North America Cross-Continent Road Trip, Part 2: Jasper, Banff, and Glacier National Parks1/21/2024 Quick recap in case you missed it: we moved! A few months ago, we bought a travel trailer, packed up our stuff, sold our house, and started off on an epic 31 day road trip across North America. Yes, we *drove* from Alaska all the way to our new home in South Carolina. The first leg of our trip was the most intimidating. We drove the entirety of the Alaska Highway on the brink of winter and it was not for the faint of heart! And after 1500 miles, we were about 1/3 of the way done with our trip and not even through Canada yet! You can read all about part 1 in the last post, but this part picks up where we left off in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Day 6Our night in Grande Prairie was pretty eventful. We stayed at Country Roads RV Park, which was a super fun place to stay, especially in the fall. If we had more time, we would’ve loved to explore their corn maze and other activities! We were excited that their laundry accepted quarters since we kept forgetting to exchange money and when we did need money, the front desk was usually happy to exchange. But this was the first time we needed to do laundry on our trip and we started after the desk had closed for the night. Since we had the laundry room to ourselves, we took the opportunity to run 3 loads at once but when it came to drying, unfortunately, the slot for quarters on the dryer was too small!! And while it is comical now, at the time, it was pretty frustrating since we had to find ways to hang 3 loads of laundry around our trailer to dry (insert facepalm emoji). We had no one to blame but ourselves since we were in a foreign country and hadn’t taken the time to exchange money…so travelers be warned: Even if a place says they take quarters, it’s worth it to exchange ;) Our drive was pretty short on this day since we were camping in Jasper National Park! We were so looking forward to exploring but our dog had other plans. While loading up the truck, he decided to slip away and take himself on a grand tour of Grande Prairie! I’m not convinced he got far away from the campground but we couldn’t find him for a few hours and the staff were so helpful for keeping an eye out for him. Day 6 did not get off on the right foot, however, once we finally got to Jasper National Park, we were blown away! We had reservations to camp at Whistlers Campground and as we pulled in at dusk, the entire place was crawling with herds of elk! It was absolutely incredible. We set up camp and enjoyed listening to them bugle all around our trailer all night. When I say all night, we could still see them right outside when we got up in the morning. It was unbelievable. Our family definitely made a core memory that night. Day 7This part of our drive was one of the most highly anticipated days. At least it was for me! On Day 7, we drove the Icefields Parkway! We started off with a visit to Pyramid Lake. It was a beautiful day and a great little walk around the island for the kids. Next stop was Maligne Canyon, which was stunning! We then went back into downtown Jasper and grabbed some lunch for the road. HIGHLY recommend Patricia Street Deli! It’s a build-your-own sandwich place and I was so grateful for their recommendations. I was informed that the cran-mayo and cranberry chutney were local favorites so we went all out and, man! It was amazing. Also we took the opportunity to taste some of Canada’s chip flavors: Ketchup, pickle, sweet chili and sour cream. Are these a thing in the US? Cuz we’ve never seen them, but they are everywhere in Canada! Once on the Icefields Parkway, we stopped at Athabasca Falls, Sunwapta Falls, Tangle Creek Falls….okay…all the falls…and took in the stunning views of the glacier from the road. We pulled into Downtown Banff close to dusk and parked in the free trailer parking just outside of town. We packed up little bags and walked 6 minutes to our hotel for the next two nights! Day 8Pure adventure on Day 8 with the only drive being up to the shuttle for Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. The only problem was that we hit a pot hole the day before and bent the jack on our trailer :( so we had to tow it with us back up the canyon because we had no way to unhitch. And before you ask, we tried to find RV services in the area but, low and behold, we found ourselves celebrating yet another Canadian holiday (Thanksgiving) so the stores were closed. Which also explained why everywhere felt so crowded haha. We kinda thought we were hitting the beginning of shoulder season and that we were really just not used to being around people but it made sense after learning it was a major holiday weekend. With beautiful weather, at that! Despite having to navigate parking lots full of tourists with a trailer for the second day in a row, we had a great time exploring. Full disclosure though, I know Lake Louise is a major bucket list destination (at least it was for me!) but it was not worth the crowds! We kinda wished we had spent more time at Moraine instead. We also explored a little of Johnston Canyon, which was a major highlight! Even with all the people, the views were stunning and my kids loved going into the cave to