Stanley Park

Vancouver is a very beautiful city, but somewhat frustrating to navigate. It is very, very sprawling, but very nice. We spent most of our time there enjoying the sights in Stanley Park.

There are great panoramic views of the city from the park.

You can also see great views of the Pacific from Prospect Point, which is the highest point in the park.

Stanley Park has an amazing collection of Native totems. Here's an overview shot, followed by some close-ups.

Stanley Park has two famous statues: The Dragon & The Diver

And of course, the famous olympic mascot:

Minter Gardens

After we left Hyder, we drove the rest of the afternoon and all night to the Vancouver area. But first we stopped at Minter Gardens, which is a beautiful little botanical garden right at the foot of some mountains. We had a scrummy lunch and then walked around; it was a beuatiful, sunny day. I tried to make a collage, but Picasa was frustrating me, so here they are to enjoy, one at a time! More later.

Glaciers, Bears & Wildfires, Oh My

Our plan upon leaving the Yukon was to head down the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. There are some interesting things to see along here, plus then I wouldn't have to drive the same stretch of the Alaska Highway again. So we turned off the Alaska Highway, somewhat thrilled to be leaving the land of frost heaves, only to be stopped at a roadblock because of a wildfire that was burning pretty much right along the Cassiar. We had arrived 5 minutes late and would have to wait for the next pilot car. So we did, and it was quite an experience to be piloted through a basically active wildfire area. We couldn't stop, for obvious safety reasons, so our only pictures are kinda blurry due to the motion of the car. It is definitely eerie to see a forest like this:

But I saw forests in Yellowstone only 5 years after fire, and it is definitely true that they grow back quickly. Hopefully that will happen here as well.

One the main reasons to take the Cassiar Highway is that it provides many, many opportunities to see black bear, as you can see:

This momma and her cubs were my favorite, but we didn't get much time to observe them because this big old truck came barreling down the road honking his horn and scaring them off.

Another reason to take the Cassiar is that it also enables you to visit what is probably one of the most isolated towns in the US: Hyder, AK. It is only accessible by road through the slightly more populated Stewart, BC and is so far removed from the rest of the US that it uses Pacific time (instead of Alaskan) and Canadian schools money. (You still have to go through customs, though). The main attraction here is the Fish Creek Viewing Platform run by the US Forest Service. This area is officially part of Tongass National Forest.

Everyone goes and stands on that platform and then the bears come and catch salmon in the creek. We didn't see any bears in the creek (bummer) but we did see tons of salmon doing their spawning thing.

We also got our first good look at the temperate rain forest, which produces massive trees that you find pretty much halfway down the Pacific Coats. They are just so beautiful and majestic.

Another thing you can do here, which is according to Lonely Planet USA is "totally worth the trip," is drive to Salmon Glacier, which is purportedly the largest glacier in the world accessible by road. The forest service ranger assured us that it was a lovely, hour-long drive. Now, I had already known the road was about 17 miles long. You think I would have put those two pieces of information together and realized something was amiss, but no, I just accepted the road guide she handed me and off we went on our merry way. The first views along the drive were beautiful.

Um, until I looked down and happened to notice just how high above the valley we'd gotten.

And these people clearly have a different definition of "maintained road" than I, because my idea of maintenance involves more than one lane, seal coat (at a minimum) and guard rails. But it was too late to turn around, so we soldiered.....er, snailed?....on.

It was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done, but it was kind of one of those no-turning-back-now moments (especially since I'm lucky to do K turns when there are four lanes and the worst that can happen is you bump someone's mailbox). The view at the top, though incredibly buggy, was so worth it. I guess the Lonely Planet writers weren't just being cliche after all.

Coming next, the rest of our stay (in way more populated) southern BC, including the gorgeous Minter Gardens & Vancouver.

A Much Needed Break From Driving

Sorry about the gobbledy-gook posts, everyone. I sent them from my phone, and I'm not sure why that happened. They were both letting you know that I am currently safe in Alaska!! I got to my dad's place yesterday evening. It is amazing beautiful here. I'm glad that I don't have to drive anywhere for a while, though!!

Here are few pictures from my travels along the Alaska Highway.

Here's the marker at the beginning of the Alaska Highway. There was no one around to take my picture, and it was to windy to do a self-timed shot..

A panoramic view of the Rockies. There are so many mountains around here; it's absolutely crazy!

Stone sheep licking minerals off the highway in Northern Rocky Mountains Provincal Park. I got tons of shots of these guys, especially the cute little one that's in the middle.

Liard River Hot Springs.....I've never been in a natural hot spring before. It was really cool (well, actually, really hot). Very relaxing apart from the voracious mosquitoes!

