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Report No 4

After spending the day in Fairbanks doing shopping, filling up petrol, dumping and of course putting our third report online at the public library for hours :) we decided to drive further up north and see how the road is. The Dalton Highway is the only road leading north of Fairbanks past the Arctic Circle towards Prudhoe Bay (start of the oil pipeline) more or less along the pipeline. We were tempted to do it, but the gravel road was not very good and it was very remote- no food stores, few gas stations. It would have been about 400 miles one way. After our tire burst a few days earlier we decided to be careful. So after about 150 miles we turned around again.

From Fairbanks we then headed south east towards Delta Junction and eventually Canada. As it was so hot and dry for the last few weeks forest fires were a big problem. Going down south we could see and smell the smoke and fires. Often it just looked like a thick fog. We soon heard that the highway we had planned to take was closed because of fires! The following morning they then opened it, but the fires were still on and driving through we weren't allowed to stop. It wasn't nice to see such big areas being taken by flames. Somehow the Alaskans (and Canadians) didn't make a big fuss about them. They have so much forest and they say it's good for the vegetation. We made it through the fire stretch and then entered Canada again further north by Dawson City. This was one town we liked, usually Canadian and Alaskan - American towns are really nothing special.

We crossed through the Yukon Territory on roads less travelled and saw some beautiful spots, also more fires! There is a fire ban on all campsites in the Yukon Territory.

In Watson Lake we left the Yukon and entered British Columbia (BC) again, this time more east. Our first stop was at the Liard hot springs, a very worthwile stop! Luca of course also loved it, he loves water. (The lakes are usually very cold and he can't stay in very long.) He stayed in the springs for over an hour and loved every minute of it.

Driving south we had some more problems with our camper. After a short afternoon break, Alex noticed that one of the back double tires was more down than usual. Quickly the reason for that was found: the inside tire was flat:-(

Well, a flat tire is usually not a problem, but we don't have a jack (Wagenheber)! After asking several people for a jack, we eventually found help and could change the tire. The very same black day it got later than usual until we could settle for the night. Lorries driving in the opposite direction drove very fast and so it happened that a stone hit our window very hard and left a big (15x15 cm) round crack in the middle of our windscreen. Bother!

In Fort St John things looked better again. We managed to replace our tire and get a few things done. We also bought ourselves a jack so that next time we have a flat tire we can change it without anyone's help.

We left the Alaskan Highway in Dawson Creek (after 1400 miles) and headed towards Grande Prairie, (where there was actually a tornado the day before!) We were very surprised to hear that. There was not too much damage, a few rooves lifted, which isn't surprising the way they build here. Well the weather changed again and we had some rain again - good for the forest fires.

After a day of very different scenery: very open, flat farmlands with lots of flowering canola (Raps) fields we returned into more forested and less civilised areas, south of Grande Prairie towards Jasper.

We arrived in Jasper Nationalpark on July 11. We were lucky to see some real close wildlife in the park, we saw elk, moose (while walking), bears (this time from the car again) and bighorn sheep. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Canadian Rockies, the nice hikes and the friendly people.

Leaving Jasper we decided to do a little detour that was recommended to us. We went down the Forestry Trunk Rd just east of Banff Nationalpark, definitely a road less travelled, also rougher with gravel, but with beautiful scenery. We could escape from the crowds in the Nationalparks over the weekend - and enjoyed a quiet, peaceful weekend.

We felt that we couldn't just drive right past Banff Nationalpark without visiting it. So we decided to do a loop up north again into the park. A decision we soon regretted. We had to wait in a long queue to get into the park. The main road was a four-lane highway (which we hadn't had for the last two months!), there were fences along the highway (so no animals), we also didn't enjoy the smaller alternative road (full of traffic and cyclists) and for the first time the campground we chose was full. Plus the weather was bad, the people were unfriendly and we wanted to do a hike, but didn't realise the first 5.5 km were up a road and we would have had to catch an expensive bus. So we turned around after 20 mins (our mistake), and and and... We just didn't feel good there. So after a day we turned around and headed south again through the Kananaski Country in the pouring rain.

Our next bigger stop was in Waterton Lakes Nationalpark right on the border to Glacier Nationalpark, USA. There we found a beautiful campsite where we stayed for three days. We did a nice hike to Crandell lake where Luca and Alex went for a swim. The deers in the area showed a remarkable behaviour: they prefer to be close to the campsite and village to be safe from predators. We often had deer walking right past us.

Leaving Waterton NP meant leaving Canada and crossing the border to the USA where the phobia of mad cow disease is worry number one. So this time they didn't ask about firearms but about beef. They took away our nice frozen Canadian beef steaks (our planned dinner). Otherwise we never had problems crossing a border.

In the meantime we're having shorter days again. It gets dark at 9ish so we get to use our candles and torches again.

Our first days back in the States we spent in Glacier Nationalpark. Again beautiful mountains and lakes. Our highlight was to hire a motorboat (10 PS) and explore the lake's shore like that. We all enjoyed that, even Luca after a while.

After that we headed down south towards Yellowstone Nationalpark. It took us 3 days to get there. We are definitely back in the crowds! The geysirs, mud pools, fumeroles and the hot springs (all due to the magma in the underground) are really impressive and we could hardly stop filling our last memory card with pictures;-)
Luca charmed all the tourists in Yellowstone. He finds it very cool to give everyone his hand and say hello (in his way).

After 4 days in Yellowstone we moved on to Grand Teton Nationalpark, just south of Yellowstone. Our first day there was 1st August (Swiss national day),which we celebrated with Fleischpflänzli and potato salad.

Leaving Grand Teton and heading south to Flaming Gorge we stopped on the way at Fremont Lake. To our surprise it was a very beautiful spot so we stayed for 4 days. We enjoyed it so much after the nationalparks where the campsites were nothing special and there were always so many people.
Here we could hire a very nice motor boat for 2 hours and enjoyed this different feeling very much;-)

5 August 2004, Rock Springs (Wyoming)

[Before we forget: as we didn't have cell phone reception for over 6 weeks in June and July all the sms's that anyone sent in that time didn't arrive. Somehow they get deleted after a few weeks :( From now on though we have cell phone reception every now and again.]