Jared in Alaska: Road Trip

Dad and I departed my emptied cabin in Healy, Alaska on October 3rd. We had two and a half weeks, about 6000 miles to cover, and a loose itinerary. Thankfully the only snowy roads we had to navigate were on the very first day between Fairbanks and the Canadian border. We were out of Alaska by the time it got dark, and found a hotel in the small (really small) town of Destruction Bay. We stretched our legs by hiking for a few hours in Kluane (Canadian) National Park.

The drive through Canada was of course beautiful. The weather was threatening on the Cassiar Highway, so we stayed on the Al-Can Highway route, which is the way I went through in 2007. We spent a night at nearly deserted Liard hot springs and soaked in the sulfur. Then on to Whitehorse, Fort Saint John, and then Jasper. Here we pitched our tents and unpacked big puffy sleeping bags to camp for a few nights. We hit the Jasper microbrew and had a few day hikes in the rain. We slowly drove the Icefield Parkway down through Jasper and Banff, often pull over to snap pictures. The granite mountain faces on this stretch were impressive. Like a bigger brother to Rocky Mountain National Park. As we exited Banff, someone turned off the mountains and it was flat roads and cruise control all the way to the US border. Back in the good old US or A! Cheap gas and cell service, and Glacier National Park.

Glacier was mostly deserted for the winter and most of the stores, restaurants and roads were closed until March. Dad almost cried when the family-style restaurant he had his heart set on was closed, but we found a nice hunting lodge still operating, and they served us a mighty Canadian Thanksgiving. There were still lots of accessible trails though, and hardly anyone else around. We had a grande hike the next day, and then departed for Yellowstone.

The weather was great for our time in Yellowstone, and we were there on the last weekend of operation for most of the facilities. The crowds were down and traffic was light. Cheers to off-season traveling!

Threatening to make it all the way to Mexico, we continued south to Grand Tetons National Park. That place was like a petting zoo -- there was so much wildlife. We literally saw a pack of coyotes chase a herd of antelope through a herd of bulging elk! More photos were snapped.

The next day we finally turned east and made it all the way back to Ohio in 2 days, stopping to say hi to my cousin Derrick in Chicago.

After a weekend family reunion, I was solo the rest of the way to Maryland.

It was a really great trip! The truck did beautifully with not even a flat tire and over 150,000 on the odometer. I'm really glad I got to do the trip with my Dad, and based on the number of times he yelled "PULL OVER!!" while fumbling for his camera, I think he had an awesome time too.

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