It’s Tuesday June 7th, 2022 and we are off on our trip to Canada and Alaska! The planning was a process, taking over nine months. Today we are heading to Valley of the Rogue State Park in Oregon just over three hours from home. We don’t get far, as the sprinklers at the house need to be turned back on. John leaves the trailer, I make lunch and he’s back within an hour. Great way to start, plus we are starting a week later than planned due to both of us having colds.
It takes us five nights to get to the Canadian border at Osoyoos Lake, on Highway 97. Two of those nights were visiting family just outside of Portland. We were asked about eggs, fire arms and how long we were staying. Our Arrive Canada app, and passports were all ready when we arrived at the gate. Took about 3 minutes to get through.
Stopped in Penticton to change the truck speedometer, exchange 300$ for Canadian money, and eat lunch. The goal was to get to Lac La Jeune Provincial Park. We purchased gas in Merritt and figuring out the conversion for what a gallon of gas was, was quite extensive (there’s an app for that). We made it to the park around 4pm and had a frustrating time figuring out what sites were available, until we found the camp host (“look for the metal posts”). By 5:30 it was pouring, which was to be the norm for our summer in Canada and Alaska. Next stop was Ten Mile Lake PP, 1,295 miles and seven days from home at this point.
At this point in the trip we were wanting to charge our devices and take some longer showers. Prince George was the next destination for two nights, and only 45 miles. Checking into MamaYeh RV Park, site 19, was easy and close to town. Only downfall of this park is the water is super high in iron, but the internet was good. Days are now getting long with sunrise at 4:45 and sunset at 9:45! Hit the museum on Tuesday in St. George, and Wednesday hiked the trails, visited downtown, and picked up groceries, purchased a 5$ tennis racket bug zapper, and gas at Costco. Headed out, but first drained the hot water tank, then filled up at the Sani dump in Prince George with water. Headed towards Tyhee Lake PP on the Trans Canada Highway. Drove through beautiful scenery. It’s amazing that the population of California is more than the whole country of Canada. Settled into our campsite # 49, a pull through with electric around 4 pm. Chatted with the camp host, and also with a motorcycle rider that both told us about the Tombstone Campground in the Yukon. As we have gotten further into our trip, and our bumper sticker RVing to Alaska is seen, people would give us advice and also information on places to see. In the morning, I awoke to a swollen eye from that mosquito bite, so fun. As we headed on the 37 towards the Stewart Cassiar Highway the landscape became even more breathtaking. We stopped in Gitwangak, a Native reserve, to look at the totem poles.
Made it to the Stewart Cassiar Highway towards Meziadin PP, 1759 miles from home and day 10! This campground has 66 sites, the lake is beautiful and there are more campers here than we have seen in a while, and we have our first warning about grizzly bears. We made it into site 7 after trying site 8, set up. and enjoyed the 78 degrees with thunderstorms threating afternoon. At 3 am there is a buzzing in my ear and it wont leave me alone. Lights go on and the bug zapper comes up. John and I end up killing about 40 mosquitoes, before we are able to sleep, and I contemplated going home! Lesson learned to keep the door closed and even spray it with Deet, and not to go outside without spray on. Thank goodness for that bug zapper! This would be the norm unfortunately. After coffee outside, chatting with the neighbors and having breakfast we decided to take out the kayak. it was perfect, and best moments without any mosquitoes! We were told that this campground is the worse for mosquitoes. Yep!
Sunday we took a trip into Stewart, BC to check it out and also to Hyder, Alaska for our first physical moment into Alaska. So beautiful, and the day was perfect with our first view of a glacier – The Bear. We explored Stewart, lunched at Temptations Bakery, visited the visitor center, walked the boardwalk, and checked out the local campground. We drove into Hyder, looking for camping also but nothing was open. When we came back through the border, we did the Arrive Canada app out on the bay, and were asked more questions at this crossing than the first one.
Decided to spend some more time in Stewart, less mosquitoes and more visuals. So we moved to Rainey Creek in Stewart as soon as we awoke and were in our new site#14, by 11 am for the next two nights. We had breakfast at Temptations for breakfast, and then ventured into Hyder to check out the Salmon Glacier on a very cloudy day. Our second day we hung out in town, going to the museum, and had dinner at the King Edward Hotel in town. It was mostly mosquito free, so sleeping was caught up. Their tourist season doesn’t really start until the bears come to eat salmon around August, and then it’s very busy.
16 days into our trip. Woke up at 8:30am! left around noon and headed up the Cassiar in the rain. Hardly any traffic except for logging trucks and RVs. Had lunch at Bell2, a cool resort which was currently all rented out to a mining firm. Saw our first black bears on the drive, ending for the day at Kinaskan Lake PP in site 13. In the morning we took a short hike and decided to push on towards Dease Lake. Fortunately, we saw the sign for the Lion’s Club Campground on the Tanzilla River. No one really was there, except for a picnicker, but two others came in that night. One of the highlights of our trip was taking a walk out to the river after setting up, and seeing a Lynx, and I had my camera with me! Woke up in the morning to sun, but 42 outside and 49 in the trailer. Our first propane tank ran out at this point. We continued on the Cassiar to Boya Lake, after getting gas and water at Dease. We had learned to get water when we can. Also at some point our sink cupboard broke off the hinge, so it now lives on my bed.
Made it to Ta Ch’illa (Boya)PP, a spectacular bight and blue lake around 1:30 on June 24th. This will be a three night stay in site 32, as it has just flies, it’s sunny and we have a lake view! We had neighbors close, with interesting conversations, mostly all from British Columbia. We kayaked each day, sometimes twice as there were islands to see, played games, watched videos, and hiked around the lake. It was in the high 60’s, with occasional thunderstorms and a Canada Jay that followed us around.
We’re 3 weeks into our trip, and have gone 2138 miles. Picked up some water, and we were at the crossroads of the Cassiar and Alaskan Highway by noon, where we got gas. Another thing besides having water is getting gas when your about half empty. This part of the Alaskan Highway going to Whitehorse had 10 miles of gravel and dust. We stopped at the Continental Divide for lunch, crossed the Teslin River, and got gas and groceries in the town of Teslin. The river was very high and camping was limited. We continued on towards Whitehorse, camping at Squanga Lake Campground #3, now in the Yukon around 5:00, and it was a warm 80! In the morning we headed to our first reservation, a day early at Caribou RV Park. We were glad to have reservations due to this being close to town and a lot of RV tours stay here. We spent two nights here, doing laundry, going into town to shop, get gas, propane and see the sites. We would return to Whitehouse on the way back.
On our way in the morning around 8:30 headed up the Klondike! Decided that we would shoot for Tombstone Campground on the Dempster Highway. We got gas at Pelly Crossing, there were three stops of road construction and we saw a fire fighting pane also on the way. It was mostly a dirt road on the Dempster and we got to the campground around 6:30 and literally got one of the last campsites! Woke up on July 1- Canada DaY! Notable also; there are only 4 hours of dusk light, items in the trailer need attention (loose stuff), and lots of dust. Also there was smoke in the air, but we managed to go on a guided nature hike, and attend a great campfire program.
