Saturday, June 28, 2014

And on the 5th day, there was sun!

Que angelic choir with awe-inspiring view of Denali. The clouds have finally lifted and we got to see the mountain today, which was worth the wait. Now I feel like I can move on. 

At the moment we're enjoying the view from downtown Wasilla, which is gorgeous even if it's not Russia. The locals are taking advantage of the sun to swim and picnic at the lake, though I'm not quite sure I think it's outdoor swimming temp. But I'm not a tough Alaskan. I'd write more but I think I might just lie back and enjoy the sun. Hope you all are having a beautiful Saturday too!


Denali!

Here we are in Denali National Park, watching the moose go by in the next campsite over, the bears and their cubs eating their plants, and the learning that squirrels are helpful here because they spread the mushroom's moistness to the dry soil. In other words, a pretty good time. All except for the rain. That's the one thing. It. Soaks. Everything. My shoes, my pants, my hair. We are constantly using our portable heater, "Mr. Heater", to dry our belongings. Today is a day of celebration. We get Willow back! We are down to one grocery bag of food and Mom finally decided to wear the baseball cap she insisted on bringing along. What a morning! 

Our next stop will be a campground outside of Anchorage, Alaska. Then on to Anchorage. We already have a Costco list going of what we need. We think our new motto will be A tortilla a day keeps the hunger away. Seriously. We go through that many tortillas. 

Rainy days in Denali

We arrived at Denali NP on Tuesday 24-Jun after spending Monday night at a remote RV park between Fairbanks and the park. This was perhaps the best RV park experience we've had as there were about 4 other parties there, one on motorcycle, one set of bicycle tourists with a support vehicle, etc.  Due to pet restrictions at Denali, we boarded Willow at a "canine resort" just outside the park. When we picked her up on Friday, she seemed glad to see us, but also a bit sad to leave the new friends she'd made during lots of good playtime.  

As alluded to in the title, our time in Denali was very rainy.  As with 70% of park visitors! we did not get to see Denali (Mt McKinley) because of the weather.  We're still hoping for a break in the weather before we leave the area as there are several good viewing points outside of the park. 

Once we found a campsite and did some initial setup, we went to explore the visitors center area to learn a bit about the park and what we should/could see. We found out about a sled dog demonstration going on that afternoon and decided to attend that before exploring further.  The visit to the kennels (the only sled dog kennel operated by a US NP) was very interesting and the dogs were great to visit with. You get to directly interact/pet/play with many go them. The rangers did a presentation telling of the winter dog sled patrol program where sled teams will go deep into the Denali wilderness on patrol. What a cool job! After that, we drove on the park road out to the furthest point that private vehicles are allowed, the Savage River. There we saw some caribou along the bank, and some great roadside scenery, albeit limited by cloud cover and some rain. When we returned to camp, we were surprised to find a moose and two calfs with her, about two campsites down from ours. Pictures?  Sorry, no. She kept well hidden in the bush, and none of the shots clearly showed her. I tried to encourage another camper to take our camera in for a closeup, but he would not go for it. ;).  We ended the days activity by attending a ranger campground talk about the birds of Denali. I was surprised to learn that there is one species of hummingbird that visits Denali, after wintering 3,900 miles away in Mexico. That's a lot of wing flaps to cover that many miles!

On Wednesday we did a hike to Horseshoe Lake in the morning and saw some cool beaver work, but missed the ranger talk on beavers in the park. Later, we went on a bus tour deep into the park and saw lots of cool scenery and some Dalll sheep, caribou, a grizzly bear, and a moose. Not a lot of wildlife for a seven hour journey, but pretty good considering the conditions. 

Thursday saw some improved conditions in terms of weather. We took advantage by doing a short hike to a meadow view near the visitors center before hopping on one of the park shuttles out to Savage River for a longer hike. Unfortunately again, no wildlife sightings, but some great scenery along the River canyon and later on another trail with some great mountain views. After dinner we attended a ranger talk on rodents in the park and their importance as a basis for the ecosystem supporting the larger animals and even helping the tree life cycles in this harsh environment. 

