WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS ON THE ALASKAN HIGHWAY

For 9 years we have been Trailer Tripping all over the country (all 49 states – including Alaska) and 10 provinces in Canada, visiting tons of national parks, state parks, forests, woods, etc.   In all that time we have never seen as much wildlife as we have on this two month trip.  They are everywhere.  Maybe it is global warming.  Or maybe they all know we are visiting and they have come out to greet us.  Most of our wildlife sightings have been during our drive on the Alaska Highway. 

We have seen 11 bears; including 1 Grizzly and possibly an Alaskan Brown Bear.  They rest were black bears.  We may have seen more, but they were just black blurs running into the tree line.  We have seen Elk, Mule Deer, Bighorn Sheep, Stone Sheep, Mountain Goats, Caribou (reindeer), Bison, Coyote, a family of beaver and their lodge, Muskrat, Weasel, Marmot, different species of squirrels, a big Porcupine walking along the highway, huge Ravens and thousands and thousands of misquitos!  It has all been such a thrill, except for the misquitos.

 Grizzly

 Black Bear

Black Bears - A Mom and her 3 cubs

Alaskan Brown Bear

 Female Elk

 Bighorn Sheep

 Stone Sheep

 Female Carabou

 Bison

                                                         Golden Mantled Groundsquirrel

                                     Beaver couple - there was also two young ones nearby

DAY 30-31 ~ TOAD RIVER (June 16 – 17) - Mile 422

We spent two nights at Toad River Lodge and RV Park.  This area was populated during the building of the Alaska Highway.  Today it is just a lodge and RV park.  There are a few homes and some highway maintenance buildings.  But that is it, except for the river.  It is a place to relax and perhaps do some fishing.  We had great views of the mountains and saw a lot of wildlife in the river.  Every evening we saw moose in the river looking for food and nearby there was a family of beavers dragging branches and chewing on them.  You can see their lodge from our RV site. 

View from our RV site

Beaver lodge in view of our site

This bull moose came out both evenings.

There is an interesting story about how Toad River got its name.  This is just a story.  Don’t know how true it is.  Around 1942 when the Canadian and US armies started building the Alaska Highway, there was no bridge yet build over this river.  So people and equipment had to be “towed over the river so the proprietors of the lodge adopted “Towed River” as the name of their lodge.  The rest is history.

Another fun and interesting story about this lodge is their hat collection which began in 1979.  “One evening after a stressful day at the lodge, the proprietors were having a brew or two.  One had to leave to see a man about a horse and the other tacked his hat to the ceiling.  There you have it.  It doesn't take much to get something started around here.”  There are now over 8,000 hats from all over the world.  “Do not leave your hat unattended!”

We got a real treat on our first evening here.  After we arrived and got settled into our site, and after seeing the bull moose playing in the river (our first moose sighting during this trip); we were greeted with a sudden rain shower and the most beautiful double rainbow ever!!  It was a perfect double arch over the river, right outside of our trailer.  You could clearly see both ends.  Unfortunately there were no rewards of a pot of gold.  Several people invaded our camp site to observe and take pictures of this rainbow.  We met some very nice people that evening.

We have been traveling north for the last couple of weeks and the further north we go the daylight lasts longer.  In fact it never really gets dark.  We have found ourselves staying up past midnight simply because it is still light outside.  It is really confusing and very hard to get used to.  We have to force ourselves to go to bed.  We cover up all the windows to make it darker and simply do not look outside.  We look at the clock, see it is midnight and then we yawn....time to go to bed.  At 3:00am in the morning it is daylight again......

 Sunset at 10:25pm

It is now 11:15pm

DAY 27-28 ~ DAWSON CREEK (June 13 – 14) - MILE 0

Dawson Creek is Mile 0; the start of the Alaska Highway.  You will see mile markers all along this highway.  The official end of this highway is at Delta Junction in Alaska; Mile 1422.  We will travel this highway as far as Whitehorse in the Yukon; Mile 918.

On March 9, 1942 the first troop trains of the United States Army Corps of Engineers arrived in Dawson Creek to begin the construction of the 1,523 mile Alaska Highway.  Overnight Dawson Creek turned from a small agricultural community of 500 into a population of 10,000.  A traffic circle located at an intersection in the center of town marks the designated Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.  So considering that the original plans for this highway was 1,523 miles, and the official end of the highway is at 1,422 miles; that means this highway is still not completed.

We spent two nights in this town.  There is nothing exciting about Dawson Creek, except this is where the Alaska Highway was born and most people vacationing in Alaska start at this point.  So it was a bit crowded.  We saw many cars returning from their visit in Alaska and they were all caked with mud and dirt.  You could not even tell the color of the vehicles.  Even though the Highway is paved, parts of it is under construction and is currently gravel and dirt (we found that out later).  There are also many roads in Alaska that are not paved.

Just outside of Dawson Creek is an interesting and unusual bridge called Kiskatinaw Bridge.  It was built in 1942 for military traffic between Dawson Creek and the Big Delta, Alaska.  The bridge is one of many timber bridges built in Canada, but it is the only one still in use.  What makes it unusual is that it curves 9 degrees along its 534 foot length.

DAY 29 ~ BUCKINGHORSE RIVER (June 15) - Mile 175

It is almost 400 miles to Toad River (our next destination), so we made an overnight stop at Buckinghorse Provincial Park (same as our state parks).

We continue north in British Columbia on the Alaska Highway.

DAY 27-31 ~ BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA (June 12 – 17)

We will continue northwest into British Columbia for another five days.  Our most northern destination is the southern tip of the Yukon Territory.  After six days we will then turn south and spend anther 3.5 weeks trailer tripping home.

DAY 22-26 ~ EDMONTON, ALBERTA (June 8 – 11)

We spent 4 nights in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital city.  We stayed in a brand new RV park.  In fact they are in the process of adding 100 additional sites.  So there was a lot of construction noise going on.  But it is a very nice place.  There is no WiFi at the sites, you have to sit in front of the office and use the office WiFi.  Maybe on our next visit the RV park will be finished with Wifi throughout. 

One great thing about trailer traveling is that most RV parks have a book exchange.  Either in the laundry room or the office there will be a bookcase full of used books.  You take one or two and replace it with one or two of yours.  I brought along a bag of several books that I have already read to do just that.  I love to read and so far on this trip (3.5 weeks) I have read 6 books.  I now have several new ‘used’ books to read.

We have visited Edmonton before and we will be revisiting some of our favorite sites.  We had bad weather during our stay.  It was very cloudy, and windy with lots of rain.  So we had to stay indoors.

Our first stop was the West Edmonton Mall.  This mall is as big as our Mall of America.  This place is amazing.  It contains more than 800 stores, 19 movie theaters, 100 eateries and 9 major theme attractions; Galaxyland has 25 rides, Deep Sea Adventure has one of the world’s largest indoor lakes with a life-size replica of the Santa Maria; Sea Life Caverns contains @ 200 species of marine life; World Waterpark has 5 acres of indoor fun with a giant wave pool; NHL size ice rink, seal lion show, 2 miniature golf courses; bowling, billiards, etc.  We visited this place a few times during our stay in Edmonton.

We spent a day exploring Art Gallery of Alberta and the Royal Albert Museum.  The art gallery was mostly modern art; some very interesting, some just strange.

 A quilt made with ribbons

Wall mural

The Royal Albert Museum had an interesting and pretty exhibit called “Western Threads”. 

On our last day in Edmonton the sun came out!  It was sunny and warm.  Now we can be outdoors and visit the University of Alberta Devonian Botanic Garden.

Can you find “Slowpoke”

DAY 26 ~ GOODBYE ALBERTA (June 12)

We did an overnight stay at a small town called Valleyview, our final destination in Alberta.  There is nothing here to view or explore.  It is 350+ miles to our next destination.  Valleyview is at the 200 mile point, so we stopped to break up the long trip.  We are now heading into British Columbia.  On our way out of Alberta we drove through Beaverlodge, whose landmark is..well it’s a giant beaver. 

“The "Beaver Project" was initiated by a local entrepreneur Alex Lojczyc, who had always dreamed of giving Beaverlodge something to bolster town spirits and encourage tourists to visit our pretty little town.  It all began in February, 2004 when the idea took shape.”  It took 90 gallons of polyurethane to coat, approx. 13 gallons of paint, and 18 blocks of foam to make the sculpture.  The beaver & log each weigh 1,500 lbs.  The beaver is 18’ long & 10’ high.  The log is 20’ long & 5’ high.

Next stop; goodbye Alberta, hello British Columbia.