CHUCKLING CHIMES: TRAVEL: TRAILERING: 2011

Penny and Mike Grant's Website about Lifelong Learning

TRAVELS IN CANADA

For a while now, we have been planning to drive across Canada. However, Canada is an enormous country and one trip won't be enough. So in July and August of 2011 we made the first part of our journey. We trailered through southern British Columbia Northern Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Northern British Columbia.

We have started a blog called "Canada with Mike and Penny.". The first part is based on hand written journals Penny kept during July and August, 2011 - our "True Grit Trip to the North.

NORTHERN ALBERTA, NWT, AND NORTHERN BC

Here is a brief outline of our 2011 trip north. We started in Whister with family.

Here we at our Whistler campsite.

Here are our family getting ready to zipline.

I wore my survivor buff to avoid the bugs!

Fly fishing in Whistler was great.

We drove up the Duffy Lake Rd to Lilloette. Lunch was at a lookout above the muddy Fraser River.

We spent a few days in spectacular Mount Robson Park - but we never saw the peak of the mountain.

Later we crossed into Alberta. Then up to Edmonton and beautiful Elk Island National Park.

This was Lexy's first RV trip with us. She was very good - apart from rolling in fresh buffalo dung to make herself smell natural. Here she is at lovely Elk Island.

After a trip to see Fort MacMurray, we headed south, then west, then north again. Eventually we arrived at Hay River, NWT. Hay river is a sea port with access up the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean. these are tugs up on "the hard."

From there we drove out to Fort Smith at the north tip of Wood Buffalo National Park.

Wood Buffalo Park was spectacular. We saw:

- Bear tracks in salt flats,

- Bison

- More bison, and

- A lot of gravel roads.

Up in Yellowknife, NWT we admired the museum, the enormous and amazing Great Slave Lake, and Will and Kate's colourful garden.

Later we drove out to Fort Liard and stayed in the community campground by pretty Hay Lake.

There were a lot of mosquitoes in the North.

We drove for thousands of miles through the immense and always interesting boreal forest. Here we are on the way to Fort Nelson in northern B.C.

We camped at beautiful Summit Lake

in Stone Mountain Provincial Park west of Fort Nelson.

Liard Hot Springs on the Alaska Highway was lovely.

The Stewart Cassiar Highway to Meziaden Junction and Battle Creek near Hazelton was stunning.

At Prince Rupert, on the coast, we caught the Northern Expedition and sailed down the Inland Passage to Port Hardy.

We crossed over to Powell River. We had stayed at the docks here on our cruise to Desolation Sound in May. Then we headed down to Halfmoon Bay, North Vancouver and back home to Vancouver Island.