Canada (3)

This is the third article on Canada. But before we start with Canada, I have to include Alaska here. I recon that Alaska is not Canada, but as we were only two days in Alaska, I include it here.

Alaska and through Yukon (again)

We entered Alaska via the Top of the World Highway.

On our second day we gave the city of Tok a short visit, mainly for getting some Wifi at the local Visitors Information Center and buy some stuff at the Store. After that we started heading south back to the border again.

The drive through Yukon back south was rather uneventful. The weather was good, the street was good. Nothing more to say really.

Haines Junction to Haines and back again

The drive from Haines Junction to Haines was one of the most beautiful drives besides the Top of the World Highway. Weather was awesome, the landscape was scenic, the places we stayed for the night were awesome (even the night next to the road near Haines was okay) – everything was good (except gas prices in Haines).

We stayed two (more “two half”) days in Haines and had luck seeing Eagles and Grizzly bears (actually we saw a Grizzly rather close – 15 meters maybe – too close for my tastes, but we were inside the car at that time) and were able to take some awesome pictures.

On the drive back to Haines Junction. I made a 1 hour driving movie with our dashcam – hopefully I can use that material for a digital picture frame when I'm back home. I have a spare tablet and it would be really nice if I could re-purpose it into something more useful than a dust-catcher, really!

To Whitehorse and back to British Columbia

On August 6th we left Yukon. We've seen a lot of it (but still feel like we've seen none of it) and it was awesome. Weather was really good (well, from Faro until August 6th), but now we have to head south. We want to arrive in Seattle by end of August because we have only four weeks after that to drive to Las Vegas. We really hope that we still have time to stay more than one night at a location every now and then, because driving 500km straight is tiresome!

But now, back on topic.

Our three days in Whitehorse were rather stressy. We went shopping, looked for tire service and oil change and also visited the SS Klondike, the Miles Canyon and some other places. The big city Whitehorse is (at least after spending 4 weeks in “the backcountry” where almost no people live) gave us a hard time relaxing-wise. At least the weather was okay, rather windy though.

After three days we drove down south to Carcross, which is a really nice place to be and the General Store there was really worth a visit – not because you can buy things there but rather because it was like a memory from forgotten times.

Steward and Hyder, Bear watching and Salmon Glacier

We arrived in Steward on a rainy day. Or rather: On a stormy day, because it was raining like crazy. So we stayed one day in our vehicle and relaxed. On the next day, though, we went to Hyder, Alaska, and did some Bear-watching. Or rather some Fish-watching, because there was no bear there. We waited for three hours in the early moring. Nothing.

Then we drove up to the Salmon Glacier and enjoyed the more-than-awesome view from up there.

After that we did some more fish-watching for about one and a half hour, still no bears. We drove back to Hyder and had dinner near the coast. Then, because what could we lose, we drove to the bear watching area again and waited for two more hours. Nothing.

So we left. We were on our way to the parking lot when I heard someone say something like “Bear!”. So we went back, and there it was: A black Grizzly, fishing in the lake. I took over two hundret pictures within half an hour. Awesome!

Highway to Hell

After two days in Steward and Hyder, we started our way to the south. And then we saw our first Wildfire-Smoke. We didn't see the wildfire, though. It got better until Hazleton and we had a nice evening at the lake and a good night near South Hazleton. The day after we drove to Burns lake, which was suggested by some nice guys from Germany we met a few days before. We had two really nice days at a campside in Burns lake.

Although, on the other side of the lake there was smoke. The day we left was bad. We got into wildfire-smoke rather fast while driving south. And it got worse.

It turned out that this was only the beginning.

We drove to Prince George, then further south and to Bakerville the day after. Bakerville, a nice Museum-Town, was really worth a visit. The smoke created a wildwest-feeling which was ... kinda nice, actually!

But because of the wildfire, we did not continue on that road to Likely, but turned around back to the highway and drove to Williams Lake. We took a backcountry-road from there, stayed at a lake near Dog Lake and Big Bar Lake - still smoke, though.

On the next day we continued because the smoke got worse. We met two germans we have met before, had a coffee in a nice bakery in Lilooet with them and spent a nice evening on a free campside near Lilooet with them.

On the next day – smoke worse. So we continued (again) to Pemperton where we had another really nice coffee in a nice bakery with them and then we left to Lilooet Lake where we finally got our “brake-day”. We stayed two nights at the lake, had a good view and a nice and quiet campground there – despite a little smoky conditions and a really bad “forest access road”.

The day after we drove to Squamish and stayed near the Wind-Surfing-place where we met nice (and high) people and had a nice night there.

Still: All this driving...

Finally, on August 21., we drove to Vancouver. We visited the City and the “Vanaqua” – a really nice Aquarium, which was really worth the visit (and the money) because they have a really nice collection there. We even saw a Linux!

We stayed in the City (on a free overnight parking place) during the night and continued to Abbotsford where we visited the Pool and then continued to the states.

But that's another story and will be told in the next blog post in this series. Heads up: The “everyday-driving-story” ends, because the next days were eventful and there was less driving... stay tuned!

{{< gallery >}} {{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070097.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Welcome to Alaksa!” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070110.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Bear watching impressions: Foggy moring!” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070113.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Bear watching impressions: Sunny day!” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070126.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Wildlife: Foxy Fox” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070153.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Bear near the road” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070167.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Rainy day Glacier near Steward” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070174.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Salmon instead of Bears” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070213.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Salmon Glacier” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070367.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Finally: Bear!” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070396.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Catching a Salmon” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070448.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“...and looking for more” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070488.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Bakerville – pure Wild West!” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070501.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Bakerville” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070505.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Wildfire!” >}}

{{< figure link=“/america/canada/P1070510.JPG” hover-effect=“grow” caption=“Can you see the lake?” >}}

{{< gallery />}} {{< load-photoswipe >}}