Square Dancing RV'rs: August 2010

Our yard in Wenatchee

Cost to travel to Alaska

Just for fun we decided to track our fuel and camping costs for our trip to Alaska. For all of the driving we did, both to and from, plus all of the driving around to various places we spent $3035 on fuel. (Total fuel cost from June 21st until August 15th.) We spent $823 on places to park the rig at night which is about $15.50 average per night. We don't think that's too bad for an 8 week trip!

Once you own the RV, it's actually a pretty economical way to travel to/from and around Alaska.

Our fifth wheel is very well equipped to dry-camp (no electrical hookups) for 3 or 4 nights at a time. It has 6 batteries, a solar panel to recharge the batteries, plus an inverter to give us enough electricity to run our microwave, latte machine, etc. We certainly learned to take a quick shower and turn off any lights when not being used.

Home Again, Home Again, jiggity jig

We made it back to Wenatchee and it sure does feel good. Today is my 63rd birthday so that was a bonus to be home for my day of celebration. We had a good trip to Alaska and back, stopping by the Canadian Rockies, Glacier National Park, and Lolo, Montana for some square dancing on the way home.

I was trying to think of some of the highlights of our trip. So here goes:
1. Driving the Haines Highway - it was a beautifully glorios day
2. Visiting with our grandson, Shawn in Soldotna
3. Driving from Soldotna to Homer and seeing the beautiful mountains
4. Day trip to Seldovia on the ferry from Homer - a great day on the water
5. Portage Glacier campground with a beautiful bike trail - the trail of Blue Ice
6. Train trip from Portage into the mountains - a very scenic ride
7. Animal spottings - lots of moose and bear, some cariboo, whales, puffins, and even a porcupine
8. A square dance at the Farthest North Dance center in Fairbanks
9. A beautiful boat ride on the Discovery
10. A nice drive to the Artic Circle
11. Running into two square dance couples we know at a campground along the Cassiar Highway
12. Bear viewing at Fish creek in Hyder, Alaska
13. A fun square dance weekend in Lolo, Montana

And last but not least a very safe return home to family and friends in Wenatchee!

Canadian Rockies along Icefields Parkway

Salmon Glacier, near Hyder, B.C.

Lake Kinaskan, British Columbia

Along the Cassiar Highway

Mule deer and big horn sheep at Logan Pass, Glacier NP

Big Horn sheep at Logan Pass

Logan Pass, Glacier NP

Goat at Logan Pass, Glacier NP

Avalanche Lake Hike, Glacer NP

Glacier National Park, Montana

We left the Canadian Rockies and headed to Glacier National Park in Montana. We spent Tuesday cleaning our fifthwheel - it was so dusty and dirty. Wednesday we drove into Glacier National park. We did a hike to Avalanche Lake - 4 miles roundtrip. Next we went to Logan Pass. We hiked around there were we saw lots of goats and big horn sheep. Today we're headed to Lolo, Montana for a square dance weekend. Sunday we'll be back in Wenatchee.

Elk in our campsite in Jasper in the Canadian Rockies

Angel Glacier in Canadian Rockies

Canadian Rockies

Angel Glacier in the Canadian Rockies

Buddy, on the road again

Grizzly at Fish Creek

Bear Glacier, B.C.

Camp Run a Muck

Cassiar Highway

We've been busy since leaving Alaska. We drove from Fairbanks, Alaska to Chicken, Alaska, and then over to Dawson City. When you are almost to Dawson City you drive on a little free ferry to cross to Yukon River. There isn't a dock or anything, just a ramp on each end of the ferry that you use to drive onto and off the ferry.

Since we had been through this area in 2005 we decided to pretty much express south. We drove about 400 miles a day - which is a lot when driving these two lane roads. We decided to drive the Cassiar Highway rather than the AlCAN, but when we got to the Cassiar we were told it was closed due to forest fires. Well, we actually hit it pretty good with only about 1/2 hour wait - they did convoys to lead us through the fire area. The fire was smoldering on both sides of the road. We then drove to Kinaskan Lake. We pulled into the campground and discovered two square dance couples that we know. We had a great time with them and wound up staying an extra day.

Next we drove to Hyder, Alaska. The big draw here is the bears who come to Fish Creek to eat the spawning salmon. We saw a black bear cross the road just as we were arriving. But, the bear quicky disappeared with his fish into the brush. We drove up to the Salmon Glacier and then came back and had dinner. We went to the bear viewing area that evening and were rewarded with two bears. The first one was a black bear who quickly snatched up a fish and disappeared into the brush. The second bear was a big grizzly sow (Veronica) who came into the stream about 9:15pm. We watched her get a fish take it to the bank and repeat the process several times. We finally had to leave at 10:00pm when they closed the viewing area.

We left Hyder, Alaska and drove to Mt. Robson provincial park just east of Jasper. The next morning we spent two nights in Jasper. We did a bike ride/hike plus another hike to Angel Glacier. We then drove down the Icefields Parkway and spent the night at a very nice camping place called Waterfowl Lakes. We were going to spend a couple do of days in Banff, but it was hard to get an electric spot, so we bagged that idea and drove to Whitefish, Montana. Pictures tomorrow if I can get the darned internet to work on my computer!