see the lower waterfall. You really can’t go wrong with any kind of visit to Banff <3 I have wanted to visit here for a very long time (and one of the reasons we even decided to drive instead of fly) and it did not disappoint! Day 9Back in the USA! On day 9, we stopped in Calgary to get a new jack for our trailer. Jon took the opportunity to get an electric one ;) We did a little bit of a family history tour through Cardston, where my great-grandparents were married! And then we crossed the border into Montana in Carway. What took 45 minutes to an hour when going into Canada took 5-10 minutes leaving ;) Then we found ourselves in Glacier National Park! This place was also a big bucket list item for me but we quickly realized this might not have been the right time of year for a visit. Even though it was early October and beautiful, sunny, 70*, services were closed for the winter season. During this time, you can camp with discounted prices, but be aware that restrooms and hookups are closed. We camped at Saint Mary Campground and had beautiful views. The sky was so clear and perfect for star gazing. In the morning, the lake was stunning and smooth as glass but was closed to all watercraft for the season, which was highly disappointing! We didn’t spend much time in the park and maybe we need to give it another try under different circumstances. Day 10This was the first day that we didn’t get as far on our drive as we had planned. We didn’t realize we would be driving on such rural roads so we couldn’t drive as fast as we had been driving the last few days. But we did stop at the KOA in Butte, Montana for the night and we thought it was such a pretty little town. Had we looked into the route of our drive a little more, we probably would’ve made a few short pit stops as there were a lot of dinosaur spots to explore! They have found a lot of fossils in the areas we drove through. Montana is actually where they found the first dinosaur fossils in North America in the mid-1800s. Our route took us right through Choteau, near Egg Mountain, where they have found baby dinosaur fossils in 76 million year old nests! On Day 11 we made it to our friend’s house in Idaho Falls, Idaho and had a great time catching up and on Day 12, we made it to Utah to stay with family for a little over a week. It was a fun and restful break for our cross continent road trip. That was the second leg of our trip! Don't miss part 3! We still have a long ways to go! Have questions about our route or other parts of our trip? We’re always happy to answer! Or if you’ve done this route, is there anything you would add that we might’ve missed?? Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
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Well, I finally did it! I crossed something off my Alaska bucket list that’s been on there since before we even moved here and it took 4 years of living here to get it done. On our last little escapade around Alaska, I figured out a way to get myself to the iconic Brooks Falls and it did NOT disappoint! Before we dive in, I need to give a little background on Brooks Falls. Brooks Falls is located in Katmai National Park which is a skip, hop, and a jump (or a plane ride or boat ride) straight across the bay from the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. This location is an iconic bear viewing spot in Alaska because each year, bears gather here to bulk up on the salmon run and get ready for hibernation. The bears in Katmai National Park are some of the biggest brown bears in the world. You can even vote each fall on who you think is the fattest bear during "Fat Bear Week" on the Katmai National Park website. It is one of the least visited National Parks in the country because it is so remote but getting there is half the fun, honestly. I’ve sat down to plan this trip so many times, doing so much research and, I’ll be honest, it started to seem so illusive! Granted, I know a few people who have done it and there’s so much information out there about visiting Brooks Falls. The problem is there are just so many different ways to do it! And with it being such a big trip, I wanted to make sure I did it just right. The first decision about our trip was kind of made for us. There are two ways to spend time at Brooks Falls and that is to either stay there at the lodge or make it a day trip. The lodge has been in operation since 1950 and consists of 16 rooms, or cabins that sleep 4 people each. These cabins are $955/night and open for reservations at the beginning of the year and sell out insanely fast. There is also a campground near the lodge surrounded by an electric fence. It costs $12 per person per night during peak bear watching season and is limited to only 60 people at a time so this books out extremely fast as well. Due to the ages and size of our party, and the fact that the last time I checked, everything was booked out until 2024 ;) we had to plan a day trip. The second decision to make was whether to bring the whole family. I absolutely love exploring and adventuring with my young kids but ultimately, we decided it was best for them to sit this one out. When visiting Brooks Falls, there is no food allowed on the trails. It's a bit of a walk from the beach/lodge area