Roberta and I had a wonderful trip, but it is long and grueling.  There are no shortcuts; once one is on the road, it's either all or none.  We were most interested in the history of the ALCAN Highway, and how quickly it was built.  It was just a trail through the woods and mountains, built by the Army in 9 months.  What I didn't know, was the the Public Highway Administration had 6,000 civilian employees there to improve the road, over the next few years.  There is one section of the road, 2 1/2 miles, that is original, down to the wood built culverts, and surface.  It is a National Historic Place and is located in Alaska.  The first bridge built is a huge curved high timber bridge just outside of Dawson Creek, BC, and is still in use, although as a side road.  It took 1 year to build, so it was finished after the road was finished.
Some observations of the trip.  Everything is very expensive in Canada, with their GST, Government Sales Tax, and PST, Provincial Tax.  The farther up the road we went, the more courteous the people were.  We paid $7.25 a gallon for gas in Muncho Lake, BC, and paid an average of $4.97 for all the gas we purchased.  The trailer worked very well, and Roberta and I could either break camp, or set up in about a half an hour.  Phoxie Lou survived the trip very well.
We had no issues with how people drove on the ALCAN, and Roberta and I actually passed five vehicles, so we weren't the slowest.  The only RV park that we didn't like was west of Watson Lake, YT, and we stayed there twice.  The park was O.K., but hosts weren't.  We enjoyed meeting lots of enjoyable people, driving or towing lots of different RV's. 
The scenery was stunning, and every day brought different scenarios.  I like the Destruction  Bay area on Kluane Lake, YT, and  the Stewart, BC/ Hyder, AK valley is beautiful.  Anchorage, AK was our least liked place; it's a big city in a picturesque setting.  Fairbanks, AK is a nice size, and easy to navigate. 
Another nice place is Whitehorse, YT, which sits on the Yukon River.  We had three areas of very bad roads, one from Destruction Bay to Beaver Creek, YT, one from GlenAllen, AK to Tok Junction, AK, and the first one hundred miles of the Cassiar Highway was rough, narrow, with no shoulders, and no lines.
We thourally enjoyed the trip and are looking forward to planning the next one.

Mal, Roberta, and Phoxie Lou Soare

Revelstoke is where we crossed the Columbia River the first time.  The Columbia river starts from the Columbia Lake, just North of the US border, and travels North, then makes a u-turn West of Jasper, BC and runs South into the U.S., West of Spokane.  The valley it runs in is called the Trench.  Roberta and I flew the Trench in 2005 to Juneau.    It  looks like a big u shaped trench, carved by a glacier.  The Flathead River starts just East of where the Columbia River starts.

                                      Columbia Lake, the Beginning of the Columbia River

                                                     Looking North up the Trench

We entered the US and spent a night in Missoula and Jim and Mary's RV park, a nice place.  The next morning, we traveled east , and were surprised to see lots of snow down to about 5000'.

     

                                                   The Mountains North of Drummond, MT.

                       The Old Stack at Anaconda, MT and the Pintler Mountains

We traveled on to Big Timber, Billings , and are now home.  It has been quite a journey.  I will summarize what we did and observed tomorrow.

We were on the road again.  This time we would spend the night in Houston, BC.  The RV park was very nice, and the lady running it had lots of begonias hanging in pots around the office.  I commented on how beautiful they were, and she told me that most of them were 18 years old.  She stored the tubers over the winter, and restarted them in the spring.

                                               Shady Rest Office with Begonias

From here , we are working our way home, with just overnight stops in Williams Lake, BC, and Revelstoke, BC.  They are having a caterpillar infestation around the Prince George area that has decimated the birch trees.  The mountain sides , that have the birch trees , looked like fall, with no leaves on them.  The roads were alive with caterpillars; what a mess  and sad to see.  It covered about 75 miles South of the city.   On the way we passed thru Kamloops, BC,  which is on the Thompson River on its way to the Fraser River.

