Alaska Adventure—Day 4

Butte MT to Shelby MT

This morning after leaving the campground we passed through Butte and Helena along I-15.  The drive was very pretty with lots of green forest and mountain streams along the road.  North of Helena the terrain changed to rolling hills with vast pasture lands.  We were really surprised with how green the hillsides were.  For a more scenic route, we left the interstate north of Helena and went through Choteau before rejoining the interstate south of Shelby.  We planned to stay at a city park in Shelby where we stayed last year but the mosquitoes we too thick so we found a small RV park behind a motel.  Not very nice but is sure better than getting eaten alive.  Shelby is about 40 miles south of the border, so we will cross in the morning and will stay somewhere in southern Alberta.  Thus far we have driven 1352 miles, are are 38% of the way to Fairbanks!  We expect to take about 11 days to cross Alberta, BC, and the Yukon Territory.  While in Canada we will be relying on Wifi hot spots along the way so updates may not be daily.

Sign on the road shortly after leaving the campground.  About a mile down the road there were actually some burros in the pasture along the road.

On road out of the campground

View of the rolling hills west of Great Falls MT

Todays Stats:

Miles driven:	249 miles
Hours on road:	5 hours, 10 minutes
Gas prices:	$3.69

Route:

Alaska Adventure—Day 3

Pocatello ID to Butte MT

After leaving Pocatello ID this morning we were immediately in Idaho potato country.  There were miles and miles of blooming potatoes.  Interspersed with the potatoes there were a surprising number of fields of wheat.  As we headed north the potatoes and wheat gave way to hay and then to ranch land as we entered into Montana.  The drive through Montana was very pretty with deep blue sky with white clouds and mountains in the background.  Montana is definitely “Big Sky Country”.  Before reaching Butte we headed off into the Deerlodge National Forest to the Beaver Dam Campground.  The 6 mile drive to the campground was really nice with lots of wild flowers.  Tomorrow we plan to stop an hour or two south of the border and enter Canada on Wednesday.

Field of Idaho Potatoes

Not sure what was growing here but there were large fields of yellow (possible mustard)

Following are wildflower photos taken around the campground

Todays Stats:

Miles driven:	258 miles
Hours on road:	6 hours, 40 minutes
Gas prices:	$3.57, $3.63

Route:

Alaska Adventure–Day 2

Panguitch UT to Pocatello ID

Today was another day of making miles.  Most of the day was spent on I-15 heading north.  There was some pretty scenery between Panguitch and I-15 but once we were on the interstate the view was mostly of other cars and trucks zipping by us at 80+ mph while we chug along at about 60-65.  We did make it through Salt Lake City unscathed which is always a relief.  The traffic was very heavy even for a Sunday but luckily there was no construction or other delays.  This evening we are at the fair grounds in Pocatello.  We have stayed here before as it is near the interstate and never crowded.  When we got here the temperature was in the upper 90s and it almost felt like we were back home.  Tomorrow we will be heading north into Montana.  We had planned a short day for tomorrow but might need to adapt a little if the temperature is hot.

 

View of some fields north of Salt Lake.

In researching for this trip one thing became ever obvious is that food and gas costs are very high in Canada and Alaska.  We have heard stories of $8 for a gallon of milk and $7 for a gallon of gas.  Since there is not much we could do about the gas costs we decided to challenge ourselves to take as much food along as possible.  The photo below is our freezer in the RV which is crammed with about 50 pre-made meals.  We also have several boxes of non-perishable food in the truck bed.  It will be interesting to see if we are successful or not.  Sure hope we don’t have trouble at the border…..!

