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We spent one night in Palmer, Alaska, while on the way to Seward and took some great pictures along the way.  We visited a Musk Ox Farm while in Palmer, which was all about the domestication of these animals which have been here on earth since the Ice Age and at one time were almost extinct.  It was a good tour of the farm and how these gentle creatures are cared for and HAND COMBED for a fine soft fiber called qiviut which is said to be the warmest wool in the world and claimed to be 8 times warmer than regular wool.  We noticed after looking in several gift shops in the area that it is also 8 times more expensive as well.  A small neck scarf is priced at $189.00.  It was a good tour and we learned quite a bit about these animals that we really never knew existed.

What a great day for our 1st full day in Valdez, Alaska, as we boarded a tour boat for a 9 hour cruise of the Prince William Sound.  This was another day of the Alaska we had hoped to see.  Our tour boat was headed to Meares Glacier with lots of stops for animal viewing in between.  Our captain would slow the boat and point out all the viewpoints, facts, history and current information but he especially stopped for the animals and that was the very best part.  We saw many of the birds of Prince William Sound including several types of puffins and a Bald Eagle, but most exciting was when he slowed and idled the engine for us to watch a humpback whale.  First we saw the stream of water blowing out of the water, next some of his body and then that beautiful tail.  Talk about awesome – it actually takes your breath away and then the whole tour boat applauded.  We saw two adult humpbacks and one baby on the trip.  The animals were so entertaining too – the stellar sea lions argued over their place on the buoy until one just slapped the other off of his spot and they also rested on the rocks on shore.  The sea otters just relaxed on their backs, some with babies on their bellies and didn’t have any concern for our boat or anything else in the world.  The harbor seals found themselves a piece of ice near the glacier and seemed to be smiling as we went by.

The biggest and best moment of the trip happened when the captain cut the engines and we floated among the the ice chunks in silence in front of the Meares Glacier.  Silence and then the sound of thunder and a huge chunk of the glacier falls and even makes waves.  We observed the glacier for about 45 minutes with many episodes of calving, a very eerie feeling.

We all know a large amount of oil comes from Alaska and we passed many of the oil storage tanks on the way back as well as a fish hatchery where all at the birds and bears seem to gather to get their meals.

What a great day !!!!

We arrived in Chicken, Alaska, the first stop.  Chicken has a population of 23 in the summer and 7 in the winter.   So…. after traveling the Top of the World Highway  we could not even tell what color our rigs and vehicles were, but we enjoyed the rest of the day with a tour of the old dredge and panning for real gold in Chicken.   The owner of the campground and his wife were very nice people and gave us a tour of the dredge and provided a delicious dessert for us after our cookout.  Not much more to say about this town except they saved money on the town sign which says “Welcome to Chicken” and “Thank You for Visiting Chicken,” on the same sign.

Dawson City was the perfect “Old West” town with all the buildings that have been restored to exactly the way they were when the Gold Rush occurred.  We took a walking tour and went into several of them including the saloon, hotel, post office and the bank.  There is only one road into Dawson City and the same one out unless you decide to take the ferry across the Yukon.  Can you guess why the bank was never robbed?  Diamond Tooth Gerties show was enjoyed by all.   The weather was kind of cloudy but there was a great view from the dome which overlooks the city as well as the Yukon River.    There was also a lot of industrial mining going on for gold of course.  We waited in line that next morning for 3 hours to take the ferry across the Yukon and the ride took only about 10 minutes.  We then started across the “Top of the World Highway,” which honestly was very tough.  We are talking approximately 100 miles of gravel road with very little shoulder and lots of switchbacks but we survived it unscathed.

Whitehorse, YT, was a 3 night stay that we enjoyed very much.  Our group had a bus tour of  the city and several points of interest including the SS Klondike, a “sternwheeler,” which was used to bring food, supplies and equipment to the city when the Yukon River was not frozen, which was only 4-1/2 months a year.  The next day was the highlight of Whitehorse for us when we visited the MukTuc Sled Dog Kennel and Training Center.  As you can see in a few of our pictures (we have hundreds more), each dog is chained with their own house, but the owner is a trainer as well as a musher who told us every bit of information on the dogs.  There were 135 and they are all Siberian or Alaskan Huskies.  I spoke to and petted each one.  They are born and bred to sled and fed, watered and exercised daily.  We also ate lunch at the lodge cooked by the owner’s wife.  The menu – appetizer of elk blueberry sausage and smoked salmon, salad, bison burgers w/ condiments as well as blueberry chutney and dessert consisted of brownies with ice cream.  It was very good and we ate it all because in this place you do not ask for a “Doggie Bag.”  The owner also gave us a very informative discussion about how these dogs are trained and bred to love sled racing which includes 1,000 mile races like the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod.  These races last for sometimes 10-14 days through 70 below zero temps with check points to rest the musher as well as the dogs.  They are all checked by vets at each point and all supplies for the dogs and musher are on the sled.  They definitely count on each other.  Sorry, got carried away.

