A week in pictures

In the past week or so we've traveled a mind-boggling amount and it's hard for me to keep it straight, so here's a quick run-down.

Sept 10th - We went to the SeaLife Centre in Seward, where Lily played with the friendly & inquisitive harbour seals in the tank (they like bright red shoes!, no picture though) and then drove to Palmer for the night.

Sept 11th - drove the Glenn Highway in reverse and stopped at Eagle Trail campground, just south of Tok. While we were in coastal Alaska, fall came to the mountains and the trees & hills had turned beautiful reds, yellows and oranges

Sept 12th - Finally some sun! We stopped at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Centre to learn about the species and first people's that call this area home & let Morgan do some school work in the sun. Then we crossed the border back into Canada and traveled further southward through some beautiful country before stopping for the night at the Lake Creek Yukon gov't campground.

Sept 13th - We changed our plans and drove to Whitehorse instead of Haines, where we spent a night at the same campground as our longer stay and the kids got to play with the friends they had made a few weeks earlier. Long drive days make the kids a bit wild (as evidenced by Lily's expression in the picture), so it was nice that they got some playtime after we finally got to the campground.

 

Sept 14th - drove the South Klondike Highway, down to Skagway, Alaska. This is an amazing road, with a long steep descent to the ocean. Wow (and you go through a territory, a province and into the U.S. all in 180 km)! On the way down we stopped at the Carcross Desert, and played in the sand dunes.

Desert!

Rockslide!

Sept 15th - We wandered through Skagway some more, had lunch and then drove back up the Klondike highway.  We took the Carcross cutoff to reconnect to the Alaska Highway to save a bit of time. We spent all afternoon & evening driving and pulled in after dark into the Big Creek Yukon gov't campground, just a bit shy of the Highway 37 junction.

 

Sept 16th - We left the Alaska Highway and headed south onto the Stewart Cassiar Highway for another long day. This is paved, but a bit narrow and winding, so it took us 8 hours to do 510 km. We saw 9 black bears along the way, including a sow and her two cubs. Very cool! We pulled into Bell 2 Lodge at 7:30 or so, had supper and then went to relax (or at least take a dip) in their open air hot tub.  Ooh, first bit of luxury in, well I'm not sure how long!

Sept 17th - A short drive south to Meziadin Lake Provincial Park. This is a lovely campground and our camp site backs right onto the lake. We even have WiFi here :) After having lunch (and letting the kids play in the lake) we drove to Stewart and then on past Hyder (Alaska!) to see Salmon Glacier (a bit of a scary road up, but amazing viewpoint of the glacier - it was cold, wet & cloudy at the top, so we didn't stay too long). On our way back we stopped at the Fish Creek Bear viewing platform. The bears hadn't been spotted there for two weeks or so, but we did see lots of dead salmon and a few live ones.

Bear Glacier

Salmon Glacier (just a small part)

Live & dead salmon

Today - an extra day at the lake to relax, catch up on school work, clean the truck & trailer and just go ahhhhh.

Meziadin Lake

Learning about buoyancy!

Fall is definitely in full swing in the north and while today was nice, it's definitely getting chillier at nights. Camping season in this area is wrapping up & the campground (and others in the area) is closing very soon. As much as I would like to stay here just one more day, we need to keep moving south - into warmer, more populated areas. Plus, I have a date in Penticton with a cute little newborn - my nephew who is almost two weeks old!