North...to Alaska! Part 1.

On the AlCan Hwy in northern B.C.

For the summer of 2025 we set out for an extended camping trip with our Casita to Alaska. The first part of our ride would follow the path of my motorcycle trip in 2019, (see: My bike ride to Alaska ). That trip covered 7,100 miles in 19 days, but only went to Fairbanks with a side trip to the Arctic Circle, this time we planned on staying at Denali National Park and then go to the Kenai Peninsula. I figured even with the extended mileage we would be done in about 6 weeks. As it turned out, I really underestimated the time it would take, but that's all part of the fun, right?

 

In preparing for the trip, I had the truck and trailer thoroughly prepared. We even carried an extra battery for the trailer which turned out to be a good idea! We had our mail transferred to our Angelo address since we would be gone longer than the USPS would hold mail. This turned into a bit of a fiasco; we were expecting our new tags for the Tacoma the week before we departed but the 

post Office stopped delivery to our current address a week earlier than we requested so our tags were held up and we could not get to them! I was able to go to the DMV and get a replacement set of tags. After the trip we found the original tags in our mail, so now I have a spare set!

Our first days drive took us to a remote BLM campground in Northeast California, (Ramhorn Springs). Not a bad site and the fee is voluntary! While hiking around, Shelly almost stepped on a rattlesnake, so we had our first exciting encounter with wildlife!

At Ramshorne Springs CG.

We continued north, stopping for lunch at Goose Lake where there is a nice CG and day use area. Then we entered eastern Oregon, following my motorbike trip's course, through Burns and ending up at Idlewild CG in the Malheur National Forest. Then next day we went through Pendleton to get to a very remote USFS campsite. We noticed we were having low voltages in our trailer's battery, we were a little concerned...

The next day we decided to find an RV repair shop in Pendleton and we fortunately found a good one! The guys at Drake's RV service found our problem: the towing vehicles plug had corroded terminals. They quickly replaced that and we were on our way! Thanks to the guys at Drakes!

On northward we continued, still following my bike's trail up to Scooteney Reservoir and campground where we decided to stay for the weekend.

Sunset at Scooteney Reservoir, WA.

From Scooteney we headed to Bridge port, with a side trip to view the Grand Coulee dam. The drive up to the Dam was beautiful. 

On the road to Grand Coulee Dam.

At the dam itself.

After Grand Coulee, we pulled into Bridgeport State Campground. It's pretty nice, not cheap but there were free showers!

The next day was a long one but brought us into Canada! We crossed the border at Osoyoos with no trouble at all, drove through Penticton and finished a long day at the campground at Lac le Juene Provincial Park.

Made it to BC!

First campsite in Canada, Lac le Juene!

From Lac le Juene we drove up to Kamloops and did some shopping there. After that we proceeded up to close to 70 Mile House and camped at Sunset Lake Provincial Park. Nice CG, and we were able to enjoy a swim in the lake as it had been pretty warm.

The next day we drove up to Prince George and stayed at a private campground, "Northern Experience". We encountered the rain of our trip this day between Quesnel and Prince George.

We then drove to Moberly Lake Provincial Park. Shelly found a huge earthworm at the site!

Yep, that's a big one!

We then reached Dawson Creek and the start of the AlCan Highway! We stayed at a private CG and loaded up with water as we had encountered several parks that had boiled water orders in place. 

At mile 0 of the Alcan at Dawson Creek.

The next few days were spent driving into the Canadian Rockies. We were a little disappointed by the lack of wildlife on this stretch, but the scenery was pretty amazing! We stopped at MacDonald CG near Muncho Lake. Cloudy and cool so we didn't swim, but we took some nice photos.

Muncho Lake in the Rockies.

We had a very short day following Muncho Lake deciding to stop at Laird River Hot Springs Provincial Park which was less than 40 miles down the road. It was a wise choice since this is a very popular campground thanks to the lovely hot springs. We were able to snag a nice campsite and then enjoyed a dip in the hot springs.

At Laird Hot Springs.

