Johns Trippin'

As most readers of this blog are aware, at the start of this trip we set a goal to see all of the National Parks . We didn't really know what that meant when we started, and we only ever committed to doing our best to reach them all. A few things I didn't understand in those early days: 12 parks are not even on the US Mainland. This includes 8 parks in Alaska, 2 in Hawaii, 1 in the Virgin Islands, and 1 in American Samoa. Of the 8 parks in Alaska, only three are reachable by automobile. 1 is reachable fairly easily by ferry. 2 are  theoretically reachable by boat, but it would be a heck of a journey to either. The other 2 are definitely only reachable by air. Those last two are Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic. To be honest, I'm not sure why these are national parks. Are they beautiful? Absolutely. Should they be protected? Probably. Are there ways to do that other than a "National Park" designation? Yes. You'll hear that "national parks are owned by...

Ever thought about driving to Alaska? I'd highly recommend it, but let me offer some tips based on our experience. Your vehicle(s) will get dirty. Very, very dirty. Anything inside a compartment that is not completely sealed will be covered in dust. This includes RV storage compartments and even engine compartments. And you can't solve the problem by keeping a large following distance from the vehicle in front of you that's kicking up dust. It's coming from your own vehicle! You will hit road construction. Repeatedly. It's said that the Alaska Highway was built in 1942 and has been under construction ever since. The winters are so harsh and the construction season is so short that there is always  something to fix. And these aren't your typical construction zones. There's no "close one lane, block it off with barriers, and let traffic use the other." This is "wait 30 minutes and then follow the pace truck while it leads you inches from the loa...

On the morning of Sunday, July 17, we crossed the border into Canada. The first night we only went two hours past the border because we didn't know how long Customs would take. That night we had a campfire. Next morning we had a very long drive to Whiskers Point Provincial Park. There was a playground there. Tonight we stayed the night in a pullout somewhere in Canada. Flying the new drone Scenic highway Today we got to Liard River Hot Springs. On the way there we started the Alaska Highway. While there was a playground here, we only went on it once when we got here on account of the mosquitoes. The whole campground was surrounded by an electric fence to keep out the moose and bears. We went to the hot springs. You could get to the perfect temperature by moving away or getting closer to the source. Sometimes warm or cold pockets would drift through. That night we went to the hot springs again. There were less mosquitoes there this time. We left for a place called Pioneer RV Park. O...

North Cascades National Park had the makings of a bust. It was our last park before crossing the border, headed for Alaska. I'd be lying if I said the eight Alaska parks weren't on my mind. We were also told by a man we met a few weeks ago that the drivable part of the park was a single road through the middle with a few pullouts. That didn't sound super enticing. Visiting a park is normally the highlight of my week, but I was having a hard time hyping myself up for this one. And while it did start slow, we ended this visit with one of our all time favorite experiences in a national park. Kind of. I'll get to that shortly. The drive to the park was beautiful. We were entering the northern part of the Cascade range (hence the park's name). Our campground was about an hour away from the park, and we couldn't see the mountains from there, so it helped build the anticipation as we started seeing them in the distance while driving. Ever since they've learned that...

We made it to Gust Backstrom City Park after some windy roads. Everyone has a cold, so it made picking out a site and settling in much harder than it should of been. However, we ended up with a nice and free boondocking spot for a night, since the staff accidently gave our site away. They also threw in a slew of free firewood! We cooked some sausages and s'mores over the campfire that night. The people of the small town of Morton set off fireworks here and there for the 4th. Michael read from "The Mysterious Benedict Society" #5 in between the blasts. Since we didn't feel great and it was hard to compete with the spectacular fireworks we saw last year in Washington, DC, we watched some and went to bed. The next day, we packed up and moved into site #13 which was more level and had a better Verizon signal than our original site. It all worked out much better in the end. There was a river running by the park. The kids really liked playing with some 9 year old twins and ...