The Drive to Alaska Part 1

It's not a short drive to Alaska, but it's definitely worth it!  Dad was kind enough to join me on this journey, and we saw some great sites on the way.  It's somewhere around 3200 miles from Denver to Anchorage, but we decided to make the most out of being in some new areas of North America, and stretched it out to just about 4000 miles.

Day 1 (August 1st):  Denver to Butte, MT

Join the Sturgis migration instead?

The trip started with a full day of driving.  We got a decently early start, leaving Christy's house around 7:15 in the morning.  After a quick stop for ice, we made our way to I-25 and headed north.  There was a little congestion in Colorado, but once we crossed into Wyoming the road was wide open.  We eventually made our way into Montana and headed West to Butte.  We stopped in Butte at the Motel 6 where we were surrounded by bikers on their way to Sturgis.





Day 2 (August 2nd):  Butte, MT to Orofino, ID

Trapper's Peak - Highest in Bitterroots

Day 2 was all about Lewis and Clark.  Dad has read a couple of books on Lewis and Clark and was most impressed with their journey through the Bitterroot Range in Western Montana and Idaho.  We decided to retrace their steps the closest we could.  So we started by driving along the scenic Big Hole River on 43 with fog rising in places.  This let us see the kind of valley views L&C saw as they started looking for a way over to the Bitterroots.  While still on 43, we stopped at the Big Hole Battlefield and watched a short film on the devastation of the Nez Perce that had happened there.  Definitely not one of America's proudest moments.  We headed north on 93 until Lolo where we stopped at Traveller's Rest - the location of a L&C camp (identified based on artifacts found in the area, including the lead containing results from thunderclapper pills in the latrine).  After a nice lunch there, we started the long descent on 12 (Lewis and Clark Highway) into Idaho.  This road takes you through the Bitterroots and is definitely the longest downhill I've ever experienced.  We kept expecting to see the prairie as we knew L&C did, but it never seemed to come and before we knew it, we were in Orofino where we were going to meet up with Kristy.  There was no AT&T cell phone reception in the area, which caused some stress and confusion over where to meet up, so we borrowed a Verizon cell phone off a couple at the grocery store to coordinate with Kristy.  We had a great night camping next to the Clear Water River, enjoying wild blackberries and wading in the river.  Kristy and I walked around for awhile to catch up while Dad turned in early.


Day 3 (August 3rd):  Orofino, ID to Kalispell, MT
We had just a little time to hang out in the morning before we had to hit the road again.  We decided not to take the same route back into Montana due to how much construction we had encountered on the way.  So we took 3 north through Idaho to rejoin I-90.  Once we drove out of the river valley and up the foothills, we finally found the Weippe Prairie.  L&C traversed from hilltop to hilltop while we mainly followed the Lola River down Highway 12.  It was a beautiful area with tons of great views and logging trucks.  Once we met up with 90, we drove to Missoula where we stopped to get an oil change for the car.  When the car was ready to get back to action, we started north, aiming to get close to Glacier National Park for the next day.  We drove along the eastern edge of Flathead Lake which gave us some beautiful views, and tons of chances to stop for fresh cherries.  We had just bought cherries the day before though, so decided to wait.  Unfortunately, this was the wrong decision, we never did run into road side cherry stands like those again.  Eventually we rolled into Kalispell, and found a Motel 6 to spend the night.



Day 4 (August 4th):  Kalispell, MT to Banff, AB, Canada

View from Going to the Sun Road

The plan for Day 4 was to spend some time in Glacier National Park before crossing into Canada.  I had never been to Glacier, and it's been high on my list of places I wanted to see for awhile.  A little while earlier, I picked up a guidebook on the park from Goodwill for a dollar.  It ended up being a great purchase because we learned you needed to get an early start if you wanted to park at Logan Pass (the top of Going to the Sun road), which we definitely wanted to do.  We had some great views up the pass, and I was snapping lots of pictures as Dad navigated the windy road.  We had to stop for construction, which gave us a chance to get out of the car and take a few more pictures.  Once we got to the top, we grabbed a parking spot easily, and headed up to the nature center.  We took a nice hike to Hidden Lake overview through some snow patches for beautiful views of the very impressive peaks in the park.  Back at the parking lot, we decided to have some lunch while in the 5 ft of space between the rows of cars in the now packed lot before heading out for another small hike.  Unfortunately, this is when Dad looked over and noticed the flat tire we had.

The Shark Tooth rock that caused the flat.

This definitely changed some plans.  We were able to put the spare tire on with some relative ease.  The second little hike was abandoned and instead we started down to St. Mary to look for a place to fix the tire.  That was a bust, and we headed north, going 20 mph under the speed limit due to the spare tire.  We kept just heading north, eventually hitting the border and making it to Cardston, Alberta before we finally found a place to fix it.  The owner of the shop exuded Canadian hospitality and chatted with us for most of the wait (and after the car was done too!)  Turned out, a rock that looked like a shark tooth caused the problem.   After a quick trip to the bank and grocery store, we were ready to roll again.  Banff was our goal and we stopped just outside the park at a campground called Three Sisters near the highway.  It turned out not to be the best campsite we could have wished for (lots of road noise and mosquitoes), but it worked well for us, and come morning, we were excited to see Banff and Jasper parks.




Day 5 (August 5th):  Banff, AB to Grand Prairie, AB

In a canoe on Lake Louise

Day 5 was another chance for us to see some great sites and probably the most scenic drive in Canada.  Dad had seen Banff before, but during the winter.  It was my first time to the area and was excited to see what Canadian Rockies had to offer.  The mountains were spectacular, looking more like something you would expect to see in the Swiss Alps than in North America.  We took a little drive through the town of Banff so I could see what it was like, then headed towards Lake Louise.  Once there, we walked up to the amazingly turquoise, opaque glacial melt water and took in the view. We noticed that there were some people who had rented canoes and were out on the water, which looked like a great idea to us, so we did the same.  It was a perfect way to really enjoy the beauty without being completely surrounded by tourists as we were on the shore.  After 30 minutes we had to turn the canoe back in, and while I think we could've easily spent more time out on the lake, it was good to get back on the road especially since the clouds were rolling in and soon it wouldn't be nearly as nice.  We got off of the main road, and headed towards Jasper on the Icefields Parkway.  This was a spectacular route full of great views of the mountains and glaciers.  The view just kept getting more and more amazing.  We eventually made it to Jasper where we stopped for gas and made our way to 40 North to join up with the Alaska Highway.  40 was a looong road with not much on it and one windy section had plenty of dust probably from the strip mining of coal.  We passed one town, and otherwise it was just energy companies along the way.  We finally made it to Grand Prairie where I insisted that we find a place that had free wifi.  Dad was ok with this as he was anxious to hear how Mom's meeting at Home Depot to order the kitchen cabinets went.  We found a little independent motel called the Igloo Inn that had internet (though that was pretty much the only thing it had going for it!)  We got on Skype and talked to mom for awhile before grabbing dinner.  This also gave us a chance to upload some pictures from the past few days.