Alaska Trip Index. April 26—September 6, 2016

This is a chronological index to our 2016 Alaska Trip from Oregon through Canada and Alaska and back to Oregon from April 26 to September 6, 2016.

April 26-May 2, 2016.  Hillsboro Oregon to Dawson Creek, BC.   Also boondocking near Merritt, and Chetwynd.  Chainsaw sculpture in Chetwynd.   Bad weather info about flooding at Chetwynd and Dawson Creek and RV’ers stuck in snow storm near Fort Nelson.  All this after we passed through the area.  We sure are glad we didn’t follow conventional wisdom and wait to travel in mid to late May or later. 

May 1-6, 2016. Dawson Creek to Laird Hot Springs, BC.  Kiskatinaw River bridge, the curved wooden bridge, Boondock at KM213 of the Alaska Hwy, camping at Summit Lake, Muncho Lake and Laird Hot Springs.  Stone Sheep at Muncho Lake

May 7-12, 2016, Laird Hot Springs to Skagway, AK.  Bison, black bear & moose north of Laird Hot Springs.  Signpost Forest at Watson Lake.  Side trip to Atlin, BC.  Views on way to Skagway and our stay in Skagway, AK. 

May 13-19, 2016 Skagway to Fairbanks, AK via Whitehorse, YT.  Beautiful boondocking spot ~23 miles from Skagway, mountain goats, Emerald Lake, Whitehorse and travel to Fairbanks.

May 19-June 6, 2016  Fairbanks and the Steeze Hwy.  The first half of this entry is about our trip up the Steeze Hwy towards Circle, AK and the second half is about our stay in Fairbanks.  

May 29-June 1, 2016  Driving the Dalton Highway.  Our trip in the RV to MM 223 of the Dalton Hwy (The Haul Road) to Prudhoe Bay. The Dalton Hwy is ~450 miles of gravel road built to support the building of the Alaska Pipeline.

June 6-13, 2016  Denali National Park, Part 1.    This is an overview of Denali NP and about our 1st week visiting the front country part of Denali. Included is a ranger lead hike on the tundra and my hike on the Savage Alpine Trail, the best hike in the front country!

June 31-17, 2016  Denali National Park, Part 2.   This is about our stay at Teklanika CG and trips on the shuttle buses to see Mt Denali and the wildlife. We had clear weather on all three days of our stay. 

June 17-21, 2016  Denali National Park to Homer, AK.  The drive from Denali NP to Homer, AK.  Overnight at Walmart in Wasilla; getting supplies in Anchorage; overnight on the Turnagain Arm and seeing the bore tide; the drive to Homer and our campground at Homer.

June 22, 2016  At Homer, Part 1, Boat Tour to Seldovia.  Our 1st full day in Homer and our great boat tour to Seldovia.

June 22-July 4, 2016  At Homer Part 2. In and around the Homer area.      Two weeks in Homer visiting the area.  Our stay at Mariner Park Campground. 

July 6-11, 2016  Seward, AK  Part 1.  Campground in Seward, Sealife Aquarium, Exit Glacier, Hike on Harding Icefield Trail. 

July 6-11, 2016  Seward, AK Par2.  Whale & Glacier Boat Tour.   We took a full day boat tour to see whales, sea lions and glaciers caving. 

July 12-22, 2016  Seward to Valdez. Stops at Hope, Portage Glacier Rd, Whitter, Anchorage, Wasilla (we could see Russia from the Walmart parking lot), Glennallen.  

July 22-27, 2016  Valdez.  Lots of rain & clouds.


July 27-29, 2016  McCarthy, Kennecott Mine Ruins & Walking on Root Glacier. 

July 30-August 2, 2016  Chitina to Tok. Stops at Glennallen, Nabesna Road.

August 3-8, 2016  Tok to Dawson City, YT via Top Of The World Hwy (TOTW).  Stops at Chicken and Eagle, AK and along the Top Of The World Hwy.

August 11-14, 2016  Tombstone Territorial Park, YT.   3 full days in a very scenic mountain and tundra area which rivals Denali NP in some respects.  43 miles of good, but bumpy in spots, road. 