to the platforms and it’s not rare for the trails to close down for even an hour or two if a bear decides they want to take a nap or hang out close to the trails. My youngest is 2 years old and I wasn’t about to have a toddler be stuck on the trail with no snacks or juice to hold him over until who knows when…My husband graciously volunteered to stay behind with the kids while I planned the trip to go with my parents. The third decision to make was where we were going to book our trip from. There are multiple ways to get to Katmai National Park and we knew we wanted to fly. There are so many companies that fly to Katmai. Visitors can fly from Anchorage commercially to King Salmon and then either get a chartered flight to Katmai, or take the ferry. Or there are day trips that fly directly from Anchorage. We chose to get a day trip flight out of Homer and there were a few reasons for that. Last year, we actually did a bear tour to Lake Clark National Park out of Homer and we experienced, first hand, the way that the unpredictable weather can affect flights to the area. Because we knew there was a risk of having flights rescheduled, we decided we wanted to do a trip in Homer because, well, spending time in Homer is a little more interesting and new than hanging around Anchorage like we have done many times :) So we planned a trip to Homer with a very loose schedule in case we needed to switch around anything but it turned out perfectly. We spent 4 nights in Homer and booked the earliest flight in the week that we could with Northwind Aviation. The tour companies are very good at communicating when things come up but it does take a certain amount of patience and understanding on the customers’ behalf. Weather can look great in Homer but on the other side of the bay there’s a whole different weather system. Originally we were supposed to check in at 6:30 AM. The night before, they called and pushed it to 7:30 and then in the morning they pushed it to 8:30 and it was 9:30 when we were wheels up! Or rather, floats up. It was so cool to take off of the lake in a float plane and land at the beach in Katmai. Speaking of our flight, remember how I said getting there is half the adventure? The flight from Homer is 2 hours and it was so beautiful! We flew past views of volcanos and rivers and lush green mountains…we even saw a bear from the air before landing at the beach. We walked from the beach to the lodge where we had to take a quick lesson at Bear School to learn all the safety protocols before venturing off on our own. Katmai National Park is home to over 2,000 brown bears and as many as 50 bears live around Brooks Falls at any given time during the summer. Even though it is definitely a tourist destination, the rangers in the park are dedicated to not interfering with the lives of these majestic animals which means limiting human interaction as much as possible. Experiencing Brooks Falls puts visitors in one of the most dangerous places on earth when it comes to being around apex predators so going through Bear School is a must to make sure you, and the bears, stay safe. Once we got to the lodge, we had to put all of our food in the food cache. So before heading out to the falls, we scarfed down a quick sandwich in the small, electric-fence enclosed picnic area, and then we walked out to the falls! The 20 minute walk from the lodge to the falls is a little eerie after getting out of bear school ;) but it was fascinating. The first little platform you get to overlooks the famous Brooks River. We saw fisherman and bears but we also looked down right under the platform and saw the salmon! As we made our way to the next platform, we noticed all the fresh bear scat all along the trails, which was pretty wild. The next platform you get to is at an area called the “riffles”. While you can see the falls from here, this platform is a little bit down from the falls. It has no occupancy limit or time limit as opposed to the Falls platform, which is limited to 40 people and 30 minutes of viewing. Once we arrived here, we had to put our name down on the list for the falls platform and we were actually given a buzzer much like waiting for a table at a restaurant. We were there during peak season along with a ton of other people! We watched bears fish in the riffles while we waited for our name to be called and it took about 2 hours until we got to the top of the list. Time flew though, honestly. We watched a big, ol’ bear known as 747 - because of his size - wander in and take up his post in the river. We watched a new mama bear try to catch fish for her two spring cubs. We watched bears coming in and out of the river walking right underneath the platform and it was incredible. By the time they called our name for the falls platform, we only had about 10-15 minutes before we had to start walking back to our plane. But it was an amazing view. Indescribable honestly, but they say pictures are worth 1,000 words… Time flew by even faster in those 10 minutes and we soon found ourselves walking back to our plane with our pilot, who had made his way up to the falls after being stuck for an hour or so because a bear had decided to take a nap right on the trail. We could see where it had bedded down for a bit as we