We continued along the Cassier Highway for a second day and stopped for the night in Stewart, BC. This town was a place I wanted to spend a couple of days with Kathy just exploring. There is a great little place called the Ripley Creek Inn that I had seen when I was here in 2019 and wanted to treat us to a couple of nights there.
It is a cute little inn consisting of the 8-12 buildings on a city block interconnected with boardwalks, treed canopies, gardens, and a collection of interesting items from the past 125 years including old sewing machines, mining equipment, old transistor radios, and even a couple of tugboats. Such a cute place.
We looked around and relaxed in their yards before hiking on a local trail of boardwalks over the tidal marsh. We spotted more pink salmon in the creeks and watched a quiet harbor. Interestingly we found out the town of Stewart was named after a couple of American brothers that settled the area while the neighboring town across the border of Hyder, AK was named after a Canadian Engineer.
We finished our walk and took the pups to the camper. We had a nice dinner at a local pizza place. The pizza was interesting in that the meats of pepperoni I and salami were sandwich meats rather than what we were used to. It was good, just different and almost like a panini instead. We returned for some showers and a nice time in the Inn.
We turned south into CA 37, the Cassier Highway, to drive down the middle of British Columbia. The highway is less traveled than the AK highway, but is much more beautiful in my opinion. The lakes and valleys through the towering Rockies are beautiful at every turn. I stopped for fuel every couple of hours to keep the tank full and take a little break.
Around 5 we passed a car with a couple of ladies from Michigan that were looking under their car. We decided to stop to see if they needed help. They stated something was making a noise under their front end and noted they had had the brakes redone recently. I asked if they needed help and they agreed. When they moved the car I could hear the issue in the front and said it was likely the anti rattle pin and I could see it catching on the rim. We jacked up their car and I pulled the wheel off to find the clip had come loose and was bent and broken. I told them they could still drive it to a town that could get a part. The closest was Prince George, about 700 miles to the south. She took some pictures for her records and we put everything back together and sent them on their way.
We stopped for the night in Jade City at a free RV camp next to a Jade store. It turned out this area mines about 95% of the worlds Jade. They had tons (literally) of the stone in and around the place. You can get Jade slabs or earrings. Pretty stuff but also expensive.
I did not take and photos today, just a nice drive.
We camped at Wolf Creek Campground just SE of Whitehorse last night. It’s a Yukon Regional Park official campsite. Every time I camp in a Canadian campground I am impressed. They are far superior to most all campgrounds I have experienced in the US National Parks, BLM, or FS. Tonight $18 CAD (which is about $12 US).
It’s funny because they are not much different except they seem to have more amenities for a lower cost. The camps are easily paid for with cash or with an app. Most have reserved sites and some first come first serve, so there is almost always a site for spontaneous travelers. Some sites have RV dumps and water available as well for free. And they are generally better set up and maintained.
AND there are wood sheds with wood available FOR FREE. US parks often don’t allow wood gathering and require you to purchase it from the camp host, bring it in from home (as long as its not too far so as to no bring in pests), or purchase it from the local store for a $7-10 cost per bundle, on top of the $20-24 campsite fee. A weekend at a US campsite will cost you $50-75 in fees and $50-100 in firewood if you burn nights and morning fires. Plan for a week and that could reach $400. Ridiculous. Everything in the US is behind a paywall, which I could understand for private campgrounds, but these are resources owned and operated by the Gov for the people.
In Canada it’s all included for $18 CAD.
And it’s not free market, IMO, it’s mismanagement of our government resources. What can we do to change this?
I got a call from a guy I met the last time I was in Alaska and he lives in Whitehorse. We had planned on heading to Haines, then catch the ferry to Juneau/Gustavus/skagway for a few days. After looking at the ferry routes, considering the pups on this, and the extra costs, wedecided to reroute a to visit and catch up instead. We got to Whitehorse and tried to meet up. We waited at the local Canadian Tyre parking lot, I walked 3+ miles through the old town, visited a farmers market, and saw some sites. Unfortunately for some reason the meet up did not work out, so we got a sub at Quiznos, drove out of town and found camp just above the Yukon River outside of town and settled down for the night.
