They Went Without Me so I'll Go Without Them

[4x4x4doors]

Montana and Glacier NP

Mountain Goats at Goat lick

Along Going to the Sun Road

Along Going to the Sun Road

Along Going to the Sun Road

Our first snow encounter of the trip

Prior to this trip, Mrs. Doors had never crossed the western divide on land. I think she's crossed it about 8 times now.


More road construction

 

[4x4x4doors]

Athabasca, Alberta

 

[4x4x4doors]

From Athabasca to Dawson Creek
Gotta do some housekeeping. Clothes go in a 5 gallon bucket with soapy water and a gamma seal lid, ride in the back of the truck for a day, get rinsed and then hang in the truck until dry.

It's summer, there's gonna be construction to deal with.

So it begins. Smoke and ash in the sky from the BC wildfires.

From 2014:

And how it looked c.1953 when my folks passed through:

 

[4x4x4doors]

Dawson Creek to Toad River
Parts of the Old Highway still exist



Clearing a rock slide


Elk in the processing of changing coats


Cabin View out the back window. We were told the specks in the field were elk

The cabin

The main lodge and storefront/restaurant

 

[4x4x4doors]

Toad River to Jade City (Jade City was a detour to see the ghost town of Cassiar and the jade store)
Caps nailed to the ceiling supposedly started as a joke between two previous owners but its caught on.


Bison sighting

A bit further down the road there were more.

Looks can be deceiving. This guy was happily munching plants some distance away and couldn't have cared less that we were taking pictures with a zoom

The sign village at Watson Lake

 

[Lecoq]

Awesome read so far! I'm hoping you're enjoying every minute of it. Definitely something you don't get to do often in life.

 

[theburtseoni]

Amazing that your folks took that Spartan trailer north with a Packard and back with the Chevy pickup. People nowdays would not think of heading north to Alaska (on a much better highway today) without all the comforts that modern vehicles and RVs provide. I am enjoying your blog!

 

[4x4x4doors]

Longest open deck bridge on the Alaska Highway — at Tetlin, Alaska.

Rainy, foggy cool morning — at Jade City BC

 

[rkj__]

Excellent. Thank you.

 

[4x4x4doors]

White Horse to Destruction Bay




Saw this pair who had bicycled from Texas. Didn't get a chance to talk to them much. Believed they camped on the lake shore. We passed them on the highway shortly after getting underway the next morning.

 

[4x4x4doors]

The moose almost posed for us. Saw him as we drove by and hooked a Uturn where he came out of the trees again and stood for 3-4 pictures before heading back into the woods again. Yippee!


One of the remaining sections of the old highway.


Had a flat as we exited the construction zone. Put on one of the spares and kept going.



We posed by the Alaska sign. Wanted to do the same pic as the parents did but they've moved the signs and the customs house in the 1970s. It had been in Tok AK where we stayed that night. The old Customs House had been torn down and replaced with a police station.

 

[4x4x4doors]

Made it the end of the AlCan







Spent the next couple of nights in Fairbanks.

 

[4x4x4doors]

Fairbanks again today. Visited the Large Animal Research Station at Univ of Alaska Fairbanks and the Museum of the North on campus.

Muskox

When a male muskox wants to get somewhere (like during mating season), you're gonna need to get out of the way.

Caribou. The difference in a caribou and a reindeer is domestication

Only brown bear we saw the entire trip. It was news to me that brown bear and grizzly are the same thing. Somehow I was thinking two different animals.

Woolly mammoth fossil

Intricate beadwork

Some of you up north may take these for granted but it truly fascinated Mrs. Doors. When you pay for a parking space, it comes with an electrical source. This is significant when its -40F and you want your car to start again when you come out.

Guess where we had breakfast? The Northern Most Denny's in the World!
(we are easily amused, I know)
The Museum of the North is on our list of "places that we enjoyed more than we expected".

 

[4x4x4doors]

Went to Denali today. Never saw Mt. McKinley. There were numerous spots where you could sometimes see it "weather permitting" but we never got our weather permits. I've since been told that the percentage of folks who do actually see it is surprisingly low.




Got to see and pet the sled dogs. Demo of them pulling the sled on wheels. All voice commands.

Huge THANK YOU to Blind Cleric for recommending the Denali Grizzly Bear Cabins and Campgrounds.

 

[4x4x4doors]

Denali to Anchorage via Hatcher Pass (Independence Mine State Park)

Denali area


Gotta love a navigator who suggests we take a shortcut on these roads.




Remains of Independence Mine