Wild Places and Open Spaces

September 10th – 18th 2006

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After the Chilkoot, we truly were no longer heading North – we were homeward bound with the 1st stop at Erik’s place in Fort St. John, B.C. The drive from Alaska to his place was very scenic and we were lucky enough to see a ton of wildlife along the Alaska highway – especially from Liard Hot Springs to Fort Nelson (stone sheep, bison, elk, black bears, deer, caribou). We arrived at midnight at Erik’s place to find a few notes he had left out for us to tell us where to find things – and Jim decided to take him up on the offer of “help yourself to the beer in the fridge”. However, as good as the beer tasted then, he later regretted it when he went to the store to replenish the Sleemans…$27.45 for 12 beers!!

We ended up spending nearly a week – Erik was generous to allow us to call his house “ours” for the time being. So, under the watchful eyes of his animals (all mounts of course, along with a full grizzly mount in the basement) we caught up on some laundry, sleep, and luckily we were able to spend some fun time with Erik…he even played hookey one afternoon. We went out in his boat and the boys were successful walleye fishing – had a fresh dinner that night! Erik, thanks again for being a terrific friend.

We had much to do in the next couple of weeks before reaching home – the first on the list was Jasper and Banff National Parks. As those who have visited these parks know, the scenery is beautiful. However, we once again were quite disgusted to see how our Canadian National Parks are run. We could go on and on with problems we saw…expense ($73.00 just to get us into the parks for 4 days…this does not include camping, hot springs, historical features etc.), maintenance (Jasper had interpretive boards and info boards at some of the most popular spots that looked like they were from the 1970’s, and they were in very poor condition and quite embarrassing), lack of wardens (we saw none compared to the numerous ones we always see in American National Parks), accessibility issues (really poor disabled/wheelchair access in some places), exhibits unavailable (eg. movies in visitor centers closed due to technical difficulties and they were not getting fixed), lack of recycling (the National Parks should be an example for all of Canada, not to mention nationally), etc. etc. We did some terrific hikes there, but were glad to leave via Kootenay on the 4th day and head towards the U.S. again. It is unfortunate that we feel this way about our National Parks, because they are beautiful places (albeit exploited) but maybe it will take letters from people like us to make the government realize that our Parks need desperate help – that the cuts that have been made are really affecting them terribly.

I did a really dumb thing in Jasper…I left my camera on top of the car and we drove off…we both heard a ‘clank’ and figured it was something in the trunk. We drove about 2km to a glacier, got out of the car and when I reached for my camera I immediately with horror realized that the ‘clank’ earlier had been my camera falling off the car! My stomach was upside down as we sped back to the campground anxiously hoping it was still there…and it was, and unscathed at that. Yippeee Fuji! I tell you, I beat that thing up and it just keeps going and going….I (and Jim) scorned myself because I know better – but I was lucky this time.

On the way to Glacier National Park (the US one, not the Canadian one) we happened across a great place called Fort Steele (after Sam Steele). It is a preserved historic town that runs by volunteer and private donations, as well as the entrance fees collected. Throughout the day actors in period costume perform on the streets and put on “workshops” such as making ice cream – which we did and found that it was hard work, but well worth it! We had a great time there and it was well worth the $12.50 each. (In the car before we go in anywhere we always decide a ‘cut off’ point for how much we thing something should cost – we had decided that $12.00 was our limit for this, but once we understood what it was we collectively decided the extra buck would be okay!)

I, being the worry wart, had pre-booked 3 nights at Glacier National Park because it was going to be the long weekend (Labour Day) and we ended up having a terrific time there. It is a beautiful park (and free with our US National Parks Pass), and luckily it wasn’t too busy considering it was a weekend. We did some great hikes – one in particular was about 4km up a hill to a secluded lake where we used our fly fishing skills. We caught cutthroat trout – albeit small ones – and got a close encounter with a really curious fawn.

