Category: Traveling the hiways and byways

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Million Dollar Highway drive to Silverton.

I had read about the Million Dollar Highway for many years and knew I wanted to see it.  This was the year!  We were spending a lot of time in Colorado to keep in the higher elevations, hoping it would be cooler up there for the summer.  That turned out to be a quite right assumption.

I verified the highway is a Truck Route using the Rand McNally Truck Route Map Book.   We left Ridgeway Park in the early morning to make sure we avoided the afternoon thunderstorms while driving the MDH.   We were camping in Silverton that night.

The road tightens up probably 1,000 feet just south of Ouray.   It gets very narrow and very windy with sheer cliff within a few inches of the white line.  No distractions, please!   Kathy was gripping the hand rail by her seat with a death grip as I rounded the corners, so close to the edge I couldn’t look that way or bad things might happen.   Lucky for us that part was only about 10 minutes of the drive, but it did seem like a few hours at the time.   And it’s only a 24-mile drive from Ouray to Silverton.  Stunning views once I was able to look at them again when we got away from the cliff edges.

The rest of the drive was uneventful.  There was a nice overlook not much past the twistys.  We stopped there just to make sure nothing had fallen off and down the cliff, and also to allow blood to flow back into our hands after the death grips we experienced.  There is an 11,000+ pass you must ascend and descend about 1/2 way between the two towns.   I don’t know how anyone goes down those big grades without an engine braking system. (Jake or Pac Brake)

June 25th

 

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Telluride Colorado

The day after we went to Ouray, we drove over to Telluride for a day trip.  We got there fairly early and were able to find a parking space quickly.   We walked over to the gondola and looked for a gondola with paw prints on the side, which indicated we could bring Dusty on it.   Then we were off, climbing to 10k feet, where the car stopped and then proceeded to head downward to Mountain Village.   While it was stopped for a few seconds, we saw a great poster on the wall of 5 Labrador Retrievers in a gondola with goggles and headgear on.  Very cute!  Kathy didn’t buy the coffee mug of this picture while on top, so she had to find the studio in town to get it when she changed her mind!!

We arrived at the village a few minutes later.   By this time we were looking for breakfast or lunch and settled for brunch in a very nice outdoor restaurant.  Afterward we wandered around the village for a little while and then boarded another pawed gondola for the ride back down to Telluride.   Once there we walked over to a farmers market that was taking up a side street going up the hill.  The farmers markets in Colorado do have some veggies along with the other stuff.

Overall Telluride was a nice small town, Mountain Village was more of an upscale destination with the requisite prices to go along with that.  I personally liked Ouray more, and would skip Telluride, unless you want to take the lifts up for mountain biking.  (or skiing in the winter) .

June 24th

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Grand Junction and on to Montrose Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We left Green River the next morning after the park attempted to flood the RV.  I liked it there, but the fire hose situation was maddening.   We drove east on I-70 all the way past Grand Junction to the small town of Paradise, Colorado, for fuel.  I found a place that was $5.39 a gallon, about 25 cents lower than anything nearby.   It took a long time to fuel up here too as the clerk could only put in $299.99, nothing higher; so I had to go back in for them to restart the pump two more times to fill up.

After we filled up, we headed to Olathe, Colorado, where we stayed at a very nice park called Uncompahgre River RV Park.   It was in a residential area and lots of shade trees.  Once I saw the huge trees lining the long wide driveway, I new I had probably made the right choice to stay for 5 nights so we could explore the area.

The next morning we headed out early to check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison before it got too crowded.  It was a good choice, even early in the morning there were only a few parking spots left at many of the overlooks.  The canyon had very steep black cliffs, so it was named appropriately.  We were in the south section of the park and there were trails out to some overlooks that were farther away from the road, but the terrain made me think there weren’t many real hiking trails, unless they were only for big horn sheep.

We were out of the park before noon and there was quite a long line at the entrance kiosk to the park by then.  We were very happy we got an unusually early start.   We were also happy to use our National Park Senior pass again.  That was $10 well spent on our first trip back in 2017 at Montezuma’s Castle.    Unfortunately I did not keep track after we saved about $300 that first year on national park admissions.  But again,  best $10 ever spent.

