Two Hams on the Road

Friday, July 31, 2015

We are in Hinton, Alberta, Canada.

We left Charlie Lake, BC, after saying goodbye to Obi.  Our first stop was the Kiskatinaw Bridge, which was built during the original construction of the Alaska Highway.  It was one of many engineering feats during construction.  It’s a curved timber bridge.  I think it’s the only original bridge still in use.  It’s no longer on the Alaska Highway, which by passes it, but is used by local traffic.

Dawson Creek, BC, the start of the Alaska Highway, was our next stop.  (We managed to do the highway backwards of course.)

They have a nice sculpture of a surveyor on the actual mile zero spot.

We’ve purchased one of the videos that documents the building of the highway, but there are several available.  They are well worth watching if you can find one on Netflix or Amazon.  They planned and built the highway through the wilderness in 8 months under horrific conditions in a climate they didn’t understand.  And it’s still a major artery today, although it doesn’t carry nearly as much traffic as we expected.  It’s hard to imagine how immense and sparse this area is.

The land changed shortly before we reached Dawson Creek.  We were now in farmland, not forest and there were actual planted fields and fences, something we haven’t seen much of since leaving Washington state.  Temporarily at least we were on the prairie.  Which was fitting, since we spent that night in Grand Prairie.

Grand Prairie’s population is about 55,000. But we weren’t ready for the traffic!  We really hadn’t seen much traffic since Anchorage, and it wasn’t this bad.  Luckily, we just cut across a corner of the city on our way to our campground south of town.  We were there just one night and then headed for Jasper National Park. 

All the park campgrounds were booked for the August long holiday that Canada has.  So we’re parked at a KOA between the park and Hinton, AB.  Steve was anxious to get to the park, so after we got the trailer set up, we headed in.

And right away, got our first animal shot, actually 2.  First, an elk who obviously had no fear of the humans or cars right next to the road.

And right across the road, two goats, who weren’t sure about this.

The scenery in this park is stunning.  Here are some pictures we took yesterday.

Today, we headed back into the park, and again our first stop was for wildlife.  Goats again.

 Our next stop was Maligne Lake, a glacial lake in the mountains.  We took a boat ride to the far end of the lake to view several of the glaciers not viewable any other way.  Here are some pictures from the trip.

Sometimes the scenery doesn’t look real.  This shot is from Spirit Island at the far end of the lake.

Back at the dock, we had lunch at the café there and enjoyed more of the scenery. 

Back in 1928, Curly Phillips decided he liked this place and wanted to run a fishing business here.  Only there were no fish in the lake.  No problem.  He imported fingerlings (baby fish) and stocked the lake with rainbow trout.  He built a boathouse that still functions today.

Curly lived in the boathouse until his death.  You can see why he chose this spot.

We left Maligne Lake and headed for Maligne Canyon, stopping at a few vantage points along the way.

A mountain stream.

Medicine Lake.

Steve hiked part of trail along Maligne Canyon, which is mostly a narrow, slot canyon.

As a result the water rushes through.

By then it was time to head for home.  But we did have one more wildlife viewing – another elk beside the road.

There’s really no way to describe this scenery and the photos don’t really do it justice.  If you ever get a chance to get up this way, grab it.

Deb