Day 19 Roads worse than India....Hyder , Alaska

Top of Salmon Glacier

Bear coming out from the jungle

Helicopter compared to the ice field

Things found in Hyder, Alaska

Looking for Fish

We are still in Stewart , going in and out from USA and Canada between Hyder and Stewart. The road in Hyder, Alaska is worse than the roads in India after Monsoon. We drove 21 miles on such road ot see the top of the Salmon Glacier. The ice field is huge and the helicopter in the picture shows some indication of the size. We were lucky to get the Sun shine at the right time too. This is the only Glacier that you can drive to the top of the ice field ( or near it)

We also, spent lot of time at Fish Creek where Salmon were spawning. They are huge and lots of them. The bears come there to eat and people were waiting with powerful cameras. It seems like these professionals wait there for many hours to get the pictures we see on TV. We waited for an hour and were rewarded bt four bears. They come quietly and eat and waste precious salmon. The birds eat the rest.

We walked around the town and Jagdish went for a bike ride and in half an hour he had gone everywhere and taken pictures. The whole place is few blocks full of antiques. It all started with a gold mine in 1910 but not sure why it still exsits. But, it is unspoiled nature...

We are watching the Lord of the Rings and getting ready for a long drive tomorrow. Good night and i am so glad that the SUN came out today.

Day 18: Where in the world is Hyder???

A Glacier on the way to Stewart

A lake on highway 37

Bear Crossing

Hyder, USA

Stewart , Canada

Here are two questions:

1) Where can you enter the USA without any passport or the visa??

2) Why is Hyder part of united states??? I think we should start a petition to gift Hyder to Canada

We started very early 7am and drove 450 miles today to Stewart. To describe the drive in few words, it will be Bears, Glaciers, Lakes , rivers and Mountains. It is beautiful, I wish we had allowed more time for it. People said it will take 12 t o15 hours ( they do not know my driving) we did it in less than nine and stopped for all 10 bears, glaciers and other pretty stuff. We are staying at Stewart and it looked like an old third world country place till we drove a mile to Hyder. Hyder reminds me of Jagdish's old home in Indore, India. It is hard ot believe it is still America, may be a forgotten part. But, it is gorgeous ( or stunning). There are Eagles feasting on Salmons, salmons swimming upstream, Bears eating Salmons and berries and birds eating the leftovers. Glaciers overhanging and streams flowings...it is an amazing place.

We are staying at an inn that looked totally run down from outside. I looked at Jagdish's face and knew he was very disappointed. But, when we walked in: the room is amazing and has all the facilities. The name of the place is ," Ripley creek inn" they have ducks, chickens and other water fowls in residence.

Good night for now and hopefully tomorrow will be a sunny day too...

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Day 17: Watson Lake ( still in Yukon)

Sign Forest

More Signs ( 77,000 of them)

First nation ( remember we are in Canada) heritage center

Mushroom at the campground

A cookie cutter bridge on Alsaka highway

It is still Sunny and we are still in Yukon. We drove on Alaska Highway for about 300 miles. It is 1500 miles long and goes through mountains, lakes and small towns, nothing too exciting. But exciting part is how and why it was built. It started as an emergency project during the WWII to have road access to Alaska. ( a Strategic point nearest to Japan) . It was built just in nine months with 20,000 workers and 125 million dollars. It is said that USA started the project before even Canada approved it ( what if Canada does something like that to us??) . Now it is maintained by Canada.

We are staying at a campground at the junction of highway 37 and Alaska Highway near Watson Lake. The town is nothing much, 1500 people, a gas station , grocery store etc. But has this “ Sign Forest” a collection of over 70,000 signs ( mostly license plates from all over) . It is quite interesting. There is a father and son cafe at the campground and we ate there instead of cooking and it was one of the best Italian foods.

I have no internet and no BB reception. Feel isolated and lost. Hopefully I will have both tomorrow and you will get three blogs all at once. Till then good night and do not let the mosquitoes bite ( plenty of them here…downside of not rain) .

Day 16 White Horse : Where the Wild things are

USS Klondike: A replica of the boat used by Stampede rs on 1893

Musk-ox

Mountain Goats

Downtown White Horse

Caribu

I am blogging from the campground of lake Takhini Hot Springs at Whitehorse. The Hot springs are really hot and nice. We went at 8am when no one was there , now I just went and it is full of kids as well as European sounding young people. Seems to be a popular thing to do here.

We went to the wild life habitat and it was nice. They have lots of space for the animals and you just walk around and see what you see. We saw quite a few but no Moose or Arctic Fox L Today is sunny but still cold from a Californian point of view.

We learned that Yukon’s population is around 30,000 out of which 26,000 live in white horse, I guess rest of the area is pretty empty. Downtown was nice, has several cute shops historic and artsy as well as tourist traps. The library was quit impressive and has longer hours than our Los Altos one and has free internet.

The boat , US Klondike is a replica of the boat stampedes used ( the gold seekers) to get to Dawson City, another 400 miles away. So, they came for Gold from all over the world, took a ship t oSkagway ( three months) than did the grueling hike of over 140 limes ( over the 10,000 feet mountain pass) with a one year supply of food to Whitehorse and than took the boat to Dawson city. Quite an accomplishment ( or greed) …only 100 out of 100,000 that came got rich.

Good night and will talk to you tomorrow

Day 15 : Look there is SUN :White Horse, Yukon Territory

Small Desert in the middle of rain forest

Cyclist ready to go down to Skagway

Chilkoot Trail done by the Gold seekers in 1896

Bridge on the road from Skagway to Alaska Highway

LAke at the campground

After a week of rain and no SUN, we drove from Skagway to White Horse, YT. This is our most northern point in the journey and we will start back tomorrow. Road from Skagway to Alaska Highway is very scienic and goes though 10,,000 feet peaks , huge water falls and a a very very desert . White Horse is the capital of Yukon, i will post pictures tomorrow. There are twice as many Moose than people here, but people are friendlier. We met a local who is from Serbia.

We are staying at a campground at Takhini hot springs. It was freezing cold last night , so we are going to buy more winter stuff today. JAgdish loves the wood gathering and cleaning , so it works out well. I like the feeling of outdoors. Last night wolves were hauling all night....sort of cool. The hot springs are very nice. No internet there , so i may not post something tonight but i will catch up tomorrow. Right now, i am sending this from the down town and found a hot spot :) Take care and talk to you soon.

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Day 14: Wild things in Skagway, and Dyea

SO, I found her....

And more wild things

View of Skagway and the ships

Train Station

Skagway river

Road to Dyea, there are Bald Eagles and the Bear was supposed to be there too

We got to Skagway last night at midnight and drove into the town. There was nothing open and no street lights. But, the town is small enough that we were able to find the Bed and Breakfast with not much problem. The inn is really historic, right in the middle of historic down town and was built in 1897. The name is “ Historic Skagway inn”. Rooms are nice and clean and furnished with antiques but the floors creek and the walls have no insulation but that;s what one gets when they stay at the historic inn,

Skagway is tiny. Total of 400 people live year around but the population swells up to 8,000 or more in summer. There are at least 4000 tourists that come everyday and they were saying few years ago it used ot be 10,000 ( bad economy right now) .

Oh, you will never guess who we met ( well not really) but yes, she ( Sarah Palin) grew up here and they love her. They have a store dedicated to her, her calendars, CDs, books, tourist stuff with her on it and even larger than life cutout of her. I find it so hard to believe.

We learned about the Klondike gold rush of 1896 when over 100,000 people from all over the world came to find gold in Dawson creek. They came by ships to Skagway and walked 500 miles to the city through the mountain passes and frozen lakes and avalanches. This is how Skagway and the sister city Dyea started. It turns out that lots of those who came, died or returned sick and they say only 100 out of them got any gold. But people who “ mined the miners” , took care of them, made lot of money. Backpackers still do the "CHilkoot trail" ( one of the challenging hikes in America) We did the beginning mile of it, straight uphill.

Most of Skagway is national historic monument and buildings and streets are from that era , It is very pretty and walk able city. We saw bald Eagles on the beached and wild mushrooms on the trails. Here is an interesting question :

Why there are so many jewelry shops in all the ports that cruise ships visit???? I asked several people and no one could answer it..

Let me know if you have a theory. I may send this tomorrow morning because the internet is acting up right now. Good night and let me know the answer…

Day 13 Ferry from Juneau to Skagway

Gondola to Mount Robertson in Juneau

View from Mount Robertson

Bald Eagle

Bus getting loaded on the Ferry

A Glacier seen from the Ferry to Skagway

We are travelling by the local Ferry from Juneau to Skagway. It is still raining and the hope is that it will rain less in Skagway. We just saw several whales and two glaciers , if it was sunny it would have been gorgeous. But, it is still nice .

The quote of the day is from a young father, we were having coffee in a local cafe and this family with a seven year old boy was about to sit next to us ( outside the cafe) and the Dad said, “ **** we have to sit next to Subway, the boy asked what is wrong with Subway Dad? ( there was a subway sandwich shop next door) . The Dad , “ I hate that obnoxious sandwich smell “ ‘ and walked off( a big huff) with the kid and the wife. I wonder how will that kid turn out…..

We took the Mount Robortson Gondola up the mountain and learned a lot from the local Tilgit ( local tribe) owned operation. They have a treaty with the US government and own and operate lot of businesses on the Alaska Islands and are doing quite well integrating as well as preserving their culture. The local guide did talk about her parents generation when the American schools will make the kids wash their mouths with soap if they spoke in Tilgit language. SO, one generation grew up not speaking the language and with the idea that they where inferior to the Europeans ( usual stories) but things are changing and kids are learning both , English as well as their culture and the language. There is so much food off the land here that there is no word for “starvation” in their language and it seems like they lived off the land for thousands of years before Russians came and things changed.

We will get to Skagway at 11 pm so I may not post this tonight. Oh, one more thing : A little bit of panic yesterday when I tried to book a hotel in Skagway, there was no vacancy …L It turns out there are not many hotels there and most are prebooked by cruise line but there are lots of Bed and Breakfast. So, we will be staying at e Historic Bed and Breakfast tonight. I will let you know how it went…Good night and please pray to the rain God for us.

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