The Canadian Rockies.

 The weather at this point turned rainy and cool but we did finally encounter wildlife! We came upon a small herd of Woodland Bison along side the road. 

On the way to Watson Lake.

We arrived at Watson Lake fairly quickly. It was rainy and wet. We viewed the "Signpost Forest" and got gas. I had to slog through mud puddles to fill up. Watson Lake is not a great place to stay, and it was early so we moved on, eventually stopping a Tilsen Lake after a long 300 mile day.

Signpost Forest at Watson Lake.

The next day we drove to a Yukon Provincial Park just outside of Haines Junction, (Pine Lake). The weather had cleared and it was good to see blue skies again. There was a very nice bike path leading from the campground to the town which we walked along. However, the warning signs for bears was a little disconcerting!

We were now getting close to Alaska! Past Haines Junction, the road condition deteriorated quite a bit! We had planned on one more night in Yukon, but the site we planned to stop at was pretty dismal, so we opted for a place just about 12 miles inside Alaska, a free USFWS campground at Deadmans Lake.

Welcome to Alaska!

The border crossing was easy and we were soon at Deadman Lake, which is operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Deadman Lake, Alaska. (BTW, the canoes are available for free for the campers' use!)

We enjoyed a relatively short drive today, driving from Deadman Lake to Tok. We stayed at the Tundra RV Park which was reasonably priced. The park had an RV washing station which our trailer badly needed. There were also showers which we also needed! After dealing with limited water supplies across BC and Yukon, it was nice to have access to potable water, and we filled our tank and a couple of  water bottles. Tok is a fairly large town with most of the amenities you need. It gets a lot of RV traffic so there are a lot of facilities. 

We had dinner at Fast Eddies and they happened to have a prime rib special that night that was great. They also have an old fashioned salad bar, something I haven't seen since COVID!  

From Tok we proceeded to Fairbanks and spent a couple of days there. We stayed at Riverside CG. It was a nice enough place with showers and near most facilities, but it is also near the freeway so we got a bit of traffic noise. 

While in Fairbanks I found a place that stocked Curt sway bars at online prices! Our old sway bar had lost a brake pad so I needed a replacement. I swung buy and picked the new one up. 

When we arrived at Fairbanks, we noticed there was a bit of smoke in the air. This was disconcerting because there had been a lot of wild fire activity and that could impact our trip to Denali.

Smokey skies in Fairbanks.

Fortunately, some rain moved through the region during our stay in Fairbanks, and that knocked back a lot of the wildfire activity! We left Fairbanks, heading south with cloudy skies and light showers and arrived at Nenana for a very short day. There was no sign of wildfires at all.

This huge bridge is just outside Nenana.

The next day we left Nenana and drove a short distance to Tatlanika. We arrived early and since there wasn't much going on at Tatlinka we decided to drive down to 49th State Brewery. We had tried their beer already and enjoyed it so we thought we'd check it out. Pretty nice place and actually not far from Denali.

At last, we headed for Denali National Park! For much of the trip we had been concerned about actually arriving in time for our reservations but here were were! After Denali, we wouldn't be concerned about hitting any particular dates.

We made it!

Denali covers a vast area, there would be no way to see all of it, so we had to pick a few things to do. First of all, we hit the Visitors' Center and gathered some useful information.

We wanted to hike a bit, so the next day we took a the trail to the Mt. Healy Overlook. It was a tough little hike after spending so much time driving, but the view from the overlook was worth it! 

Mt. Healy Overlook.

After the hike we went for a drive up to the Savage River trailhead. While heading out there we were able to spot the snow capped peak of Denali itself! We were lucky to spot it on a relatively clear day.

That's Denali in the center!

We decided to take a tour bus to the "end of the road". This is where a washout has cut off the old Park Road. We hoped to spot some wildlife. While we did see some Mountain goats and a couple of Caribou at great distances. we were again a bit disappointed by the lack of animals! The scenery though, was still gorgeous! 