I'm considering our visit to Denali a very different national park experience. This park is managed much differently than any I've visited in the lower 48 for they manage it with a primary intent of protecting it as pristine wilderness, to remain unaffected by man. One does not get to experience much of Denali at all without going into the backcountry, which would take tremendous planning and lots of time. I'm not disappointed in that at all because I absolutely respect what they are doing there in terms of truly protecting the wilderness within their boundaries. I'd love the opportunity to go and explore more, but that may be a bit of a dream due to the time and resources involved. 

On Friday we traveled out of the park and slightly south of The Alaska Range to Denali State Park and camped at Byers Lake. We did a hike around the lake shore and saw some great foliage including Iris' that we did not expect to see here. We also came across the remains of a cabin from the 1950s...cool stuff.  Saturday we're probably off toward Anchorage for some much needed supplies and laundry. 

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Byron is feeling much better!

23-Jun-14
Sunday night was spent back in Fairbanks because of a repair appointment and mail delivery expected on Monday. We chose to get a room for the night in order to take advantage of amenities and avoid the dreaded RV park environment. Pet friendly is an issue, so a website such as bringfido.com is a big help. We stayed off the beaten path at 7 Gables Inn, which is not bad and very interesting. It's geared more toward longer term stays, but welcomed us anyway. He was even arranging to rent out a treehouse on property. 

We did go to the summer solstice festival downtown. You can read about that in Meghan's post.

Today Byron got new upper ball joints on the front end and an oil change at Sunshine Rae's shop in town. They came highly recommended in the Vanagon community, and were a pleasure to work with. They even successfully chased down the elusive Mobil 1 15w/50 oil recommended for this motor...not an easy task to find such spec oil in these northern climes.  

So, we're back on the road with both front wheels pointed the same direction again, fresh oil, and headed to Denali NP for three days in the park. This will be Willow's first trip to a kennel...report back on that later. 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Fairbanks!

To make up for all my lost posts that I haven't written...huh huh ummm... I'm going to try to make this one at least longish...well I guess it will never be as long as Mom's but here goes

Yesterday we went to the Midnight Sun Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is a festival to celebrate the longest day of the year on June 21. Dad, under my non-advisory, ate a caribou steak, which then later said I was right the whole time that caribou is not going to taste good. I mean, eating something you just saw in a pen is a good idea? NO! Urgggg. Anyway, the festival was full of good food and cool shops. We saw retro belly dancers, skateboarding attempts, and a lot of fun stuff. Fairbanks is a really great city. Except for one thing. The bugs. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!! I swear I have at least 2 million. Here's one here's one here's one...

Last night was not the best night. not because of the awesome hotel with WiFi we are staying at, bit because of barfing dogs, barking dogs, and how it was light out ALL NIGHT!!! Looks like it's gonna be a sleeping in the car kind of day...

I'm sorry that my supposed to be long post is like a millionth of the size of Mom's but I'm not a very interesting person. You can comment things you want me to write about and I will get writing. But for now, see you next post. PS: Happy Birthday to Angela DiFronzo!  




Sunday, June 22, 2014

We're in Alaska!

This is obvious, I know, but still amazing to me. Have you looked at a map lately and seen how HUGE this state is? I realized today how very little of it is even accessible by car when I figured we should at least consider our next destination after Denali. We decided on Anchorage because that's where the road goes. From there we'll work our way down the east coast, hopefully by ferry.

I know I haven't been much of a blogger, but don't take that to mean I'm not having a good time. I'm happy to leave the keyboards to Rob and Meghan and enjoy the scenery or a book. We're starting to get into a routine with our days on the road, and so far I think everyone is enjoying it. Even Meghan remains engaged, as long as we find her a Wi-fi connection at least once in a while.

We had our first real experience with the Alaskan mosquito yesterday at Chena Hot Springs. Those are some very determined and voracious little blood suckers! We couldn't step out of the van for a second without being swarmed, but as it was also raining most of the day, we weren't doing too much outside anyway. The hot springs were nice, but didn't compare to Liard Hot Springs, which may have spoiled us for the rest of the trip. But I was impressed by the resort, which runs on 100% geothermal energy produced on site, and has several large green houses which produces veggies for their restaurant and all the flowers for their landscaping. Pretty cool place.

We also took our first real hike of the trip, which became our first adventure when we diverted off the intended trail onto something that was a trail, but on second thought, clearly not the real trail. At that point no one wanted to go back uphill though, and we were sure we knew where we were heading, so we continued downhill to eventually meet back up with the actual trail. No harm done other than a skinned hand I acquired sliding down a steep section (first use of the first aid kit, too!), but boy were we all happy to see that bright yellow trail marker.