That night we wanted Mexican food and there were 3 places within around    10 miles, 2 very close and one out in the middle of nowhere.   Turns out the one way out there was the best rated, but it closed at 2 pm every day.  One afternoon on the way back from somewhere, we found the spot it was supposed to be, a small clearing at the corner of a couple small roads.  We saw a couple picnic tables under the trees back off the road, but no restaurant that I could see.  Turns out it’s a food truck, and apparently they drive it home around 2 pm.

I ended up getting takeout from Carniceria El Bajio on Main Street.  Talk about a hole-in-the-wall place.  It’s nothing to look at when you walk in, and you might want to walk out once inside.  Not the cleanest place I have ever been in, but the tacos were some of the best I have ever had.

The next day we headed into Montrose about 10 miles south of Olathe and we wandered around the old section of town.  It was the Juneteenth holiday and lots (most) of the shops were closed for the holiday.  It seemed odd as a lot of them were small places that tourists would probably love to check out.  Even the small brewery on the main street was closed.  Seems the folks in Colorado take their brand new National Holidays very seriously! The town had some awesome large bronze statues along its wide boulevard.   Here are some pics.

Later we picked up some lunch and drove over to the Montrose Water Sports Park and what a wonderful place it was.   The city modified the river’s path to include some rapids for surfers to ride and some square stones to make it easier to get into and out of the water.  Lots of small kayaks and even tubes were traversing the waterway.  We wandered around there for an hour or so just watching and admiring the park that they had built and so many folks there enjoying it.

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We were heading toward Ridgeway State Park next and from there would check out the towns of Ouray and Telluride.   After that we would traverse the infamous Million Dollar Highway.

June 17th thru 22nd.

 

 

 

 

 

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Green River State Park, Oasis in the middle of a very brown desert

We left SLC in the morning and headed over the mountain to Green River, UT.  It was an uneventful and quiet drive all the way there.  No manifold leak!   As we got down the other side of the mountain and closer to the I-70 freeway, the landscape got more and more brown and barren of any vegetation.   Once on the freeway, it was just a few miles to the exit.  Off in the distance we could see what appeared to be a large green area.  Apparently the Green River supplies the whole area with water and they really know how to use it.

We find the State Park and check in.  They made it a point to mention the sprinklers go on in the morning and we wouldn’t want to leave anything outside to get wet.

 

What they forgot to mention is the sprinklers are more like fire hoses than any sprinkler I have ever seen and that most folks move out of their campsites prior to them going on in the morning.  They went on around 10 am the next morning and we were very lucky we closed the roof vents as the fire hoses are only directed at the campsites.  One consistently watered our roof.  Another one of the fire hoses sprayed its hard stream on the side of the coach under the slide, in an attempt to get water inside the bus.  There was another head on the driver’s side and it hosed the whole left side of the bus off, doing its best to get past the window seals.   Any water that didn’t directly hit the bus just showered the road.

In one of the pictures you can see I placed one of my chairs in front of the sprinkler head to see if I could divert it a bit.  I did the same thing to the head on the other side.  It helped a bit, but the pressure was so high it kept moving the chairs out of the way and I had to keep moving them back in the way.  I asked one of the rangers about adjusting them and it wasn’t his job.

This picture might be all you need to know about Utah:  That and maybe reading the book or watching the recent series called Under the Banner of Heaven.

 

I would stay here again as it was a beautiful park, but I would not be there on Monday or Thursday mornings when the sprinklers were to be run.   Oh, and of course the water was probably the hardest available, and the calcium spots required vinegar to get them off.   The campground was right on the Green River, which surprisingly was a very large river and moving along pretty quickly.

June 15th thru 17th.

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The warm slog to a very small rally in Nephi Utah.

We had planned events at home in May (the wonderful wedding of our son and our new daughter-in-law!), and those, plus finishing up the bus, we got a late start on this year’s summer trip.  It was quite a bit warmer than last year’s April shove-off.  Most of the way north is really a desert of various elevations.  Some places were a lot warmer than others.  Barstow for the night was pretty warm, but the next day we got to Vegas for the weekend and it was hot.

Lucky for us we were leaving because it was supposed to get even hotter the day we left for the rest of that week there.   We ordered Amazon Fresh groceries delivery while at the Oasis Resort, and they delivered them right to the coach’s front door.