On our last morning, I looked out of our trailer's window and saw a moose roaming through our campground! So, at least we had one close encounter with wildlife here!

The moose at our campsite!

We left Denali and headed for Talkeetna to meet up with our friend Frank who was on his way up to Fairbanks with his sister! We camped there at met up with them the next day. It was fun to run into a familiar face!

Frank and his sister! So neat to meet up with them!

Now that we were through Denali, we were pretty much free to schedule anything for the rest of our trip. This second half of our adventure will be continued in Part 2!

In the meantime, here are the pictures!:  Alaska photo album

Taking the California Zephyr to Reno.

View from our room in the Silver Legacy.

To celebrate our 41st(!) Anniversary, I thought it would be fun to take Amtrak's California Zephyr to Reno. The Zephyr stops in Roseville, so it would be easy to hop on there. Tickets weren't too bad either and I found a good deal for a room at the Silver Legacy, which is only about a 10 minute walk from the Reno Amtrak station.  

We were able to leave our truck at the Amtrak lot in Roseville, we were told that there was a security presence so we felt it would be okay to leave the truck there for a couple of days. 

Recently I suffered from a bad case of back spasms, so I was a little concerned about making this trip. As it turned out, the Amtrak cars are pretty comfortable, and we were able to move around and visit the observation car as well, so it was not uncomfortable at all. The short walk from the Reno station to the Casino was easy and I had little discomfort during the trip.

We enjoyed two nights in a nice "Mountain View" room. We did a little gambling on the machines and walked along the river walk. We didn't really do any extravagant dining however, Shelly is concerned about her diet so we ate fairly modestly. 

So here's a few shots I took from the trip. Sorry but a lot of them are from the train car and have a little window glare on them.

Boarding at Roseville

I tried to get some shots of the local area. Here's one at the intersection of Sierra College and Del Mar.

Just past Colfax, The North Fork of the American River.

Still a little above Colfax, looking east.

Here's an interesting shot; This is where the hiking trail for Loch Leven Lakes intersects with the railroad tracks! We've been here many times!!

A seasonal creek a little above the Loch Leven Trail crossing.

And another one!

Looking at the Mount Judah, Donner Pass area.

Still around the Donner Lake area.

Along the Truckee River just outside of Reno.

The view from our room!

Cheers!

Istanbul, not Constantinople!

 

At the Taksim Meydani Square.

Before heading home, we had elected to add a short visit to Istanbul to our itinerary through Viking. It was good decision! We flew from Bucharest to Istanbul Airport. The airport is actually quite a long way from the city itself. The drive to town took a good 45 minutes with no traffic.

Now, Istanbul is a huge city, with a population of over 15 million people! The part of the city we stayed in and saw is miniscule, but really worth the visit.

Viking put us up at another excellent hotel, the Westin Istanbul Nisantasi on the western, (european) half of the city. We were a short walk to the Taksim Meydani square, a large public space with a large mosque and adjacent shopping areas. It was a bustling place!

The market area by Taksim Meydani square.

Viking had a representative at the Westin lobby. We talked to her about things to do and asked about the tour that Viking had offered, which we had neglected to buy. She said it was still available and the price wasn't too exorbitant so we joined it. She also gave us a couple of ideas about places to eat, one was a small joint just down the street from us, the Cag Kebap, that we decided to try. They had a nice beer on tap and the food was pretty good and not so expensive so it became our go-to place for meals.

The view from Cag Kebap.

The next day we began our tour. Our guide was good, he spoke well and shared a lot of interesting information. Our first stop was at the Spice Market, where we bought some spices and some "Turkish Delights", (a candy). Next stop was at the Topkapi. This museum houses tons of stuff! Many items from the past Ottoman civilization. The museum itself was once a palace for the Sultan. It overlooks the Bosporus, the narrow strait which divides Istanbul and connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and it can get quite windy at times! Incidentally, the weather in Istanbul was really quite nice, comfortable temperatures that were influenced by the bodies of water nearby. It was a nice change from the hot weather we had been encountering in eastern Europe. I'm told, however, that Istanbul can get quite hot in the summer.

