welcome my name is George shark and I am going to tell you about our trip to Alaska in the summer of 2017 this is my wife Diane and there are family we traveled in a 12-passenger van pulling a 6 to 12 foot trailer we built beds into this trailer and this is where we slept every night but one we packed enough of a food to last for five weeks then we headed west needless to say it took a few days to get there here we are driving through Canada and the canola fields were in full bloom our first tourist destination was in Dawson Creek British Columbia this is the start of the Alaska Highway the Alaska Highway was built in 1942 by the US military it starts in Dawson Creek British Columbia and ends at Delta Junction Alaska our next stop was the historic kiss cotton or curved bridge this bridge is special in several ways as it is original it's curved and it is still open for tourists to drive across we then continued north on the Alaska Highway we will continue to show videos and still petrus throughout this travelogue please enjoy them there was some nice scenery at Stone Mountain and Summit Lake these sheep were at the edge of this narrow road [Music] [Music] this is the muncho lake region which we thought was the nicest scenery along the Alaska Highway [Music] that muncho lake region is also where we saw the most wildlife along the alaska highway we saw this bear a moose and a little father down the road we counted 60 bison in this herd we stopped our vehicle on the road for 20 minutes without any other traffic coming up behind us we had the place to herself [Music] our next destination was liard hot springs we arrived here in the evening in the campground was already full so we needed to park in the overflow parking area we also parked in the middle of the parking lot because the edge spaces were full also we slept well that night without too many mosquitos bothering us but the next morning we noticed that fellow campers over by the woods were wearing head nets as they packed out this surprised us because we did not have any mosquitoes in the middle of the parking lot where we were at so we talked with these people and commented about this those folks then explained to us that mosquitoes need vegetation they explained that mosquitoes will not bother you out in the middle of an open parking lot that was good news for us because we did not have mosquito netting in our trailer so from then on we always parked in the middle of open parking lots when we were looking for a place to stop for the night next morning we went swimming at the hot springs then we continue north into yukon territory and soon arrive at watson lake watson lake is home to the famous signpost forest here a homesick soldier erected a sign with the name of his hometown on it ever since then people from all over the world bring signs of their hometowns this is a replica of the original sign you can find anything imaginal in this signpost forest this fellow used a hockey stick for a sign this fella from Switzerland used a ground shovel someone even used a toilet seat and I had brought his son along also this bridge at petland is the most photographed bridge along the alaska highway now we drive across it then this is the Teslin River Bridge and we continued north on the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse this is possibly the world's largest weather vane we did not spend a lot of time in the white horse but here we left the Alaska Highway and turn north onto Klondike highway to Dawson City we drove north for an hour then stopped at a place called Braeburn Lodge these folks make enormous sticky buns and we have a video of that [Music] [Music] in pieces and the stinky burns were delicious after eating the sticky buns we leave Braeburn lodge and again head north on the Klondike highway heading for Dawson City [Music] this is Dawson City I took this picture with my drone on the following day here you can see the muddy waters of the Yukon River flowing from right to left on the far side you see the clear waters of the Klondike River entering into the Yukon about 12 miles upstream on the Klondike River is a small tributary where gold was discovered in 1896 this sparked the famous Gold Rush of 1898 we had studied this before our trip and it was of interest to us to go and see these places but first we toured the streets of Dawson City this city has ordinances in place to keep the buildings looking old-fashioned then we had it down the road to the valley where gold was discovered our first stop was dredged number four here we took a guided tour of this large wooden structure that was once used for dredging gold it works much the same way as a modern-day combine this arm on the front had a chain of buckets on it that was used to dig up dirt each bucket weighed a ton the third then went into this barrel and only the fines were allowed to follow through the larger stuff wind up this conveyor belt on the back and out onto the tailing pals our next stop was claim 33 these people teach tourists how to pan for gold we paid $15 for a small bag of pay dirt along with a demonstration on how to use the pan this third had a few pieces of gold placed into it this gold was bought separately and put into the bag just for people like us we took a video of this demonstration which we will show you now now you want to shake it side to side you want to get that bowel movement yeah gold is 19 times heavier in water six times heavier and gravel now you're gonna keep shaking tilt your pan me get all the gravel to the front yeah so fabulous rates pour it on for Morgan's now I'm right up there towards the end if you want to stop and just watch me so dip and see the goal there that goal is not moving look nice and heavy its how many times heavier in water faint teens right on bonanza and we call little clickers and ain't gold nuggets it ain't gold dust just new clinkers twinkers yeah so you can finish on I always get it is in the crease and just let all that water a little push it up watch and that one just being stubborn okay I'm just hang on to it go back yeah after finding the gold they placed it in this vial along with a card for a souvenir then we continued up the road our next stop was discovery claim this is the place where gold was discovered in 1896 then we continued farther up the road to claim number six this place is open to the public anyone can try their hand panning for gold but there is not much chance of finding any because this place had already been mined commercially it's