We left early to beat the heat and get fuel in a truck stop just north of St. George, Utah.  This truck stop was the worst I ever experienced anywhere.  It was an unattended Sinclair truck fueling station, with a single pump for cars & gas.   The craziest thing with these pumps is they stopped at 17 gallons.  Not some even dollar amount.  Each time the dollars were $95.38 and exactly 17 gallons.  The pump took about 60 seconds to pump in 15 gallons, then it slowed to less than a crawl and took 5 minutes to hit 17 gallons.  Needless to say, I had to restart the pump 6 times to get a full tank.   It was excruciating at best to get a full tank.

We ended up in Beaver, UT, for the night, cool weather, such a nice break from the heat.  I wanted to stop in Beaver as I thought we had an exhaust leak and I had used a diesel mechanic shop there on our way to Alaska a few years back.  I was impressed by them at the time.   The next morning I drove the coach over and the owner crawled under the engine and after a bit popped out and told me it wasn’t an exhaust leak, but a manifold leak.   He said they were very understaffed and barely could keep up with their mobile service, so they couldn’t do the work.   (I wished it was an exhaust leak!)

So that morning we headed off to Juab County Fairgrounds for the rally in Nephi.   It was a Good Sam rally.   Prior to finding it online last winter, I didn’t even know there was such a thing.   We arrived, set up, and then I got on the phone with places to have the exhaust manifold looked at.

I called a few local shops and they all said they could do it; but I decided it might be smarter to have a mainline shop in Salt Lake City do the work, so I called the Freightliner shop and they said to bring it in ASAP as they had time the next day.  We left without ever attending anything at the rally, although we did get to experience someone testing the loudspeaker mic @ 6am,  insistently tapping for about 10 minutes.  He must have been deaf, as it was extremely loud and seemed to go on forever.  Lucky for us,  we were already awake; others weren’t as fortunate.

June 2nd, thru June 9th

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Heading south towards Portland and then on to Red Bluff CA.

We headed south on the 5 freeway toward Portland and our campground in Wilsonville a few miles south of there.   The Pheasant Ridge RV Resort was our place for a couple of days.   I wondered about it as soon as we drove in.  The first set of speed bumps were at a 45-degree angle to the driveway,  so we got to do the wally wobble.   You just need to drive a large and tall RV to understand that’s not a good thing to experience.   Careful opening cabinets and the fridge as stuff will be falling out!

The second thing that made me wonder what was going on here was the clerk said I should detach our toad in front of the office.   I said, I thought we had a pull-thru?  She said, of course, but the roads are too narrow to navigate with the toad attached.  Wow,  sort of defeats the purpose of paying for a pull-thru if you cannot pull thru with your car attached.   Oh, well.

And when we pulled into the site, I noticed a steel fence post at the end of the site on the right side with a piece of PVC pipe over it,  strategically placed exactly where it would drag along the side of the RV if you weren’t super careful getting out onto that narrow roadway.   I bet those folks with the half million dollar coaches will just love causing a few thousand dollars of damage to their rigs so you don’t put a wheel on their grass.

This town had a Camping World and I needed to pick up a few things now that we are back in civilization, so I drove over there.   To my surprise they had some new couches that I believe will work for us to replace the euro recliners we bought back in the spring of 2017 that are just the most uncomfortable chairs.   I checked them out and I think they will fit in the spot the recliners are in now.    I picked up the couple things that I drove there for and headed back to the bus.

We read about a good Mexican takeout place a few miles away that had a San Diego burrito, so I drove over to pick up dinner one night.   I ordered the San Diego burrito, and a few minutes later the owner asked if I like the fries, and I said yes, just not in a burrito and that my son loves California burritos with french fries.   That’s when he mentioned the San Diego burrito is really a California burrito,  and that his friend from San Diego told him about it, so he added it to the menu but called it a San Diego burrito because that’s where his friend was from.

The next day we then drove further south to the 7 Feathers Resort I’d heard of from a few friends over the years.  It lived up to its praises.  Just a very nice place in the middle of nowhere on Interstate 5 about 200 miles south of Portland.   We were walking around the campground and met another couple from San Diego and they mentioned a Mexican restaurant in town and said it was very good.  Later that evening we took the campground shuttle over there and had a couple of great Shrimp Fajitas and  more Cadillac Margaritas!   Very good meal.   I called for the shuttle to pick us up and we took it over to the casino.  I wanted to pick up a players card as it would give us another 10% off our campsite cost, over and above the Good Sam discount.   When we got there, they also explained they gave you $10 on the card to play any of their slots.