I saw a whole herd of bison on the road. This big guy seemed to be in charge, and he kept giving me the evil eye, like he didn't want me to move or go anywhere!

This was taken at Kluane Lake (I think-I saw so many lakes it's hard to remember) at about nine pm. Look how high the sun is in the sky!!!

At the US-Canadian border! It definitely was a feeling of accomplishment.

The Matanuska glacier. These are the Chugach Mountains, I think. There are so many mountain ranges around here, it's crazy. Every time you think that you've just seen the biggest mountain ever, you see a bigger one! The Wrangell-St. Elias mountains are huge-I don't have any pictures of those, but I'll get some on the way home. I can't wait to see Denali!!

A Hole in My Pocket and a Lost Filling at Mile 0

After a long day of driving, I have made it to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, where the Alaska Highway begins. For those of you who don't know, the Alaska Highway, or "Alcan" as it was called back then, was built during WWII to provide a land route to transports goods and troops to Alaska to help defend it against the Japanese. It begins in Dawson Creek, BC and travels for 1532 miles to Delta Junction, AK, just southeast of Fairbanks.

I'm sleeping in a (sort of expensive) Comfort Inn tonight because the campground did NOT have the grassy sites it promised, and I just didn't have it in me to pitch a tent on gravel at 10:30 p.m., even though it was still light out. So I may have to eat Oodles of Noodles until I get to Alaska, but at least I'll have one last comfy sleep before I have to spend then night with only a thin sheet of nylon between me and the grizzlies (can you tell I'm a little nervous about this?). And I get free breakfast, plus the chance to do some re-packing/organizing and laundry.

I was not in a picture taking mood today. I stopped in some towns along the way-Williams Lake, Quesnel, Prince George & Chetwynd, but mostly I just used the washrooms in the visitor's information centers, which are, as far as I'm concerned, Canada's best tourism invention. They have all the info and brochures you could want, plus friendly people who tell you things like how stupid it is to drive from Hell's Gate to Prince George in one go if you're starting at 5 pm, and best of all, clean bathrooms, free wi-fi and computers for you to check your e-mail. So unless you wanted to see the washrooms at the VICs or tons of lodgepole pines, there wasn't much to photograph.

I had gotten a tip from the fudge shop lady at Hell's Gate (Why do they sell fudge in all tourist attractions-I don't get it?). She told me the IGA in Chetwynd made THE best cinnamon buns. So I went in to have a look, but they didn't have icing, which in my book doesn't qualify them as proper cinnamon buns, so I bought some oatmeal peanut butter cookies instead. And as I was driving the last 50 or so kilometers to Dawson Creek, munching away on a cookie, a huge chunk of the filling from where I had a root canal (well, actually two root canals in the same spot) two years ago fell right out of my tooth. So far it doesn't hurt, so please pray it stays that way. Guess I shoulda gone with cinnamon buns after all, eh?

I feel weird not leaving with you a picture, so here's one from Yellowstone (which currently is winning the "My Favorite Place" award):

Have a good night, and I'll try to post again tomorrow. Comment, comment, comment-it makes me happy:-)!

On the Gold Rush Trail

Today I embarked on my less-than-well-planned portion of my journey. I know the route I'm going to take, and I know I want to end up in Alaska on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday, but I'm just taking the stops as they come. So tonight I'm at a campground/motel on the Yellowhead Highway in a little town called 100 Mile House. I spent the day driving along the Fraser Canyon, where I got to see an area they call Hell's Gate (so named because the Hudson Bay Company's scout tried to run it in his canoe and wrote in his journal that this part of the river was "surely at the very gates of hell", complete with a tram ride that literally made me nauseous...nothing like paying $20 to be scared out of your wits!!

So above is the touristy fake background shot (which you can tell is fake because trust me, I was no where near the window on the actual tram), but here's the real thing:

You see that bridge in the background? I bet it has an amazing view, but I couldn't tell you, because despite my best effort to muster all my courage, I just couldn't bring myself to walk out on the open grating. But I still got to see some amazing views of the Fraser Canyon and learn a lot about salmon and their life cycle:

Canada loves to give it's tourist routes names, so today I've been driving on the "Gold Rush Trail." This was one of the areas gold was found in the late 1800s. There is actually railroad tracks running on both sides of the canyon. This was taken from the spot where they laid the "golden spike" to connect the two parts of the railroad.

I'm going to try to make it to either Chetwynd or even maybe Dawson Creek (where the Alaska Highway begins) tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find wifi there and have more awesome pictures tomorrow!!! Don't forgot to leave me a comment.