Into the Big Sky Country

We have been slowly making our way north the past few days and have finally reached the “Montana Big Sky” country.  We have been in no real hurry and are trying to keep the miles to under 300 per day.  The first couple nights we found great boondocking spots in the forest and the other nights have been in state and county parks. 

As usual we have found the state parks to be way over priced and not very nice.  One outstanding gem was the Bingham County Park just south of Idaho Falls ID.  Tonight we are at a BLM Campground near Holter Lake which is just north of Helena MT.  We are only about 200 miles south of the border but plan to spend one more night before crossing.

Unfortunately the sky has been very hazy and smoky from all the forest fires in Montana so we are missing the beautiful Montana mountains views.

The beautiful Marble Canyon area near Lee’s Ferry, AZ

Twin bridges across the Colorado River

The mighty Colorado river right before it enters the Grand Canyon

A quick drone video of House Rock Valley near the Vermillion Wilderness in northern Arizona.

The joke was on us as we had planned to do some kayaking on Yuba Lake UT but no one told us there was no water.  Oh well there are lots of lakes up north.

Montana is hiding all it’s beautiful mountains behind a veil of smoke….

Track Logs:

Day 1 – July 26, 2017, 141 miles

Day 2 – July 27, 2017, 212 miles

Day 3 – July 28, 2017, 236 miles

Day 4 – July 29, 2017, 313 miles

Day 5– July 30, 2017, 197 miles

Day 6– July 31, 2017, 135 miles

Time to Hit to Road…

The day we look forward to every year has finally arrived and tomorrow we head out on our summer trip. This year we are doing something a little different in that we are breaking up the trip into two parts.

Part 1 will be about 5 weeks long where we will explore the eastern part of Northwest Territories in the far northern part of Canada. Our ultimate destination is Yellowknife which is basically as far as the road goes north in that part of NWT. Last year we visited Fort Liard NWT which is in the south central part of the territory. We liked what we saw so decided this year we would go back and spend more time exploring this beautiful remote area. On the way up we will basically go straight north up through Utah, Idaho, and Montana. We will enter Canada at the Sweetgrass crossing and head north toward Edmonton before veering west to connect up with the Mackenzie Highway which goes to Yellowknife. On the way home we will revisit the Jasper and Banff National Parks traveling along the Ice Fields Parkway. We plan to re-enter the US at the Roosville MT crossing and then will spend a few days on the Flathead Lake near Big Fork MT before heading for home.  All total we expect to cover around 6000 miles.

Part 1 Route

We plan to spend a week or so at home to regroup and reload before heading out on part 2 of our trip. This part will involve driving to Seattle WA where we will catch a cruise ship and take a week long cruise up the inside passage up to Skagway Alaska. After returning back to Seattle we plan to follow the pacific coast route down to southern Cal before heading home. All total we plan to be out about 3 weeks.

Part 2 Route

We plan to update this travel blog every few days and also hope to add a few videos to our YouTube channel along the way (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4X3qCJGZx9GEYERZ_3R9xw)

You can follow along on Twitter @deanboman and on Instagram at deanboman_az.

Roswell NM–In Search of Aliens

We recently took a week long trip to Roswell NM to visit all the “alien stuff”.  Along the way we also visited the Very Large Array (radio telescope) and Carlsbad Caverns.  Instead of doing a normal blog we are experimenting with a video blog.

   
In the future we plan to do additional travel videos which will be found on our YouTube channel at  Dean&Val's YouTube Channel

Trip Recap

 

We safely completed our trip on Wednesday (Aug. 10, 2016) and had a wonderful time.  After leaving Chetwynd, BC we basically made a beeline for AZ.  Most of the route was in areas that we had been several times before so there was no strong desire to explore.  The overnight stops we made along the way were in Prince George, BC; Merritt, BC; Pasco, WA; Glenn Ferry, ID; Beaver, UT; and Happy Jack, AZ.  Most of the trip was uneventful except for the last three days with very high winds which was not fun.

 

Trip Stats:

Miles Driven:  5844

Lowest gas price: $1.81/gal (Chandler, AZ)

Highest gas price:  $4.73/gal (Ft Nelson, BC)

Highest observed gas price:  $6.02/gal (Tetsa River Lodge, BC)

Average miles/gal:  9.55

Trailer tires replaced:  2

Nights in RV parks:  9

Nights in State/Province parks:  11

Nights Boondocking:  3

 

Just north of the border is the Okanagan area which is famous for their fruit.  Peaches, apricots, plums, and some berries were ready.  The peaches were only $12 for a large box.  We so wanted to get a big box but we were afraid they would take them away at the border.

 

We settled for gorging on some peaches along the side of the road before the border. So good!

 

Just about to make it back into the USA.  Crossing was relatively painless with the usual questions and inspecting the trailer for forbidden fruits

 

Day 20 -- Aug. 6, 2016, 386 miles

 

Day 21 -- Aug. 7, 2016, 369 miles

 

Day 22 -- Aug. 8, 2016, 476 miles

 

Day 23 -- Aug. 9, 2016, 370 miles

 

Day 24 -- Aug. 10, 2016, 143 miles

Chainsaw Carving

 

After leaving the Alcan at Fort St. John we visited the small northern BC town of Chetwynd which hosts the International Chainsaw Carving Championship each year.  The three day event that is held each June draws chainsaw carvers from all over the world.  Once the carvings are completed they are placed all around town on many street corners.  The carvings are very detailed and it's hard to imagine that they are done with a chainsaw.

 

 

Day 18 – Aug. 4, 2016, 299 miles

 

Day 19 – Aug. 5, 2016, 357 miles

Awesome Kayaking!

 

We have spend the past few days driving the Alcan and enjoying some of the picturesque lakes along the way.  The Alcan is one of the most interesting and exciting roads we have ever found.  For almost all of it’s 1500 miles it passes through low mountains and valleys with some of the most awesome views anywhere.  You never know what will be around the next curve… it could be a bear, bison, moose, stone sheep, or a caribou.  The environment is so clean that the sky is a deep blue with white puffy clouds contrasted against the green trees.  It’s also nice that there is relatively little traffic so most of the times you can stop anywhere and enjoy the view. 

We spend several days at Summit Lake and at Muncho Lake, which are about half way between Fort Nelson BC and Watson Lake, Yukon.  In both cases, we were very fortunate to get outstanding campsites right along the bank where we could launch our kayaks.  Muncho Lake was especially nice as it has a very blue-green color, due to copper oxide leaching into the water.  The lake was very smooth and the reflections from the clouds and mountains make it especially beautiful.

Tomorrow we are heading to Chetwynd, BC which is famous for its chainsaw carvings.

 

Not too bad a view from our campsite

 

Not sure if we were kayaking on the lake …or in the clouds …or in the mountains… they all kind of blend together

 

Lots of Stone Sheep around Stone Lake

 

Mom better teach baby not to play in the road

 

 

Yes… this is the life!

 

Adding a few rocks to the inukshuk that was at our campsite

 

We loaned our kayaks to a couple from Germany.  They had a great time on the lake!

 

Yup that is $1.59 per liter which is $6.02 per gallon…. Not too bad considering it was about $2 higher two years ago.  This was at a lodge along the Alcan… smart RV’ers carry extra cans of gas so you can make it to the next town!

 

Day 14 – July 31, 2016, 98 miles

 

Day 15 – Aug. 1, 2016, 65 miles

 

Day 17 – Aug. 3, 2016, 373 miles