Todays Stats:

Miles driven:	403 miles
Hours on road:	8 hours, 20 minutes
Gas prices:	$3.69, $3.66

Route:

Alaska Adventure–Day 1

Chandler AZ to Panguitch UT

This morning we started the grand adventure.  The first hour was spent just getting across the valley but fortunately the traffic was almost none existent.  Shortly, we were climbing in elevation and we quickly left the Saguaros behind and were in the pine forest.  After a quick stop for gas in Flagstaff it was on across the Navajo Nation where we entered the beautiful red rock country of northern AZ.  The area around Marble Canyon is some of the most beautiful country around, especially when the sky is full of white puffy clouds like today. 

Our plan was to stay at a BLM area north of Kanab where we had stayed last year.  However, as soon as we pulled in we realized we were getting into a sand trap.  Luckily we were able to get out without getting stuck.  We pressed on north finally finding an RV Park in Panguitch, UT.  While registering, someone came in holding a roof vent and said it fell off our RV!  Sure enough, the vent broke and fell off.  We were very lucky it happened when it did as we had been driving in rain for the last hour or so.  With no hope of finding a replacement in a small town, it was time to do find a MacGyver solution before the rain returned.  After some serious engineering calculations using advanced Calculus plus some differential equations we came up with a solution…. Isn’t pretty but will keep the rain out tonight.

Todays Stats:

Miles driven:	442 miles
Hours on road:	10 hours, 20 minutes
Gas prices:	$3.72, $3.83

Route:

Making BIG Plans

 

In a few short days we will be leaving on the “Ultimate North American Road Trip”!  We plan to spend the next 8 to 10 weeks exploring northern Canada and Alaska.  This has been a trip we have planned for many years and the stars finally aligned this spring to make it a reality (Courtney thanks for moving back to AZ!).  The plan is to head north up through Utah, Idaho, and Montana before entering Canada near Shelby MT.  Once across the border we will head to Calgary and on to Edmonton where we will start heading west meeting up with the Alaskan Highway at Dawson Creek, BC.  From there it’s a straight shot through BC and the Yukon Territory.  We will enter Alaska near Tok.  From there we plan to make a big loop through Fairbanks, Denali Park, Anchorage and on down to Homer.  From Homer it’s east to Seward and then back up to Tok and on toward home.  For the trip home we will follow the Cassiar Highway the length of BC entering the US somewhere northwest of of Spokane WA.  All total we expect to cover about 10,000 miles and visit 10 states/providences.

We plan to blog daily and will upload when possible so come along for the ride as we go from the desert to the tundra!

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Found a Monster

While camping out in the desert this past week was fortunate to find the relatively rare Gila Monster. The Gila Monster is a 2’ long lizard that lives in the AZ deserts. They spend most of their time underground so it’s unusual to actually see one in the wild. I have lived in the desert for over 32 years and this is my first sighting. They are venomous but they move so slow that you would have to really try hard to get in trouble with one!

Trip Recap

We made it home last Thursday afternoon with a 383 mile drive from Kanab.  The drive was specular from Jacob Lake to Flagstaff.  It is obvious that northern AZ has received a lot of rain lately as the desert was carpeted with green and the contrast with the red rock cliffs was breathtaking in many places.  As is typical we did have a little rain in Flagstaff but other than that the trip was uneventful.

Overall our trip was three weeks long and was the longest and best trip we have ever taken.  The scenery was unbelievable as our route took us literally from the deserts to the glaciers and everything in between.  While we spend most of the time in Montana we feel there is still a lot of that state to explore.  To recap the trip we traveled a total of 4046 miles, visited three national parks (one twice) and one national monument.  We stayed in two RV parks, 10 forest service campgrounds, two national park campgrounds, one BLM campground, three city/county parks, and two dispersed camp sites.  We were very pleased that we were able to avoid the RV parks for the most part. 

A few things we learned on this trip…

• Don’t worry about getting a site in a national forest campground…. with very few exceptions they will not be full
• Allocate much more time in the national parks.  You could easily spend 4-5 days in Glacier and Yellowstone.
• The cheapest gas is in the valley!
• It’s a long long way across Utah
• The senior pass it the best thing going

These photos are from the Marble Canyon area