Prince Rupert to Prince George, British Columbia

A look at the Skeena River just before it runs into the Hecate Strait of the Pacific Ocean.  The Hecate Strait is one of the few places in the world which contains Glass Sponges (pictured right from picture I got off Internet), a very uncommon sponge.  Due to the endangered status, commercial fishing is not allowed in the Hecate Strait…which explaines the lack of large numbers of fishing vessiles in Prince Rupert.

Another view a bit further up river.  One advantage to driving into a port city and driving back out is that you see the views coming and going.  This area within 40 miles of Prince Rupert is very pretty…and the same can be said about Skagway, Valdez, Seward, Haines…all those port cities which we stayed in…even Stewart/Hyder which is not the same type of port, but still a port city.  All of these cities are surrounded by mountains, and the roads which follow the rivers leading into the port cities have just been wonderful to drive.

    

Soon we are back in Kitwanga, pulling back in at the Cassiar RV Park where we stayed four nights ago.  Other than an hour long power outage which affected the entire community and not just the RV park, it was a nice place to stay.  There is no TV there, so we watched a few movies on our aircard, and from those downloaded to our Kindle.  One thing about not being able to use your aircard for a number of days is that you store up your data for the month.  We now have 8 more days left in our Verizon month, with 17 gigs of our 40 gigs left…so we can load up on a few more movies before we head further south.   

We get back on the Yellowhead Highway and the road takes us east, and even north for awhile, before it turns back to the southeast.  Marcia gets a picture of Seeley Lake as we go by, one of the first pictures she can take all day since the mountains are shrouded under a cloud cover which makes them look dark, and featureless except for their outline.

  

It is amazing the shots she can get right from the motorhome.  Of course, with each raising of the camera, her right shoulder reminds her of her “fall” back in Valdez back in early June…2 full months ago. 

We get to the furthest north that we are going on the Yellowhead Highway, a town called Hazelton, where we pull into the Visitor’s Center to take care of business.  (No, not that business…had to pick up the pan, bagels and paper plates that fell out of the microwave oven early on during our drive.  What a loud bang that was!  One of the reasons we don’t have much ‘glass’ in the motorhome.)   Anyway, I could not resist taking this “picture postcard” of their visitor’s center.

 

    

The three monuments represent the three important parts of their history.  Upper picture is John Jacques Caux, better known as "Cataline", the "best mule packer" in British Columbia...never failed to fulfill a freight contract.  He is buried on a piece of land overlooking Hazelton and the Skeena River.  The other two monuments represent the mining industry (left) and the logging industry (right).

A bit about the Yellowhead Highway.  It is a major east-west highway in the four western provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.  To the far west it actually starts on Graham Island at Masset, British Columbia,  heads south along Graham Island for 63 miles to Skidegate, then connects via ferry to Prince Rupert.  It passes through Jasper National Park, Edmonton and ends 60 miles shy of Winnipeg when it merges in with the Trans-Canadian Highway (Hwy 1) which goes all the way across Canada.

    

As we start to head south-east, you can see in the pictures above how hard it is to get a good picture of the scenery.  Although we had some light rain, rain was not much of an issue…but the clouds and mist they gave off played havoc with the camera.

As we get close to Smithers, we pass Hudson Bay Glacier to our west, nearly hidden by the clouds.  Hudson Bay Mountain is one of the best ski areas in British Columbia. 

And then we pass by Kathlyn Lake, and gets this shot…yes, there is a Bald Eagle in that nest to the right in the picture.  She had to wait for the power lines along the road to “rise” out of the view of the mountains, and she got the shot…did not even know the bird was there until I went through the pictures.

After we pass through Smithers and get closer to Houston British Columbia, the land starts to change…we start to see farm land again, lots of it.  And the fields are so green…and the mountains start to disappear further and further to the horizon.

    

As we passed through Houston British Columbia, I got two pictures of their Visitor’s Center area which includes this nice park (top 2 pictures above) and the picture below them which I had to get off Google Maps which shows “World's Largest Fly Fishing Rod”.  Now in Port Isabel, Texas they have the largest “functioning” Fly Fishing Rod and Reel…certified by Guinness…so it is all how you look at it.  Well, I looked at it as we drove by, and did not get the picture…so that is why I got it off Google Maps.

    

Further we go past more farm land…

    

…and come to Burns Lake.  Burns Lake is both a lake, and a community.  In America we call them “Native Americans” now, instead of Indians…up in Canada they call them “First Nations” or Aboriginal Canadians in place of the term Indians.  Burns Lake is home to a large First Nations population and is renowned for its rich First Nations heritage…along with its extensive network of mountain biking trails.