It only took a few minutes and we were off to find a machine that Kathy wanted to play.  We eventually found one and sat down to figure out how to play it.   We must have picked the most complicated one to work as it killed our new card in minutes.  It started reporting it as an invalid card.  I had to go back to the cashier and get a new one.  Unfortunately for us, we went back to that same machine and it killed that one too, again telling us it was an invalid card.   I pushed the help button and a woman apparently in a big hurry came over and said the card was fine, but we needed to insert it a few times to get it to read correctly.  What?   Anyway, she was right.  But we still couldn’t seem to get a bet in.

Now, I am old school.  The last time I played slots, you put coins in and pulled a handle.   This machine seems to have required multiple button presses, and all we could figure out was how to bet 88 cents each time.  That took a while to use up the ten bucks.   The whole experience was not fun and we left to find another shuttle back to the campground.   I had them drop me off back at the office and they took another $22 off the bill after giving them the card, which was very nice.  🙂

While in town earlier that day, we looked around for diesel fuel locally but found it was B20 (20% Biodiesel) at the local Mobile station.   So I opened Gas Guru and looked further south and found a reasonable priced place near Medford, OR, just a few miles before the California border, that was reasonably priced and easy to get in and out in our 62+ foot rig.   In California the diesel fuel is $1 more per gallon now that they jacked up the taxes on it,  so  before we reach California,  I wanted to fill up and this place had B2 fuel.  2% biodiesel instead of 20%.  B20 Biodiesel has 10% less energy than real diesel, so the mileage is at least 10% less, but it’s not usually 10% less cost, so I try to never buy biodiesel.

After filling up in Medford, we headed south for Red Bluff, CA.   Along the route Mt Shasta was in all its glory.   No smoke from the top so it didn’t appear ready to pop anytime soon.

We spent a couple of nights at the Durango Resort where it was really warm and windy, Santa Ana’s blowing pretty good both days we were there.    We left there to head to Doran Beach Campground on Bodega Bay for a couple of nights of drycamping and visiting with my Sis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ferrying over to Friday Harbor

Late Friday morning we headed over to Friday Harbor.   It seemed appropriate to do that on a Friday!  It was to be one of the few days that it was supposed to be sunny most of the day.    We walked onto the ferry for the 90-minute ride over thru the San Juan Islands.  Along the way we went past Orcas Island and many others.  Most of them have houses we could see from the ferry.   Lopez Island had lots of houses that could be seen from the ferry.

It was a quick 90 minutes and we seemed to get there really fast, probably because it was a “non- stop” ferry.   When we arrived, it was overcast and just  after lunchtime so we headed out looking for a place to get something on a patio where Dusty could stay with us.

Fairly quickly we found a small Mexican restaurant just about 100 feet up the hill from the landing.  They had a small patio sans a cover, so we lucked out and it didn’t rain on us even though it looked like it was going to do that any minute.   It was pretty good food, a lot better than expected being so far from the border.

It’s a nice little town and didn’t really seem like the tourist trap I expected.  There were a few gift shops, where I expected everything to be one of those. but it was very low key.  We were only staying for a few hours and wandered the streets for a bit while Kathy perused the shops there were there.  She did find a nice metal sign that may end up in the living room of the RV.

Dusty and I spent a lot of time on park benches while she shopped and he had a lot of folks coming over to pet him and hear how cute he is.   It wasn’t long ’till we saw our ferry approaching the island and we headed over to get in line to board for the ride back to Fidalgo Island.

Along the way we did see a pod of Dall’s Porpoise swimming beside us.  They look like baby orcas with their black and white colors.

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Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands

The first morning on Fidalgo Island we drove over to Whidbey Island to check out Deception Pass close to a tide change.   The water was moving swiftly under the old bridge.   In order to get to the northern walkway we had to go below the bridge and climb up the other side.  There is a lot of traffic right there and its a fairly narrow bridge by today’s standards.  Built back in the 1930’s and it looked a lot older than that underneath it.

 

After wandering around there for a while we drove all the way to the south end of Whidbey island to a very small town called Clinton, the road actually ended at the ferry landing with no place to turn around.  I had to make a quick u turn hoping there were no popo watching..

Kathy spotted a place called Island nosh which had a patio to get lunch where Dusty wouldn’t need to stay in the car.   And this place had excellent food.   I had Pad Thai that was as good as any other Thai restaurant I’d ever had it.

We drove back north afterward and took some back roads with gorgeous homes on the Whidbey Island waterfront.   We headed over to Anacortes first to find out where the Ferry Landing was located and the parking situation for our trip to Friday Harbor the next day.