One of the things I love about Alaska and Northern Canada is the boreal forests. They have small to medium trees and an always beautiful carpet of moss, lichens, bushes, etc on the forest floor. Wher I grew up in Arizona, the forests are ponderosa pines, some scrub oak, and maybe junipers trees, but the forest floor is generally covered in pine needles or scarce grasses. They don’t have the diversity of life I see here. It is absolutely due to the difference in moisture, and I really enjoy that here. Well, we camped in the boreal forest and it’s so beautiful.
Ok, still not hearing a single response from the guy from the past, we headed towards Skagway. Along the way we stopped at a historic site called Conrad along a glacial valley and lake. Conrad was an old mining village in the early 1900s. A couple of the cabins were being restored, but most had been moved and repurposed to the nearby town of Carnack. I was excited to hike the trails as there were reports of a black bear in the area, but Kathy was not too keen on it.
The drive through this area I believe is more beautiful than the one found to Valdez along the Richardson Highway. In this area there are mirror surfaced lakes, pools, glacial rivers and streams, along a glacier cut mountain top valley. This is berry season and tons of folks are out with their buckets scouring the roadside.
We crossed into the USA and were inspected by US customs who wanted to go through our fridge. We had purchased everything in Fairbanks so the contraband Canadian eggs, meats, or dog food was not present. The last US entry did not seem to care. It may be because we can catch a boat to the lower 48 here, but it seemed odd. Anyway, we continued down the beautiful valley into Skagway.
The valley is famous for the White trail (and the Kilkoot trail in the adjacent valley) during the Klondike Gold rush. In two years over 100,000 people from all over the world traveled through here to get to Dawson City to stake claims. Most turned around once they got there and went home due to finding nothing or not even being able to dig on a claim. These people from 125 years ago were much harder than people from today. I can’t imagine anyone trekking this far in this day and age.
We arrived in Skagway and walked the pups then browsed around town with the cruise ship tourists. They get up to 4 ships a day here and it is crowded. We had a nice dinner at the Red Onion Saloon and Brothel and then headed over tho the Dyea area to camp. I balked at the one lane bridge at the first pass because it showed a 11’5” limit and we are about that. But after testing, it was this at the sides, so we drove right through. We found a campsite and set up quickly. I set out on a hike to the ocean and found lots of salmon, dead and alive, along the stream. It was a warmer evening than recent places.
We drove the 30 miles back up to Fairbanks to pick up Sean’s Rx and then had a nice lunch at a local burger place. We turned Howie south again and drove until about 6 pm on AK Highway 1. There were some beautiful rest stops along the way and we took a few pictures.
We found a nice little campground along the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge and met a nice couple from Michigan and another from Oklahoma. We didn’t see any big game, but there was a pair of Trumpeter Swans swimming around the lake.
There are lots of road repairs along the highway and several times we waited for pilot cars. I didn’t call it construction because the highway department up here is constantly dealing with road issues related to the seasonal weather. Freezing and melting of the land is not easy on the roads.
We crossed back into Canada on the 20th and continued South. We started to see Fall colors down here as many trees are turning yellow and the shrubs in the forests are orange and red. We found a nice wild beach campsite along Kluane Lake near the Congdon Creek Regional Park in the Yukon. We collected some wood, had a nice fire, and then retreated inside as the rain started. It rained all night. Tomorrow we cross back into the USA and arrive in Haines.
We left the Arctic Circle campground about 10 AM and headed the 190 miles back to Fairbanks. We arrive in Fairbanks around 3 and headed straight to the car wash. We planned to get cleaned up but we’d never stay clean with Howie in this condition.
The road salt/mud was caked on the body, frame, and all around the camper. $75 and 60 minutes later it was much better. I still will get underneath in the near future and work the frame a bit but for now this will do.
It was coming along 5 pm and we headed to a local campground for the night. We got a deal at this place, even though it was $40 with power, it included free showers. The dogs barely got to pee before Kathy was headed to the showers with her gear.
