Day 11: Watson Lake, Yukon Territories

Last night we got to Dawson Creek and there was a really bad storm. We got to the hotel, and our power went out :( So, we decided to go fill up the car with gas for the morning and get me some new sunglasses at WalMart since mine are on their last leg! Brant dropped me off at WalMart and went next door to fill up the car. I finally found a pair I liked, had them in my hand, and the power went out! So, no new sunglasses yet! We went back to the hotel and dug out a headlamp from the luggage carrier and used it to get ready for bed. It was interesting to say the least. We got power back about 11:30 that night. We got up in the morning, had breakfast at the h0tel, and set sail for our long 11.5 hour drive today to Watson Lake - it pretty much rained all day and was our first day of not having good weather. It was our first day officially of the Alaska Highway! The 'Mile 0" marker is in downtown Dawson Creek. We stopped at Laird hot springs around 4:30. We walked along this long boardwalk into the woods and ended up at the natural springs where there were lots of people enjoying the water! We got advice from the girls at the gate to start at the left and move right, as the water progresses from about 107 degrees to 127 degrees at the source! It was REALLY hot!! I only made it about 3/4 of the way down the pool, while Brant braved the scorching heat and made it all the way to the source and touched the rock. He said the trick was to go under water, as the water at the top was the hottest and got cooler towards the bottom. It was a nice break during the drive! We continued to Watson Lake and got here about 8PM. We are staying at the Air Force Lodge, and when we got there, the owner said the construction workers had knocked down some poles, and the lodge had had no power since 3PM and hopefully would be fixed soon! We hadn't had dinner, so we asked the owner Lodge where we were staying where a good place to eat was. He said "Whitehorse" - haha - which is about 5 hours from Watson Lake, and where we are headed tomorrow. So we asked him for somewhere decent - we ended up eating at a small little ice cream/sandwich shop in town - with no air conditioning! We met a guy there who was travelling through on his way to WA from Palmar, AK. He was 22 and had been in Palmar doing some contract work. He was by himself, so we invited him to sit and eat with us. We had a nice conversation with him and found out he was having car trouble and was going to sleep in his car tonight and have it fixed in the morning :( We went back to the lodge and the power came back about 9:30PM. We sat in the lobby for a little bit and met two other guys who were in the air force, travelling through and another guy who was a big game hunting guide - Brant was in heaven. He is actually still down there talking with them-I warned those guys that Brant would keep them up all night talking about hunting if they let him :) We are getting up tomorrow and driving about 5.5 hours to Whitehorse, which is suppose to be a neat town! Right now we are on Pacific time, and starting Tuesday, we will be 4 hours behind in Alaska. We are currently uploading all of our pictures onto a Snapfish link - it'll probably take all night to upload all 500, so hopefully by tomorrow morning, if the internet stays connected, it will be finished and we can share them with y'all!

Day 10: Dawson Creek, BC

Today we drove 10 hours from Banff, Alberta to Dawson Creek, British Columbia (yes, I thought the same thing...like the TV show?). It really wasn't that bad of a drive because we stopped a lot to take pictures and eat. The drive through Banff and Jasper NP's is one of the most beautiful drives on Earth. Called the Icefields Parkway b/c you drive by several "icefields" (which are giant areas of ice that have glaciers coming off of them). The Columbia Icefield is the largest and it has like 8 or 9 glaciers that come off of it, and the icefield is something like 120 square miles--fairly large. We got out for a hike after passing the icefields and saw a couple of waterfalls. We have some amazing pictures--but our internet has been either slow or non-existent in the last few places we've stayed and it takes forever to upload pictures to this blog. So we'll get pictures up asap after we get good internet. After coming down out of the mountains, Canada is like rolling hills of evergreens, usually until you get within reach of a town, then you see a bunch of farms, much like the plains and mountain west in America. So far we have seen almost every big game animal except a moose and a caribou. We saw a bear this morning in Banff, and mountain goats and big horn sheep yesterday in Glacier. We saw elk farms today with huge elk just sitting in the fence, hanging out. One last thing, it's too expensive to place/receive calls on our cell phones in Canada, so we won't be able to call until Tuesday when we get into Tok, Alaska. If you need to tell us something, send us a text message, we can send/receive those. Hopefully get pics up soon also!

Day 9: Banff National Park

Today we left the US and crossed into Canada. We're staying in Banff National Park. Brant's friend Dallas who is currently working in AK and has made this drive before told us that Banff was more beautiful than Glacier, and we didn't really think that was possible - but it was! I think a lot of our pictures look fake they are so beautiful and perfect! Today was the first day that it really felt cold outside - it was probably only around 50 plus the wind. ( I know that's not cold to some of you, but to us Southerners it is!) We stayed downtown Banff at the Banff Aspen Lodge. We checked in and were unpacking some stuff and Brant and I both felt it was really warm in the room. We called the front desk to tell them we didn't think our air was working - "Ma'am, that's because we dont' have air conditioning!" Again! It was pretty warm, but luckily we had a fan :) We did some laundry, walked around the town, and ate dinner at Wild Bills. Brant really wanted a good steak, but we couldn't find a place that had less than a $40 steak! So, he settled for a 7 oz steak at Wild Bills that he said looked like a chicken finger - haha. We went to bed pretty early because we had a 10.5 hour drive to Dawson Creek, British Columbia the next day. We still don't have great service, so no pictures :( We are planning on going on a hike tomorrow in Banff or Jasper.

Day 8: Glacier National Park

We left Great Falls this morning and headed towards Glacier National Park - it was a short day - only took us about 3 hours to get there :) We had breakfast at the Whistle Stop in the park - famous for their omelets and french toast. We both had the huckleberry french toast - which was more like a funnel cake :) We stopped for lunch awhile later in a really small town with only two resturants. We ate at the Panter Cafe and learned that they called tater tots "gems." We stayed at the Glacier Park Lodge which was an old old lodge with NO air conditioning! Brant really liked the huge douglas fir trunks that were used to build the lodge. We got there early enough to go on a hike up to Hidden Lake which was amazing!! It was pretty warm and funny because we were hiking across snow! After hiking, we went back to the lodge and ate dinner at the lodge dining hall. We had a table by the window that overlooked the sunset over the mountains. We went to bed early as we are leaving early tomorrow to drive to Banff National Park! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT :)