yellowhead 12-21 aug

the yellowhead highway, or known also as the trans canadian highway, takes us from where we descended from the stewart-cassiar highway in bc towards jasper national park where we have come full circle.

their are numerous small towns dotting the map along the yellowhead in bc with lots of outdoor activities...from river rafting to fishing, hiking to camping and snow skiing to snowmobiling in the winter time...they really tout their province for fun all year round.

scenery along the yellowhead

 

the worlds largest fly rod found in houston, bc

continuing our way east through prince george, bc (the largest town we had been in since fairbanks and only with ~30k), which was not a very impressive town in our opinion, we continued east on the yellowhead...through the foothills of the rockies.

once the largest town on the railroad between winnipeg and prince rupert

out front of the mcbride rail station

mcbride bird sanctuary with mostly lily pads today, no birds

back into farmland

we hit rain for a day, traveling into jasper national park but still managed a tour around town by foot.  jasper is not only one of the most gorgeous national parks but also the name of the small touristy town located within the border of the park.  town was hopping the day we went through with people everywhere from the t shirt shops, souvenir shops, pubs, restaurants and tour booking agencies.  we headed south and camped just out of town in the park in the wapiti campground, an appropriate name as this is what we found in our camp...

a small herd of wapiti

buddy and gravy enjoying the view

we tried to plan our drive south along the icefields parkway through jasper and banff (also a national park and a small touristy town) so it would hopefully be bright and sunny...and bright and sunny is what we got.  a lovely drive...

athabasca falls

rafters on the sunwatpa river

sunwapta river

sunwapta falls

the lovely columbia icefield

columbia glacier-see all the people on the bottom left--double click on the photo to see any photo enlarged

leaving the rockies and the eastern side of the foothills for the flatlands of alberta and saskatchewan

abraham lake--a gorgeous man made lake, 20 miles long on the eastern side of banff national park heading east

reflections

shundra creek in the harlech campground

our last camp fire in the rockies with all the free firewood we could use in harlech provincial park

we had been in bear country since late june and we are now headed east through the bread basket of canada and into more big skies and mountain-less terrain.

and a few more cars on the roads

consort, the last town in alberta, before crossing into the next province of saskatchewan

an old farmhouse

gooseberry lake where we camped in alberta

oil and farming in alberta

alberta is supposedly the wealthiest province in canada with oil and oil exploration...and you might say that saskatchewan is the most potholed and with the worst roads so far...

and we thought the alcan was to be bad???

that's one way to show the graduates for the year

we're not in the rockie's anymore...can you tell?

a small town girl with a BIG town sign

a town of 2,000, not far from saskatoon

one of our goals was to stop in saskatoon as that is where our rig was manufactured and we wanted to stop in at a dodge dealer where we could see if we could isolate an annoying whine we have been tolerating on and off since colorado.

we found saskatoon to be a lovely town with some of the nicest people.  we managed to find the dodge dealer and on a friday afternoon by some stroke of luck, met the owner of the place, dave, who treated us like gold.  his finest mechanic (and known as the best sprinter mechanic in north america), ken, went out on a test drive with buddy and can you believe it, the whine was there and ken pin pointed it to the steady bearing.  they said they could look for the part and for us to stop back in on monday.  they directed us to the pleasure-way manufacturer and to a local campground.

the gordy howe campground was a great place to relax for the weekend, while we went out exploring the town, washing our rig, riding our bikes and meeting with a pleasure-way rep.  we got to take a tour of the manufacturing plant and got many questions answered by one of their best reps, phil.  what a great weekend.

gordy howe campground (the great hockey player from saskatoon)

bike path along the saskatchewan river

downtown saskatoon

saskatchewan river

stopping back in the dodge dealership on monday, ken reassured us that the whine wasn't a major problem, but we decided that if they could get the part, we'd rather have them do the work now...that whine was grinding on us.  the part came in on tuesday morning and ken stayed late that evening to do the work changing both steady bearings connected to the drive shaft while the shop manager, cliff, went on the final test drive with buddy.  all seems to work perfectly!  thank you guys!!! 

the best dealership in north america

gravy, buddy, ken and cliff

if you ever break down in saskatoon, or just want to meet some friendly people, stop in at dodge city.  they'll treat you right!  we are only 1/2 way across canada, many more miles and more adventures to come...