Lake Pueblo, Colorado

We “moved” from Colorado Springs to Pueblo West, Colorado on Sunday, August 23^rd, for a week-long stay at Lake Pueblo State Park. We stayed at the Northern Plains Campground, Yucca Flats loop, in one of our favorite camp sites over the years, # 469. It’s a long site with extra space for our boat, but the Lake Pueblo campsites only have 30-amp electrical power as the only utility.  

The lake level was nearly full, after several years of low levels. The park had been updated since last year, with brand new bathroom/shower houses in every loop. Now if they would only fix the park roads and campground roads which are like Swiss cheese with many, many pot holes. We enjoyed dinner last Sunday night at Jorge's Sombrero, one of our favorite restaurants in Pueblo over the years.

Last Monday we had the windshield and passenger side door window replaced on our Ford F-150 as they both sustained rock chips and serious cracks from the trip to Alaska. On Monday night, the skies looked like it could rain, but the sunlight streaming through the clouds was a beautiful sight.

 

Tuesday, we had an appointment at the local Pueblo Ford dealer to fix the F-150 rear seat passenger door on the driver’s side. It would not open and had become a major inconvenience. It turned out that the door latch just needed a thorough cleaning and lubrication.

Wednesday we drove to Westcliffe to see Vince & Lisa. We had an enjoyable evening shooting billiards after dinner. We picked up our boat that had been stored in their large out building since last September. We also picked up the halibut and salmon that we had caught in Alaska and shipped back. We drove back to Lake Pueblo on Thursday.    

Friday, we installed a new battery in the boat and washed it at a nearby car wash. We enjoyed lunch at Jorge's Sombrero. They were really getting busy with Colorado State Fair attendees, as the fair started in Pueblo on Friday.

Saturday we had our friends Rick & Diana from Colorado Springs over for dinner and conversation. It was a nice warm evening and we enjoyed eating outside at the picnic table.

On Sunday, after breakfast at Southwest Grill in Pueblo, we left Pueblo State Park and traveled 130-miles to the Alamosa KOA for an overnight stay. We checked Trip Advisor and tried a local Italian restaurant, Bistro Rialto, in the historic former Rialto Theater. The food was very good and I’d recommend this restaurant in downtown Alamosa.

Today, we drove 130-miles, over Wolf Creek pass and the Continental Divide to Lake Navajo State Park. We’ll stay here 12-nights before heading out on Saturday, September 12th, to Page, Arizona and Lake Powell.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Colorado Springs

We arrived in Colorado Springs on Thursday, August 13^th, for a 10-night stay at the U.S. Air Force Academy family campground. I’ve always been impressed by the historic B-52, tail number 053, that flew between 1956 and 1983 and is now on static display at the AF Academy.

We used our time in Colorado Springs to run errands and take care of some stuff. Our main priority was to get our motorhome chassis serviced (oil change, oil and fuel filters changed, lubed, etc.) after the nearly 10,000 mile trip to Alaska. We also got our bicycles tuned up and repaired.

We finally entered the 21^st century last week by getting new Verizon smart phones and ditching the old Net10 prepaid cell phones we’d been using the past 5-years. We only paid $15/mo. for each Net10 cell phone service. We got those pre-paid cell phones to cut expenses as new retirees on a fixed income.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed an evening out for salad and pizza at Dion’s Pizza with my two daughters and two granddaughters, ages 12 and 9. We also enjoyed lunch and dinner with family and old friends.  

The weather was very nice during our days in Colorado Springs, but it rained several nights. The last few days were very hazy, as we were getting smoke from the wild fires in Oregon and Washington.

We drove to Lake Pueblo State Park, Colorado today for a week-long stay.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Finally Reached the Lower-48

On our way out of Lethbridge, we went to a local truck wash and gave our motorhome a bath. The bays were very large, with high pressure hoses, and Julie and I were able to wash the rig together in about 30-minutes.

We crossed the border into the “Lower-48” on Saturday, August 8^th at Coutts, Alberta with no problems.

 

We stopped in Shelby, Montana for breakfast at The Griddle café, right downtown in this small community. We had stopped there four years ago on our way to Alaska and it was just as good as we had remembered.

We arrived in Great Falls around 1PM and headed to Malmstrom Air Force Base, where we got the very last available camp site in their main campground. Vince & Lisa had arrived about an hour before us. We caught up with Vince & Lisa and talked about their travel through British Columbia and Alberta. We went out to dinner at Borrie’s with them and another couple, old friends of theirs from Great Falls. The Montana beef steak was very good.