basically just a place for tourists to have some fun and to take some pictures after touring Dawson and the gold fields we headed west to the top of the world highway this map shows aligned with three different colors representing three different roadways these three roads are called the Klondike Loop leaving Dalton we needed to get onto this ferry to cross the Yukon River the top of the world highway started on the other side of the river here we are looking back towards Dawson the Yukon River has very swift water here are a few pictures of the top of the world highway we really enjoyed driving this road we soon came to the most remote border crossing between the United States and Canada finally we are in Alaska then we head Southwest on the Taylor Highway you we have now completed the klondike Luke and are again heading west on the Alaska Highway this was a nice rest area where we stopped for the night here we are eating breakfast and the children each town their own spot to eat their cereal we soon arrived at the small town of toke here we stopped at the visitor center before continuing north on the alaska highway to fairbanks we really enjoyed the ice Museum in Fairbanks they first showed us a video and told us many things about ice then they gave us codes and let us go see the ice sculptures they even had a slide made of ice our next destination was plein air park here you can find numerous old buildings from the area that were all brought to one place to make a museum they even that is not rain which we enjoyed [Music] leaving Fairbanks we head south on the parks highway to Denali National Park this is Denali National Park we first toured the Visitor Center and then drove our vehicle 15 miles into the park we had to turn around at the Savage River you need to ride each shuttle bus if you want to go the rest of the way into the park that evening we needed to drive quite a few miles away from the park before we found a pole that allowed overnight parking this was the fullest pull off where we stopped for the night the next day we returned to the National Park to watch a sled dog demonstration [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] after Denali we continued south in the parks highway somewhere near Wasilla became become this man walking along the road with his dog and reindeer we asked him if we could tap the reindeer for a small tip and he allowed us Browdy okay [Music] our next stop was the Aditi rod sled dog race headquarters and Museum here in musher gave us rides on a car pulled by sled dogs [Music] here's cold even if he can run bed they look tired and then we bought a puppy souvenir for each of the children our next stop is in Anchorage here we spent some time at Lake Hood seaplane base and watch the airplanes take off [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] next we head south of Anchorage and then stopped along with Turnagain arm to watch Ybor tide come in in this scenario the remnants of the old tide going out pushed back against the new tide coming in which creates a wave this was a very small bore tide sometimes this wave is as tall as eight feet locals often ride this wave with their paddle boards [Applause] [Music] [Applause] even the train went past while we were watching [Music] the Alaska Railroad is the only railroad owned by a state we continue south onto the Kenai Peninsula we briefly stopped at the Russian River ferry to take some pictures and watch these fishermen we stopped in for a brief visit with the Matt Snyder family Matt wrote a few books about moving to Alaska he was in the middle of canning salmon and even shared a few filets with us he said he gets visitors once or twice every week then we continue south to Homer and at the Homer Spit we took this picture along Skyline Drive you homer is at the end of the road here we had to turn around and we officially start heading back home again these are businesses located along the home or spit [Applause] we stayed at this campground overlooking the Homer Spit under that evening we enjoyed some of the fish meat mats Nader had shared with us it was delicious we are now heading north on the Sterling Highway and we again passed through Anchor Point this is the westernmost point of North America's road system our next destination is the small town of the Seward here we were lucky to get a campsite by the water's edge the next day we took a boat tour of the Kenai affords National Park this boat tour was a little expensive but we saw a lot of Wildlife you and the highlight of this boat ride was to watch this killer whale and on the way back they served us some fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies our next destination is the small town of Whittier we had to drive through a long tunnel to get there this tunnel is shared by the railroad and the traffic takes turns going in either direction you it was very foggy and whittier and there wasn't much to see there so we turned around and came right back again we saw a number of these signs along with sterling highway it is illegal to hold up traffic our next destination is Valdez to get there we drive east on the Glen highway then south on the Richardson Highway we saw some nice scenery along these roads when we arrived at Bally's the first thing we did was circle around town looking for a playground for the children to play on this is where we usually ate our meals the next day we stopped in at this tackle shop to buy fishing licenses and rent another fishing line then we went fishing the fishing was fun the meat was delicious and we caught a lot of them but then it was time to head on over to the fish cleaning station to cut and pack our fish the city of maladies has an awesome fish-cleaning station it is open to the public free of charge and set up very well and when you are finished you just opened up the water valves and flush all the gutters down the chute then after cutting and packing our fish we've dropped him off at the Frasers to have them frozen overnight the next morning we picked up our frozen fish before taking an aerial picture of Valdez when leaving the Audis we saw this bear along the road eating a fish so we stopped to take a picture leaving melodies we again head north on the RET roads and highways at mount 94 we stopped to take a close-up look of the Alaska Pipeline these mountains are part of Wrangell st. elias national park at 18,000 feet they are the tallest mountains we saw on our trip our next destination is Hanes to get there we again drive back to toke