were walking back. But our trip wasn’t over yet. We climbed into our floatplane and had the most scenic flight back to Homer with clear skies and epic views of unexplored peaks and glaciers and then islands and volcanos and even a small pod of Humpback whales as we flew back over the bay. While there is no wrong way to visit Katmai National Park, we truly had an amazing time during our trip to Brooks Falls during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A couple things to note: (1) The trail to the falls is not as well marked as it could be. Our pilot gave us a great tip in taking all the right hand turns on the way out and all the left hand turns on the way back and we did stumble across some of the tiny little signs they have but we were grateful for the inside tip. (2) I can’t stress enough about how no food is allowed on the trails. No food is allowed outside, even, unless you’re within the small electric fenced areas. This is a rule in place for everyone visiting the park. The food cache was packed with food people had brought in but there is also a restaurant that is open for anyone. We had limited time and didn’t want to waste it by standing around eating so we didn’t really check it out but they do serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (3) We did fly in but there were also boats along the beach. King Salmon is a very short flight from Katmai but they also offer a ferry. Both ways of travel are significantly impacted by the weather. But I’ve heard of lots of people staying in King Salmon for a few days and taking the ferry into the park each day if they didn’t have the option of staying at the lodge. Keep an eye out for our next post about more of what we did in Homer! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! I don’t know how else to set the scene for our visit to Wrangell St. Elias National Park/McCarthy, Alaska except to start with some facts about this mind-blowing national park. Wrangell St. Elias is the largest national park in the United States. It is also one of the least visited national parks in the country. Covering 13.2 million acres, this park is 6 times the size of Yellowstone. 9/16 of North America’s tallest peaks sit inside it’s borders. This means it’s bigger than Switzerland and has taller mountains. It’s landscape includes one of the most active volcanos in North America as well as many glaciers including the world’s largest, Bering Glacier, which is 100 miles long. There are only two roads that lead into the interior of the park, both of which are very rural, meaning gravel, are one way, and have no services (minus the occasional outhouse). Nebesna Road is only about 40 miles and McCarthy Road ends it’s 60 mile length at McCarthy, Alaska. This is the road we took. Greeted with a sign that was anything but welcoming, we slowly made our way as deep into Wrangell St. Elias National Park one can get by car. The gravel road was rough with all the pot holes and our confidence wasn’t boosted when passing spots just waiting for some heavy rains to wash it out. About a 1/3 of the way in, we came to the Kuskulana bridge, and my husband was ready to turn around and go home, haha. This one way bridge sits about 240 feet above a sheer sided ravine and is 525 ft long. Built in 1910, it was originally a train trestle that has since been reinforced with steel - guard rails being added in 1988. I climbed in the driver’s seat while my husband sat in the back with his eyes on the ground as we passed safely over this scenic spot on our journey. Adding to the stunning scenes of our drive was the historic train trestle. The whole train track from Cordova to Kennecott, Alaska was built for the sole purpose of transporting copper out of Kennecott. As the mine operated year round, so did the train, where workers had to overcome obstacles such as -60 degree Fahrenheit weather, heavy snow, and avalanches. Sometimes the train would become derailed and it was more cost effective to just add more track to get it back on course instead of trying to lift it back onto the existing track. Another interesting fact we came across was the purpose of these platforms along some of the trestle. Workers would stand on these platforms and pour water on the support beams to stop fires from catching as the train chugged along above them on the track. McCarthy, Alaska was built up as a town about 5 miles down from Kennecott Copper Mine. McCarthy was the rough and tumble town that offered miners “services” that weren’t allowed in the Kennecott mining town. Still a very rural town, with only 20 year round residents, visitors aren’t allowed to drive cars into McCarthy. There’s a large parking lot at the end of the road where visitors park and walk across a footbridge over the river, and if you catch it in time, a shuttle will drive you up the mile walk into downtown McCarthy. Along this path, you can see the old hand trams that used to by the only way to cross the river. You’ll also be able to see gorgeous views of the Chugach Mountain Range to the South and the other view I couldn’t get over was the view of 4 glaciers converging into one giant ice wall to the north. A stunning view that we’ll revisit later in our trip. We caught the shuttle just in time when we first