From Smithers to Salmon Glacier

From Smithers to Salmon Glacier-June 24th-June 26th

On our drive on Highway 37 and Highway 37a, we saw incredible views of the mountains and waterfalls.

Our first sign that we were getting close to our Alaska destination gave us distances to Stewart and Bear Glacier, which is on the 37a Glacier Highway.

 From Stewart, BC it is a mere 2 miles across the USA border into Hyder, Alaska. On the way down, we stopped to see Lake Maziadin that a young lady in Prince George told me about. It's a Provincial Campground right on a lake with mountain views behind it. We decided to go on to Stewart to see about another site that we were told about and while there we visited the Visitor Centre as it would be closer to Hyder for the next day. The young man there gave us a driving tour guide from Stewart through Hyder and up to the Salmon Glacier Summit viewpoint. Seeing the area there, we drove back up to Lake Maziadin where we camped for 3 nights. We had a really nice spot right on the lake. The only problem we are starting to have is with mosquitoes. We were warned that they could be pretty thick in Alaska, so we brought along nets to go over our heads and we had sprayed some of our clothing with premethrin to keep them off of us. We had to get the head nets out at the campsite and Tim actually went to the camp store and bought 2 mosquito netting jackets for us! While typing this blog, I must have killed at least 3 dozen with my bug zapper and that is in the RV! I don't know how they are getting, but in they get, but I digress.

Lake Maziadin Evening

Lake Maziadin Morning

We took our time the following day and meandered back down the Glacier Highway through Stewart and into Hyder. We stopped many times to take in the many waterfalls, Bear Glacier and the snow topped mountain views.

Bear Glacier

Highway Waterfall

 We crossed into Hyder, Alaska..first time into Alaska..yeah!! and headed for the first stop on the auto tour route which was the viewing area where the Bears are supposed to come to catch the salmon. We were disappointed as it is a few weeks early for the salmon to be running. We continued on our journey and after a very short distance the paved road ended and the gravel road began. It wasn't too bad for a few miles and then we came across an area that had a slide of mud and rocks recently. We worked our way through that and then pretty much crawled through the potholes and rocks and, towards the top, snow on the side of the road.

Note the Narrow road on the curves

We stopped along the way for the overviews outlined in the pamphlet and at the various abandoned mine sites. The Stewart and Hyder areas were part of the gold rush boon and in the 1910s and 1920s they were thriving communities. Now there are very few people in both of these towns. In fact, Hyder calls itself a Ghost Town. However, there is still some silver mining in the mountains and we saw one active mine..the Premier Mine.We traveled from the USA back into British Columbia and in and out of the Tongass National Forest.  In all it was almost 23 miles and most of it on unpaved roads. I knew we should have bought a jeep! Our little Honda Fit did okay though with Tim's tactical driving.

Rough ride through the mud slide

The Summit views were spectacular and well worth the trip. Salmon Glacier is the 5th largest glacier in North America and the world's largest glacier accessible by auto.

View of Salmon Glacier from Summit -unknown photographer on rock

View from the summit road

Once we got back to the border, the Canadian border patrol asked what we were doing and we told them we were disappointed that we didn't get to see any bears. She told us to go back into Hyder and go to the dump as that is where they hang out. We did that and found a momma black bear and her cub. We stayed far enough away and got a few quick glimpses of her, but the baby bear stayed well hidden most of the time.

A few more photos ops on the way back up to the lake and we had completed yet another long, but very interesting day on our trek through the northwest! On to Prince Rupert and the Marine Highway!

Smithers, BC, Canada

Smithers, BC June 23rd

Campground in Smithers

Smithers is a quiet little town nestled beneath snow capped mountains. Our overnight stop there at another Municipal campground was quite nice. We were there early enough that we sought out the Visitor Centre and got some information on the area. We chose to do the Twin Falls hike and drive by Lake Kathlyn. Wonderful afternoon. Evidently, this is a great ski area in the season as well.

Twin Falls

Merritt, BC, Canada and Prince George, BC, Canada

Merritt and Prince George- June 20th to June 22nd

We traveled only 145 miles on June 20th and stopped in Merritt which is the Canadian Country Music Capital. In fact, they just opened their Country Music Hall of Fame. It's a small town but has all the essential stores upon which there are murals of all the country music legends. They even have a "Walk of Fame" where some of these legends have left their hand prints.