I have been asked to blog about knitting and cooking, so I guess I should do that. If you don't knit, skip this paragraph, you'll be bored. Knitting is progressing slowly, mostly because I'm not knitting as much as I thought I would. When I was deciding on a project for the trip, I wanted it to be something ambitious. I figured I would have lots of hours in the car to knit, so big was OK. I started looking at Pi shawls, and just when I had decided to keep it simple, because car knitting should be simple, I found a pattern called "Camping," designed in  honor of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 100th birthday (or would be 100th birthday if she was alive). When the only color of fingering weight yarn that my LYS had in stock in enough skeins to make a shawl was a colorway called "Forest," I figured it was just meant to be. Take a look at the pattern,and you'll see it's not simple, but it really wasn't bad until I got to the 3rd lace pattern. I've almost finished one repeat of the pattern and I think I've got the hang of it now, but the pattern rows are still pretty slow going. Thank God for the plain rows in between! I'd post a picture of it but it still pretty much looks like a oversize beret at this point, and really I'm too lazy to try to transfer pictures from a camera to this laptop.

OK, cooking. With two propane burners in the camper, we really cook a lot like we do at home. Though we do branch out into some dutch oven goodies, which Rob has already shown you, the rest of the time it's pretty simple, but we try to vary it a little. We've made stir fry, burritos, pasta, and even Pad Thai (from a box). Sandwiches, quesadillas, and soup are usuals for lunch. Meghan hasn't been forced to eat meat yet, and was rather appalled at Rob tonight when he got an "Alaskan Steak Sandwich" at a street festival in Fairbanks tonight, which was what they were calling a caribou steak. It wasn't that great, but probably more because of the venue than the product. We'd give it another chance.

I think I've rambled on enough, and it's time for bed even though it doesn't at all look like it. We're enjoying a motel stay tonight so will have room to spread out without hitting  a van wall or a dog...Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are! Drop us a text or give us a call or email, we're frequently in range.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Thoughts with three weeks on the road

22-Jun-2014

So, today finds us at a full three weeks on the road. 
Stats: 3,600 miles driven. Hotel nights = 1.  Restaurant meals = 6 (including breakfast-y quasi meals, only two dinners so far).  Laundry = 3x. RV park nights = 3 (regrettably due to laundry / location / etc...)  Hot springs days = 3

We try to keep the driving to about 5h per day or less. There have been a couple of long days, but nothing too crazy. Certainly nothing into the dark of night (oh yeah, there is no dark of night anymore up here). We've definitely appreciated the times when we have stayed at one camp multiple nights, eliminating the overhead of tear down & setup...even as minimal as it is with Byron. 

We have thankfully all gotten along quite well and had quite an enjoyable trip thus far. We are all learning things that we miss, like our chickens & their tasty eggs, our friends back home, and the summertime that is Boulder. We're also realizing the things that we do not miss. For instance: we never watch much TV at home, and we've only had a chance to turn one on during our hotel night. After a quick scan of the channels, the only interesting thing on was a first round World Cup game. I'm typically a news junkie, but actually have not looked at the news in three weeks. I'm a bit curious what I might have missed, but also realize that if something impacted us, someone would reach us (and has...thanks Ingrid!).  Surprisingly we've found workarounds for the key daily activities like showers...short hair and a good daily wash cloth wipe down does wonders for the way you feel when between campgrounds with showers. 

Some amazing scenery and animals have been seen. I'm convinced that Canada must have too many bears what with how many we saw along side the road...no less than 20...and they have the whole forest to hang out in.  The glacial valleys of Banff and Jasper NPs were more amazing to me than even Yosemite. The same big walls, but lots more covering hundreds of miles. The history of the mining and gold rush in the Yukon was intriguing, and seeing the trails the rushers had to travel makes me shake my head. Many must have died trying to get there. 

We've met folks from all over the US, Canada, and lots of Europeans. The Swiss seem the most into road tripping, including the couple in their Vanagon shipped over from Switzerland, and the crew doing panamerican trip from Alaska all the way to the tip go South America! 