On the way back to the RV we drove into a dry campground next to the large marina in downtown Anacortes.   To my surprise it was a really nice place and within easy walking over to the old downtown and all the restaurant’s and shopping.

We also found a very interestingly landscaped park in Anacortes.  I will let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

While driving around Anacortes we also found another ferry, is was a small one similar to what we used to get from Dawson City over to the Top of the World highway back in June.  The ferry made the short trip from Anacortes to Guemes Island.   We probably should have traveled over to that island but by the time we found it we were in a rain storm and didn’t want to venture out of the car.

The following Sunday we went to breakfast at the Calico Cupboard restaurant which was recommended by one of Kathy’s friends that vacations in the Northwest often.   The place made the best Hash Breakfast I have ever tasted.  Its been added to my special restaurant list!    If you ever find yourself near Anacortes, they make incredible food.

And we found these unusual gutter downspouts when leaving the place that morning.   They were very functional, water was coming out from the watering can spigot as it was lightly raining that morning.

 

 

 

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Driving from Meziadin Lake to Smithers and Prince George and to the US border.

We left Meziadin around 10:30 for the drive to Smithers, BC.    Around lunchtime we stopped at a roadside historical site.   It was Battle Hill, and we read the signs and checked out the view.  There was a large staircase built onto the side of the hill we were standing on and it went all the way over the Battle Hill, which looked like it was a man-made hill in the middle of a small field below us.  It appeared to be a great place for a battle if you occupied the top of that hill.  Battle Hill Wiki

After lunch we started down the road toward Highway 16 but made a left turn to check out the historic Totem Poles.   We read that they were over 100 years old, so Kathy got out and snapped a few pictures as Sue and Larry got their wires crossed and didn’t follow us.   All around that area were ramshackle houses.  Lots of them looked lived in, and the odd part was just about all of them had a large window in the front broken, a big gaping hole in the windows.  Hopefully they get fixed prior to winter setting in.

We wound our way out of that area and back onto the main road.   Then we drove the few hundred meters to the turn onto the main highway.   As soon as we made the left, we entered a dusty gravel section of highway that was being worked on.   There was a huge line of cars and trucks kicking up an incredible amount of dust for us to drive thru.   We backed off as far as we could so most of the dust had blown off the highway before we had to drive thru it.  This situation lasted for over a half hour, slowly crawling for miles and miles.

Later that afternoon we made it to our campground, registered and then set up for a couple of days a few miles west of Smithers, BC.   Our plan was to go to get pizza at Boston Pizza.   We arrived there later in the evening.  We ordered cocktails and the only person to get them was Kathy as she ordered wine.  Turns out the CO2 system was broken and there was no draft beer available.  Pizza without a beer, ugh.   But after about 15 minutes the waitress came back and said they had gotten one tap to work so she could bring us a particular beer.  I cannot remember what it was, but it must have been good as the glasses were empty when we left.

While we were there, an RCMP officer sat down next to us with folks that were probably her family.   They left prior to us finishing, but as we walked out to Larry’s car, she was sitting in her RCMP SUV and we had to walk right in front of her.   As we got in the car, we were all mumbling about her knowing our driver had just drank a large beer.   But before we drove off, she pulled out of the parking lot and drove up the road till we couldn’t see her anymore.

While we were in Smithers, we had to go to Canadian Tire for RV “stuff”.   It appears Canadian Tire is a department store that also has a small section of tires for sale.  Who would have known..

Our second night in Smithers we ate at the Trackside Mexican Cantina and had many Cadillac Margaritas.   Those were good as was the food.  I especially liked the prawn tacos!   The Trackside is literally track side residing in about 1/2 of the Smithers Train Depot.   While we were there a fairly fast moving freight train went by very close.   It was pretty long and seemed to go by forever.   Then we heard an engine getting closer, so we assumed it was the end of the train, but it wasn’t.  This was the first time any of us had seen a freight train with another engine in the middle!  All other times while on the roads the trains would have engines pushing from the rear also, but never an engine in the middle of the cars.  And this train didn’t have an engine in the rear.   If you are ever in Smithers, BC, I highly recommend Trackside Mexican Cantina for dinner!!

The next morning we started on the 250 mile drive to Prince George, BC.   From there Larry & Sue would head east toward Jasper then down to Banff and we would head south toward the US border, north of Seattle.