The owner also feeds a local eagle daily as you can see from the pictures.  He places a piece of frozen fish down on the road and the eagle dips down and takes it away.  The dogs don’t even flinch.

At Watson Lake we went to the Sign Post Forest which as you can see is made up of thousands of signs with names, hometowns, dates, all mounted on posts and made from anything and everything.  There were wood signs, plates, cookie sheets, antlers, even shoes posted with whatever information you would like to post.  Our group posted a wooden sign with all our names and the year.  The Sign Post Forest was started by a lonely soldier in the 1940’s who was working on the highway.  He posted a wooden sign with his name and hometown but through the years the original sign had disintegrated due to weather.   This soldier returned 50 years later with his family and posted another which was framed and hanging in the information office of the forest.  Last count as of September of 2013 was 78,336 signs.  We also visited the Northern Lights Center and viewed a film which was shown in a building similar to an observatory about the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).  The Northern Lights can be viewed from Watson Lake in the fall.

Here is where it gets interesting because we faced our first night without electricity, water or sewer (kind of like staying in a Wal-Mart parking lot in the middle of the woods).  With a short stop between at Toad River Lodge with it’s collection of more than 10,00 hats (caps).  Cary contributed a hat and received a card stating it was the 10,039th hat contributed to the collection.  We finally arrived at Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park, and here is where Cary was in his element.  Fear not, because he finally got to use his new generator and we had prepared for this with meals, water for showers and making GiGi comfortable in the rig with A/C.  The worst was not having a signal for phone and Wi Fi.

Next morning all our tour group left for the next town, Watson Lake, with a short delay caused by a herd of buffalo.  They had established a rest stop in the middle of the highway and here in this territory the animals have the right-of-way.  Luckily most of the animals including bears, caribou, elk….. do not pay attention to the vehicles but when you come upon them, your camera time is limited because of vehicles behind and ahead.  It’s a major traffic jam where there is an animal sighting.  We have posted some of our animal sightings but we have not seen a moose yet.  They are gigantic and we have been told that when they get aggravated their ears will go back and they will charge.  We don’t plan on getting close enough to see what his ears are doing !  We also spotted a fox but couldn’t get a picture fast enough.  Hope to get many more pictures before this trip is over.

We continued on up the Alaskan Highway to Fort Nelson, BC, where we stayed only 1 night.  Fort Nelson Heritage Museum was within walking distance from our campground and we are so glad we visited.  It was so unique with vintage farm equipment, antique cars, collections of every kind – including hand saws, old radios, telephones, you name it and they had it.  They even had an old log cabin on the property furnished with skins and furs, pots, utensils.  Also included was the kindest old gentleman who could tell you a story or demonstrate anything you needed to know about anything in the museum.  It was unreal !

We then left for Dawson Creek BC, which is where the Alaskan Highway began.  We all took plenty of pictures of the sign, marking mile O of the highway and also met up for a group picture.  (Haven’t received it yet).  The surveyor, made completely of scrap metal points Northwest to a mud path which finally became the Alaskan Highway.  We visited the Alaska Highway House Museum and were fascinated with the fact that 10,000 army soldiers and civilians completed this highway in only 8 months, facing extreme temps of 70 below O, insects, swamps, rivers, ice, mountains with only 7,000 pieces of equipment that took a beating, most abandoned because of breakdowns and no parts to repair them.  This all occurred to build the highway because we had to protect North America from the Japanese after Pearl Harbor.  Can you imagine what these men did in 8 months when nowadays it takes 8 months or more to have a pothole repaired in the middle of a big city.

We have to catch up now since we have a signal for the time being.

We stopped in Jasper AB, a quaint small town with specialty shops, coffee shops and beautiful flowers galore.  Most popular in these towns along the way are pastry shops too, where they seem to have a competition with their cinnamon buns.  We just had to sample one of course but had to split it because they are huge.  It was here in Jasper that we spotted our first elk lying down behind the camper and another with her baby.