Alaska 7

8/7/19 We are leaving this morning about 9:00. We will be headed

to Whitehorse in Canada. The scenery is really beautiful as we are going.
On the road we saw a chipmunk and beaver scampering along. When we
got to Whitehorse, we stopped and got gas. Then continued on further.
We ended up parking in a rest stop overnight. We are by the Yukon River.

8/10/19 Woke up to 46 degree weather, but it was a beautiful

morning. We were parked on the Yukon River and left this morning
heading south. We passed thru Johnson Crossing and Teslin and Watson
Lake and headed toward the Liard River. In between we saw Lunx, fox
and saw Canadian Geese flock along the Alaskan Highway walking.

After Liard River we started seeing Bison. We saw about 4 different

ones alone walking by the highway and also saw 2 herds along the
highway. We are now parked in the rest stop between Muncho Lake and
Toad River. It’s really peaceful here. Daisy missed seeing the geese, but
did notice the Bison. There was one huge bull leading one of the herds,
but we saw some by themselves. This was the most animals we’ve seen at
one time during a trip from 1place to the other. We pulled off into a rest
area un improved. It is nice though and very quiet.

8/11/19 Left turnout and headed to Fort Nelson. This is a

community in northeast British Columbia, Canada within the Northern
Rockies Regional Municipality. Along the way we have seen Sheep,
Caribou, and Red Fos. While driving 2 people flashed their lights at us.
They were warning us, when we went a little further the sheep were very
close to the road about to cross. They backed away when they heard us.
The scenery is very beautiful and the forest is very dense. We also saw a
moose along the road. I was fascinated by all the clouds and all the things
I saw in them as we drove. We have ended up in Dawson Creek and
pulled into Tuby’s RV Park. Dawson Creek is milepost 0.

Dawson Creek is a city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.

Dawson Creek derives it’s name from the creek of the same name that
runs through the community. The creek was named after George Mercer
Dawson, a Canadian geologist and surveyer, by a member of his land
survey team when they passed through the area in August 1879. Once a
small farming community, Dawson Creek became regional center after the
western terminus of the Northern Alberta Railways was extended there in
1932. The community grew rapidly in 1942 as the US Army used the rail
terminus as a trans shipment point during construction of the Alaska
Highway. In the 1950’s, the city was connected to the interior of British
Columbia near a highway and railway through the Rocky Mountains. This
city is is known as the “Mile 0 City,” referring to it’s location at the southern
end of the Alaska Highway. Mile 0 is where the Alcan Highway begins.

8/12/19 The campground was quiet last night. Only 1 channel for
TV. Harlan has been working all day on getting TV going. He went to
grocery store this AM. Stayed around the RV. Finally got to watch TV.

8/13/19 Cool this morning. Hung around RV. Now going into
town. We went to the “Mile 0” marker and took pictures. We saw
windmills on the top of mountain. Looked for a certain dog food in a
couple of places, but didn’t have what we needed. After picking up some
things from the grocery store, went to a Pub by the RV Park. Had some
beers and delicious popcorn. Need to buy a book tomorrow that I saw
today. It was Mrs. Mike a story of the Boston girl who married a rugged
Canadian Mountie and all their adventures in the Canadian Wilderness.

As usual we met several nice people at the bar. Daisy was happy to see
us when we got back home.

8/14/19 Cool morning. Leaving here about 10:00. Drove to

Eagle River Casino. Parked in the RV Park but not going to Casino
tonight. We parked above Casino and was able to get TV. Weather is
warmer and pleasant. It is quiet in the park.

8/15/19 Had a nice night. Weather is nice this am. Left this
morning about 9:30. We went by the Casino but no gift shop, but didn’t
stay only slots open. I’d rather spend money somewhere else than loose
on slots which is all I’d do. It seemed like a long trip. When left the
mountains could hardly be seen because of smoke. Along the way saw
cows and bulls in areas that looked like Texas. There sure were a lot of
areas that had bales of hay. We even saw some in white plastic, but I’ve
never see that in Texas.

All a long the way we saw signs for Rocky Mountain house. I
thought it was a house, but turned out to be the name of a city. However I
saw a sign that said Rocky Mountain house historic site. Also saw sign for
a Stone House but passed by that too. Have finally pulled into Cowleys
Rafter Six Ranch. There are not a lot of people up here. The campsite is
an area above where we stopped to register. We have a great view of the
mountains again. Also have a nice breeze and a huge area with no others
around. They also have Trail Rides here. This place is is between Baniff
and Calgary.