On Sunday, we went out for breakfast with Vince & Lisa to the Missouri River Café (a local diner) and it was very good. After breakfast we visited the nearby Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center. It was very interesting, and described in detail the Lewis & Clark expedition in 1805 to explore the Louisiana Purchase area of the northwest. I learned that the exploration party had to portage their boats about 18-miles, around five separate waterfalls on the Missouri river, near today’s Great Falls. They built crude trailers to portage the boats by pushing and pulling them by hand.

The first water falls Lewis encountered were 80-feet high and he named them the Great Falls. Other falls he encountered further upstream were Crooked Falls, Colter Falls, Rainbow Falls, and Black Eagle Falls.

Black Eagle Falls

On Monday we ran some errands during the day. That evening we went out to dinner with Vince & Lisa and their friends at 3D International Restaurant. The menu was quite extensive but we all ended up having their Mongolian BBQ.

 

We left Great Falls on Tuesday, August 11^th, and headed south to Billings. We had reservations at the Billings KOA, the world’s first KOA, established in 1962. Billings is a small city of about 30,000 and home to Montana State University. We enjoyed lunch at The Burger Dive, in downtown Billings. I had the garlic burger with cloves of roasted garlic cooked in the meat. Julie enjoyed the black and blue burger. They were some of the best burgers we’ve ever had.

 

We departed Billings on Wednesday morning and headed south on I-90. About an hour out of Billings, we stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument for about an hour and a half. It is near I-90 and well worth a visit. It was especially interesting for Julie as she had read a book a few years ago about Custer and the 1876 battle. 

 

We crossed the state line into Wyoming on I-90 and finally connected with I-25 in Buffalo, WY. It was our first time on the northern end of I-25, so now we’ve traveled I-25 in its entirety. We overnighted at Glendo Lakeside RV Park, a nice campground well off the Interstate and traffic noise.

 

Thursday, August 13^th, we drove down I-25 through Cheyenne, all the Denver traffic congestion, and finally reached Colorado Springs where we’re staying at the USAF Academy FamCamp. We’ll spend 10-days here to get our motorhome serviced, take care of some appointments, get our bicycles tuned up, and visit our daughters, granddaughters, and friends.

Ironically, we arrived back in Colorado Springs on August 13^th from our 2011 trip to Alaska. This 10,000-mile road trip to Alaska and back was just as incredible as our first trip, but was more special this time because we shared the adventure with our good friends Vince & Lisa. 

 

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Alberta, Alberta, Alberta

We decided to only spend one night in Dawson Creek, and headed out around noon on Wed, Aug 5^th, about 150 miles to Valleyview, Alberta. It was only about 30 miles to the Alberta border from Dawson City.

 

 

Driving through Grande Prairie, we were amazed at how much it had grown since we passed through the small city of 50,000 four years ago. The oil boom has had a huge impact on its economy. We saw many people driving new pickup trucks, new businesses and new construction everywhere. There were many oil field service businesses on both sides of town.

The road changed too. From the 2-lane Alaskan Highway, the road was now 4-lane and smooth in most parts, although there were a few dips in the road from time to time.

We overnighted on Wednesday in a nice RV park in the country outside of Valleyview, just east of Grande Prairie. Thursday morning we drove around Edmonton on a freeway bypass, but still got caught in a traffic jam just south of Edmonton…the first heavy traffic we’ve seen in about three months.

We overnighted in Leduc, Alberta at a Lions Club RV park. Many Lions Clubs in Alberta have RV parks to support their communities. This one was on the edge of town, quite a ways from the highway, but got excellent reviews on rvparkreviews.com (which we use frequently when looking for a place to stay). The only thing not mentioned in the reviews for this campground was that it was close to the Edmonton airport. We had commercial aircraft flying overhead on approach to the airport, after a change in wind direction earlier in the afternoon.

We departed Leduc around 8AM on Friday, heading for Lethbridge, Alberta just over 300 miles away. We continued down Highway 2 through Calgary around 11AM with no traffic. It was smooth 4-lane all the way. We stopped in Red Deer for diesel fuel and much to our surprise; it was only $ 0.954 per liter or $2.96 U.S. a gallon with the conversions.

In Lethbridge, we stayed at the Bridgeview RV Resort. We were lucky to get a space on Friday night, without a reservation, because it is a weekend in August, the temperature was mid-80s, and the swimming pool was full of adults and children. One thing we’ve noticed driving through Alberta is that almost everyone has an RV of some kind (5^th-wheels, bumper tow campers, truck campers, tent trailers, or motorhomes) and they love to go camping. There are campgrounds and RV parks everywhere.

We cross the border into the “Lower-48” tomorrow morning (Saturday) at Coutts, Alberta and head to Malmstrom Air Force Base (Great Falls). We hope to get a camp site in their family campground. It is first-come, first-served as they do not take reservations. We are meeting Vince & Lisa there and plan to go out for dinner together.