then take the Alaska Highway south to Haines Junction we stopped at the border crossing to take more pictures here our children are all lined up with the right foot in Alaska and their left foot in Yukon they are standing by age order their names are Julia Wesley Lydia Bethany Jeffrey Daniel Michael and Carolyn the youngest is not pictured here then we continue the south on the Alaska Highway until we reach Haines Junction here we turn south on the Haynes Highway and drive on down to Haines the Haines highway had some of the nicest scenery we saw while driving the roads in Alaska just before reaching Haines we saw this contraption in the Chilkat River looks like the state is doing some kind of a fish study then we arrived at Haines they had some very beautiful scenery and we also found a nice picnic area that we used a few times but the highlight at Hanes was watching the grizzly bears in the Chilkoot River we saw 13 Grizzlies one evening and we'll show you a seven-minute video on this she's eating a fish it's recording what you're saying Lydia leaving Haines we take the ferry over to Skagway this is the Alaska Marine Highway this boat will go up and down the southeast shores of Alaska stopping at numerous small towns depending where you are going you may be on the boat for a while some foot travelers even set up tents on the top deck then we arrived at Skaguay today Skagway is mostly a cruise ship tourist town the roads are full of buses and the sidewalk for full of people you could not enjoy this place until we parked our own vehicle and join the crowd on the sidewalk angry however played an important part during the goldrush years at 1897 to 1898 Stampeders would typically board ships at Seattle Washington Co north on the inside passage stop at Skagway cross the mountain on foot to the headwaters of the Yukon River where they would build boats and continue north to Dawson and the goldfields crossing the mountains was the hardest part for the Stampeders they had two trails to choose from most of them chose the Chilkoot trail which started at dyi the Chilkoot trail was shorter but it had a steep mountain peak to cross at the summit now keep in mind the goldfields were located in Canada and the Royal Mounted Police required that everyone brought a year's worth of supply with them they did not want Stampeders heading into the wilderness to starve this year's worth of supply weighed around 2,000 pounds they coated their ton of goods now also keep in mind this trail could only be traveled on foot these people had 2,000 pounds of goods to be transported from the docks at dyi to the shores of Bennett Lake let's say for example a man could carry 75 pounds on his back at one time this means he would carry one pack for several miles set it down go back get another pack carry it for several miles set it down and continue to shop or his ton of goods along the 30-mile trails up to the shores of Bennett Lake so if you divide 2,000 pounds by 75 it means these people made 26 round trips in order to transport their ton of the goods across the mountain it also means it traveled around 1500 miles in the process this picture shows the steepest part of the trail at Chilkoot pass Indians had cut steps into the ice to make it trail the Stampeders called this the golden stairs this should help you understand why a railroad was built across the mountains the White Pass was chosen for the new railroad connecting Skagway with the Whitehorse dyi soon became a ghost town today it is part of a National Historical Park today the train is a major tourist attraction as its scenic beauty rivals the trains of Switzerland [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this picture shows the foot trail of 1898 crossing at White Pass this is the international boundary between United States and Canada this is also where the Northwest Mounted Police registered eres tan Peter heading north this is also where our train ride stops and we again head back down the mountain leaving Skagway we head north and spent the night at Carcross core cross is located at the north end of Bennett Lake it was at the south end of this lake that 10,000 Stampeders spent the winter of 1897 298 building boats then in the springtime when the ice went out 7,000 homemade boats sailed across this lake heading north for the Yukon River leaving Carcross we now have a 600 mile drive to our last destination in Alaska the small town of Haider we had a flat tire along this road and so we stopped at this small shop in Stuart Canada for a new spare they had everything we needed and before we left I asked them if they had any drinking water that we could have to my surprise they said sure just pull around the back I would have never guessed that an establishment like this would have such a nice place in the backside to get drinking water this is hider Alaska and there is no border control here the primary attraction in hider is salmon glacier and bear viewing at Fish Creek we drove this road up to the viewing area at salmon glacier I thought this was the nicest scenery we saw in Alaska on the way up we even found some snow along the road to play in that evening we ate supper at the bus my wife and I had stopped here on our honeymoon 13 years prior to this and so we stopped here again for some fish and the chips after supper we head over to the bear being platform and got some video of grizzly bears catching salmon in the creek [Applause] after Haider we had East here are a few camper vehicles we saw on our trip you we drove the icefields pkway through the Canadian Rockies on the way home this section of road was more scenic than any road we drove in Alaska we are now driving through Montana our next destination is Pompey spiller this is the place where William Clark wrote his name in the rock when on the Lewis and Clark expedition we then continued south and spent a day in Yellowstone or at main interest was to go swimming at the confluence of the boiling river and the Gardner River there's a small area where you have a hot water meeting cold water and there's a very snow area where you can find some warm water to sit in then we continue south through Yellowstone before driving past the Grand Tetons and then heading east somewhere in Nebraska we stopped at this Pony Express Museum this is an old house where a stationmaster lived in at one time last of all we spent the weekend with relatives in Missouri and watched a total solar eclipse then after 36 days on the road we are at home again [Music] [Music] [Music]
