We are home, arrived Sunday evening. Kitty was glad to see us, he had quite the summer living in the garage with a family of raccoons that decided to move in and mess up the garage and eat Kitty's food. Thanks to our neighbor, Denny, for rescuing Kitty and catching the raccoons and taking them for a long ride!
Traveling along the Cassiar Highway was nice, the weather for the most part was sunny. We did a day trip down to Telegraph Creek, a small, almost ghost town on the Stikine River. River boats used to come up the river from the Inside Passage to there during the gold rush era. The road was the trip!! Gravel, narrow, 20% grades up and down river valleys, traveled over a lava dike that was not much wider than the road with straight down drops to rivers on both sides!!! Impressive scenery.
We also spent a couple days in Hyder, Ak. We can drive there from the Cassiar Highway, it is the most Southerly town in Alaska. It is also an almost ghost town located at the end of the Portage Channel. There is a salmon spawning area where the forest service has an observation deck for bear watching. We went twice and watched a black bear and then a sow brown bear with a cub fish for their meals. Fascinating.
From there we pretty much headed home. We did drive through the Canadian Rockys, stopped at the Rocky Mountain House, a restored Hudson's Bay Fur Trading Post near Calgary, camped at Cypress Hills in southern Alberta, then crossed the border into Montana. While in North Dakota, we spent a pleasant morning visiting the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. A gentler kind of badlands that has good hiking potential. We were amazed at how green the landscape was from Montana into Wisconsin. A lot of standing water was evident and the rivers were running very high.
All the while we were in Alaska, not a single person mentioned Sarah whats-her-name! The name was no where to be seen in Wasilla. We did ask the gal that transferred our van to the ferry while we were on the Copper River about her, and I think Alaskans are embarrassed. Her book was seen in two places, each a grocery store check out, it was marked 50% off and it was located next the National Inquirer. We spent a lot of time this trip around the Prince William Sound and the Exxon Valdez and the aftermath of the oil spill of some 20 years ago is still up front in the minds and people were reflecting on what changes it caused in their lives. Small town museums gave that event most the space in their displays, even more than the '64 earthquake and tsunami.
I'll add pictures, this time the internet connection should be ok!
When we get an idea for the next trip, we will let you know!!!
Thanks for traveling with us! Carol and Ned
Telegraph Creek road.
Where is that fish?
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