On day 112, from crossing over into Canada mid June near Glacier National Park, we crossed back over into the US and headed to Fidalgo Bay, where we spent nine nights facing Fidalgo Bay at Fidalgo Bay Resort near Anacortes, WA, and then moved for two nights to be with the other ten coaches, which were part of the Newmar Kountry Klub Full-timer’s North Cascades Roving Rally. From Anacortes our group of eleven coaches traveled Hwy 20 through the Cascade Mountains with stops in Twisp, Chelan and Monitor, WA along the way. We enjoyed the rally and the drive was beautiful with many apple orchards and vineyards along the route. Our friends Don and Donna were in the rally and we had a great time geocaching and wine tasting with them at many Chelan Valley wineries. Several of the wines were very good and we ended up purchasing a couple of cases. To date there are over 600 wineries in Washington state and several varieties of apples are also grown in the area. We found a new favorite apple for us called a Spitzenberg, which is a crisp apple, but less tart than a Granny Smith.
After the rally ended, we headed south east to Moab, UT.
Before crossing back into the US, we stopped outside of Vancouver.
Click on the photo to see our photos from downtown Vancouver.
On the way south we detoured a few miles to visit Hyder, AK. Instead of taking the RV back into Alaska, we stayed on the Canadian side at Bear River Rv Park in Stewart, BC. While in the area we took a self guided tour of Glacier Highway, which is a barely maintained dirt road, to Salmon Glacier and also stopped at the bear viewing area at Fish Creek to see if any bears were around. The salmon season was over and we didn’t see any bears.
Click on the photo to see the photos of the glaciers in the area.
The beautiful fall foliage made the drive southbound much more enjoyable than the drive going north earlier this summer.
Click on the photo to see more fall foliage photos from our drive southbound through Alaska, the Yukon and British Columbia.
Instead of heading south to the lower 48 the first week of September, we decided to go back to Denali National Park to see Denali in beautiful fall foliage colors and then head south. Denali Riverview had already closed for the season, so we stayed five nights at Denali Motel and RV Park, until they too closed for the season. The weather was still rainy and I watched several weather forecasts to decide which of the four days to choose for our eight hour trip into the park, which turned out to be our last day in the area. The day could not have been more perfect. There were very few clouds in the sky and Mount Denali was in full view all day long, so we are now two for two on seeing Denali’s summit. On the 132 mile round trip green shuttle bus ride to Eielson Visitor Center, we saw four caribou, a wolf, a grizzly bear and several sheep, but no moose. After we got back from Eielson, we returned to our campground, had dinner and then went back to the park with the intent of getting sunset photos of Mount Denali, but we encountered six moose in the tundra/taiga area, so getting moose photos trumped getting sunset photos of Mount Denali.
It’s been a great summer and we’ve really enjoyed our Alaskan adventure, but it’s time to head south, before all the campgrounds close for the season and/or it starts snowing.