Was it worth quitting a good job to do this? Ultimately, I can't answer that yet, but all indicators are yes. To me, life should be about creating memories, and this trip is fulfilling that need every day. We've seen many amazing things, visited places we would have never gotten to otherwise, and learned skills and things about each other that we may not have otherwise. Nobody would remember the 11weeks that I went to work everyday in the summer of 2014. We all work to earn money to do things and, so far, this is looking like one of the best investments we've ever made. 

So now we are set to begin the Alaskan part of our journey. On Monday Byron goes into a well respected shop in Fairbanks for new front suspension ball joints & an oil change. We will see what else is really needed. On Tuesday we enter Denali NP for their nights. Regrettably, we will have to board Willow as she is not allowed into the park interior. From there, it's on to Anchorage and to the southern part of the state, hopefully hopping ferries to see sights on the inside passage. The itenary beyond Thursday is really unknown at this point, but we are absolutely looking forward to it!

Picture catch up from Dawson City to Alaska Highway

20-Jun-14
On Thursday and Friday, we made our way from Dawson City YT to Chicken, AK, and eventually on to Fairbanks, where we sit in an RV park having showered, currently doing laundry, and enjoying WiFi access.

Our trip here included a ferry ride across the Yukon River at Dawson City. There was a huge line of RVs awaiting the ferry when we queued up, but luckily our vehicle does not classify as an RV...I don't know whether that's an insult to Byron, or if I should consider it a compliment. Regardless, it put us well ahead of many in getting onto the ferry.

From there, we began our journey up and across the Top of the World Highway. This was an amazing journey due mostly to the road conditions being slick and muddy due to a major rainstorm that had caused significant flooding only the night before. The road traverses across a series of ridges with steep to sheer drop offs, sometimes on both sides, with no guard rails. It would be exciting even in the dry. The folks I have to say are crazier than us were the ones driving big RVs and all the motorcyclists on their way to the rally in Dawson City...each will have a story to tell!

About 65 miles into this journey, we came around a ridge and saw signs for the US/Canada border crossing and noticed a group of buildings off in the distance. It was amazing to find this at the top of a treacherous mountaintop, staffed and ready to receive visitors from either side. It is the northernmost, land-crossing into the US. The person checking vehicles could not even see Meghan through the mud-caked windows...she had to come up front to get checked.

From there we made our way down to Chicken, AK, a 'town' with 23 residents in the summer, 7 in the winter. We bought gas and got a free campsite across the creek, where the recent rains had swelled the creek and washed out the footbridge back to 'town'. Well, that made the walk about 300 yards longer. We had dinner at the van, then went to town for homemade pie for dessert at the cafe. The bartender at the saloon came out with the town cannon and proceeded to pack it. He offered to Rebecca to put her panties or bra into the cannon as a celebration of her visit to Chicken. She declined.

On the way to Fairbanks, we thought we might have caught our first view of Denali...but it was actually a much closer mountain we eventually passed by. See below.




Five Fingers Rapid, Yukon River


Corn casserole in the Dutch

On the Yukon ferry

Top of the World "Highway"

Gold dredge in Chicken, AK

Top of the World "Highway"

Customs station at Top of the World Highway

Mt. Fairplay...thought it might have been distant view of Denali

Reindeer at North Pole, AK









Thursday, June 19, 2014

Top of the World Highway

Well, I've driven many sketchy roads in my lifetime, but this thing had me pretty puckered up today. About 60 miles of rainy, slick, potholes, construction, RV road from Dawson City to Chicken AK.  So glad to have a box of wine in the van for decompression on arrival. Finally in Alaska and looking forward to seeing the sights here.

More photos from the Yukon

I'll get online via PC to add captions later. These are a few quick snaps from my phone.
Five finger rapid on the Yukon
Klondike steamer that traveled the Yukon
Teslin bridge. The longest on the Alaska highway
Final hot springs photo from Liard.
Add caption

