We left Denali Nat’l Park about 10 Friday morning & drove 155 miles down the Parks Highway to Talkeetna Camper Park. We had many miles of road construction on the way, which delayed us about 1/2 hour. The Milepost mentioned many scenic viewpoints of the Alaska Range, including Mt McKinley, along the route, but with the rain & low clouds, no mountain peak views for us. Of course, it had to rain through the road construction area; our rig is really dirty & there is no car wash in Talkeetna, not even a garden hose at the gas station! Nearest wash is 70 miles, at Wasilla, so that will be on our agenda Monday morning as we drive south to Palmer, which is just northeast of Anchorage. Talkeetna reminds us of Dorset, MN, on steroids! We ... read more

We started our day Sunday washing the pickup & 5th wheel by hand at the RV Park before driving north to Fairbanks. We had the black pickup shining & it stayed clean for 12 minutes; grrrr!! We drove through a couple little rain showers, just enough to make a mess of the pickup! The air is filled with smoke thoughout the entire state of Alaska from 186 wild fires burning, 47 new ones this morning from lightning strikes overnight. The beautiful mountains we have heard so much about are, unfortunately, obscured by smoke as you can see in the picture. At this writing, the smoke coming in the camper windows is smelling very strong! Mike just read that the National Weather Service in Fairbanks has issued a dense smoke advisory for the Fairbanks area…..in effect until ... read more

Mike started Friday with an appointment at the GMC dealership in Whitehorse to get the right rear tail light replaced. (He had a little accident in Dawson Creek when he was backing up the pickup to park it crossways in front of the camper. He blamed it on the small campsites, with not enough room to park, dirty mirrors & the sun in his eyes. Needless to say, he was not a “happy camper” that night. He called ahead to the GMC dealership in Whitehorse to have them order a new tail light assembly.) After he came back from getting his new tail light replaced we went for lunch at the Klondike Rib & Salmon for beer battered halibut & hand cut fries; yummy!! After all those calories, we needed a walk & found a nice ... read more

Another early start for us this Tuesday morning, at 6:45 AM, as we wanted to see wildlife. I forgot to mention our wildlife count from yesterday; 6 white tail deer, 2 Sandhill Cranes, 2 black bear, one with two cubs, & 4 stone sheep. We were not far up the road this morning when we spotted our first bison grazing in the ditches or simply walking the shoulder of the highway. We saw around 2 dozen bison in different groups & 2 brown bear. We arrived at Watson Lake, YT at 9 AM & checked into our campground for the night. I really wanted to see the movie about the northern lights, which was projected in HD on a 360 degree domed screen. Hence, the reason we did not continue driving farther up the road today. ... read more

Saturday started early as we woke at 5 & we were on the road at 7:30. We drove in rain all day across Alberta into British Columbia. Less mountains with rolling terrain & lots of evergreens. The road reminded us of driving Highway 71 to Bemidji with the hills. Only wildlife we saw were 2 mule deer. There was logging activity in places along our route, with mud on the wet road, & our rig is FILTHY! We are camped in Dawson Creek for two nights, which is where the Alaska Highway begins. There are lots of large farming operations here as well as tourism with the start to the Alaska Highway. We arrived here about 2 PM & after getting set up we went to Wal-Mart for a few supplies. This one reminded us of ... read more