  

Another community we passed through was Vanderhoof, BC.  It is nice that many of these communities brighten up the travelers way with flowers and items that catch the eye’s attention.

Like the other drives we have had through the Yukon and upper British Columbia, the lakes and water are abundant.  After 450 miles, 150 miles the first day, and 300 the second, we arrive in Prince George.  The mountains are all but gone…except in our memories.  We're staying in Prince George for 2 nights, heading further south tomorrow.  Hope to cross into the lower 48 on Wednesday where we plan to stay for 2 days at a PA campground north of Bellingham. By then it is time to get more dog food, and shopping at a Fred Myer.

A Rainbow, Fort Seward, Eagle Sanctuary – Haines Alaska

On Saturday I was looking at the Chilkoot Inlet, and I see this sparkle in the water…so I step out and off to the left was this Rainbow…a Rainbow which was under the clouds, running along the far shore of the inlet.  Had a Cruise Ship been coming or going from Skagway, it would have gone right through it.  This was a type of Rainbow that I had never seen before…very interesting.

Here is a shot of Fort William H. Seward, which lies on the western portion of Haines.  The fort was established in 1898, and was the eleventh fort established during the gold rush.  By 1904, 85 wood-frame buildings was constructed. However, by 1925, it was the only military installation in Alaska, and remained the only installation until 1940.  By 1945, with the end of WW2, and with other nicer, more strategically placed installations having been built, Fort Seward was shut down.  It is now an Art Colony, and has accommodations for housing tourist, a few restaurants, and is right next to where the cruise ships dock.

   

We drove through the old fort, which is not very ADA friendly, but it as very interesting looking at the 100 year old buildings, most of which were in good condition (although a few needed a fresh paint job.)

       

One of the things that Haines is known for is the eagles.  Although we saw a lot of eagles over in Valdez, and some in Seward, Homer and even Skagway…Haines has the largest number of Eagles … but that is during the winter.  They flock to the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve just north of Haines.

When one drives to Haines, they pass right through the Preserve.  In Autumn, when the Chum are running up the Chilkat River and cold weather and longer nights are at hand, flocks of Eagles descend upon the Preserve for the winter, eating up the Chum Salmon, and anything else that resides along the Chilkat River which does not freeze over.

This view is looking north to the Preserve.  The river is very wide, but not real deep.  Today it is still full of water, lots of water, running down into the Pacific. 

Now we are not going to be anywhere near Alaska when the cold weather hits, when the snow falls…so I found this picture above which shows what it can look like along the river during the fall/winter.  I saw some pictures where the eagles are so numerous you could not count them.  Some years they have counted 3,500 eagles at the Preserve.

Around the 20 mile marker from Haines there is a pullout where there is a nice set of information boards, like the one above, pertaining to Eagles, the Preserve, and other animals found in the area.  I like this one because it shows the life cycle of a Bald Eagle going from chick to the stately look that we are accustom to seeing and knowing as the Bald Eagle.  It take five years from going from chick to having the full white head, and familiar look that we associate with the Bald Eagle …which, by the way, is not bald.

Our time here in Haines has drawn to a close…we plan to be on the road by 9 am with our first destination being Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory where we need to stock up on Skruffy food, go to Walmart for more insulin for her, and then to the Real Canadian Superstore to stock up on supplies to get us to the lower 48.  After a few days, we will then head to Hyder, where we hope to see some bears feeding on Salmon in the Fish River.

Note to family:  We will not have cell phone use for a number of days, perhaps more than a week.  Not sure if we will have coverage in Hyder or not.  We will have Internet use most nights.

Eagles – Young and Old, Haines Alaska

“Hey, see that guy over there with the camera…you go high, I’ll go low and we will bomb the heck out of him…” 

Well, that did not happen, but with all the birds flying around these coastal cities, I am surprised I have not gotten hit so far.  These two juvenile Bald Eagles were feeding, along with some older Bald Eagles and lots of Ravens, on some left over fish that someone left along the bank…heads, bones, tails.

      

Eagles and Ravens were just about all we saw the past two days…except for the black bear that looked just like Bubba.  As we drove over to Chilkoot Lake, my dad called.  Within a half of a minute, this young black bear comes out of nowhere, runs across the road in front of us about 30 yards away.  We both thought that it was Bubba for a moment, the bear was just slightly larger than Bubba, and they both run nearly identically.  Before we could even think of getting the camera out…it was gone.

