May 7, 2023 – May 30, 2023
We headed out of the US and into Canada on the evening of May 7th. The border crossing is one of the nicest ones we’ve seen in our travels as it travels through Peace Arch State Park. It was late afternoon as we had laundry and grocery shopping to do before leaving Washington and we had an early ferry in the morning so we didn’t stop at the park to look around.
Our ferry ride the next morning to Vancouver Island was very scenic and was just a little taste of the immense scenery that was to come over the next few weeks. After getting off the ferry, we headed to Butchart Gardens (my parents recommended it to us and they seemed to have great memories of it). It was an amazing garden and since it was spring we got there during tulip season and they had an amazing variety of tulips as well as all of the other flowers that were in bloom everywhere. There were several themed gardens that we explored and all of them were beautiful. We also took a break to have “tea” at their restaurant, which included a sampling of finger sandwiches, small bite desserts and other goodies as well as our choice of tea. It was very good and we were very glad we went, it was a good start to our few days on Vancouver Island.
That night we spent on the beach where you could see Washington in the distance. We had decided to go for a run and found what we thought might be a nice trail across from our campsite. Within the first few minutes we came to the river and there we saw what looked like bumper airboats pushing and corralling logs into a log boom. It was fascinating to watch and it actually looked like fun. After doing a little research I found these were called log bronc tugs, here is a link to a video of a similar boat doing what we watched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icOwZHsnEO0
We spent two more nights on Vancouver Island driving along the East Coast and then into Strathcona Provincial Park, enjoying the scenery and having some really good fish and chips at Dockside Fish and Chips in Campbell River, BC. It was then time to take the ferry back to the mainland and start heading north. After the ferry ride we headed up the beautiful Sea to Sky highway and stopped for the night in Squamish. On our way into town we stopped to check out The Chief. Years earlier Drew had climbed it with a guide while Lee watched, it was a good memory of his and we decided the next day we should hike to the top.
It was a great hike, albeit hard, basically climbing a staircase all the way to the top. There were three peaks, and I made it to the middle one and then watched Lee climb to another one and then he took off for the third and met me down on the trail. The views on top were absolutely beautiful and completely worth the effort.
After leaving Squamish we spent the next week traveling the rest of the Sea to Sky Highway and then onto the Cassiar Highway to make our way to Alaska (trying not to drive more than 4 or 5 hours a day). The scenery on our drive was nothing short of spectacular, with large mountains and still lakes with perfect reflections of those mountains. We also had some fun along the way and even had a surprise heat wave we had to deal with for a few days (up to 93 degrees a couple days).
We mountain biked in the town of Smithers and the next day did a side tour to see Bear Glacier. The road to Bear Glacier continued on to the little town of Stewart, BC and then crossed the US/Canada border, which was to be our first foray into Alaska. The little town of Hyder, Alaska, population 12, is the most southern town in Alaska that you can drive a car to. It felt pretty deserted and run down, but fun to see nonetheless. Even though we didn’t have to deal with a border crossing into the US, we did have to stop on our way back into Canada and show our passports at their little border crossing.
After crossing the border we tried to find a restaurant in Stewart for lunch but nothing was open (still early season). However we did come across the town “golf course” which consisted of a small driving range and a few holes and they even provided free clubs and balls. It was a pretty area so we stopped and had lunch there after which we made our way to Meziadin Lake Provincial Park for the night.
By now we had been in British Columbia for over a week and still had not seen any bears (or much wildlife for that matter) and we were starting to wonder if all the talk of lots of bears was a little exaggerated, but the next day after leaving the campground, within minutes we saw our first black bear on the side of the road enjoying some fresh spring grass. We were quite excited and stopped to watch him for a while before heading on. Then soon we saw another one and another (grizzlies and black bears) on the side of the road, each time stopping to watch these cuddly critters (ok, so they look cuddly from the safety of the van).
We saw 8 bears that day, even a momma and two cubs, but they ran away too quickly to get a picture. The next day we saw 6 more! After that they thinned out but we did see a few here and there on other days, and we also saw a caribou. All in all we were pretty thrilled to be able to see so many!
The night before we officially got to Alaska we stopped for the night in Conrad, YT which was home to a failed silver mining operation in the early 1900s. The lake we stayed on was partially covered with ice that was at least 6 inches thick (we would drive by a week later and it was surprisingly all melted). The next day we hiked along a trail that still had remnants of the tram used for that mining operation, the top of the trail still covered in snow. It was an interesting hike with some great views.
After hiking we drove a little over an hour to finally get to our first main Alaska stop, Skagway! Of course the drive gave us a little bit of heartburn as we drove the White Pass to Skagway. It was aptly named as about 5 miles of that pass was almost a white out. Neither Lee nor I had driven in such dense fog, luckily we were still barely able to see the stripes of the street that we were able to follow, but nonetheless we were glad once we were safe in Skagway.
Skagway was a beautiful little town, and while it’s very touristy (several cruise ships come in every day), by evening it all quiets down and it’s peaceful. We did some biking, hiking and rode the White Pass & Yukon railway and had a really good time in Skagway. After a few days we took the ferry to Juneau. What an incredible ferry ride, the scenery is jaw dropping. When we got to Juneau we decided to drive and see the capital and have some dinner downtown. It was packed with cruisers so we drove by the fairly nondescript capitol building, had dinner and made our way to the Mendenhall Campground.
The next day we hiked up to the Mendenhall Glacier. What a cool and interesting hike. Along the trail are signs to show where the glacier was at throughout the years (a little scary to see just how much melt has happened) and luckily almost no one was hiking so we had the area mostly to ourselves (there were some kayak tours on the lake but they were quite a ways away). Once the trail ended and we were close to the glacier I stopped to call my parents and of course Lee decided he needed to see if he could get right next to the glacier. After a little wait he showed up and told me I HAD to go see the glacier up close. I was a little nervous as it looked like a hard scramble but he assured me it wasn’t too bad and he was right (as he always is!), and so we scrambled up so I could carefully touch the glacier and see it up close. It was a hard hike and we were tired when we were done, but so glad we did it.
The next day we drove up to see the ski resort on Douglas Island and drove to the end of the Glacier Highway. The day after we had an early ferry back to Skagway, unlike our quiet and spacious ferry ride to Juneau, this ferry was completely packed with people all heading to Haines for a beer festival. We were luckily able to grab a couple of chairs in the cafeteria and a little later found a couple of more comfortable chairs in the main cabin, but it definitely wasn’t the peaceful trip we had out, but still awesome scenery!
When we got back to Skagway we had 4 days to make it the 800+ miles to Anchorage. We did stop in Whitehorse (the largest town in the Yukon and where most of their population lives) to enjoy the hot springs there and did some mountain biking but most of our days were driving and boondocking at scenic places along the way. The Yukon is a beautiful and remote place!
We got to Anchorage with a day to get our laundry done and get packed up for our trip to Maui where Lee, Grant and Adam were going to do some training for the Maui to Molokai race. The last few weeks we have driven through some of the most scenic and beautiful places either of us has ever seen. This truly has been the highlight of our travels and so glad it is our grand finale of van life!
