Royal Alberta Museum

As you know, since we went to the Legislative building yesterday, Edmonton is the capital of Alberta.  Surprisingly, it isn’t the largest city in Alberta; Calgary holds that distinction.  However, Edmonton has the distinction of being the northernmost city in North America to have a population of over a million.  It’s a big city and, as such, has various performing arts venues, museums, restaurants, and rush hour traffic.  Much of Edmonton’s population lives close to the city center so there are apartments, condos, and single family houses all the way to the downtown business district.

We went back downtown this morning to visit the Royal Alberta Museum.  This is not an art museum although there are several works of art, primarily sculptures, inside and on the grounds of the museum.  The Royal Alberta Museum is a natural history and cultural heritage museum.  It consists of two floors with two exhibit halls on each floor separated by a large lounge area on the second floor and a gift shop, theater, and information desk on the first floor.

We started our tour in the Wild Alberta exhibit hall which has impressive displays of various natural regions with stuffed wildlife found in that environment.  From there we went to the Aboriginal Culture exhibit.  We’ve seen a lot of First Nation and Native American heritage exhibits and this may be the best one we’ve ever seen.  Our last stop was in the Natural History gallery which had a small room dedicated to prehistoric animals, another area featuring quarts, crystals, and gemstones, and the Bug Room with live insects from around the world.  Thanks, but no thanks.  As it is, I’m probably going to have nightmares about those tropical cockroaches I got a glimpse of accidentally.

One exhibit hall is reserved for traveling “feature” exhibits.  The current feature exhibit is creatures of the abyss.  We skipped that, as well.

Nowhere in any of our guidebooks or internet research was there any mention of this being a “children’s” museum.  Many of the exhibits and displays had interactive parts which was very nice for children.  And children definitely use the museum--there must have been 200 of them there today.  Thankfully, their favorite place seemed to be the Bug Room and I didn’t want to go in there.

Edmonton Skyline

Today, we didn’t want to miss out on any of the museum features just because we didn’t walk around outside.  After touring inside we strolled around the grounds.  Directly across the driveway from the museum entrance is the Government House.  This “house” was the residence of the Territorial Governor back in the days before Alberta became a province.  Today, it is used for meetings and special events.  It’s open for tours on Sundays.   Alberta has a sister city in Korea and there is a beautiful Korean Pavilion in one corner of the lawn.  Also at the edge of the lawn is a nice viewpoint of the downtown skyline.

Government House

The admission to the Royal Alberta Museum was $11 each; not so bad for a nice museum.  We felt it was worth the price and are glad we went.

Tomorrow, we have a service appointment for the motor home.  I don’t remember if I mentioned a problem with our air conditioner or not.  Anyway, way back last winter when we were still in Florida, we discovered a problem with the control panel for the air conditioner and furnace.  The furnace worked fine and the air conditioner worked also, but just not on auto setting.  Since we didn’t feel like we’d need the AC this summer and, if we did, we could always turn it on and off manually, we didn’t take the time to have is repaired then.

Korean Pavilion

Well, a couple weeks ago, the furnace fan decided it wasn’t going to come on.  It is operated by the same control panel.  So, tomorrow, hopefully, they’ll be able to figure out what the problem is and, hopefully, it won’t take too much time or too much money to get if fixed.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Legislative Building of Alberta

This morning we were anxious to move from the Walmart parking lot to our campsite at Glowing Embers RV Park.  Check in is at noon, but we were able to get to our site when we came in about 11 AM.

Glowing Embers is a large RV park with nearly 300 sites.  The interior roads are gravel and the sites are gravel with large grassy areas between each site.  We have a full hook-up site with 30 amp electricity and free WiFi for $38/night less the Good Sam discount.  I’ve already been to the laundry and it is adequate for the number of sites.  There are 15 washers and 15 dryers and the price is very reasonable at $3/load ($2 for wash and $1 for dry).

We got ourselves settled in and had a quick lunch.  We took turns babysitting the laundry and taking showers.  With ourselves all clean and our clothes all clean we were ready to head downtown to the “capitol” of Alberta.