It gets windy at the Topkapi!

One of the stars of the museum is the "Spoonmaker's Diamond, weighing a whooping 86 carats!

The Diamond, featured in the movie "Topkapi".

That afternoon we took a cruise on the Bosporus, the straight that divides Istanbul and connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and eventually, the Mediterranean.

It was a fun cruise and I finally got to sample Turkish Coffee while on the boat! We put in on the eastern bank at one point which allowed us the chance to set foot in Asia!

I finally made it to Asia!

After the cruise we returned to our hotel and decided to have dinner at a restaurant which was in a small mall next to our hotel. It was something of a disaster, the food mediocre and the servings were way too big despite our waiter's descriptions!

The next day's tour took us to the Hagia Sophia, originally a Christian cathedral, repurposed by the Ottomans into a Mosque. Yet the Ottomans did allow much of the Christian artwork to remain, shielded from the Muslim eyes by curtains. It's an interesting mix of Christian and Muslim artwork to be seen.

An example of the Christian art that still survives in the Hagia Sophia.

Our next stop was the Blue Mosque. In this building one has to remove one's shoes and women must have their heads veiled. Another pretty spectacular looking example of Muslim architecture and it's amazing tile work.

The Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque.

The next stop was adjacent to the Blue Mosque, the remains of the Roman Hippodrome, where chariot races were conducted in Roman times. Two obelisks remain along with a few ruined walls. Still interesting to see.

The Hippodrome

 After the Hippodrome, we were brought to a large Bazaar for one last chance to buy stuff, LOL. 

After that, we were brought back to our hotel. We went to the Cag Kebap for a last dinner.  After the previous night's dinner debacle, it was a pleasure to enjoy a simple meal and a nice beer.

Next morning we got in a van for the trip to the airport. I noticed that there was a strong police/military presence in the streets at that time, although I never did learn what was going on. At any rate, we left town with no incidents and got to the airport with plenty of time for the boarding process for the long flight home.

Thus ended our month long odyssey to Europe and Istanbul. I think we have gotten our fill of river cruising now, the next trip will be something different. The three weeks on the river was getting a bit tedious, there are just so many castles and forts you can visit! Of course, Viking did take good care of us and the facilities on the boats were first rate.

We have about $3600 in credit from Viking which we do plan to use but it will probably be on one of their ocean cruises, that will be another chapter in our travel blogs! 

Check the link below for pictures of Istanbul:

Istanbul Photos

Ruse and Bucharest; The end of the cruise but not of our travels!

 

The Palace of the Parliament is the world's largest civilian building!

We were at day 24 of our cruise, this would be our last full day on the boat. We were on the included excursion into the town of Ruse, Bulgaria. After walking with the tour, we explored the old town on our own, eventually returning to the boat for lunch and then spent the rest of the day relaxing. We were feeling the effects of three weeks of cruising and just decided to take it easy.

In "Ruse"!

Ruse itself is a nice enough town with large public squares and pedestrian-friendly avenues.

That evening our boat made it's final cruise to the port town of Giurgiu, Romania. From here we would be bused into Bucharest for our final day of the standard tour.

The next morning we had our luggage collected for our drive to Bucharest. We departed the Lofn and were bused to the town; about an hours ride.

Bucharest is quite a large city. It still exudes a bit of a Soviet vibe in a lot of the architecture, including the Parliament Building, said to be the largest civilian building in the world with over 3,000 rooms. There is also a canal passing through town which gives it an interesting twist. I think though, that I was a bit tired of passing through Eastern European cities as I wasn't really struck by anything here. 

Bucharest's canal.

We had a lunch here.

We did get to visit a large park in town which holds examples of various historical houses and such.

We spent the night at a very nice hotel that Viking had set up for us. We had a meal with some of the folks we had traveled with and called it a night. The next day, we would be flying to Istanbul!

Goodbye Bucharest and Romania!

Pictures of Ruse and Bucharest.