7/8/13: Tok, Alaska to Fairbanks, Alaska

Today we left Tok, AK and headed north to Fairbanks.  We drove a total of 205 miles today.  We were originally thinking of continuing on to Denali, but decided that Fairbanks would be a great place to stop and resupply on supplies like:  propane, fuel and a few grocery items as well.  

When we pulled into town, we were noticing that we were surrounded by black clouds and knew that rain was coming. Man did it ever!!  It poured so hard and so fast that the streets were flooding and you couldn't see in front of you.  Luckily, we were just pulling into our camp for the night!!  Needless to say, we got set up, went into town to resupply and then enjoyed a nice evening in our camper (with heat)!!  The rain lasted all night so my dog walk was a bit short tonight, but I don't think Bo minded to much :)

We woke to blue skies and brilliant sunshine!  Ya-hoo!  After a much needed pit stop at STARBUCKS for some nummy coffee we are on the road for Denali National Park.

Due to the weather, I don't have many pictures from our time in Fairbanks.. but here are a few:

The AK state park we stayed at:

Cute cabin in the park:

The beautiful scenery before the rain hit:

Our moose for the day:

7/7/13: Kluane Lake, YT to Tok, Alaska

Well, after five long travel days we have made it to Tok, AK today!!  We are very excited to officially be in ALASKA now, but are ever more excited to soon be settling down at one place for 6 days -- yep, Denali National Park we are on our way :) 

Today's drive was beautiful and horrible all at once!  Let's see... We only drove 298 miles today, but it was on the roughest 150 mile stretch of highway ever! The last bit of the Yukon, before reaching the Alaska border, is in really rough shape!  Due to the extreme temps in the winter, it creates "frost heaves" on the highway when the ground thaws in the Spring... Which then creates horrible dips, cracks and bumps all over the highway.  It was pretty normal to travel at 30 MPH rather then 50-55MPH today -- then they were doing construction and they wet the dirt down with water (to prevent extreme dust) and then the pilot car drove us 6 miles through mud and muck...  this all creates a VERY muddy truck and trailer!!  Lucky for us (and many others) you get a free "do-it-yourself" car wash with any fill up of gas at a station in at Tok, AK -- there really is a reason that Tok is the self proclaimed "car wash capital of the world" -- ha!!!

We are enjoying our stay in Tok tonight.  I was hoping to take some camp photos, but we had a thunder/lighting/rain storm blow through... So I only got one before the rain hit.  The wi-fi also not working at camp, so i will load more pictures from our day tomorrow as well.  Speaking of tomorrow... We are headed to Fairbanks tomorrow to re-supply before heading into Denali for a week!! :) :) :)

Hope all is well at home!  Here are a few pictures from today:

Playing Farkle in camp:

Brady helping Rick rinse off the mud:

All clean...

Mr. Bo living the rough life on his blanket in the couch:

When you are at the international border here, you can literally have one foot in the Yukon and one foot in USA:

7/6/13: Watson Lake, YT to Kluane Lake, YT

Hi all!!

So, we left Watson Lake, YT this morning around 7:40am after another nice quiet night of sleep and rest!!  We were smooth sailing down the Alaska Highway when we noticed a car pulled over on the side of the road (a sign that a critter is there) when BAM, we saw it:  a WOLF!!!!!!!!

"Wow!!!!" that is all I can say about the encounter we had!! But, since the Wolf is KK's FAVORITE animal ever, I thought I would let her describe it in her own words:

"Today was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!! I got to see the most amazing animal ever in the wild! Most of you knew that my goal of this trip, was to see a wolf in the wild and that wish finally came true! My favorite part was to see the wolves eyes and to be only about 10 feet away from this incredible animal! I can already predict that today will probably be the highlight of this trip for me."

After our wolf encounter, we didn't see any other animals and honestly I don't think any of us cared because the wolf was that INCREDIBLE!!!  

This afternoon we made it to Kluane Lake, YT (our favorite place) and enjoyed the late afternoon playing on the beach behind our camp and playing mini golf too ;). We had another great day and we are beside ourselves to think tomorrow we will be in ALASKA already!!!

Here are some photos of our day:

Mr. Wolf:

Our first view of the Yukon River today:

Playing at Kluane Lake camp:

7/5/13: South of Fort Nelson,BC to Watson Lake, YT

Today we traveled from Bucking Horse Provincial Park in BC to Watson Lake, YT!!!!  Again, another long day of traveling.  We had great weather, great travelers and great views of animals!!!!  We left Bucking Horse PP around 7:40am and traveled 415 miles today to reach Watson Lake in the Yukon Territory!!  

Today was again amazing with scenery and animals!!  The list of amounts of each we saw is loooong, but all in all we saw: multiple moose, multiple black bear, multiple bison, multiple deer, multiple stone sheep, a caribou, a grouse and hmmm.... I think that is it --- but lots of each!!  It was another gorgeous day for sure!!!  We stayed at the Little Nugget RV Resort, we stayed there last time and so we knew it was a great place!!  Started off rocky with the power going out right after we hooked up, but luckily it was a fast fix!! The Mosquitos were again bad tonight, but we again suffered through just fine ;)

We are having a great time and can't wait to arrive in Alaska!!!  Here are a few photos from out day:

We are in the YUKON now!!

A common view on the highway: no one

Muncho Lake, Yukon

Awesome black bear munching away:

Tatonka:

7/4/13: Chetwynd,BC to Fort Nelson, BC

Happy 4th of July!!

We got another early start today, pulling out of camp at 7:38am and heading towards the Hudson Hope Loop highway in BC....  We knew we would get farther then we had originally planned since we were ahead of schedule, so we would just see where the road would lead us!!!

After traveling 439 miles today, we stopped at Bucking Horse Wayside Provincial Park in beautiful BC.  So, yes ... this means that not only had we made it to the "Alaska Highway" by day two --- but we were far north on the "Alaska Highway" by day two!!!!  Yay!!!

Bucking Horse PP is wayside park, so instead of all the beauty we have become a custom too at the BC parks, it is much more lacking.  Mosquitos were HORRIBLE, but we survived fine!!  The boys played football at camp and KK and I goofed off with her camera (sorry).  Oh, we only saw a momma moose and her calf today and some deer -- kind of disappointing, but again we are traveling in the middle of the day, so to be expected....

We are planning on a bright start again tomorrow... The weather has again been gorgeous!!!!  Here are some photos from out day:

Our first sign showing its getting close:

A beautiful view from Hudson Hope Loop

Camp photos at Bucking Horse Wayside:

Milepost planning for tomorrow:

Sunset:

7/3/13: Anacortes, WA to Chetwynd, BC

Day one of our journey north planned for us only getting up to Lac la Hache, BC --BUT... the non-traffic conditions, beautiful weather and great child travelers let us get all the way to Chetwynd, BC tonight!!  We drove 459 miles today and the kids (and Bo) were champs!!  

After literally driving all day, we pulled into Ten Mile Provincial Park, found a campsite and really enjoyed ourselves there -- bugs were ok and the sites were clean!  It was really warm on today's trip topping out at about 88 degree's at times- the dip in the lake this evening was great!! 

We are planning on getting an early start again tomorrow..   Below are some photos from our first day on the road!!

Brady makes our first campfire of the trip:

Camp pictures :