We got there in time for the 3 PM guided tour.  I’m not sure they have self-guided tours.  We didn’t see anyone roaming around on their own.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and, since there were several in the group from the US, took the time to explain some of the differences in the elected officials and terms of office between Canada and the US.  The tour was free and lasted about 45 minutes.  Very worthwhile.

Alberta Coat of Arms

We spent a few minutes touring the grounds before we left.  The day was overcast and cool with threatening dark clouds.  We didn’t spend too much time outside.  In fact, when we got home we realized the public entrance may have been the back door and we never even walked around the building to see the other side.  We’re pathetic!

King George V and Queen Mary

We’re planning to be here 4 nights.  Tomorrow is the day to visit the Royal Alberta Museum.  Tuesday morning we have an appointment to have some RV work done and while our rig is in the shop, we’ll be shopping at the West Edmonton Mall.  We don’t have a plan for Wednesday yet.  Thursday we’ll probably move to the East side of town to visit Elk Island National Park.  That will be more convenient if we want to spend a couple days there.  There is also the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village on the East side which sounds interesting.  Lots to do.  Gonna be a busy week.

Legislative Chamber

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Fort Nelson to Edmonton

Four travel days in a row and I’m really ready for a break.  Today wasn’t so bad--just 8.5 miles from Walmart to Glowing Embers RV Park, but it was big city driving.  A little goes a long, long way.

The drive from Fort Nelson to Fort St John was over some very rough road.  We passed through several construction zones.  To make the day just a little mores stressful, the traffic was very heavy.

The second day from Fort St John to Grande Prairie was another stressful day.  The road conditions improved, but we had other issues to deal with.  We had parked for the night at a rest area just before entering Fort St John.  It turned out to be a popular overnight spot for truckers.  When we got up Friday morning, we were blocked in.  We weren’t too concerned about that because we felt like the truckers would want to get back on the road quickly, but just for safety reasons we were uncomfortable being unable to get back on the road ourselves.  As soon as the truck in front of us moved out we pulled up into that front spot.

2nd longest railroad trestle in the world

By the time we were ready to leave, almost all the truckers were gone.  We pulled out on the road and got settled in for the short drive into Fort St John where we were going to get gasoline.  In our minds we were reviewing our checklists and Gene couldn’t remember if he had released the parking break on the car.  We pulled over at the first opportunity, but the breaks were already smoking.

We had rain for the last half of our drive on Friday.  We pulled into the Walmart in Grande Prairie just to get off the road for a few minutes.  While we were trying to relax a little bit, the skies opened up and it absolutely poured rain.

Since Grande Prairie is almost 300 miles from Edmonton, we wanted to get in a few more miles on Friday.  After the rain slacked off, we got underway once again.  We were feeling pretty good about the next 25 miles or so.  We’d had a good break and we were now on 4-lane divided highway.  Smooth sailing--not.  We had only driven about 3 miles when we got to road construction on Highway 43.  It was rush hour and apparently everybody in Grande Prairie uses this road to get home.  We crept along at about 5 mph for almost 30 minutes.  Right at the end we realized it wasn’t just the construction that was holding everybody up, but also a 4-car pile up.  The accident was on the other side of the road, but everyone in our lane had to slow down to get a good look.

We were very happy to get to the rest area Gene had selected for our overnight stay.  We took extra precautions and moved ourselves up close to the exit before settling in for the night.

Saturday’s drive was a delight.  The rain had passed, we had 4-lane divided highway all the way, and traffic was light.  We were cruising through the gently rolling hills and farmland of Alberta.  Quite different from the mountains of British Columbia, but beautiful nonetheless.

We stayed at a Walmart in Spruce Grove Saturday night.  It’s a small store with a small parking lot, but we found a spot.  After the store closed and the parking lot cleared out, it was very quiet.  Well, quiet except for the train that sounded like it was coming inside our rig.

GAS REPORT:  The farther east we’ve come, the less we’ve paid for gas.  In Fort Nelson we paid $5.54, in Fort St John it was $4.95, and in Valleyview, Alberta it was only $4.45.  The price for diesel is the same as regular gasoline except in Fort St. John where it was cheaper at $4.87.