August 16-19, 2016  Five Fingers Rapids, Whitehorse, YT and our 47th wedding anniversary.    Five Fingers Rapids on the Yukon River and a not very exciting anniversary in Whitehorse. 

August 19-25, 2016  Cassiar Hwy, Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK and bear viewing. 
A beautiful drive down a quiet, remote and very scenic highway.  Too late in the season for good grizzly bear viewing in Hyder, AK.  

August 25th to September 5, 2016 Final leg of our trip. Stewart, BC to Osoyoos, BC and the US border.    A pretty fast bit of travel for 5 days.  A quick few hour tour of waterfalls at Wells Gray Provincial Park along the way,  a one week stay at pretty campsite on the shore of Okanagan Lake and then back in the USA.

Final leg of our trip. Stewart, BC to Osoyoos, BC and the US border August 25th to September 5, 2016

Final leg of our trip.  Stewart, BC to Osoyoos, BC and the US border August 25th to September 5, 2016



There is not a lot to tell about for this section of our trip.  A pretty fast bit of travel for 5 days.  A quick few hour tour of waterfalls at Wells Gray Provincial Park along the way,  a weeks stay at pretty campsite on the shore of Okanagan Lake and then back in the USA.  We crossed the border at Osoyoos, BC—Oroville, WA.

I chose this route, 1) because I didn’t want to get back into the US until after Labor Day weekend, 2) because I didn’t want to drive back down I-5, 3) because Okanagan Lake looks like a pretty place to stay.

Map of the route:



We left Stewart/Hyder area and for us a bit of fast travel.  Five days of travel, 240, 260, 200, 50, and 160 miles.   No two night stops.   Our overnight stops were at highway rest stops, a mall parking lot and one night at a motel/RV park on the edge of the North Thompson River.

From Stewart we finished the last 100 miles of the Cassiar Hwy and picked up PH-16 east for about 470 miles.  Then south on Yellowhead Hwy, PH-5 and finally PH-97 to Lake Okanagan.

Along the way we stopped for about 4 hours at Wells Gray Provincial Park near Clearwater, BC.  We left the motorhome at the Visitor Center in Clearwater and drove the truck into the park to see the pretty waterfalls.  It was a cloudy misty day but the falls were nice.  If the weather had been sunny we may have stopped for a couple of days.

Helmcken Falls







Helmcken Falls in winter




Spahats Falls






Dawson Falls





From up above the falls.  This is NOT the view you want to see if you are in a canoe!




Evely CG on Okanagan Lake

We spent a quiet 7 nights  at Evely CG, a BC Recreation CG in a fairly remote area on the west side of Okanagan Lake across from Vernon, BC.  Price was very nice at $6/night.  This was the senior rate.  Not sure non-BC residents were supposed to get this rate, but that is what the Camp Host collecting the fees told us to pay.

We were parked almost on the edge of the lake with a nice view. 





A view of Okanagan Lake from an overlook up a gravel road above the CG




If you ever have plans on camping in British Columbia be sure to check out all the free or very low cost and very scenic CG’s available through the British Columbia Recreation Sites and Trails.  Many of the CG’s have campsites right on the water, with fantastic views. These sites are much different from the Provincial Parks. 

Once on the website, click on “Locations” and drill down through the pages to get to the area you will be visiting.    Be aware that the exact location of a CG is not easy to find on a map or Google Earth.  Also many of the CG’s are a number of miles down gravel roads.  Sometimes it is best to park your RV somewhere and drive your toad or tow vehicle to check out the road and CG.  If you have the time and desire these CG’s can be fantastic.

On Labor Day we crossed the border into the US and spent the night at a CG in Oroville, WA.

It took us another week of slow travel to get back to Hillsboro, OR. 

One of our stops was just below John Day Dam, on the Columbia River, with a nice view of the barges and boats going though the locks at the dam. 




Columbia River & Mt Hood from our boondocking spot.



Barge going by our motorhome (That's our MH just to the right of the barge.)


Morning view of river and Mt Hood in distance. 




We spent the remainder of September visiting and camping with with our Son, DIL & two grandsons before heading back to Texas. 

Great trip to Alaska and back. 

Link back to the Alaska blog index page.