What Vast Is

Posted by Daria The Yukon Territory is the epitome of “vast.” Forests spread across the land in all directions, interrupted occasionally by a mountain or a river or a rare dirt road. You can decide to pass up a gas station and live to regret it. Yukon is home to about 32,000 people. Imagine the [...]

Ice Age, Explained

Posted by Sierra Long ago, before and during the last great ice age, a land bridge connected Siberia with North America. This was how woolly mammoths, as well as other animals, came to North America. You may be wondering several things, such as,”Where did Beringia go?” The answer is: Nowhere. Beringia is still there, except [...]

Frantic Fun

Posted by Sierra “What did the mama buffalo say to her baby buffalo as he headed off to school?” “Bye-son!” This is just one of the jokes that can be heard at the Frantic Follies show in Whitehorse, Yukon. There are many other jokes to keep you laughing—including bad and good ones. Founded by Jim [...]

Wi-Fi is the new HBO

Posted by Stan Older towns that once served roads other than interstate highways are full of signs hanging on shuttered motels advertising “color TV” and “free cable TV” or, if they were cutting edge, “HBO.” Today the signs on chain hotels that mostly serve interstates more likely advertise “high speed Internet” — and any more [...]

These Springs Are Hot

Posted by Daria Many guidebooks tout Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park as a must-do stop on the Alaska Highway. It’s a lovely park, and the hot springs are pretty nice. Unfortunately, our visit there coincided with the first warm hours we had experienced in many days. And it’s not much fun to be sitting in [...]

“The Golden Heart of Alaska”

Posted by Daria That’s what Fairbanks calls itself. The second-largest city in Alaska, Fairbanks is big and sprawling. It reminded me of Las Cruces, N.M., with a college off at one side, a small downtown, a large mall, and a lot of strip malls and stand-alone businesses. Stan says it’s a town that shows the [...]

Inside the Inside Passage Towns

Posted by Sierra Along the Alaska’s Inside Passage, tourists frequently visit several towns. These are easily accessible by ferry (see: “The Alaska Marine Highway System” by Sierra). We are going to journey through many of these towns. Here we goooooooooooo! Our first stop is Ketchikan. This used to be Alaska’s largest city but is currently [...]

Canada does not open until 8 a.m.

Posted by Stan Don’t head out too early if you are driving into Canada from Haines, Alaska. The border is closed from midnight until 8 a.m. Canadian (11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Alaskan time). By then we’d already backtracked to spend more time ogling a grizzly bear. The fellow taking our passports at 8:30 (7:30 [...]

A Highway on the Water

Posted by Sierra Beep! Hoooooooooonk! Toot-toot! Here come the cars on the Alaska Marine Highway System! What’s this—they’re boats? That’s right! The AMHS is a stretch of water around much of Alaska’s coast. On the AMHS, the most common source of transportation is by ferry. No, not the magical flying kind with wands, the boat [...]

Where we are, June 11

We’re still traveling the Inside Passage on the Alaskan Marine Highway, having boarded and exited three different ferries (had to back off the second, at 1 o’clock in the morning, but survived). We’ll bunk three nights in Juneau, just below the Mendenhall Glacier, before getting on a ferry for Haines. Photos from the first day [...]

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