Our drive from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Coutts, Alberta is 750 miles and took us three days to traverse the length of the province. It sure seemed like Alberta went on forever.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Whitehorse, YT to Dawson Creek (and Hyder), BC

We had all decided to leave Haines a day early, so after six nights, we packed up on Friday, July 31st and drove about 250 miles to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The border into Canada is only about 40 miles from Haines. The Canadian customs and immigration officer asked why we were leaving Haines on Friday, because we were going to miss the Southeast Alaska State Fair. The fair is a popular event in Haines and apparently all of SE Alaska and parts of the Yukon Territory.

After we arrived in Whitehorse and ran a few errands, we got together with Vince & Lisa for dinner. We all thoroughly enjoyed a nice dinner of steamed Alaskan king crab legs that we had bought several weeks ago in Valdez.

 

We said our goodbyes after dinner, as Julie and I decided to start heading back to Colorado a little earlier than we planned, to take care of a few things. Vince & Lisa are heading south down the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia to visit Jade City, Stewart, Hyder, Jasper and a few other places they want to see.

Saturday, August 1^st, we drove about 270 miles from Whitehorse to Watson Lake, YT. It was a fairly smooth ride with no road construction areas. This time in Watson Lake we stayed at Downtown RV Park. It was a convenient short walk to the nearby sign post forest, a couple of restaurants, and a grocery store.   

On Sunday we enjoyed a short drive of only 130 miles Watson Lake, YT to Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park, BC. On the way we saw three bison along the road and one black bear.

 

We stopped at Contact Creek, YT for diesel fuel. We stopped in 2011 and fuel prices were higher than today. In 2011 diesel was $1.31.9 (Canadian) per liter. Today it was $1.14.9 per liter.

 

Although the provincial park has a nice campground, all the sites are back-in and we wanted to leave the truck attached to our motorhome. We chose to boondock in the park’s overflow camping area (huge gravel parking lot) on the other side of the Alaskan Highway. We set up, put our bathing suits on, and walked the short distance to the hot springs. We missed stopping at the park on the way through in June and it’s well worth a visit. It is the second largest hot springs in Canada.

 

Monday morning, Aug 3^rd, we drove from Liard River to Fort Nelson, BC in rain all day. We saw a herd of buffalo and several single bison who insisted on walking in the road ahead of us.

 

We anticipated several stretches of road construction and sure enough we drove on a muddy, pothole lined temporary road. Hope the people following us through the detour didn’t mind our 15mph speed going through the potholes.

 

It rained all night in Fort Nelson but we headed out to Dawson Creek, BC, Mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway, where we’ll spend two nights. After driving in rain out of Fort Nelson, we finally got blue sky, sunshine, and temps in the mid-70s.

We got an email from Vince & Lisa on Monday night that they had enjoyed their stay in Hyder, AK where they saw several grizzly bears eating salmon along the creek (from a special viewing platform), a wolf about a half-mile away along the creek, and the nearby Salmon Glacier.

 

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Haines-Juneau-Skagway

Monday, July 27^th, we took a Alaska Fjordlines boat day trip to Juneau, about a 2 ½ hour trip. On the way from Haines to and from Juneau we saw orca and humpback whales, many sea otters, bald eagles, stellar sea lions, and harbor seals.

There were four cruise ships in port in Juneau that day so the downtown sidewalks were crowded. We enjoyed lunch at the famous Red Dog Saloon in Juneau and tried a “Duck Fart” drink. After lunch we wandered through the shops before boarding our tour bus to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier for an hour. Then the bus drove us back to the boat to take us home to Haines.

 

 

 

It rained all day long and this person’s umbrella kind of sums it up.

Tuesday we went out for lunch and then took a drive out to see the Haines Packing Company fish cannery.

After lunch on Wednesday, we drove out to the edge of Haines to visit the Haines Brewery and sample their beer. The owner is originally from Minnesota. We also drove out to Chilkoot State Park, about 10 miles east of Haines, to see fishermen in waders in the river fishing for salmon. We were also looking for wildlife and spotted several bald eagles and a black bear sow with two cubs. The three bears were in the trees next to the road leading out of the state park.

 

 

On Thursday, we took the Haines-Skagway Fast Ferry on a day trip to Skagway. There were four huge cruise ships in port in Skagway that day and this small town of only 968 was bustling. Skagway is sometimes jokingly referred to as the Disneyland of Alaska. The buildings have been restored, nicely painted and have boardwalks for sidewalks. We noticed since our last visit a few years ago that there are now yellow tourist buses, similar to what they have in Disneyland.

Upon arriving in Skagway, we walked out of town to visit the historic cemetery. Then we met Vince & Lisa for lunch at Skagway Brewery. We browsed through several shops, before heading to the famous Red Onion Saloon for a beverage.

 

Steve & Julie Cornelius