The next two days were expensive on the budget. We spent an additional $350 for groceries and supplies,;$25 on laundry (cheap really); $90 on campgrounds; $100 on diesel, propane, and truck supplies. Going to town costs money.
Sean had his final cardiology tele-appointment so we stayed in Fairbanks. We also had to fill prescriptions for Kathy and Walgreens in AK is not fast. Sean’s appointment results were fantastic with reports that the AFib was not permanent, his heart echocardiogram showed no issues, and the imaging/stress test showed no arterial plaque or other issues. The doc wants to keep me on the Rx so we will have to head back into Fairbanks to get those tomorrow.
We decided to head south a bit to get away from the pay campsites and to visit the North Pole. We enjoyed the Christmas store and all of the Yule spirit, got a few postcards, and then found a free camp next to the Salcha River. Here’s a picture from the Howie’s door.
We left after the swim in the Arctic Ocean and drove south. The weather was turning and snow was expected. We wanted to make it through Atigun Pass before we stopped but it ended up being too far. I think we ended up stopping at a rest area around 8PM. We woke up to two inches of snow on the camper the next morning. Fortunately we still had propane and Howie stayed nice and warm all night.
The road is well traveled and maintained due to the hauling that occurs so other than being muddy, the pass was beautifully blanketed in snow and the road was clear. We made it to Coldfoot in the late afternoon, fueled up, and pushed onward. I wanted to get back to Fairbanks because we were low on propane and were about 8 days in since a shower and 7 days since food supply, tank dumps, and fresh water.
The road was tiring to drive with the constant watch for potholes and dips. I managed to avoid most of them but one bad one bent the eye bolt on the repaired side. Fortunately no damage to the wood repairs was evident, but when we got to the camp at the BLM Arctic Circle Campground I had to attach the chain to the jack mount again as the eye bolt threads were stripped.
The pups were glad to get a walk in although it was slightly raining. We hunkered down for the night and slept well. The propane still managed to keep us warm all night.
This post is the last for our journey North. Today we arrived at Deadhorse and the end of the Dalton Highway. Tomorrow we will set foot in Prudhoe Bay, touch the Beaufort Sea, and swim in the Arctic Ocean. We have been traveling now for 72 days and have covered 10,700 miles to this point. It seems like yesterday that we started, yet we have done and seen much up to this point. And today is the end of this portion of the trip.
We drove around Deadhorse for a bit and stopped at the general store to get some stickers and mail some postcards at the post office. We did finally see some beautiful caribou (there is no hunting in this oil town).
The place reminded me of my time in Iraq and Afghanistan at the bases there. Connexes everywhere, industrial yards, big equipment. It was dusty, industrial, and was there for one thing, extracting oil. It was calculated that there were over 3 billion barrels of oil in the reserves up here and about half has been extracted. Initially the oil reserves 6-8k down were at 4000 psi, making extraction easier as it spewed from the Christmas trees (well valves at the top) and into an extensive piping structure that collected in the pump house where it was separated from water and debris and pumped into the Alaska pipeline for the 600 mile journey to Valdez. Today about half is left and the pressures are around 2k psi and fracking and other methods are being used to squeeze the oil from the wells. There is still another reserve a hundred miles to the east, but that is in a preserve and has not been exploited yet.
There are two places to eat in Deadhorse, Brooks Camp hotel and The Aurora Hotel. Both are cafeteria style with a planned buffet and salad bar. They were serving steaks and seafood and we decided it was a night to celebrate our final mile and the beginning of the first mile of our Pan American Highway. Dinner started at 4:30 so we found a place to park and cleaned up, took a nap, and relaxed in the 55 degree weather.
Brooks Camp Restaurant did not disappoint. Again, this reminded me of those years I was deployed where the work was long and hard for 12-14 hours per day and the highlights were the meal breaks where we could get good food and feel a bit normal life. We shared a huge steak (the size of a whole plate), ate a fresh salad, some huge fried shrimp, chicken cordon blue, and potatoes and mushrooms. We spent an hour in there, eating at a table, reminiscing of the journey so far, and planning for the next day.