                                                      Columbia River Valley

 Our next  overnight in Revelstoke was at Noah's Ark RV park, deep in the mountains.
It rained on us all night, but the next morning, it smelled so good. 

                                        Mountains and Ice Fields on the way to Jasper

More later.

We left early on June 10th, journeying to Stewart, BC/ Hyder, AK.  The towns are only 3 miles apart, and when you cross the border, there is no American Customs.  The money is US and the signs are in miles, different from Canada, in kilometers.   When you cross back to Stewart, you clear Canadian Customs.  The towns are situated on the end of the Portland Canal, a channel that runs 90 miles from the Pacific Ocean.  It is a deep water port, and they load ore from the mines and logs to go overseas.

                                                     Offloading Logging Truck at Stewart

On the way, we ran across this helicopter working on a new power line the Canadians are building into the North country.

                                                               Helicopter Long Lining


We spent several days touring the area.  The drive in, is stunning, with the Bear Glacier right by the road.  One the other side of the road, a few miles on, was the Wall of Tears.  The whole mountainside was covered with small waterfalls.  What a beautiful site.

                                                                    Bear Glacier                                          

                                                                       Wall of Tears

                                                                       Wall of Tears

                                                Looking Up the Valley Towards Stewart, BC

                                           Estuary Boardwalk on Tidelands, Stewart, BC

After several relaxing days, we restarted our trip.  Phoxie Lou has had quite a trip with us.  She is a real trooper, and I am sure she wonders what scene will be out the windows next,

                                                     I am really relaxed, today, Dad
More later.

We headed East from Teslin, and spent one night at our least favorite RV park, just west of Watson Lake.  It was convenient for us to start our trip down the Cassiar Highway from there, though.  We are starting to head on the way home.  The Cassier Highway  goes South thru Dease Lake, BC, and ends up on the Yellowhead Highway east of Prince Rupert, BC on the coast and West of Prince George in the interior.  Our first night was spent at Iskut, BC.  On the way, we crossed the Stikine River, on of the major rivers, that start in BC and it ends up between Wrangell and Petersburg, AK

                                                                        Stikine River
The road winds down along the river and decends 1000', crosses the river, and then back up 1000'; a long climb.  We stayed at the Mountain Shadows RV Resort.  What a beautiful area.

                                               Mountain Shadows RV Park at Iskut, BC

The next day we headed for Stewart, BC/ Hyder Alaska.  More later.

Teslin, YT RV park is a very nice place to stay.  Here are a few pictures of some of the things we saw on our way.  I couldn't send pictures for a while, but now have better internet service now.

                                                               Tundra Swans
The swans are very noisy, worse than geese.  The next pictures are of Roberta and I at the USA/Canada border.  It was surveyed in the early 1900's and then a 20' strip was cut, and it is still being taken care of by both governments.

                                                   I am standing in two countries

                                              20' Swath From Arctic Ocean to SE Alaska
The pictures of the road conditions olong the way.  This wasn't the worst of them.  It took us 3 hours to make 100 miles on one stretch.  This is the only way to get to Alaska by road.

The top picture shows the white line, and how frost heaved it was.

                                                 Teslin Lake RV Park and Teslin River Bridge

I will add more tomorrow.

On with the travels of the Soare's.  I am sorry that I haven't added to the blog lately.  Everyplace we have stayed for the last few days haven't either had internet, or one was limited to a specific amount, and it wasn't enough for the blog.  I will send pictures when I find a spot to send them.  We travelled to Tok on the GlenAllen Highway, and one of the lakes had lots of tundra swans feeding on it.  It is hard to imagine how noisy they are in the wild, and they make geese look puny.  After Tok, AK, we travelled to Destruction Bay across our favorite frostheaved road.  I can't imagine the truck driver I visited with, at a rest area.  He drives that road four times a week.  He said that the road was better now.  It still took us three hours to go 100 miles.  After Destruction Bay, we motored to Teslin, YT.  What a beautiful campground, right on Teslin Lake.  When we rose in the morning, we looked right out on the lake.  I will add more tomorrow.