. Too bad we won't be here to see them bloom. Hopeful everything will still be in full bloom when we get back from our trip to Alaska.

Our elevation here is 9000' so it is still cool here.  High temperature has only gotten in the 60's. The mornings are great to sit out in the pergola and drink coffee and watch the many different kinds of birds including hummingbirds.  I bought a birdhouse while at the Canton First Monday Trade Days when we were in Texas. Joe cut a clean out door and hung it on our shed.  That same day two birds that I have not identified yet moved in to it. They are busy working on building their new nest in their new home.  We did get quite a few birdhouses and bird feeders with the purchase of the land. I really do enjoy watching and listening to the birds.  We will be getting a bird book to help us identify all the different birds that visit us here.

Birds hunkered down on a cold rainy day.














When Joe and I are on the road, we usually have dried fruit to munch on. We always are able to find things like bananas, pineapple, mangoes etc.  But the one thing we have had trouble finding is apples. Even went to Whole Foods and they have a whole row of nothing but dried stuff.  Guess what, no apples. Empty bins where they should have been, so they are around and people other than us do indeed buy them. I was lamenting to a friend, Marilyn Luttrell, that I could not find any dried apples to snack on on our long trip ahead. She promptly brought me dried pineapple that she had dried herself in a dehydrator at home. So........ needless to say, we bought a dehydrator on our way home from the Colorado FCRV Spring Fling.  So we have been drying cored, sliced and sometimes peeled apples. pineapples and bananas. Added cinnamon so some of the apples.  Will have to experiment more after the trip.  So we now have dried apples for our trip.  Thank you Marilyn.

Cinnamon sprinkled apple slices














We also have been getting ready for our big trip.  We were sent a Prep Packet for our trip so we have been making sure everything is checked off. Or all the i's dotted and the t's crossed.  I do believe we are ready to rock and roll. Count down to June 1st.

Catch-up

Since our last blog in 2011, everyone probably thought we fell off the grid/earth. However we are still alive and kicking and still fulltime RVing.

A brief summary of the last 5 years:

We continued to work as workampers at Chalk Creek Campground in Nathrop, CO during their camping seasons May thru September in the years 2012 & 2013.  

We worked as workampers at Silverline Resort in Winthrop, WA during their camping seasons May thru September in the years 2014 & 2015.

                                  Many of you might remember the fires in Washington.
Needless to say the fires were close. Night picture shows all the fires on the ridge across the lake.

We worked as workampers at Indian Campground in Buffalo, WY during their camping season May thru September in 2016

We visited Crazy Woman Canyon just outside of Buffalo. No fires here.
Spent an evening being entertained by a jam session at the Occidental Hotel.

We were snowbirds and wintered at Val Vista Villages in Mesa, AZ from November thru February 2010 thru 2016.

We spent March of every year traveling to attend the FCRV (Family Campers and RVer's) Retiree Rally.  They were located in Tallahassee FL, Rayne & Houma LA, and Canton TX.

Year 2017 brought new changes in the air.

We purchased land in Campground of the Rockies (CORA) with full hookups for the 5th wheel.  It is located 16 miles south of Fairplay, CO on US 285. We plan on spending the summers here instead of working as workampers and it also has extra hookups for visiting RVer's

In January and February, we spent the rest of our winter in Sunlight Travel Trailer RV park in McAllen, TX.

We went on our very first cruise in February.  We left Galveston, TX on cruise ship Carnival Freedom.  We visited the ports of Cozumel Mexico, Belize City Belize, Mahogany Bay Roatan Honduras.

Cruzin and a Frog made of towels for one night in our state room.

Beach and Zip-lining in Cozumel Mexico

Tender taking us to  Belize City Belize

Mahogany Bay, Roatan Honduras

Dora feeding an Iguana

Iguanas

So what is in the future?  Why did I update the blog?  What else is new?

In June, we will start a another new adventure and travel with Adventure Caravans on a 59 day tour to Alaska.  That tour does not include the days to travel to get the meeting place or the days needed to travel from the final stop to get back home. Many people have requested we do a blog for the trip. We will try to update the blog along the way in a timely manner with pictures. Not 5 years from now. More to come of our new property too.