Drive Through Canada

On Thursday, May 1st we left Elma, Washington after a wonderful two-week visit with family. My mother lives in Hoquiam, my sister and her husband live in Aberdeen, my daughter and two granddaughters live in Seattle, and I also have a niece and nephew and their families that live in the area. I spent as much time as possible with my loved ones in those two weeks, and then before I knew it, time was upon us, and we were preparing to begin our journey to Fairbanks, Alaska. The first leg of our journey consisted of traveling through Canada, first through British Columbia, then the Yukon Territory, then crossing into Alaska 40 miles from Haines. If anyone is looking at the map, and wondering why we would follow that route to Fairbanks, it is because we wanted to visit Juneau (the capital of Alaska) prior to arriving in Fairbanks. The only way to Juneau is by ferry, and Haines, Alaska, was the most logical place for us to catch the ferry to Juneau on our way to Fairbanks. I will have a separate post on our Juneau trip; this post is to cover the beautiful drive through Canada and most especially the Northern Canadian Rockies.

Since we were traveling in early May, it was still very cold, and there was lots of snow on the ground and in the mountains. The lakes and rivers were still frozen over, and this was quite a treat for me to see. I have never been anywhere that gets cold enough, long enough, to freeze more than just a puddle. The beauty of the frozen lakes nestled in low rolling hills or between towering mountains was impossible to capture in a photograph, but believe me, we tried! Many times we were the only vehicle on the road for miles at a time, and the solitude combined with the winter-like landscape was like something I’ve only seen on calendars or postcards. When I thought things couldn’t get any more spectacular, we found ourselves in the Northern Canadian Rockies. The appearance of the Canadian Rockies is a result of the area being very heavily glaciated, producing sharply pointed mountains separated by wide, U-shaped valleys gouged by glaciers, whereas the American Rockies are more rounded with river-carved V-shaped valleys between them.

Almost just as spectacular was the area between Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, and Haines, Alaska which winds through the Alaskan Mountain range. I don’t know if we were just lucky, but on the day we traveled through this area on our way to Haines, it was bright sunshine and crystal clear blue skies. This afforded us clear views of all the splendor the mountain range had to offer. I feel so fortunate we had such perfect weather, because on our return trip five days later, it was foggy and cloudy with poor visibility. If both days had been like that, we would never have experienced this once in a lifetime opportunity.

I’ve attached one picture of the RV park we stayed in the first day we were in Canada (Hope, B.C.), and several of the Northern Canadian Rockies and the Alaskan Mountain Range.