Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Blackfoot, Idaho to Muncho Lake, BC

We have traveled a lot in the last 10 days.  In Blackfoot, Idaho, we stayed at a closed restaurant parking lot close to a city park.  We got a nice walk in around the park.  The next day we moved to Salmon, Idaho.  The drive thru Idaho was very beautiful.  In Salmon we stayed at a boondocking spot listed in Day's End - fishing access North of town by the Salmon River.  This was a very nice spot and close enough to town that we could walk in and look around.  We stayed in our first Elks the next night at Kalispell, Idaho.  Got to do some shopping at Costco.  On Wednesday May 22 we moved into Canada.  We had no problems at the border, but we had problems finding a place for the night.  Our original intent was to stay at Radium Hot Springs.  But it was rainy when we got there and we decided to go on into Banff National Park.  After paying $18 to drive thru the park, we had to unhook the car because the grades were posted at 11%, although we never found the 11%.  We finally stopped at a rest area and realized that we were a few miles from a really nice overflow parking area near Lake Louise that allowed overnight camping.  
The next day we got our highways mixed up and ended going 100 miles out of our way to Golden, AB.  That is not good when you are paying over $4 per gallon for gas and the motorhome is averaging around 5 MPH. So we got more gas and got on the right road.  Traveling between Lake Louise and Jasper is beautiful but we had a rainy day so we did not get to see as much.  We left the park and ended up at Hinton, AB where we stayed at Walmart again and got gas, again.  This was a quieter Walmart.  
The next day, Dean wanted to change the oil and work on the rig a bit.  So we broke off with the Poutney's for the night and stayed at Kakwa Recreation Area in a no fee campground outside of Grand Cache, BC.  Rained all day but we truly enjoyed this little campground.  No one was there and it was very quiet.  
On Saturday we meet the Poutney's and the Moore's in Dawson Creek at the Walmart.  We went to the famous start of the Alaska highway and took lots of pictures. Around 5:00, Sandy Murray and Keith Forrester joined us at the Walmart.  Now we have 4 out of 5 rigs that are traveling to Alaska this summer.  We are not sure where Gregg and Sally Schindel are at this point.  We will meet up with them later. 
Sunday we all took off and drove to a closed Provincial Park on the Prophet river.  What a lovely place to stay.  We practically had the campground to ourselves.  And the weather was great.  Took a long walk and had a nice fire.  
Today we drove thru fantastic scenery to Muncho Lake.  We are staying in Strawberry Flats CG with all of our rigs looking out at the beautiful turquoise water of Muncho Lake.  Animal sitings to date:  3 adult bears and 2 cubs, stone sheep, moose and baby, badger, marmot, 6 caribou, and lots of deer.

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