Well after Wyoming we drove through Billings, Montana on our way to the Canadian border. Billings was such a small, old city it was really weird driving through.
There were a lot of big plateaus and huge cliff drops off the city of the road. Here's Craig checking one out, pretty far drop to the bottom.
We stopped at a little town closer to the border and getting out of the car kind of looked like the scene out of a western cowboy movie or something. Everything was pretty simple and definitely far from the city life.
Next we made it through the border into Canada despite an outstanding ticket or two that I've got. Even though it was just the Canadian border I was a little nervous but it only took less than 5 minutes, they just asked us a few questions and we were on our way.
Once we got into Canada we saw the gas prices (as much as $6.36/gallon at one point) and decided we were probably going to have to sleep in the car the entire way of the trip. Surprisingly, with about 6 blankets, a few camping sleeping matts and tons of pillows it was kind of comfortable. Here's were we slept that first night in Canada, a Canadian Tire parking lot.
In Calgary we stopped to get gas and saw this old olympic training facility. There were some chair lifts too looked like a real small resort right on the side of the road but they were already closed for the season.
We drove through Banff National Park, stopped at Lake Louise and couldn't get enough of the huge Canadian Rockies. It was pretty damn cool.
This was up towards Lake Louise, I think.
Ah this was the first sweet wild animal we saw. This guy looked hungry but luckily I had a telephoto lens I was able to zoom in quite a bit on. We saw a few more black bears along the way including one that tried sprinting across the road right in front of us. Hitting a black bear at 80 mph would have sucked.
Some more wildlife along the way. Throughout the drive we saw a few black bears, caribou, moose, dear, wild horses, elk and buffalo.
This was the stop that cost the most for gas, something like $6.36/gallon so we got just enough to get us by. My car went to ---- display for how many miles till we were empty, which meant less than 10 miles i think until we were completely empty. Cut it close but we were fine.
Almost to the US border in this picture, I think this was Whitehorse in the Yukon Canada but this place had over 70,000 signs from all over the world.
Holy crap finally in Alaska. The last 150 miles or so of the Alaskan Highway in the Yukon were absolutely terrible! I've never seen such extreme frost heaves and huge pot holes the entire width of my car. We hit one going 60mph and the check engine light came on along with traction control and cruise control flashing. Made me a little nervous but luckily it was just a wire lose that we played around with and they went off. The rest of the drive was fine but can you guess which side of the road was Canada and which side was the United States in this picture of the border?
Finally in Alaska, we stayed at a Westmark hotel in Fairbanks since it was owned by the same company we work for and got a room for $35. We made the mistake of going into one local bar with nothing but local natives (eskimos) where we walked in and everyone stopped their conversation and stared at us. It was one of the most awkward social situations of my life so we just had one beer and left. We then drove down the highway and through Denali National and State Park with some incredible views. We ran out of money so since we were hungry Craig decided to eat the bugs that had been collecting on my front bumper for lunch.
So ya we are finally here. After a week of long ass presentations, speeches, and training, we open for business tomorrow. Our boss is super cool, the other bartender seems alright and our whole staff in the Grizzly Bar is pretty cool. Should be a fun season especially with mid-night sunsets like these last 3 pictures, two of which were taken on my cell phone. With free or deeply discounted activities like fishing, ATV rides, scenic helicopter rides of glaciers, train rides, hiking, rafting, kayaking, etc, we should have some sweet pictures to follow these up with.
