Our way to Alaska, July 8th – 15th

We’re all packed and ready to go, or we thought, we got a little ways down the road and realized we forgot our lodging information.

The view coming into Butte MT

A quick stop in Wallace ID, a snarky mayor claims it to be the center of the universe after a federal government fiasco.

Spokane Falls, Riverfront Park, nice walking area, in the process of a 4-5 year renovation.

Fountain in the park. Lots of panhandlers on the streets nearby.

When you can’t decide what to do next in Spokane they have a wheel for you to spin.

Snow in the mountains by Abbotsford BC. There was a 4.6 magnitude earthquake in Seattle today and aftershocks were felt in this area.

Columbia River, somewhere between Spokane and Seattle. Across the River is the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park, covering about 6,000 acres with 200 varieties of wood including the Ginkgo.

Some of us thinks this is a given, apparently others need to be told. Tunnel; remove sunglasses.

Beautiful country side, to bad it was cloudy most of the day. we’ve been driving through off and on rain showers everyday, other than the wicked thunderstorm in ND it hasn’t been too bad.

Net fishing, at the Moricetown Indian Reservation, we were told that this was the only reservation that was able to sell the salmon they netted. We got there just as they were taking a break, they’re catching sockeye, commented that it they were a couple weeks early.

Long drives, beautiful scenery. 450 miles takes about 10 hours on 2 lane highway, the roads have been nice lots of hills and curves, slow speed limit and had to wait for passing lanes.

The Butze Rapids trail, just outside of Prince Rupert, 3.8 miles, rolling hills, and through a rain forest.

We found this ugly banana slug on the side of the trail. We put a nickel beside it so you can see just how big it was.

We toured the North Pacific Cannery, very informative and interesting. Built in 1889 they still have equipment that is in working order. It was a mix of nationalities that worked here. Europeans managed it with Japanese, First Nation People providing the labor. The whole family would come and work during the fishing season.

Biggest whale statue in Canada, located in the Rotary Park, Prince George BC.

Moving into the staging area for the ferry. There was eight lanes but only six lanes on this ferry. They loaded you depending on how far you were traveling.

Boarded the ferry at 1:00 AM, walking the deck while we wait for the 2:00 AM departure. It still gets dark here but only from about 11:00 PM to 4:30 AM.