Into The Yukon

We drove on, following the Alaska Highway, just as we had in 2002...remembering little because, well, for the first thousand miles or so, there is little memorable...

Mostly it looked like this

Every now and then, there would be another vehicle or an animal warning sign

Sometimes it was hilly

Always there were the intensely, relentlessly ugly and useless black spruces

Occasional mountains

Canyons

In this amazing photo, Vicki captures the emptiness, both fore and aft

But we are not alone...there were bears

And woodland bison

A small herd

At last we are at Watson Lake ("elementary!")

And its world-renowned Sign Forest; begun by a a homesick American
soldier in 1942; definitely something memorable

People vandalize and steal from their home towns to bring
signs here on their Yukon/Alaska pilgrimages

Acres and acres of hometown signs

After spending the night among the signs, we drove on  into
the Yukon, the scenery getting far more dramatic...

Into Canada

And so it came to pass that on August 8th--exactly one month after departing Cary--we entered Canada, via Eastbrook, into British Columbia, Pacific Time Zone.

At the border

Clear skies in Cranbrook where we spent our first night; high hopes for seeing the northern lights...

Beautifully restored '51 Mercury V-8

No Wallydocking in Cranbrook, but Canadian big boxes are a bit more
accommodating

Incipient badlands

Lots of varmint viaducts and critter crossings on the highly traveled
roads; rather fewer as you proceed north

Interesting formations

Didymo--aka rock snot--here in Canada, last seen
by us in New Zealand

Animal crossing modeled after Roman bridges

After three tries over two days to get into the Lake Louise parking
lot, this is all we saw; fortunately we'd seen it before...in 1972; in
Banff NP

Overflow RV parking at Lake Louise

It was tough, but we made it; and were to suffer worse in the Yukon

Into Jasper NP

A bit of the Columbia Ice Field, which feeds the Atlantic, 
the Pacific, and the Arctic Oceans

Lots glaciers hereabouts

Vicki driving

Interesting picnic table design

Logging is alive and well in BC

In Beaverlodge, BC

At official start of the Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek, BC

Vicki there in 2002

Jackson To Yellowstone, Missoula, Lochsa, And Beyond

The next couple weeks saw us driving up through the left side of Yellowstone, into Montana, and eventually our former home in Missoula, where we spent a week with Kim and Dave (last pictured with us a year ago in London), visiting with them and other friends and making a variety of changes and refinements to the camper. After that, we drove the Lochsa River, another favorite, eating at the Lochsa Lodge and staying at the Powell campground, and from there took US route 95 through northern Idaho and crossed over into Canada.

A small stack of firewood in Jackson or Grand Teton
NP will set you back $14.99; evidently cut from a special
grove of billion-dollar trees

Jackson has changed so much in the 54 years we've been
visiting it; here, beef aging in the Albertson's, reminiscent of
La Grande Epicerie de Paris

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chaose

X-rated items in the local drug store; curtained, at
least, unlike Walmart

Another sign you're out west

"Oh no...another squirrel-sighting!"...en route from Jackson, Gros Ventre,
to Colter Bay

But there were several hundred of the critters

And a serious traffic jam

Moving right along, we are now in Yellowstone NP, which we really
like in the winter

Approaching the West Yellowstone entrance to Yellowstone NP

Four lanes of traffic, backed up all the way into town: why we like
YNP mostly in the winter

We were busy at Kim and Dave's and didn't take many
pix: here, 3 fauns are resting after brunching on Kim's
flowers

Hector Protector at a Missoula Walmart

At Lochsa Lodge

On the Lochsa, which we rafter with Rebecca and Rachel in 1996

Camping at Powell

The drive down the river was all rain and clouds, but still enjoyable;
one of our favorite drives

Bird city in darkest Idaho

In our travels we have seen boot fences and bra fences and toilet walls, but this
is our our first bird-house fence

Parting thought from Idaho