Alaska 2005 - Our Journey Home . . . Page 1
Updated: 11/30/08
Our route turned away from the Alaska Highway for the journey home. We turned south towards the Canadian Rocky Mountains. This route was chosen because we have not been in the Canadian Rockies and it is on our way to our next destination, Gillette, Wyoming. The HitchHiker's of America International club is meeting there for their 2005 International Rally.
Day 80: Tuesday, August 30, 2005. Starting our trip home . . .
Day 90: Friday, September 9, 2005 2005 HitchHiker International Rally, Gillette, Wyoming
Day 97: Friday, September 17, 2005 Resuming our trip home . . .
Day 80: Tuesday, August 30, 2005.
Our journey home page starts where we ended our Alaskan Adventure page - Fort St. John, British Columbia. We backtracked a little to Route 29. The start of the route had several grades up to 11% but over looked a beautiful valley.
Some of the views along the road were beautiful.
Not far from Fort St. John is the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and G. M. Shrum Generating Station - a hydroelectric facility near Hudson's Hope, B.C. It is one of the largest earthfilled dams in the world. we had to discuss if we wanted to go or not due to the 15 miles from our route - more hills. We solved that and dropped the HHII in the Hudson's Hope visitor center parking lot and drove just the truck to the dam.
The
dam is 1.25 miles long, 600 feet high, a half-mile thick at its base and 30 feet
thick at the top.
It
uses ten intake gates located just upstream in Williston Reservoir.
The dam has a two-lane road on top of it.
The
road across the dam is also used by the local residents to reach the boat
landing for Williston Reservoir, the largest body water of water in B. C. and
the ninth largest hydroelectric reservoir in the world.
The dam produces about 30% of the power required by British Columbia. Ten other power facilities produce the remaining electricity needed. The centerpiece of the switchyard is a 30-meter-high building, shaped like a transformer, which houses administrative offices, the control center with its sophisticated monitoring and control equipment, and maintenance shops.
Switch
Yard
Office Building
We took the underground bus tour of the facilities. It was a full hour tour and cost was $3 per senior. It was an interesting tour. The bus drove into the bedrock 500 feet below ground. The tour bus took us 500 feet underground. From there we walked to the turbine room and the manifold chambers - a good tour. You won't see photographs of the inside - no cameras and carry-on items were permitted on the tour.
Can you find the access tunnel in the photograph to the left?
If the need arises, this spillway can carry 9,205 cubic meters of water per second by-passing the dam. The water shoots out the spillway in a plume into the river valley below to reduce erosion.
While
excavating for the powerhouse, footprints from these little guys were found.
They are duck-billed dinosaurs which inhabited the area 100 million years ago.
The
electricity is send out to B. C. customers over three 500,000 volt , one 230,
000 volt and four 130, 000 volt transmission lines.
It was a good tour. Well worth the two hour stop.
Entering Chetwynd, we saw a huge saw mill operation. We missed photographing the greatest number and largest piles of logs - something about driving the truck having priority.
Chetwynd is known for their chainsaw carvings.
Day 81: Wednesday, August 31, 2005.
As
we rounded a bend, a sign said "Accident Scene Ahead". A truck had
lost some of its load. The truck was not there, but this crew was busy picking
up lumber and banding it together.
Later we saw a big black bear almost get hit by a pickup truck - not ours.
He moseyed across the road, up to the railroad track and just walked away.
It was a very pleasant drive today. Just as we followed the pipeline in Alaska, we found ourselves more aware of the power line because we know where they originated.
After seeing glaciers almost continuously for a long period of time, we had several days of no sightings until now. It looks like the one on the right has melted giving the peak that 'fan' look.
Today,
we got our first glimpse of the Canadian Rockies.
This noisy creek ran beside our campsite in a rest area that night.
Day 82: Thursday, September 1, 2005
As
you are trying to find a place to 'free' camp on the road, signs are important.
If the area is signed as 'No Camping or Overnight Parking' you move on.
Generally, you are looking for a spot with no signs. We and the three other
units in the rest area with us last night considered this sign an invitation -
no tents, no fires.
Today was a cloudy and partly wet day.
It cleared a little when we stopped at the Mount Robson Visitor Center. Mount Robson is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 12,972 feet.
According to a chart they posted on the wall, the peak was visible 65% in 2004. If you look real hard at this photograph, you can see a tiny part of the peak. If you can't quite make that out, they had a photograph of it displayed for those of us visiting on the wrong day.
At the end of the the day we were in Jasper National Park. We had a site in Whistlers Campground with electricity. The second night in Jasper we camped in Wilcox Creek Campground, dry camping. Our third night, we camped in Banff National Park in Tunnel Mt. Village II with electricity.
We spent all of days 83 and 84 in Jasper and Banff National Parks. Our visit to Jasper and Banff National Parks is on a separate page called National Parks of Canada - 2005.