Somewhere  along our journey, Sue mentioned she really liked a movie about King Arthur.   So when Kathy was reading thru the Milepost to find a rest stop along our route, she found one in Tintagle, BC.   That rest stop had a monument that had a stone donated to the city from Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, England, the supposed birthplace of King Arthur.

A few hours down the road we arrived at Sintich RV just south of Prince George, BC.   That night we dined at the Canadian Brewery.  It was a fairly nice sports bar where the CO2 system was working!

 

We wanted to watch the Chargers season opener, but our satellite dome couldn’t lock on to a satellite, being so far north and having a line of trees in the direction the dish needed to be pointed.   At the last minute I signed up for a Hulu live streaming trial account and we were able to watch the last three quarters using Kathy’s Cricket phone as a hotspot for the internet data stream.

On our last evening in Prince George, we headed over to Cimo Mediterranean Grill   and had a wonderful dinner.  I think we all were completely surprised by how good the food was.  I know I was amazed!

The next morning we were sad as we were parting with our traveling companions.  We had met up with them again in Valdez, AK, and traveled together all the way to Prince George, BC, taking close to 6 weeks to get there. We hope to meet up with them again in our future travels!

We headed south, Larry and Sue headed east to Jasper and then on to Banff.

We took highway 97 south to the town of Clinton, BC, where we stayed overnight at a small campground.   The next morning we took 97 further south  till it joined up with the Trans Canada highway, which we then headed west (south) toward the US border.   Along the way we entered the Fraser Valley and gorge.   What a wonderful drive thru Boston Bar and Hell’s Gate.   What a beautiful area.  I would like to come back and explore it sometime as we were in a hurry to keep up with some reservations we made so we would be able to be in San Francisco on a particular weekend.

We got to the border around 2pm and breezed thru it in a couple minutes.   Unfortunately the border crossing we used dropped us into a rural area with very small roads.  I was happy once we found a larger roadway about 45 minutes later.   We proceeded to drive Interstate 5 to the off ramp leading over to Fidalgo Island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Heading out from Boya Lake to Stewart British Columbia & Hyder Alaska

We left Boya Lake a bit early as we didn’t have reservations at Kinascan Lake and Larry’s coach’s propane tank was close to empty, meaning no hot water and very limited heat would be available.   That morning our plan was to drive to Dease Lake, BC, for propane and possibly stay one night at a site with power, water and sewer prior to Kinaskan.   But it was Saturday and the only two propane stops were closed till Monday after our two-hour drive.   We dropped by a local campground and the owner called one of them and his wife answered saying he was out hunting till Monday and she didn’t have a key.   That campground didn’t look very nice and we decided to move on down the road toward the town of Bell II which had propane and it was open.  Kinascan was now not going to happen as we would not want to backtrack a few hours.

We only went as far as Iskut that day and stayed at a really nice campground that was probably a mile down a steep driveway.  The whole place was on a mountainside, so the sites were terraced down the slope.   We stayed there the night with power and water.  There was a dump station, but we chose to wait as our tanks weren’t close to full yet.    I believe they used the heat pumps to warm their coach that night.  I was able to use the WiFi at the campground for a call from my cell phone allowing us to make reservations in Stewart, BC, for the next few nights.

The next morning we drove the two hours and arrived at Bell II Lodge just before noon and we topped off our propane tank, and I squeezed the coach with the car attached around the building in the widest turn the ditches and overhangs allowed me.   That building was in a strategically bad place and had all the bent roofing and siding to prove it.

Larry’s propane is on the other side of his coach, so he had to detach the car and back into it.  His coach’s turning radius prevented him from going in the way I drove out.   While I was getting propane, Larry topped off his fuel and I did the same while he was at the propane pump.  We decided to each lunch at the lodge, so we both parked the coaches in a spot out near the highway and had some great burgers in their small cafe.  They had a large dining room there but it was closed that afternoon.

After lunch we drove down the Cassiar another couple of hours toward Stewart and then took 37A down the mountain to the town.   That road was an incredible scenic route, passing right by Bear Glacier and then down thru a narrow, steep, walled canyon; and both before and after the canyon there were tall snow-capped mountains on both sides of the highway.

We arrived at Bear River Lodge around 3pm and set up camp for the 3 days we were able to arrange.  We needed to get another night before heading to Meziadin, so we were going to need to figure something out.

Off to see the bears in Hyder that afternoon!