CRITTER COUNT:  The wildlife has all but vanished.  Over these three long travel days, we only saw one moose and it was dead--been hit by a pickup truck and from the looks of things, the pickup was also dead.  Moose can do serious damage to a vehicle.  There was a deer grazing at the rest area on Friday night and a coyote grazing on a deer along the highway Saturday.  That’s it for wildlife.  Probably won’t see anything else until we get well past Edmonton.

We have a reservation at Glowing Embers RV Park for the next four nights.  I’m ready to do some sightseeing for a few days rather than travel.  The first thing on our agenda is the legislative building this afternoon.

That’s it for now.  Thanks for tagging along.

Northwest Territories

We did indeed head up to Northwest Territories this morning.  I’ll say right up front that we were underwhelmed.  This is how it went.

From our campground in Fort Nelson, we drove back along the Alaska Highway about 15 miles to the intersection with Liard Highway.  This is sometimes called the Liard Trail and that’s what is on the road sign at the junction.  It is possible to make this a longer adventure to Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, and some Alaska travelers do that.  From Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek, or somewhere in that vicinity, the traveler can get on Alberta Highway 35 which leads to Northwest Territories Highway 1 and then Highway 3 to Yellowknife.  Travelers can then reconnect with the Alaska Highway by following a gravel road around to Fort Liard and then down to Fort Nelson.  Although Yellowknife would be a fine destination, we don’t have that anywhere on our list of places to go or things to see.  I might just mention that when we were in Whitehorse the other day, we saw a caravan which had just come from Yellowknife.  Those were some of the dirtiest rigs I have ever seen.  They may never be clean again.

We just wanted to step our foot into Northwest Territories so we could say we’ve been.  Our plan for today was to see what we thought about the road after we got to the border then decide if we wanted to continue on to Fort Liard.

Deasum Creek

Liard Highway is newly paved, at least most of the 86 miles to the border.  What wasn’t paved in the past 2 years was still a fine paved road.  In fact, this may have been the best stretch of road we’ve driven on all summer.  We zipped along at 60 mph except for the 20 minute wait to cross the Fort Nelson River.

Liard Highway

Fort Nelson River is spanned by a one-lane bridge, which is being repaired.  Everybody gets a turn on the bridge--southbound traffic, northbound traffic, and the construction crew. The bridge has a wooden surface and the rotting lumber was being replaced.

We were disappointed in the scenery.  The mowed area along the side of the roadway is much more narrow than what we’ve been seeing along the Alaska Highway.  We felt almost like we were in a tunnel and we couldn’t see out.  The terrain is rolling hills, but the road didn’t cut through any of the hills or follow along side, but rather up, over, and down the other side.  We couldn’t see anything hardly of the expanse of land.

Fort Nelson Bridge

We were disappointed by the traffic.  Oil, gas, and lumber companies use this land.  There are numerous dirt roads which intersect Liard Highway and consequently, a lot of heavy trucks traveling the highway.  We saw a few private vehicles and one travel trailer.  I don’t want to leave the impression that there was a lot of traffic.  Certainly not.  We drove for miles without seeing anyone.  We stopped for lunch and only one truck passed.  Of course, it was lunch time for everyone, I suppose.  Still, this is a road which goes from nowhere to nowhere through howling wilderness.  We didn’t expect to see any traffic.

We were really disappointed in the wildlife.  Being howling wilderness, we did expect to see something.  The only thing we saw were ravens.

Being disappointed in the scenery and the wildlife, it was easy to turn around as soon as we got to the Welcome sign for Northwest Territories instead of continuing on 25 more miles to Fort Liard.  That was also where we ran out of pavement which made the decision all the more easy.  But we’ve been to Northwest Territories and we have the picture to prove it.

Petitot River

So that was our adventure today.  Not so adventuresome, but exciting nevertheless to actually be in the Northwest Territories, even just a little bit.

That’s all folks.  We’ll be boondocking for the next few days so we don’t expect to have internet again until we get to Edmonton on Saturday or Sunday.