We hiked a trail at Marion Creek Campground but only made it in about a mile. We were a bit unprepared with our shoes. The trail headed up from the cheek to a beautiful forest filled with blueberries, cranberries, and dozens of types of mushrooms and then started to get a bit mushy. Generally hiking in the boreal forest is like hiking on a mattress, but it got a bit boggy. There was a trail crew we passed working on a multi-year project to create a boardwalk over the mushy sections, and it was in its early stages. There was still a mile or so to go and we had not brought our waders. We were about an hour in, our shoes were soaked, and we hadn’t brought the pups (fortunately for Maggie especially). We hiked back out and cleaned up and got on the road.
Marion Creek is at the southern end of the Brooks Range and the mountains there were lower. As we drove the range grew in height with towering granite mountains 6-8k in height. We followed a river and the pipeline for a hundred miles until a rest stop before Antigun Pass made a note we were moving into Arctic Tundra, where no longer trees were present because the temperature and sunlight are neither high/long enough for trees to photosynthesize enough to create wood or bark. The pass and mountains are gorgeous.
We continued onward down the other side to the northern slope for an hour or so. We started looking for a campground about 100 miles north of Deadhorse, but things were scarce and what was available was filled with people decked out in camo and hunting gear. It turns out it was Caribou season.
We did find a huge pull out with space and I talked with a couple of hunters who had gotten a large bull. They said that 0-5 miles from the road is Archery tags only and ride was 5+ miles in. They were hunting with rifle and had hiked over 5 miles to get theirs. We talked for a bit and I found out one was from Palmer and the other was from Valdez. They educated me on the harvesting and pack out of the meat and rack. Pretty cool. We hadn’t seen caribou yet out here on the Dalton, and the hunting explained it.
Camp was nice and I enjoyed fighting the mosquitos and watching the sun make its way nearly horizontally across the tundra. One cool thing I found the next morning while out looking for a place to dig a hole was an already set up outhouse with a view. Bonus (shout out to Carl).
We camped in a huge gravel pit recommended by iOverlander. There was no one around and it was about a mile off of the Dalton Highway, around a hill, and you could barely any traffic from the trucks. It was one of those places that has utter silence with the exception of birds and ground hogs chirping. I took the pups for a good long hike around the quarry and we found some other great camp spots way up on top with 360 degree views. Off to the edge was a huge red raspberry patch so I picked a handful for Kathy.
We got off to an early start and followed a section of the old highway for a couple of miles before rejoining the main route. Not sure why a new road was cut around this section, but I’m sure there were reasons.
We drove for about 2 hours before we reached a millennia known landmark called Finger Rock. The location was used by hunters for thousands of years to watch for game crossing the Kanuti River valley. Another 30 minutes down the road we reached the official Arctic Circle pull off. It had a nice 4/seasons display showing how people and animals survive up here. It turns out summer growing season is only 60-90 days.
The Dalton Highway has some construction and some semi truck traffic. It is not as bad as people have made it out to be. There are sections that we paved and sections that are dirt. Both have their issues but the dirt is better to drive on with a few washboards and some minor pot holes. The pavement is another matter. The potholes in the pavement are deep and must be avoided and the frost heaves are abundant. It’s like riding a mini roller coaster.
We arrived in Coldfoot, the only truck stop above the Arctic Circle. We visited a very nice multiagency visitors center (BLM, Forest service, and National park Service) that had very friendly staff and great displays. We picked a couple of stickers and postcards and looked around a bit.
And then we filled up with diesel…at $7.50 per gallon. Dang. We are headed to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, but the oil is piped down to Valdez, loaded into tankers, shipped to Seattle, loaded into a refinery, and then once refined, the product is loaded back onto ships or trains, sent to Anchorage, and then trucked north to almost where it originated. Crazy. It’s not an everyday thing, but I pity the folks that live here.
We found a great BLM campground at Marion Creek that has free firewood, is quiet, and has a descent amount of space in the campsites. Plus it was only $12/night before the interagency discount (NPS annual pass).
Today we will hike a trail to a waterfall and then head north another 100 miles or so. We have 240 miles left to Prudhoe Bay.
