Prince Rupert is a modern port, a Canadian Pacific railhead and a major transportation hub. Its population is two-thirds native, with many thriving First Nation villages in the area. It is also the western terminus of one of only three east-west national highways that cross western Canada, the Yellowhead Highway, #16.
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| Coal loading docks, Prince Rupert, B.C. |
A large, coal-loading dock a large grain dock and a new shipping container facility are part of the impressive port facilities that one sees when coming into port. Much trade to the far east takes place here.
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| Bob & Oscar on a ravine trail in Prince Rupert |
We spent two nights in Prince Rupert, buying
groceries and a new spare tire and doing laundry, a little hiking and learning more about Coastal Native American history. The coastal First Nations were a highly developed, prosperous society, living in clans based on matriarchal lines. They had thriving trade arrangements with tribes residing in the interior and up and down the Pacific coast. Although best known for their totem poles carved from red cedar, they had perfected numerous other skills, such as making water-tight boxes of cedar planks that had been steamed and bent into shape and processing fish oil into a fat that could be stored for months.
After two nights of the civilization of an R.V. Park, we headed east, through spectacular scenery of the northern coastal ranges. Rocky, snow-capped mountain peaks, glaciers, plummeting waterfalls, rushing rivers and pristine lakes greeted us around every bend of the road. We stopped to buy fresh bannock (also known as fry bread) from a roadside stand.
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| Fraser Lake, British Columbia |
On July 1, Canada Day, we spent the night at Fraser Lake, beside this lake. Just before retiring and at dawn we heard a familiar sound—the call of a common loon, just like Minnesota.
We wanted to relax for a few days over the 4th and chose this campsite at Lac LeHache in the Cariboo Mountains of central British Columbia.
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| Lac Le Hache |
There were no showers, but there was a beach at this lake so we could wash up. This beautiful area is only about 50 miles from that disasterous mining sludge spill that occurred shortly after we arrived home, in the Cariboo Mountains.
This is Douglas Fir country and we did some hiking and took photos of wildflowers.
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| Turks Cap Lilies, Lac Le Hache, B.C. |
We were seranaded by the Swainson's Thrush again, and by little whistling ground squirrels.
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| Cariboo Falls, British Columbia |
Took a side trip one day back to Cariboo Falls and another waterfall.
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| Thompson River Canyon |
It was time to head back to the United States. So we headed south through the scenic Thompson River Canyon and
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| Fraser River Canyon |
down the Fraser River canyon, which cuts through the northern Cascade Mountains and flows through the rich agricultural Fraser Valley to Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean.
We crossed back into the U.S. near Mount Baker, Washington, north of Seattle, and spent a week visiting cousins and friends in the Puget Sound and Portland areas.
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| Ron, Gerri and Bob on the Leonardsons' deck overlooking the Cascades. |
Bob's cousin Gerri Leonardson and her husband Ron reside in a home west of Seattle that has a beautiful view of the Cascade Mountains on a clear day.
Here we are at Snowqualmie Falls.
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| It was clear in Seattle, so we had a good view of Mount Rainier and the other mountains around Puget Sound. |
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| Two Amys |
We took a ferry across Puget Sound to visit my second cousin, Amy Beth Merriam Steed (we are both named after the same great-grandmother, Amy Jenks Merriam) and her husband George. Both of the Steeds are retired Navy officers who had once been stationed on Whidbey Island in the Sound.
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| Andrea & Bob in Puyallup |
Visiting these cousins in their lovely homes was a blessing and pleasure to us, especially after weeks of camping in a small trailer!
We stopped in Puyallup to visit my stepbrother, Ray Cross, his wife, Cheryl and their family; and to have lunch with Bob's cousin Andrea Jacobsson Beagle.
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| Tim & Jane Jacobsson in Troutdale, Oregon |
We then drove to the Portland, Oregon area, where we spent two days visiting Bob's cousin Tim Jacobsson, his wife Jane, Jane's mother Ethel, and their dog Ronnie.
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Kate, Charlie with Abby doggy in Portland, Oregon
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One of those days we had lunch with Amy's old University of Idaho friend Charlie Needles and Kate Mayo.
We had set aside a week after our Alaska trip to visit these relatives and friends. We are all getting up in years and beginning to have health problems, so thought it would be wise to pay them a visit while we were still able to make the trip.
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| Columbia River |
After a week of visiting these relatives and friends, we headed back east up the Columbia River Gorge.
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| Multnomah Falls |
We stopped at Multnomah Falls and bought produce at a fruit stand before proceeding to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
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| Scotty, Grandpa, Halle and Grandma at Beauty Creek, Idaho |
In Coeur d'Alene, we spent a couple days with our son Dave and these two adorable grandchildren before heading east again.
Since we were towing a trailer, we allowed two nights going home instead of the usual one night. This gave us time for a leisurely breakfast with Dave and the kids, and an overnight stopover at the headwaters of the Missouri River at Three Forks, Montana.
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| Oscar lapping the Madison River |
At Three Forks State Park, we hiked to the source of the Missouri discovered by Lewis and Clark in 1804. Oscar, who could care less about history, enjoyed drinking from the Madison River, after being teased (and frustrated) by the many cottontail rabbits in the campground. He was getting tired of being confined to a leash or his kennel at all times.
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| Early morning where the Madison, left, and the Jefferson, right, join to form the Missouri River. |
Our final night in the little trailer was spent at the main campground in the North Dakota Badlands, along the Little Missouri River. We did not arrive until 9 p.m. and got the last campsite in the place--something that happened at a couple of other campgrounds as well during the trip. (Except in Prince Rupert, we did not make reservations anywhere, as we were never certain how far we would travel in a day.)
The next morning in the badlands, a neighboring camper observed a large buffalo walking right past the trailer; we must have all been tired because not even Oscar noticed it. I spotted it later, grazing in a field not far from us.
The final day of travel, July 17, was our 47th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by stopping at a nice restaurant in Alexandria, MN for supper, instead of dining on our usual sandwiches or canned stew in the trailer or at a roadside rest area.
The Alaska Highway is the ultimate North American road trip. Most travelers carry spare tires, extra oil, drinking water and a recent edition of The Milepost magazine, which includes detailed maps and a comprehensive list of lodging, fuel pumps, campgrounds and fishing spots. Most of the miles were on two-lane highways, and there were a number of construction delays. (No detours--as there are no alternate routes in northern Canada and Alaska. Vehicles just have to stop and wait--sometimes for 10-20 minutes--until at least one lane of the construction zone is clear enough to allow a "pilot car" to lead the way around the work zone.) Most days we traveled only 300-400 miles. We saw a great deal more of the countryside, and certainly a lot more wildlife than we would have seen on a cruise ship or just flying in and out.
After returning home, Bob calculated that we put 8,100 miles on the car. Most, but not all of the miles were towing the trailer. (We unhitched and took a few hundred miles in side trips.) We also logged at least 1,200 miles on the car ferries.
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Seattle skyline from the Bremerton Ferry, Mount Adams & Mount Baker & Cascades in background.
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| Access road to Fraser River, British Columbia |
It was, Bob says, a trip that it is great to drive--once. He does not really care to drive that many miles again in a single trip.
It was an adventure, and while not without mishaps, we discovered that God has an answer to every problem around the next bend in the road.
We wanted to relax for a few days over the 4th and chose this campsite at Lac LeHache in the Cariboo Mountains of central British Columbia.
This is Douglas Fir country and we did some hiking and took photos of wildflowers.
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