8/16/19 We woke up to cold weather and rainy this am. The way
we were parked the right side windows had rain on them and the left side
was dry. At 12:30 it is 48 outside. We saw a group on horse back come
riding thru. I would not want to be horseback riding in this weather. We
do have Satellite TV working here though. We went into the closest town.
It stoped raining as we got closer. The weather is still cold. We went into
the visitor center and got brochures for different places. While Harlan
went into store Daisy and I stayed in the car. While he was gone I saw a
white bird on the asphalt, then all of a sudden a Black Raven swooped
down and attacked the white bird and they started fighting. I saw a
feather from the white bird fall to the ground. As the white bird tried to get
away the raven chased it. Finally both flew away. Daisy was fascinated
with them. I missed a good photo op fooling with Daisy. Weather still
cold. 48 degrees. Yea, TV still working. We went so long without TV.

8/17/19 It was 30 degrees this morning. Slowly getting warmer.

We took a road trip today into Banff National Park and the town of Banff.
It was a really busy city. We got a park pass and drove through the park.
There was a large area that was burned. A wild fire spread on the Northern
edge of Banff National Park and has grown to 5000 acres. It had started
around 9:00 pm on July 3rd a lighting strike started the fire. I also saw
some rock mounds in Southern Alberta in a magazine. There is also the
dinosaur-studded hoodoo Trail in the Alberta Badlands. What are
Hoodoos. Recognized as one of Alberta’s most popular and identifiable
geological formations, Hoodoos were formed by the effects of erosion
caused by water, wind, and frost. Why Hoodoo - A spire of rock that has
an easily eroded column and a more resistant cap. Sometimes they look
like mushrooms. They are king of eerie, so they’re called “Hoodoos” and
also have other names, from “fairy chimneys” to “goblins”. It’s a function
of weathering and erosion in desert climates.

Alberta has the largest deposit of dinosaur bones in the world. We also
started up toward Lake Louise But the traffic was so bad it would have
taken a long time to get there. I bought some nice postcards for the
views.

 8/18/19 Woke up to a nice morning. Weather great and views beautiful.

Not going into the park today there was too much traffic to deal with.
Enjoying time around the RV. We have had a good couple of relaxing
days. I got thread more of Alaska Nellie. Her experiences are really
unique. She has been able to escape from danger a lot of times. Several
escapes from bear attacks. Found out today that someone was trying to
kill her. Wow!

8/19/19 Cool morning this am. Leaving for Montana today about 9:00.
We will be headed to Libby Montana. Going down the highway we still see
beautiful mountains. We are still in Alberta Province. Along the road
through Crows Nest Pass we saw an observatory. We also saw windmills.

The municipality of Crows Nest Pass owes it’s being to the coal
industry that began in 1900. A diverse group of settlers arrived to work the
mines and saw immediate growth that unfortunately, was quickly
decimated in 1903 when part of Turtle Mountain crushed part of the village
of Frank. This was known as Frank Slide. This was further exacerbated
by a mine disaster in 1914, and deadly flooding in 1923 and again in 1942.
Forest fires were also a natural threat to people living in the surrounding
areas. Interestingly, Crows Nest Pass was the scene for the last train
robbery in Canada in 1920.

Henry Frank, an American entrepreneur, developed the first of many

coal nines in the Crows Nest Pass, in the base of Turtle Mountain. In May
that year the first buildings were erected in the new Community of Frank,
located on flat land between the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks and the
mine. Frank became the first incorporated town in the pass and by 1903
served 1000 people with 2 dozen businesses and services, a two-story
brick school and a regional post office.

The Frank Slide at 4:10 pm on April 29,1903 a huge amount of

limestone fell from the last face of Turtle Mountain and covered part of the
valley floor. In town 7 houses, a ranch, some commercial buildings, the
coal mines surface infrastructure and part of the Canadian Pacific Railway
were in it’s direct path and all were destroyed and about 90 people are
thought to have been killed. The town was evacuated, but people were
soon allowed to return.

Today Frank is a quiet residential community of 200 people, with

few hints of it’s promising past. (Oh, and an improved recipe for Colonel
Sanders KFC gravy was developed in the Kitchen of Turtle Mountain Inn
around 1960.)