This guy here was sitting out in front of the motorhome this morning…I opened up the window to get the shot.  Love all these eagles around here.

The Oceanside RV Park has a little over 20 sites which all face the ocean, more specifically, the Chilkoot Inlet.  You can see our car parked in front of our motorhome there on the left.  The sites are close, but the view just can’t be beat…equal to that of Seward in my opinion. 

Of course, it looks much better when the clouds are covering up the view!

There is room for one Cruise Ship at the docks in the Haines Harbor.  This is to the right of where we are camping, and can be seen if you walk out to the edge of the property leading down to the water.  The Cruise Ships that arrive here typically have about 400 people on them, so they don’t overwhelm the city at all.

Haines has many totem poles around the community.  This one is on the Chilkoot River leading towards Chilkoot Lake, where we went yesterday (Thursday) for a short day trip.  We took Skruffy, but left Bubba in the motorhome.  This is also when we saw the young black bear that looked just like Bubba…we thought he had decided to follow us.

Along the river they have this fish gate.  If you look closely, you can see that it slightly “V” shaped.  All of the Salmon are forced into the “V”, and State Park staff count the salmon as they pass through the gate.  At the moment it was lunch time…but we talked to a Park Ranger who told us about it, and said they were there all morning, and will be there all afternoon.  I think they figure out a daily hourly rate, and then multiply that by 24 hours to get a day’s count.  He said that nearly 300 had already passed through during the morning.

    

On the left is a look at the river as it flows down toward the inlet.  On the right is a look at the river as it is flowing from Chilkoot Lake.

Chilkoot Lake is good size, fairly protected from the winds, and is a favorite with Kayakers. 



Along the river on our way back we spotted this eagle sitting in a tree looking over the river.  Soon the river will be loaded with Salmon, slowed by the fish counter, and many of the Salmon become fresh meat to the many eagles and the many Grizzly Bears that live in the area.  The State Park Ranger told us that they have not seen any “Brown Bears”, as they call them up here, for a number of weeks…but soon they will descend upon the river, along with lots of tourist.  It gets nasty…and his job is to help keep everyone under control and safe.

After our drive over to the lake, we dropped Skruffy off and we headed over to the Chilkat Restaurant & Bakery for a late lunch.  I had a burger, and Marcia had a Reuben Sandwich…along with a Lemon Bar to take home.  It was real good, homemade buns, and real friendly staff member who recently moved to Alaska with her parents from a small town in Missouri.  This will be their first winter in Alaska…good luck with that.

    

Today we headed out to Chilkat State Park for another quick day trip.  Skruffy really likes these trips…Bubba, well, he will sleep just about anywhere, and he sure won’t get up on our laps, he is not a lap dog.

This is the Chilkat Inlet, on the other side of the Chilkat Peninsula from the Chilkoot Inlet that we are parked along its shores.  Both the Chilkat and the Chilkoot are two of the three Coastal Tlingit tribes that once controlled this land which is now around Haines Alaska.  The third tribe is the Taku Tlingit tribe, which is over on the other side of Juneau…Juneau is about 90 miles from Haines via the Fast Ferry.

This is a view of the Chilkat Inlet looking out to the Pacific Ocean.  It has a narrow opening, and there are no large ports or cities for Cruise Ships to come to.

This is a view of the Chilkat Inlet looking towards the Chilkat River.  The road to Haines runs along the Chilkat River, and the Eagle Sanctuary is along the river.

There is a small harbor for fishing boats, and that building across the water is the Haines Fish Packing plant, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, fish packing plant in Alaska.  Makes us wish we had a larger freezer.   

Just had a have a picture of this old boat, and especially this old truck camper.  Wonder if my good brother-in-law Arny could fix this old camper up for us if we brought it back?   It sure is a mess, but I have seen him turn a mess into a gem many times.

 

   

The road in Chilkat State Park ends here at Lehunua Island.  The island, in the top picture above, is really not an isolated island, since the road connects to it…but before the road I guess the island would be isolated during high tides.  The pictures below show the inlet to the left and to the right of the island.

Wish it was a clearer day because there is a nice waterfall coming off Rainbow Glacier just to the left of the island.  But we won’t be going back there even if nice weather arrives before we leave…the actual road in the State Park is real bad…full of large holes, rough ridges, and it is no wonder that the nice campground was totally empty.

That pretty much covers our activity the past two days.  It has been a nice, relaxing, and a bit colder few days…but it sure sounds better than the heatwave much of the lower 48 seem to be going through right now.