Indiana to Alaska and Back - 2013: Goodbye Alaska -

All fun comes to an end. We enjoyed our time in Alaska. First, the cruise accompanied by our dear friends Joyce and Danny Culver. Then a four week land tour in our motor home. We feel that we saw or did most of what was desired and expected in our pre trip planning. We took 2,000 + pictures in Alaska. Now we have to decide how to archive them. We don't think that we want a "hard copy" of each one. Well, that's for later.

Our trip through the Yukon Territory and British Columbia was different because we took a different route home. We followed the Klondike Highway out of Skagway, caught Highway 8 (a shortcut to the Alaska Highway), followed the Alaska Highway to Watson Lake where we turned south on the Cassiar Highway, then turned east on Highway 16. We camped in an Indian campground along a river in Tagish, YT, a nice private campground near Iskut, BC, a municipal campground in Smithers, BC, a nice private campground in McBride, BC, and then a campground in Banff National Park in Alberta Province. Yes, five overnight stays in Canada. It's an unbelievably long distance from the border of Alaska to the Montana border.

We saw Jasper National Park at it's brilliant best but the rain and clouds moved in for Lake Louise and Banff National Park. That was a disappointment. On a side note: Canadian signage for first time tourists traveling the highways and byways or visiting the major national parks could be improved. Signs too small to read going 45- 55 mph. Often no signs at all pointing to some of the beautiful wonders of nature that you're passing. Without the book "Mile Post" and brochures picked up along the way, we would not have known what is outside the windows of the car.

Each section of the road offered it's own nugget of beauty. We had to do it once to see it and it was truly worth it. Next time, and we hope there's a next time, we may take the marine highway ferry.

Lime Mountain across Tagish Lake - the mountain is white stone, not snow covered