Day 85: Sunday, September 4, 2005
We left our campsite in Banff National Park at about 11:15am.
We will miss the view of this mountain as we walked out the door of the HHII.
The
closeness to the mountains we felt earlier was gone as we traveled the four lane
out of Banff National Park. We
were out of the park in less than an hour - well before our pass expired at
4:00pm.
The views continued to be nice for a short time. The density of mountains diminished quickly as we drove south. We were moving away from them - seeing them only in the distance to our right. These photographs were made as we were leaving the area. Still beautiful mountains!
We
watched the tall mountains in our mirrors.
Out the truck windows we saw flat land and mountains in the distance.
At some point, we noticed that the areas in the median and beside the road were being used as farm fields. They did not waste any space.
The terrain stayed flat for a while and then it became hilly.
Our route skirted the big city of Calgary. We did not avoid some suburban traffic and took advantage of a mall for groceries and lunch.
Homes
Downtown
We spent the night in a rest area surrounded by fields of wheat.
Across the
road
Out our door
Day 86: Monday, September 5, 2005
Before crossing into the state of Montana, USA, we stopped at the Milk River Travel Information Center. On display were a large dinosaur and some realistic looking Hoodoos. This area is rich in dinosaur fossils, they direct you to the area around Drumheller if you have an interest in learning about that prehistoric period of history. A Hoodoo is a mushroom shaped sandstone feature sculpted when the rock erodes below a harder rock layer on top, creating a "cap".
The entry back into the USA went smoothly. Much different than
our first entry into Canada in June. After waiting in line for twenty
minutes, it only took five minutes to be processed through and we were on the
road again.
We were back in the USA after crossing into Canada 83 days ago on our way to Alaska.
The first view of Montana was flat land in front of Mt. Poe. We could see Mt. Poe in the distance as we approached the border. After crossing the border, we discovered it was one of our mountains.
The mineral content of the water in this part of Montana must high to leave this white residue when the water evaporates.
Some
of the area showed evidence of an oil field. Many fields had tanks and oil derricks
in operation.
While
we saw wild buffalo in Canada, seeing buffalo is always fun. Even if it is on a
farm.
The
terrain did not stay totally flat and we could see the Rockies again. At this
point, they are about a hundred miles away.
As a matter of fact, at times it was hilly.
We found a rest area with a historical marker and a parking area considerably away from the road for the night about an hour out of Great Falls. This was our view out our window.
Day 87: Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Almost
the first thing we saw this morning was a Montana road hazard - hay in the road.
All
of Montana is not just fields, cattle and horses. There are farms/ranches and
small towns.
Huge tractors for huge fields ...
Sentinel
grain elevators used to be scattered all over the countryside. Today, few are in
use but are very picturesque.
As
we drove through open prairie, we came across a sign that said 'install chains
here'. In the past, a sign like this meant steep hills ahead. This one was a
warning due to blowing snow. We had been driving in strong winds and there were
snow fences along the road.
Around
the next curve we could see several wind generators in the distance. Strangely, in
this wind, the blades were not turning. As we approach, we realized it was an
entire field of wind generators under construction.
This is the generator housing that mounts on top of the tower.
There
had to be at least fifty wind generators in various stages of construction.
Several buildings and the switch yard were in place but the transmission lines
were yet to be installed.
We did not know how HUGE wind generators are. We have never
been this close to them.
In this photograph, a pickup truck is about an eight the size of the generator
housing.
And, the tower goes way up into the sky.
As were continued our drive, two 'wide load' flatbed tractor
trailers approached.
Each carried one blade for a wind generator (they have three).
Each blade had to be over forty feet long.
We
had lunch in the city park in Ryegate. The school kids were on lunch break going
to and from the little grocery/gas station for snack foods.
Some of the road passed through very beautiful scenery. The hills and the rock outcroppings interfered with farming but were great for the traveler passing through. The town of Ryegate was in front of a cliff similar to these.
We arrived in Billings, Montana about mid-afternoon. We decided to go to a campground in town so we could do laundry, get haircuts and do a little shopping before getting to the HitchHiker International rally.
Day 88: Wednesday, September 7, 2005
We stayed in Billings a second night. We needed the time to catch up on the Web site and upload it before moving on.
Day 89: Thursday, September 8, 2005
We continued our drive to the HitchHiker International Rally area. It was a beautiful day and the views varied enough to make it an enjoyable day.
The
weatherman on television the night before had talked about 'dry lightning' that
started fires. We don't know if this was the result of that or if it is a
controlled burn.
Our visit to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - 2005 is on a separate page.
Leaving Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument we experienced cattle grates again. Those of you with a rural background will have to excuse us city folks who have not traveled the west much. When we lived in Missouri we learned that livestock will not cross over this kind of surface, but that was a few years ago.
Enter
Wyoming, the terrain did not change much for a while. At the border, the road
changed to a red color. It was red for a number of miles.