 We stayed one night here and moved on to Prince George on the 21st where we stayed in a Municipal Campground on the outskirts of the city. Here, Tim spent one whole day at Staples trying to get the maps for his hiking GPS. It seems in Vancouver when he changed the battery, he lost the SD card/chip so he had to buy a new one and download North America once again! We met two other couples there one of which had been to Alaska 3 times and the other couple, were on their way to North Hazelton to join an RV tour group. We learned much and promised to keep in touch with our own travels as we went. We may run into them again in Valdez as we should be there around the same time. 

I haven't mentioned before that as we have been heading north, the days are getting longer. As of now, sunset is around 9:20 pm so it is staying lighter later all the time! We bought inserts for our ceiling vents to block the light and our shades, hopefully, will do the rest. Alaska has about 20 hours of daylight during the summer, so if we don't darken the RV, it might be harder to sleep.

Our first night in Prince George, this huge RV tour bus pulled into the site next to ours. It is a tour conducted by Germans for Germans. The RV itself sleeps 24! The passengers flew into Vancouver and are heading into Alaska. The campground manager said that they come through every year. An extraordinary vehicle with sleeping quarters tented on one side and the entire left side of the RV is the kitchen and their supplies. Amazing! 

Bellingham , WA to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Bellingham, WA to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada June 14th-June 19th

We stayed in the Bellingham, WA area for a few days so we could shop in the USA to avoid the high Canadian costs of fuel and food. We caught up on laundry and the last blog entry.

On June 17th, we left the USA and crossed into British Columbia, Canada at Blaine. This was an experience. Tim brought a rifle with him and had all the paperwork that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told him he would need once he declared it at the border. So, he declared the rifle and was asked why he would be bringing a rifle through Canada into Alaska "because", they said, "you know a rifle won't do anything to protect you from bears you know." He answered that he knew that and he would be doing target practice with it!

We had to exit the RV and give them our keys. Two of the border patrol guards went through every nook and cranny of the tow car and the RV including the refrigerator! We had to wait inside the building for about a half an hour while they did  their search.  They took out the firewood we had brought with us and fresh strawberries from the refrigerator which we had to discard into the trash can while they watched us do it. Talk about feeling like some kind of criminal! They were certainly polite enough, but they were serious about their search!

That finished, we traveled about 15 more miles and settled on the river in Surrey, BC outside of Vancouver for a few days. We exchanged money into Canadian dollars (loonies) and two dollars (toonies) and larger denominations. Tim researched the public transportation for the area and we made our plans to visit Vancouver Island to see Victoria, which is the Capital of British Columbia, and Vancouver City.

To get to Vancouver Island, we drove to a park and ride, got on the bus to a transfer station, took another bus out to the ferry. The ferry ride was about an hour and a half each way and we passed through some beautiful islands along the way. On the way home, Tim spotted the USS Nimitz which is the largest aircraft carrier in the world. We're not sure what it was doing in Canadian waters, but there it was!

When we arrived in Victoria, we took the public bus out to Butchart Gardens. I don't think words can really describe how magnificent the flowers and trees are there. It is a National Historic site in Canada and is over 100 years old. It sits on over 55 acres with hundreds of different types of plantings trees, shrubs and flowers. In the rose garden alone, there were 250 varieties of roses and over 2500 individual flowers! Everything was bright, blooming, and beautiful as the pictures try to depict.

  After our garden tour, we again used the public bus system to return to Victoria where we had lunch on the harbor,watched the seaplanes take off and land,  walked the downtown and visited the famous Empress Hotel. We didn't have "high tea" but we did tour the building. The city is lovely and the people very friendly.

We were able to catch the 7 pm ferry back to the mainland and the last bus back to our exchange station to get back to the park and ride. Very easy to get around in BC and much easier than driving in a city you don't know.

The following day it was back on the bus but this time at the exchange we took a train to downtown Vancouver. There we rode the Hop On-Hop Off bus and enjoyed the history and the scenery getting off only at Stanley Park, the Library and had lunch in an Irish Pub in Gastown. From there we walked to the Harbor Center and had drinks in the rotating lounge at the top taking in 360 degrees of the city and the harbor. Highly recommend these two areas and maybe spending a little longer in Vancouver and its surrounds than we did. A long two days of walking.. we're sure we got more than our 10,000 steps in each day!

