North to Alaska and Yukon, NWT, Queen Charlotte Islands and Northern BC | Older Travellers - Lonely Planet Forum

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Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:23:35 +0000

Some of you will remember that last summer the Mr and I spent 2 months traveling 15,000 km miles from Vancouver BC in the south, through northern BC and Alaska up the Dalton Hwy to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. From there, over the "Top of the World Hwy" to Dawson City then up the Dempster Hwy to Inuvik in the Canadian high Arctic - as far north as you can drive in either country.

It was a fantastic trip, taking in places like Whitehorse, Skagway, Haines, Kenai Peninsula, Valdez, Prince William Sound and the glaciers, Denali National Park, Atlin, Hyder, Telegraph Creek and the Queen Charlotte Islands.

We traveled in our camper van, staying in the parks or wherever it looked interesting. One night we settled right over top of a massive glacier, not a human soul but us for miles and miles. Fell asleep to the sound of an ancient glacier groaning and cracking while the massive pawprints of grizzlies in the dust provided evidence of nocturnal curiousity. It's a wild and gorgeous landscape, carved out of the earth on a scale that just makes your eyes go wide with the wonder of it.

At the time I posted some trip reports here but was a bit irregular about it. I've now organized all my notes into proper trip reports and posted with photos. If you are interested, www.lifewellspent.com</a>

anonymous

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Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:17:54 +0000

I think we met enroute?

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Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:13:22 +0000

I think so :)

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anonymous

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Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:03:43 +0000

Not a bad trip that. Seems like a life time ago.

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Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:10:22 +0000

It does. That was summer and today we are ensconced in the snow again. I cannot help but think of that tiny community of Telegraph Creek, off the Stewart Cassiar Hwy. It is located in the Stikine River Valley, at the end of a 100+ km road that corkscrewed through the mountains - desperately steep gravel inclines/declines with precious little room between the ledge you were driving on and the sheer drop off into the canyon.

When we were there last August the days were long and lazy. Indian kids at the forestry site we camped in fished for salmon, their parents cleaning and cooking the fish. An old lady came by and told us we were camped on the trail where a mother grizzly and her three cubs liked to pass to get to the river. We decided to stay and keep an eagle eye out - hoping to see her and the cubs. Never saw her but did find their pawprints in the sandbanks beside the river - ten feet away.

Now I sit looking out my office window at the ever-falling snow, longing for summer nights and smokey campfires. But it won't be long. My son called today and we set a day for the family camping trip to Otter Lake.

And those people in Telegraph Creek? Talk about cabin fever. They must be stuck in the cabin for months and months at a time.

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