Thanks for tagging along.

Back at Fort Nelson

Tuesday, we continued on down the road from Liard River Hot Springs to Fort Nelson.  The farther we get from Whitehorse, the better the road surface becomes.  There are rough spots, of course, but generally the road is in very good condition.

Today’s drive was slow and time consuming, however.  Not because of rough road, but because it was narrow and VERY curvy through the Northern Rockies.  We had one opportunity to wait.  It wasn’t for construction this time, but for mowing along the shoulder.  Only waited about 10 minutes.

We had some beautiful scenery today.  The Northern Rockies are awesome and nestled among the high peaks is Muncho Lake.  At the top of Stone Mountain is Summit Lake.  This lake was still frozen in late May when we passed going the other direction.

Toad River

Our plan had been to drive past Fort Nelson 20 or 30 miles to a pullout somewhere, but a strange thing happened on the way.  About 15 miles north of Fort Nelson, we passed the junction of Liard Trail which leads to Fort Liard, Northwest Territory.  That caught my eye and I started flipping pages in the Milepost to see what kind of road we were talking about and how far it was.  It turned out to be a some paved/some gravel road and only about 130 miles.  Very uncharacteristic of us, we immediately decided we could do that as a day trip.

Muncho Lake

With a new plan formulating in our minds, we stopped for the night at Triple “G” Hideout Campground in Fort Nelson.  We were here in May.  It’s a nice campground and for $33 we have full hook-ups including cable TV and free WiFi.  We signed up for two nights.  We went on our adventure to Northwest Territories today.  That story tomorrow.

Summit Lake

GAS REPORT:  We filled up the motor home at Toad River Lodge.  We expected the fuel to be more expensive in British Columbia and it was.  $5.98 for gas and $6.13 for diesel.  By the way, these prices are what we actually have to pay in US dollars; I include the latest conversion rate I have.

CRITTER COUNT:  Not so many bear today--we only saw 2.  The caribou were out, however.  We saw 5.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for tagging along.

Haines and Skagway

Monday was an exciting day along the Alaska Highway.

Just before we left this morning, Gene went out and made some photos of what is left of an abandoned lodge which offered food, gas, and souvenirs to travelers from 1976 to 1989.  We spent the night in front of what used to be the gas pumps.  The only building left standing is the small “office” for the service station.  Everything else has fallen down.  We’ve seen so many businesses which are closed along the highway that I wouldn’t be surprised if, in 20 or 30 years, we found nothing left of them either.

Our first stop this morning was Watson Lake for fuel and internet.  Fuel we got, but, unfortunately, internet was not available.

As we were leaving Watson Lake we noticed a young couple hitchhiking.  We had seen them a couple times yesterday and passed them by.  Today we stopped and picked them up.  We were very glad we did.  Raphael and Bettina are young university students from Switzerland touring Canada after their 3-month English Language course in Vancouver.  They were headed to Liard Hot Springs which was our destination for the night.  We were happy to give them a lift.

We are parked for this evening at a large rest area right across the street from the entrance to the Hot Springs.  Decided not to pay the high price for this provincial park just for a soak in the hot springs.

I wanted to just mention Haines and Skagway for those thinking about a trip to Alaska.  We didn’t go to either of those towns this trip because we had been previously and they are several miles out of the way.  We’re trying to save those gas dollars, you know.

Not wild, but free range

Haines has a couple things we enjoyed.  If you enjoy old Forts, there is a walking tour of Fort William H. Seward established about 1900 as the first post in the territory.  The Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve is in Haines and naturally there are a lot of eagles here.  Summer is not the time for the huge population of eagles, but there are always some around.  Haines is on the coast, so you have the coastal view, but I don’t think it is as pretty as Seward’s view of Resurrection Bay.

When we visited in 2004, we took the Alaska ferry from Haines to Skagway and did not make that long drive around.  As far as the town is concerned, we liked Haines better than Skagway, but the drive out of Skagway is absolutely drop dead gorgeous.  I would go there just for that drive.  If you’re not taking the ferry to Skagway, the road is from Whitehorse.  The Red Onion Saloon in Skagway is popular.  We went there, but it was on a day when the cruise ships were in town and we had a very long wait, shared a table with another couple, and felt rushed to get out of the way of the next group.

Our favorite thing in Skagway was the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park with it’s excellent displays and movie about the gold rush miners along the Chilkoot Trail.  We also took a day cruise to Juneau from Skagway which we really liked.  The cruise included a sightseeing bus tour of Juneau and Mendenhall Glacier.  If I remember correctly, the cruise was with Fjord Express.

CRITTER COUNT: This has been the day for wildlife.  First off this morning we pulled into a rest area just to take a picture of the view.  When I snapped the picture I realized there were moose in the pond below.  Just past Watson Lake we started seeing bears.  We saw 8 total with one trying to get into the garbage container at the Liard Hot Springs Rest Area where we’re parked for the night.  We also saw the bison heard sprawled out on both sides of the road.  A big day for wildlife.

GAS REPORT:  Gas at Watson Lake Tempo was $5.16 (diesel $5.32).  There was a station just as we were leaving town that was a couple cents cheaper.  We had stopped at Tempo because we were hoping for internet.  Oh well.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Rivers, Museums, and Cinnamon Buns

We got away from Whitehorse this morning even though there was some talk of taking a zero day.  I’m glad we left; it was a beautiful day for driving.

We didn’t go very far, only about 189 miles, but we made several stops along the way so it took us most of the day.  Our first stop was at the bridge over the Yukon River a few miles south of Whitehorse.  I don’t think there’s anything too special about the bridge, but its blue color over the clear waters of the Yukon and Marsh Lake make it something special to look at.  Just as we were walking toward the bridge we spotted an eagle flying low over the river with wings spread and head and tail gleaming in the sunlight.  What a magnificent bird.

The Yukon River is 2000 miles long beginning at the Yukon/British Columbia border and flows Northwest through Alaska to eventually empty into the Bering Sea.

Wouldn’t you know, right about lunch time, we were at Johnson’s Crossing.  This is the place we stopped as we were inbound to sample the cinnamon bun.  I was thinking Johnson’s Crossing won the contest with the best cinnamon bun.  Gene says it tied for first place.  I don’t know; all I know is we stopped to get another one today.  While Gene went in to purchase said bun, I prepared our lunch sandwiches.  We shared the bun for dessert and it was very fine indeed and right from the oven.  Yummy.

Teslin River at Johnson's Crossing

Johnson’s Crossing, the name the locals use when speaking of the bridge over the Teslin River, is the location of one of the original lodges on the Alaska Highway.  Before the highway was built, all goods and supplies for Teslin traveled this river from Whitehorse.

On down the road at the town of Teslin, we stopped to visit the George Johnston Museum.  Actually, Gene went in and I sat this one out.  He gave me a good report when he got back to the motor home.  The museum is basically a Tlingit Heritage museum with George Johnston as the main attraction.  

George was a Tlingit living near Teslin.  He was a trapper and maybe a little eccentric.  He was the first person in the community to buy a car which he used for winter trapping on the frozen river.  He painted the car white to blend in with the snow and ice.  It was so cold he had to drain the water from the radiator and he kept the water in a pan on the stove.  When he saw an animal walking on or near the river, he poured the water back in the radiator and off to the river he went.

Swift River

Other items in the museum included traditional Tlingit household items and ceremonial clothing, animal hides, stuffed animals, and a replica of a trapper’s cabin.  This is not an art gallery and the items displayed were made for home use and well worn--precisely the kind of museum Gene likes.  He felt it was well worth the $4 admission.

We stopped for the night at a pullout near Rancheria Falls.

CRITTER COUNT:  Just after we crossed the bridge over the Teslin River at Johnson’s Crossing we spotted two black bear cubs.  I’m sure mom was somewhere close by, but we didn’t see her.  Even though we’ve seen many eagles, so many that I’ve quit counting, I’m going to count the one we saw today because his low flight across the river was breathtaking.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.