 The Hillcrest Mine Disaster in 1914 on June 19th 189 men died in
and explosion that rocked Hillcrest Mine. It was the worst mining disaster
in Canadian History and at the time it was the Worlds third worst disaster.
Of the 235 men 189 did not make it out. It was a massive methane and
coal dust explosion. This became the poisonous gas, suffocation and
mine fires that caused the deaths. Not only did they have the mine
disaster. There was also flooding. The most serious in 1923 and 1942,
when heavy rainfall over powered the surrounding rivers and creeks
immersing the town in several feet of water.

Also along this pass the town of Sparwood British Columbia,

Canada they had the worlds biggest Truck in the Western Hemisphere.
The Terex Titain, a dump truck big enough to have two buses, plus two
pickup trucks. The 1970’s Energy Crisis turned it into a very expensive
truck to move around and it was retired as an immobile tourist attraction in
1991. According to it’s plaque, the Titan 33-19 could hold two million golf
balls and is “about the size of the largest of the dinosaurs.” In the 1970’s it
hauled earth, not golf balls, in a Sparwood open pit coal mine.

It was built to haul 350 toons of earth in mining operations. After

being built it said that the Titan’s box when elevated is 56 feet high, the
height a brontosaurus is 39 feet high.

In 1974 Terex Titan was the worlds largest truck for 25 years. The
stats for the Titan were all world records at the time of production. It was
the tallest and had the highest carrying of any truck. At 22ft. 7 inches four
full grown men would have to stand on each others heads just to see over
the top. Fully loaded it weighs over 1 million pounds. The diesel engine is
10,343 cubic inches, has 16 cylinders and puts out 3,300 horsepower. It’s
tires alone are 12ft. Tall. All this and the top speed, when full was under
30mph.

In Granum, Alberta Canada is Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump that

is one of the world’s oldest and best preserved buffalo jumps. Head
Smashed In Buffalo Jump is a buffalo jump located where the foothills of
the Rocky Mountains begin to rise from the prairie 11.2 miles west of Fort
Macleod, Alberta,Canada. Last time we were in Canada we visited this
site, but this time we passed it since we had been there before. However I
thought you might like to know about it. The buffalo jump was used for
5,500 years by the indigenous peoples of the plains to kill buffalo by
driving them off the 36 ft. high cliff.

 Before the late introduction of horses the Blackfoot drove the

buffalo from grazing areas about 1.9 miles west of the site to the drive
lanes by dressing up as coyotes and wolves; lined by hundreds of cairns
(a man made pile or stack of stones.) Cairns are used as trail markers in
many parts of the world.They vary in size from small stone markers to
entire artificial hills. These buffalo runners would guide the buffalo into the
drive lanes. Then, at full gallop, the buffalo would fall breaking their legs
and rendering them immobile. The cliff itself is about 1000ft. Long and at
it’s highest point drops 33ft. Into the valley below. The Blackfoot used the
buffalo carcass for a variety of purposes, from tools made from the bone,
to the hide used to make dwellings and clothing. The importance of the
site goes beyond just providing food and supplies.

The last note worthy item a long the pass is the Burmis Tree. This
tree is a Limber Pine that lived for over 300 years (perhaps 700 some
experts say) before it died around 1978. It stands like a sentinel at the
east portal of Crows Nest Pass, atop a low stony ridge right at the edge of
Highway 3 near the site of the former town of Burmis. It is said that the
Burmis Tree is the most photographed tree in Canada, and it is also the
subject of many paintings, poems, and other artistic expressions. It is
beautiful, in it’s own rugged, windswept way. It is a perfect symbol for the
Crows Nest Pass, an image of tough survival against all odds.

It died in the late 1970’s after losing it’s needles, but remained
standing until 1998 when high winds toppled it over. The community put
stainless steel rods and brackets to support the tree. To this day it stands
as a landmark. Limber Pine trees are known to survive harsh conditions
and are one of the longest living trees in Alberta. In 2004 vandals cut one
of the tree’s main branches. Locals fixed it again with glue and a prop
pole.

Leitch Colleries was one of the largest and most ambitious mines
the early history of the Crows Nest Pass. Established in 1907, it was the
only coal company in Crows Nest Pass that was completely Canadian
owned and operated. Leitch Colleries was in operation until 1915. The
ruins of the coke ovens, wishery, tipple powerhouse and nine manager’s
house can be toured thru. A Collerie is a coal mining and processing plant
where coal was cleaned and graded prior to loading it onto railway cars for
shipping and some operated coke ovens, where coal was superheated
without allowing it to burn, producing coke used in the steal industry.