Totem Pole in Stanley Park

Sidewalk in Gastown

The Steam Clock

Washington, North Cascades National Park

North Cascades National Park to Bellingham, WA

June 11th to June 14th

We left Heart O'the Hills in Olympic National Park a day early and traveled by ferry from Port Townsend to the port of Kingston on Whidbey Island. The ferry was only 3 years old and beautiful. Very light traffic so we had no problems getting on and off with the RV.The route to North Cascades National Park was once again through small quaint towns and on good roads, but certainly not highways.  We went through Deception Pass which is the bridge from Whidbey Island to the mainland. The travel books tells us that this double bridge gets  more visitors per year than the Grand Canyon! and most get out of their cars, walk the spans and take pictures. We sure did! The current races underneath the bridge and the views of Lottie's bay are wonderful.

Although the mileage for the day was only 167, the day was long due to ferry travel and slow traffic through the towns as well as the mountain roads in the Parks. As we drove through the Park we were enthralled by all of the waterfalls we saw along the road way. The route 20 drive through the Park is considered one of the most scenic in the State of Washington. We entered the west side and only went as far as the Ross Lake overlook to the east and the views were outstanding. The signs along the road say, "Welcome to the Alps of America." We didn't stop this day with the RV, but we will definitely return to them.

Once we arrived in the Colonial Creek campground, we found a nice secluded, flat site by the rushing waters of Thunder Creek. The campfire and toasted marshmallows were welcome this night as we relaxed in the cool mountain air. Actually, we've had cool air our entire trip through Oregon and Washington..much better than hot!

The following day, we walked from our campsite to the Thunder Knob Trail head. We followed the clear rushing waters of Thunder Creek for a short while crossing over it twice on makeshift bridges and then climbed upward.

It was supposed to be a 425 foot increase in elevation but according to Tim's GPS, it was more like 600 plus. The trail was well marked with lots of switchbacks to make the ascent a little easier. We were rewarded with views of Diablo Lake and the Cascade Mountain range when we arrived at the top. Because this is supposedly bear country, I had my bear bell on my hiking stick which I lost along the trail. When we reached the top, a young woman and her son joined us and lo and behold, she had the bell with her. She said,  " I figured I'd find either the owner of the bell or the remains that the bear left behind!"  The hike down was faster and easier of course but the total round trip was 3.6 miles and was great exercise for the day.

In the afternoon, it was cool and windy, but we went off to see the waterfalls from all of the pull offs along the road. We also went in to see the Diablo Dam and we found the parking spot where folks were getting on a ferry to Ross Resort.

Ross Recreation area can only be accessed by boat or on foot. But the Resort has floating cabins to rent as well as kayaks. Most of the people we met go there every year to hike in the wilderness areas. Had we know beforehand, we might have planned a day of hiking over there, but since rains are predicted from this point on, we will forego that side trip.

The Skagit River runs through the Cascades. It is the largest head water that flows into Puget Sound and it was harnessed for power in 1918 by JD Ross with the start of the three dams; the Gorge, the Diablo and the Ross. The Seattle City Light power company controls the flow of the dams and supplies the electricity for Seattle and its surrounding towns from this source. The town of Newhalem houses the administrative buildings and the company store. The population here is now 40 down from 329 in its heyday. Between 1920 and 1940 the only way to get supplies to Newhalem was by railroad up from Rockport. In 1940, the U.S. Forest Service completed a passable road and in 1954 the road was improved and the railroad was removed.

The rain did come and stayed for the following day, so we just drove through the park again stopping as we could for more of the cascading waterfalls which were fuller because of the rains.  The weather wasn't getting any better, so we decided to leave a day early and move on to Bellingham in order to resupply and refresh ourselves before heading across into Canada. We will stay in Vancouver for a few days before heading north once again towards Prince Rupert where we will pick up the Marine Highway in to Alaska.

All in all, the North Cascades National Park is one of the prettiest we have seen with its craggy peaks and cascading waterfalls. There is much more here to see and do than we did. So if you have the chance and are inclined to do  a little hiking.. or maybe a lot.. this is the place for you.

 

Washington State, Olympic National Park

 Washington Coast and Olympic National Park          June 2-June 11, 2014

We continued our trip north on Route 101. What an incredible highway. It wends its way through small towns but mostly right along the cliffs of the coast. We stopped frequently at the overlooks to see the crashing waves on the rocks. Our first stop in Washington is South Beach in the Olympic National Park which was founded in 1938. This is a rustic campground with no running water or electricity..dry camping they call it. Similar to all of the time we spent in most of the other National Parks.  We run the generator a couple of times a day to charge the batteries for our lights etc.

