7/21/1991 - Sunday

John:  After we woke up and had breakfast etc, we drove into the town of Banff.  We did our laundry (bummer) and found a place to park to have lunch.  We went to a free museum in town.  Right in town Kari spotted a giant bull elk.  It had a rack with over a six foot spread!  I was able to get pretty close to take pictures of it.  Guess it’s pretty common to see elk right in the town like that.  We also went on the Sulfur Mountain Gondola... very neat ride which provided super scenery of the town of Banff surrounded by very majestic mountains and rivers.  At the top of the mountain were lots of big horn sheep... some with little lambs.  After all this, it was getting to be late in the afternoon, so we decided to hit the road... just outside of town we decided to check how much Canadian money we had left and found we had about $29.00 left... so I whipped the truck around and headed back into Banff.  We found a money exchange place that does not charge a fee and stayed open till 10pm... (open today also which is Sunday).  So I cashed another travelers check and down the road we went.  We took a dirt road out of Canmore that eventually comes out on Rt. 40.  On this road we saw a mother moose with a baby, some white tail deer, and a coyote.  At the end of the dirt road (about 60-70 miles), we got to a blacktop road (which we thought was Rt. 40)... and took a right turn and found a nice campground called “Elkwood” in Alberta Recreation Area of Kananaskis.  It was a beautiful spot.  Turns out you needed the exact amount of money to put in the self registration envelope... and we didn’t have the exact amount.  The camp host was gone... After supper I flagged a park ranger down and figured he’d have change... but he didn’t.  He said if no one comes around before you leave in the morning not to worry about it.  So being a guy that doesn’t worry about too much, went to bed.  We drove 100 miles today.  

ODOM:  30446

Sulphur Mountain Gondola

View from the top of the gondola

Babies

Just chillin'

Giant Bull Elk right in town!

Giant Bull Elk right in town!

Momma Moose

Deer

7/6/1991 - Saturday

John:  An almost no drive day today... just 20 miles going to the train depot and back... of course ten miles of that was driving around lost!  They sure screwed up by calling their streets by three different names, they are all one way (the wrong way), and the maps don’t really reflect what the roads are really doing... Other than that, Anchorage is very pretty.  It’s surrounded by big mountains and have bore tide (2nd largest in the world).  A bore tide is one that a lot of water goes into a restricted inlet.  This creates a wall of water when the tides come in (sometimes 20-40 feet high!).  We did not see this phenomenon occur due to timing.  (It came in around 1-2 am!).  Anyway, we got up at 4:45 am to catch the train.  It was easy, as I was awake since 2AM.  After heading out in the wrong direction and getting lost in the train yard, we finally found the depot.  The train was actually a diesel rail car, which is a self propelled train car.  (There were two of these hooked up together.)  The train was pretty full.  The scenery was fantastic along the way.  The engineer was great, he stopped the train at all the scenic spots for picture taking, and also stopped the train whenever dall sheep, moose or bears were spotted.  The kids and I rode up in the front of the train half there and all the way back.  The engineer let the kids blow the whistle at all the remote crossings.  We saw many moose (with babies), and two black bears... (one cub and one quite large black bear a few miles away.)  I hope my pictures come out.  We also stopped by three different glaciers... some probably 200-300 feet thick.  We saw more moose and bears from the train than on the tour bus in Denali Nat’l Park.  It was great that the engineer stopped the train when critters were spotted.  The trip took 4 hours to get to Seward.  We ate our sack lunch on the train, so when we got to Seward we were ready to explore.  We hiked into “down town” Seward (about 10 blocks).  We went to the Seward Museum and a few gift shops.  We walked back to the docks and watched people have their pictures taken with their halibuts they caught on their fishing trips.  Also watched the fishing boat crews fillet those fish.  They throw the fish carcasses to the sea gulls.  Susan & I went aboard a US Coast Guard ship and got the VIP tour.  Nice boat!  It’s a 110 foot long with a crew of 18 men.  We ate supper at Ray's right on the shore.  We caught the train back after the engineer bought the kids and me ice cream cones!  The Alaska Rail Road really takes care of their customers!  We were exhausted by the time we found our way back to our campground.  We left the bunks set up so we could just crash when we got back... but when we got back, someone else snarfed our camp spot!  We drove around the joint and parked on the black top very near where our spot was.  We all slept like dead people and slept in in the morning.

ODOM:  27837

Kari:  We saw tons of moose and some bears.  The engineer let Susan and I toot the horn.  When we were on the dock, we saw a big fish with eye balls sticking straight out.  (A rock fish or red snapper fish).  The train ride was very fun and neat.

Notes:  It was still very light outside at midnight... it’s pretty weird not getting dark at night.  After three weeks, we have spent a total of $1530 cash, plus $455 on gas credit cards total... for a grand total spent of $1985.00.  Total miles driven = 3975

Susan & Kari on the train.

Glacier seen from the train.

Stream seen from the train.

Moose crossing the tracks.

Kari & Susan with the train engineer.

Karen, Kari, Susan & the Train Engineer.

Susan & Kari in Seward, AK.

US Coast Guard ship we toured.

Moose on the loose!

7/1/1991 - Moday

John:  I hurt my back a few days ago somehow... it wasn’t going away, so I found a chiropractor in Fairbanks.  He snapped my spine back into alignment & it seems to be better today.  We stopped at “Alaska Land”.  It’s a bunch of old Alaskan log houses that are now gift shops.  It has some museums and a little train.  We then went to the University of Alaska to their museum.  The museum had tons of native Alaskan animals and native artifacts.  The campus was very nice.  There are over 100 forest fires burning northof Fairbanks.  The smoke is dominating the atmosphere.  We headed south towards Denali and camped in Clear, Alaska on the banks of the Nenana River.  We drove 100 miles today.

ODOM:  24467

6/24/1991 - Monday

John:  We did our laundry this morning, filled the camper’s water tank, and emptied the crapper.  We also get the Coleman propane bottles & Coleman fuel all together as this all has to go into a special place on the ferry.  We also got all our clothes packed that we’ll take to our cabin.  We got the Coleman cooler fixed for keeping our stuff cool during the sail... as the propane has to be shut off.  we saw an Indian museum & an old firehouse museum in Pr. Rupert.  Most people we run into are real friendly & like to talk!  We have to be at the ferry slip 3 hours before they sail... it will be 7:30 which works out normal, as we’ve been waking up at 6:00 every day.

Susan & Kari at the campground playground.