Dawson City

18-Jun-14
Today we drove to Dawson City, YT. We previewed the Klondike River campground south of town on our way in and decided it looked good and was worth the drive back. In the afternoon we explored the town and enjoyed the wooden sidewalks, old buildings, and a bit of window shopping. We went to the local history museum and learned about the Yukon gold rush and the substantial production of gold today.  We had dinner in town at Sourdough Joes, famous for fish & chips...deservingly so.  
Enroute we stopped at Gravel Lake for a roadside lunch, and enjoyed the view of two moose across the lake during our stop.  Unfortunately, our zoom would not do them justice, but the binoculars did better for our eyes only.
Tomorrow we will repatriate ourselves to the USA as we enter Alaska for the first time. We look forward to exploring the town of Chicken, and perhaps moving further south toward the Alaska Highway again, to head toward Fairbanks and points east, such as Circle Hot Springs. 
Yesterday we made store-bought eggs for breakfast.  WE MISS OUR CHICKENS! Wow, what a difference in taste. Today we happened upon some farm eggs in a cooler at a small town gas stop and quickly bought a dozen!
We are now fully in the land of no darkness at night, only twilight. Weird, but cool at the same time. 
No photos synced to this device yet today. Sorry.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Tatchun Creek, YT

17-Jun-14
Today we spent much of the day in Whitehorse attending to minor repair issues and exploring the town. We saw one of the steam boats used to move material and man on the Yukon River in days gone by, and explored a nice downtown area a bit. Unfortunately, the alignment shop did not have the part required to bring Byron back into shape, so I'll have the part shipped up to Fairbanks and do the repair there.  Unfortunately, that will probably be at the cost of a pair of front tires. Alas, such an event was budgeted for in our planning for the trip. 

Tonight we're camped at Tatchun Creek, just north of Carmacks, YT.  It's a rural campground with no services, but a nice setting next to a creek that is a major Chinnok Salmon spawning area. We met our camp neighbors who happen to be from The Netherlands, where I worked for a few years. We had a good chat and congratulated each other on taking on such a journey as we've chosen.

Enroute to camp, we took The Milepost up on the suggested stop by the Braeburn Lodge. The place is a checkpoint for a 1,000 mile sled dog race, The Yukon Quest. Most important to us was the giant cinnamon rolls they make. Can't wait for breakfast tomorrow!





 




Tuesday, June 17, 2014

In White Horse of Yukon

Right now I am sitting in a Starbucks, using their WiFi. (Thanks Starbucks) Anyway, here we are in White Horse, which is in Yukon Territory, waiting for Byron to get a tire adjustment. We just got Mom's shattered iPhone screen fixed. It accidentally got a heavy object of sorts dropped on it. But now it is a lot better and it has a new screen. (Yeah!) Well, that's about all that is new today. So sorry for the lack of posts... I need WiFi to publish.

Whitehorse, Yukon Terriroty

We've made it Whitehorse in the Yukon and are taking part of the day to deal with some minor repair issues.  Byron is wearing the right front tire a bit unevenly and is in need of an alignment to solve that, and I trashed Rebecca's iPhone screen back in Glacier...we found a shop to do a same-day repair.  All should be good by the end of the day for a short drive north and then on to Dawson City tomorrow.
We're excited from what we've read to see the historical mining town, and travel on to Chicken, Alaska after a ferry crossing at the Yukon river!
We've seen some great scenery and lots of animals on the drive since Dawson Creek.  Some photos follow.

Caribou running quickly across the road. We were lucky to get this quick snap through the windshield before it was in the woods again.

Byron after a rough trip out to the Inga Lake campground.

Willow seems to be getting her groove on and even went in the water at Inga Lake.

Lake Muncho, BC

Mountain sheep with babies

More lake Muncho.

Byron and Rebecca at Lake Muncho.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Liard hot springs+a moose!

We are staying at Liard Hot Springs today, as well as staying there last night. We met some new friends,Pete and Marley, who were our camping.  "neighbors". They are headed up to Juneau for the summer.

There are hot springs a short walk on a boardwalk not far away from our campsite. While we were walking there yesterday to take a dip, we were stopped short when we saw a moose standing at the next bend. At first, I thought it would be a friendly statue guarding the entrance to the springs. That's when it leaped across the path into the woods. Luckily, we wee about 150 feet away from it. 

Ahhh...Hot Springs!

On Saturday we covered almost 400 miles and saw lots of wonderful scenery north of Fort Nelson. Many big rivers and cool bridges, and a large variety of wildlife including many black bear, caribou, bison, deer, and finally a bull moose at our destination, Liard Hot Springs. 