All of a sudden there were large red rocks in the median.
As we drove you could see that the red color is common to the area.
Lake De Smet
Some of the areas had rugged terrain.
There were a lot of reasonably small
pointed hills along the route.
Some
snow fences were place in interesting patterns probably due to the wide blown
snow swirling around the hills.
Approaching
us from the other direction . . . a wind generator unit. Again, note the size
comparison on the flatbed truck. We were so busy looking around, we almost
missed the photograph.
We arrive at the rally site in Gillette, Wyoming as the sun was setting.
Day 90: Friday, September 9, 2005 (through Day 97: Friday, September 16, 2005) We were at the 2005 HitchHiker International Rally area in Gillette, Wyoming for a week.
The rally is attended by people from all over the USA. This year we had 117 HitchHiker units on the grounds. A large number were 'first timers' at a HitchHiker Rally. The venue was different than previous rallies we had attended - we had to drive from the camping area to the event building about three-quarters of a mile away. It worked out better than we had expected. You did, however, missed the casual contact with people as they walked past your unit during the rally.
The rally is a good place to learn about new products and new
HitchHiker units. In addition to the new units the factory brings to the rally
for us to walk through, a dealer brought units to the rally that people could
purchase. The dealer sold two units at the rally - interestingly, we know both
buyers. Congratulations to Jerry and Jan and to Gene and Karen.
The rally includes many activities . . .
Seminars
conducted by vendors are a good place to gather very useful information. They
discuss problems people are having with the appliances in their RVs or problems
you may have in the future. We make every effort to attend all the seminars.
Many opportunities to play games of all kinds are scheduled. Sometimes the competition gets tough. The spectators have fun also.
There
was a golf tournament at the local golf course. The golfers were warned to give
the antelope the right of way and then play through. It seems the antelope
populate the entire golf course. The two mile drive from the campsite to town
was also a good time to see antelope - as well as in any field along any
road.
The Red Hat Luncheon for the ladies is becoming an annual event.
While only the ladies were welcome at the Red Hat Luncheon, everyone goes to the pancake breakfast. The sausage both quality and quantity was outstanding.
A
new event this year was a Photo Contest. You could submit as many photographs as
you wished and everyone voted for their 'Top 10' or less. Gene, a friend of ours
from our New England Tour, took 1st, 4th and another position. A woman took
second with a beautiful photograph of a water falls. Fred came in 3rd with his
photograph of Mount St. George reflecting in Summit Lake - one of our favorites
from our Alaska trip.
Another
new event was a Dog Show. No voting and no prizes . . . but, a good time was had
by all. The dogs waited patiently for their turn to walk across the stage in the Doggie Parade.
There is entertainment of some kind each evening. On the first night, the entertainers responded to birthdays and anniversaries celebrated during the rally.
This was supposed to be a romantic song.
But, this fellow does not look very happy.
The
entertainment on the second night was a monolog from Teddy Roosevelt.
The final night's entertainment was a vocalist.
One night is set aside for bingo. Even if the entertainment is not outstanding, most people can get excited about bingo. Whether you play all the time and are real serious, or play just for fun as a social gathering, it is a fun evening.
This is a winning card.
We know that because
Mary Lou won the final game.
The sheriff's department and local police department explained and gave demonstrations of their K-9 Units. The two agencies work closely together. One demonstrations was a drug search for a packet hidden by an officer. It was interesting to hear about the success they have in 'surprise' searches in the local schools.
The dogs were muzzled
when not on the job.
The differences between training - "bite and hold' and "apprehending and detaining force" were explained. Their dogs were trained to apprehend and detain the 'bad guy' but would use force if necessary.
The apprehension and detaining demonstration was very interesting. The officer and his dog watched for the 'bad guy' who was out of sight. On command, the dog searched for the 'bad guy' and when he tried to flee, grabbed him. (They are trained to bite the center of the back if possible.) Again, on command, the dog released his grip and just watched the 'bad guy'. While walking the 'bad guy' to the patrol car, he pretended to reach for a weapon and the dog bite him again. After the handcuffs were applied, the dog could relax.
After
the K-9 demonstration we had our Farewell Dinner. It was roast beef and chicken,
green beans and twice-baked potatoes. Oh yes, pie for dessert. The line move
fast and everyone enjoyed the dinner.
The
final night's entertainment was held in the Cam-Plex Auditorium. Before the
entertainment, Dolores and others presented the awards to the winners in the
games, golf and photo contest.
For
the first time, Dolores recognized the youngest and oldest person in attendance. Can
you guess which one this is?
Sunrise the final day.
Our thanks to Dolores, Don and the volunteers who made the rally enjoyable again this year.
Day 97: Friday, September 17, 2005 On the road again . . .
Our journey continues,
Alaska 2005 - Our Journey Home . . . Page 2.
Go back to Alaska Photo Album .