Libby, Mt

We have had two days where it was clear enough -- not so much smoke-- that we could take pictures.  The area is loaded with wild turkeys.  We've seen flocks of them everywhere too bad its not Thanksgiving.  The Kootenai River runs by Libby, Montana.  Its a beautiful river and its running a little low with it so dry around here.  We did see some folks fishing - not sure if they were catching anything. 

A fire in the wilderness area has finally broke out into an area close to homes.  They aren't allowed to put fires out in a designated wilderness area so they have just been watching it until now.  Of course now its big, threatening homes and forcing folks to evacuate.  Its too bad the fire couldn't have been dealt with when it was small.  It could reach the main highway that leads south out of town.  This is the direction we want to go and we were hoping to stay until after Labor Day.  We will be watching the fire fighting closely but the dense smoke might chase us out before the actual fire does. 

Montana Fires

The area around Libby, Montana is beautiful.  You can see some snow/glacier in the mountains surrounding Libby.  The problem is there are also fires all around us.   There are fires in the mountains just to the south of us and more fires 50 miles to the southwest of us.  Also there are fires 50 miles to the northeast of us.  The air has been so smoky that they advised everyone to stay indoors.  The good news is we had a little rain and its not as smoky as it was.  The rain didn't stop any of the fires so the smoke will return soon. 

We've been doing some gold prospecting on Libby creek.  We have found some gold so its keeping us occupied.  We are tired of running from fires so we've decided to keep on gold panning and hang out here until after Labor Day or we have to evacuate which ever comes first. 

British Columbia

We stayed in some beautiful areas in British Columbia.  We stayed by Revelstoke National Park and from there drove through the Canadian version of Glacier National Park along the Trans Canadian Highway.  The highway was only two lanes with lots of traffic and not a lot of passing lanes and lots of steep ups and downs.  We saw a large bear cross the road in front of a lot of traffic.    We also saw a mountain goat along the way up on the mountainside close to the road.  It was one of the white shaggy looking goats.  We were traveling too fast for me to get a picture and no place to pull over --

We stayed in Radium Hot Springs at a very nice RV park where I took this picture.  We had nice mountain views and a cement patio with a gas grill to use.  Toward evening it got very hazy from all the forest fires burning in the province.

The picture of the smoke is actually a mountain top on fire that we passed a few miles across the border in Idaho.  We stayed in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho for a few days but it was so brown and dry there that we left.  It looked like one spark would cause an explosion of fire.  We are now in Libby, Montana and its a little greener but still hazy from the fires in Idaho. 

Forgotten Skagway

I forgot about the town of Skagway that we visited down on the Alaskan coast.  We took at day trip from Whitehorse down to Skagway.  The drive down was beautiful.  You travel through the Yukon, British Columbia and then Alaska to get to Skagway.  You can also get there by ferry since its in the Inside Passage.  Skagway is now a cruise ship town.  All of the cruise ships stop there and the shops cater to the cruising crowd.  

We did find some of the historic sites while we were there.  This old building was made of branches from trees.  Of course the statues depict the men going to the Klondike goldrush up the trail out of Skagway.   We also visited a historic cemetery and saw the spot where a big boulder of gold was found.  You can take a train ride from Skagway to Whitehorse -- its a very pretty ride if you don't want to drive it. 

We are now in Radium Hot Springs just on the back side of Banff.  We should be back in the U.S. tomorrow and can't wait.   We drove part of the Trans Canadian Highway #1 through Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Park (the Canadian Glacier Nat'l Park).  The road is only two lanes with a few passing lanes, lots of up and down and winding roadway.  Not much fun to drive with lots of traffic on it.  We can't wait to see a freeway again. 

Last look along the Alcan

We met up with Wood Bison along the Alcan just south of Watson Lake.  There are big warning signs along the road warning of buffalo on the road.  This time we saw lots of them munching the grass alongside the road.  The bison keep the grass nicely mowed along a long stretch of highway.   At one point we had to stop and wait for them to cross the road. 

The views along Muncho Lake in this picture are spectacular.  The water is that pretty aqua color -- can't really see the color here.  We saw caribou, bear, sheep, moose and lots of porcupines as well as the bison on this part of the trip.  Of course we hit nasty road construction the last 100 miles back to Dawson Creek.  We went to the Ford dealer and had an oil change and had to put in a new air filter.  The dust in the construction zones is unbelievable.  They also checked the truck over and we need some front end work (things tightened) and an alignment which is no surprise after bouncing and banging down the nasty road. 

Another week in Canada and then we should be in the U.S. again.