The springs are in a provincial park and though the campground was full when we arrived, the staff let us stay in the day use area overnight. $29 included camping, hot springs, and firewood. VALUE!  So good we decided to spend another night. Rained all night here...storms unlike CO storms.

We met Pete and his daughter Marley from Missoula MT who are on their way to Juneau AK to drop off Marley for a summer job. They are taking the trip as a great father daughter adventure and seemed to be having a great time too.

Byron got a bath in Fort Nelson and is looking much happier now, despite continued rainy travel. 

Tomorrow we hope to cross the line into the Yukon Territory on our push north. The days are getting really long already with light until after 11pm, but we know it only gets longer north of here. 

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Officially on the Alaska Highway!

Today we entered onto the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek BC (Milepost 0). Unfortunately there is major road construction going on right at the Milepost and we were unable to go right up to it for a photo.  Oh well, distance shots will have to do.  We traveled about 300 miles total and are now camped at Inga Lake. Simple free BC government campground that's just going to have to do. It was about a 3km journey into the camp on a logging road.  Byron did great, but is showing the signs in mud tossed up on his sides. I promise a car wash is on the list buddy!

After the rainstorm passed, we emerged from Byron and met a couple from Switzerland who are traveling in a 1984 Vanagon that they brought over from the continent. They have been on the road for over a year and sound to be just getting started. Their van has a world map on the drivers door showing where they've been, and flag stickers of the countries visited on the side. Rebecca was inspired and calls them her new heroes. Uh oh!

Willow made friends with three dogs here that belong to some locals out fishing. Those dogs inspired her to explore boundaries in terms of playing in the water we've not previously seen in her. Now we have wet, muddy dog smell and mess in our 75 sq ft shared living space.Nice! Glad that I chose the upper bunk and she can't get up here. 






Friday, June 13, 2014

A few more...

We were lucky enough to meet up with some great friends, the Carey's, from California for the portion of our trip from Grand Teton to Banff. The following pics were from their camera and provide some perspectives of Byron we would not otherwise have. Sadly, they were not able to continue north with us...they said something about having to get back for work.

Byron and the Tetons


Us at Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone NP

Closer than I was willing to get

At the Roosevelt Arch, Yellowstone NP

Roadside lunch setup

Anyone for a Dutch oven chocolate cookie?

Unlikely to get another one like this

Family at Glacier NP

Luxury is now camping at KOA. Showers, WiFi, cabin for the Carey's.

This is a parking lot at Glacier NP. Big snow year.

Banff NP added these cool wildlife crossovers on the Trans-Canada highway. They say it cut down on kills by 80%

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Update from Grande Cache, AB

We're at day 11 of our adventure and having a great time so far! We're stopped for the night in Grand Cache, Alberta, Canada and decided to get our first hotel room and restaurant dinner. What a treat it is to have a real shower and someone else do the dishes. 

Tomorrow we plan to make it to Dawson Creek where the Alaska Highway begins (Mile 0). Things are getting more and more rural, and we were warned already that the last big supply stop is at Grand Prarie, just up the road a bit. That said, we've been doing fine with local shopping and the staples we brought are doing fine. 

We saw some great scenery at Grand Tetons and Yellowstone NPs. We drove to the west side of Glacier NP with plans of driving through to the east side on 'Going to the Sun Road', but were turned back due to the heavy snowpack not allowing the road to be cleared yet this year. We backtracked to the south and spent time exploring the park from the east side as well. Spectacular!

Banff and Jasper NPs have certainly been the highlights thus far. I grew up spending lots of time in Yosemite and have always been awestruck by the glacially formed rock there. I'm afraid that the valleys of Banff and Jasper dwarf Yosemite. Just...Wow.

Coming up is a less scenic part of the trip in terms of mountains, but we're looking forward to it regardless. Byron is running well and we feel that we're in a pretty good routine for camping.

Random photos we like below. We will post when we have wifi connections...no data plan for our phones in Canada, but calls and texts OK!

RB

Rebecca happy to be back in Glacier NP

Rock formation near Banff

Waterfall just off the Bow Valley Parkway, Banff

Bear Bait!

Mama and two cubs...mama looking at the bear bait (see above)

Glacier was here... Banff NP

And here too... Jasper NP

Oh yeah...here too.  Jasper NP

Amazing stuff these Canadians get to see everyday! Jasper NP