were entering McCarthy. It was a short drive to downtown and then we caught a free shuttle up to Kennecott. Once up at the old mining town, we got to explore some of the old buildings while we waited to check in for our tour. You can roam the old post office and commissary, some of the old cabins, and even the community hall where they held dances, church services, showed movies, and other entertainment. St. Elias Alpine Guides is the only tour company with exclusive access to Kennecott Copper Mill. We started by up the short path to the 14th floor of the abandoned copper mill and my husband started questioning my trip planning judgment for a second time :) Not only were we high over the valley, we had to sign a waiver and don some hardhats before entering the seemingly dilapidated building. In fact, at the end of our tour, our guide stated that there used to be more buildings included in the tour but they had recently collapsed. Nonetheless, the tour was extremely interesting as we walked through the processes used to break down copper that was coming in from the mine above. As we went down through each floor, a new step in the process was explained and stories shared of the miners experiences. When the mine was abandoned in 1938, the head honchos wanted to work until the very last second. They announced the last train was departing from town only 2 hours ahead of time, giving residents no time to gather items. Everything was abandoned and it was definitely noticeable when we got to the bottom floors and saw shoes and gloves and tools just left to deteriorate. At it’s height, Kennecott Copper Mill produced 25% of the world’s copper and it is still considered the richest area of copper in the world. It was such a cool place to explore and you can even stay in the hotel in town! You would schlep your luggage over the footbridge and get picked up from the Kennecott Lodge Shuttle to take you into town. Given more time, and maybe without our little littles in tow, it would be so interesting to also have gone to the Kennecott cemetery, where it is said to have listed causes of death - some being a little gruesome - on the headstones. After our tour, we caught a shuttle back into McCarthy and grabbed dinner at the Roadside Potato. We have been to it’s sister restaurant on our trips to Valdez and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat there again. We got some ice cream at the local commissary and made our way back to our campsite. Though we missed the last shuttle out, it wasn’t a bad walk back over the footbridge. The next morning, we walked back up to the footbridge, but instead of going across, we made our way to the edge towards the glacier lake. Those glacier views never get old and we had a great time just taking in the views and playing at the edge of the lake. We visited Memorial Day weekend and the lake seemed to be frozen over, but upon further inspection we had stumbled upon some candle ice! Candle ice is another name of rotten ice that is breaking down during spring melt into perpendicular geometric pillars that is so fascinating to play with. The best way to see it in action is to check out our Instagram Reel. But to describe in words, I will say that it’s very unstable and we were easily able to push through it. I wished I had had my kayak to skim across the top of it. It made a wind-chime sound as we scooped it up and pushed it around. It was very clear glacier lake ice as the water on top had frozen with the sediment falling to the bottom. We all thought it was so cool! We had planned to stay three nights at our campground near McCarthy but to ease my husband’s mind about the drive back, we ended up leaving after two nights. It just felt better to get the McCarthy Road under our belt and then to finish our drive back to Fairbanks the next day. The drive was about 7 1/2 hours in total. Our weekend was honestly incredible, learning about the history of the area. Would I recommend everyone visits McCarthy? Not necessarily. While I really enjoyed the trip, you have to have a pretty big sense of adventure to make the trek. Another way - an easier way - to visit Wrangell St. Elias National Park is to just stop at the visitor’s center near Glennallen. The visitor’s center sits at the edge of the park with gorgeous views, interesting facts, and a little 20 minute video that goes into impressive detail about the park. There are trails and viewpoints around the visitors center to get a little more perspective of this impressive section of Alaska. If you want even more of an adventure than we took, another way to explore the park is by bush plane. There is an air service out of McCarthy and many public cabins around the park with their own runway so visitors can fly out and enjoy the vast wilderness away from civilization. Or staying closer to town, there are river rafting tours and glacier hiking tours of differing lengths and skill levels. Is Wrangell St. Elias National Park on your bucket list? We’d love to know if you’d add anything or if you have any questions! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
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AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
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