South Beach is a treasure. The ranger at the first visitor's center told us to just go grab any sight and relax and enjoy...and that we did. We were camped on the cliff overlooking a field of driftwood and the beach below. The driftwood, however, was much larger than any you could imagine. They were logs of enormous girth and had been there for a while. Now they tend to guard the rest of the sloping hills from further erosion.

Sunset at South Beach

RV view from the beach

Kate in front of beach log

Beach logs protecting the cliff

Imagine and Old Man Reading his Paper

After two days enjoying the sea breeze and solitude, we moved on up the coast about 150 miles to a heavily wooded Mora Park which again is in the National Park where we spent 3 days. Down the road about 3 miles is Rialto Beach, which is another beach heavily laden with huge trees that are now driftwood. We walked this beach down to Hole in the Rock about 2 miles each way.

Ochre Sea Stars

Kate taking pictures!

Hiking on Rialto Beach

Smooth Sculpted Rocks from Wave Action

Hole in Rock

Purple Ochre Sea Star

Sea Anemone

Eagle flying overhead

 There we found wonderful tide pools in the outgoing tide and incredible vistas of rock formations. In the tide pools, we saw bright green sea anemones and ochre starfish, both reddish and purple which we had never seen before, and tons of mussels. We started out all bundled up against the cool wind, but quickly shed the top two layers as the day heated up and the wind subsided.

We encountered two different groups of school children that had hiked down from Ozette to Rialto Beach along the coast trail. Evidently, this is a rite of passage for middle school children here. They all seemed to have enjoyed their five days on the trail and camping on the beach. Maybe more of our adolescents should partake of the outdoors instead of their electronic games!

Driftwood on Rialto Beach

While at Mora, we explored Forks and La Push which is heavily populated with native American Indians. There are eight different native American tribes in the Olympic National Park. They are the Lower Elwha Klallam,  the Jamestown S'Klallam, the Port Grande S'Klallam, the Skokomish, the Quineault, the Hoh, the Quileute, and the Makah who all ceded their lands and water rights and signed treaties with the federal government in 1855 and 1856.  They now all have reservations on the shores of the Olympic Peninsula.  In addiiton, there is a northwest section of the Peninsula where  the Ozette Reservation lies, but for some reason it is not listed as being in the park itself.The closest one to the campground is the Quileute in La Push which has quite a good size and prospering fishing harbor.

Harbor at La Push

On the sides of the road were really pretty flowers which we tried to identify. Tim kept saying one of them was hemlock and it sure did look like it. Come to find out it is called Cow's Parsnip and is not poisonous but can be irritating to the skin...could have fooled me, they were really lacey and looked like Queen Anne's lace! The other was yellow and called Witch's Broom which is really an invasive weed taking over some of the fields of young saplings. Pretty but not good for the environment they tell us.

Cow's Parsnip

Witch's Broom

One day was spent visiting the Hoh Rain Forest. The 50 mile Hoh River runs through it from Mount Olympus down 7000 feet into the Pacific Ocean. It meanders through the rain forest but encounters many log jams as it goes from the falling conifers. We are told that the mild winters and cool summers and up to 12 feet of precipitation produce the giant conifers here in the rain forest. The Salmon spawn there and die leaving protein for the scavenging animals. Nature takes its course. There is an abundance of big leaf Maple and a plethora of mosses, ferns and plants.

Most trees have overgrowth of moss hanging and there are many downed and rotting trees upon which other trees take root. These are called "nurselogs." There is much moss overgrowth virtually everywhere!

Phone booth at Hoh Rain Forest

On the way north along the coast, we would see the typical rough rocked shore with fantastic vistas.

Washington Coast lighthouse

Our next stop was Heart O' The Hills Campground at the base of Hurricane Ridge. We tried to find the most level spot we could on the hills of this campground and actually took a chance on the most level site that had HOST stamped on its signage. Usually, HOST sites are reserved for folks who volunteer to oversee the campground in exchange for free camping. No one was there and judging from everything else we have seen thus far in this park, none of the rangers or hosts really start until about June 20th. So we took the site, paid the normal fee and all was well.

The literature told us the best views of Mount Olympus was from Hurricane Ridge, so off we went on a about a 15 mile ride up a windy road and gained about 3500 feet in elevation. Mount Olympus is the highest in the Olympic Range at 7,980 feet and has the third largest glacial system in the contiguous USA. The views were outstanding! We hiked a trail for about 3 miles round trip and were rewarded with panoramic views of the Olympic Mountain Range.

Our next stop was to be in Tacoma for a routine RV servicing, but we found a local RV shop here in Port Angeles to do it, so our next stop is The North Cascades National Park!