Our plan was to be at Yellowstone the day after labour day weekend, and on our way we camped at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park which turned out to be an unexpected delight. We toured the caves with a somewhat humorous tour guide who told us that if someone was in complete darkness for a few weeks that light would blind them, which is of course completely untrue. Funny that an employee of the state park system would give out such false information…

We arrived in Yellowstone, as planned, on September 5th. Just before we entered the park we stopped at a store that advertised “cheap end of the season prices” and decided to go in to look for a couple of light shirts we needed for Australia. It was here, over the radio that we heard of the sad passing of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. We stood horrified in silence as tears welled up in my eyes. We both felt like a friend was gone. What an unfortunate accident – he was a terrific person – he did so much for animals, science and Australia in general. He will be sadly missed by both of us, along with the rest of the world.

After managing to stay out of crevasses (in glaciers) in previous parks, we now had a new danger in Yellowstone…stay out of Thermal Areas! These thermal areas are literally places of bubbling mud pots, hot sulphur springs and crusts of earth just waiting to crack and suck us into its scalding depths. Yellowstone is a “driving” park we think…I’d just be too darn scared to go backcountry there due to the fact that in many places it is so unstable. (Camping with grizzlies sounds much safer to us…). We watched ‘Old Faithful’ in awe as she spurted up as “faithful” as predicted. We visited Grand Teton National Park for a day as well which is just south of Yellowstone. That night as we set up camp an older neighbour in an RV offered us dinner (which we hungrily said “yes” to) so we chatted with them and their friends and swapped travel stories til bedtime. The next morning we met another neighbour couple who were from Whitby Ontario! Small world!

Next stop – Mt. Rushmore. We had only planned on doing a “walk in, take pictures, walk out”, but we ended up spending a couple of hours in the visitor center there, and by the time we were ready to leave, it was too late to drive far to get to a campsite. So, we decided to spend the night at a campground just a couple of miles away from the park and return to Mt. Rushmore to see the evening program when they light up the faces. It is actually a pretty neat place – the carving itself is incredible and amazingly enough about 90% or so was done with dynamite. No one was killed while working on it which seems impossible due to how they were seemingly so careless, dangling from ropes or on scaffolding with little or no safety gear. However, some have since died from lung problems due to inhaling so much dust from the granite. Borglum, the brain behind it all, died before the carving was complete – his son took over. The presidents in the carving are Jefferson, Washington, Teddy Roosevelt (our favourite president because without him the states would have no National Parks!) and Lincoln. (Just an interesting aside…Franklin Roosevelt followed the example of his 5th cousin Teddy Roosevelt and became president in 1933, but the interesting thing is that he married Teddy’s niece Anna…now that is keeping it in the family!!) We got really ripped off at the campground – I thought the guy was kidding when he told me $26.00 to camp (with no showers), but that is the price you pay in a touristy area!

Off to the Badlands of South Dakota…we saw lots of pronghorn (antelope) along the way. We were greeted at the park by hundreds of curious prairie dogs – the entire landscape was covered by their hills and holes and they loved to sit and watch us as we watched them. We spent a few hours touring around then drove to Wind Cave National Park (which is also in South Dakota). It is a large cave system which has a very fragile and rare type of formation called boxwork. We have been in many caves in the past few years – we didn’t realize until we started counting – but we had never seen this beautiful formation. The cave itself was remarkably first explored by a young man named Alvin McDonald who mapped much of the cave using only candle light and string.

We had plans to drive to a campsite that night, but when we eventually found it (which took some of Jim’s superior navigational skill) it was very seedy and quite frankly looked like the setting of an X-files episode, not to mention it was pouring. So, we made the executive decision to continue driving, knowing it would be for the long haul. So, we drove 1900 km – all night and into the morning – and surprisingly we both only slept about ½ an hour.

We were treated to many dinners during our week stay at home that whizzed by tremendously fast. We didn’t get nearly enough done that we had planned, nor did we see everyone we wanted, but truthfully we found it stressful. We couldn’t believe how busy even little Bowmanville has become!

We meant to write a summary of our North American trip, with little tidbits, expenses, etc., but unfortunately our journals are at home and now we are overseas. Hopefully the provider that maintains the blog site will not have any more problems with the site – I apologize to everyone who tried to access it for so long and came up with nothing.