When I left Valdez, Alaska, I drove almost to the Yukon border and boondocked in a little nondescript area off the highway. When I awoke the next morning, the sky seemed overcast but was unusual.

Soon I approached the Canadian border. While talking to the agent there, he informed me that Alberta had a lot of current fires that were started by lightening. The smoke from the fires were mostly being blown east. Because of this heavy smoke, the route I had intended on taking back to the US border had been closed for an undetermined amount of time.

After crossing the border, I checked online to see where these fires were located. I soon saw the fires were not only in Alberta but also in the northeast corner of British Columbia. Which was basically my entire route home as I had planned.

The next morning, I awoke to heavy smoke in the air. As I have aged, my asthma has gotten worse. I needed to find a way out of Canada as quickly as possible to avoid a serious asthma attack in a remote area.

Basically, my only choice at the time was to drive to Whitehorse and turn south from there. Then at Watson Lake, take Highway 37 south to the US border. This was both bad and good news for me. The good news was that I could quickly leave Canada, and I would be driving on a highway that provided new scenery. The bad news was that this highway was known for being very windy and hilly so the going would be slow and difficult. Rigs of 30 feet are discouraged from taking this highway. Thankfully my rig is only 23 feet long.

I passed by a pretty lake and took a few photos. But I wasn’t willing to linger for any length of time.

If you recall, I had a water leak start under my kitchen sink back in Haines, Alaska. Having to take this new route meant I would have to wait to get that leak fixed. It was helping that I kept the water pump turned off except when I needed water. But every time I used the sink, the water leaked and went down into the hold below. Everything in the storage compartment was soaked and mildewing. Yuck!

To top off this problem, the steps on my RV stopped working. Normally when you open the cabin door, the stairs automatically come down and automatically go back up when you shut the door. Unfortunately, the steps were stuck in the up position. Now I have a two-foot drop from the cabin to the ground. A little to high to comfortably get in and out of my RV. I was so proud of myself for fixing this myself. Being in the middle of nowhere meant I either lived with the problem or fixed it myself. There are these little buttons that get compressed and tell the steps to go up. When you open the door, the buttons come out and the stairs come down. I was able to open up the section holding these buttons and get things working again. I was proud of myself for not getting upset and thinking rationally and fixing my problem myself. Yay!

The bear encounters have not stopped. Seems like every time I drive along the highway I see a bear along the side of the road. I stopped one time to talk on the phone and ahead of me I saw a black bear crossing the road.

As I kept heading south, I passed another lake. This one had an easy access to the water, so I stopped to let Maddie play for a while. She was very happy to be out of the RV for a bit and along water. This girl has become totally addicted to water. I enjoyed getting out and stretching my legs as well.

This route south was very pretty. The next lake (Boya Lake) was definitely a must stop. The teal-colored water so clear and beautiful!

Of course, Maddie had to play in this lake too. She’s getting spoiled with all the water play stops!

Canada has so much water! Lakes and rivers everywhere! And they are large. I’m so used to very little water living in New Mexico. Our rivers are like creeks or streams in Canada.

I woke up one morning to fog. I almost ran over a young Caribou that came running out of the woods to cross the road. Thankfully I wasn’t driving very fast and was able to stop in time. I also am always watching ahead for wildlife. The mostly wild landscape is home to so many large mammals.

The fog made for pretty photos at yet another lake I passed.

Finally, I saw some grizzly bears! I’ve been hoping to see grizzlies on my trip. Up to now I’ve only seen black bears. There were three young grizzlies hanging out together eating clover alongside the road. I pulled over and took some photos looking out my passenger window. I definitely wasn’t going to exit my vehicle with three bears! Thankfully they didn’t seem to care that I stopped right next to them. They barely glanced at me. 🙂

I think these guys were young siblings. Two of them seemed a little skinny after their hibernation. The third bear looked a little plumper.

I camped along the highway one night in a really pretty area. I was able to pull off the highway some distance down a forest road. I camped next to a large overgrown pond. I walked along the road for a while but was nervous the whole time because there was fresh bear scat in the area. I had my bear spray but thankfully never saw the bears while I was there.

The pond had several Common Mergansers raising their young here. I can see why they chose this place. It’s pretty protected from predators with all of the overgrown vegetation.

This camp spot also had some beautiful wildflowers. The weather has finally warmed up a lot so the flowers are starting to bloom.

After leaving this beautiful camping spot my check engine light came on. Ugh! Not another problem! Thankfully I was almost to Prince George. This is a sizeable city that I knew I could get my water leak repaired.

I found an RV repair shop. They told me they were booked out two months for repairs. When I told them I thought it was a quick fix, just a leak in the line, they agreed to have a repairman look at it. And it was a quick fix! They were so nice to fix it on the spot. It only took 15 minutes and only cost me $65. In US dollars it only cost me $42!

Literally right around the corner was a diesel engine repair shop. I stopped in there and asked them if they could take a minute to hook up a computer to my RV and see what the check engine light was on for. I had a feeling it was because I was miles past a scheduled maintenance repair. Thankfully they took my RV right in, and I was right, it was just complaining that I am overdue on a scheduled maintenance. He showed me my air filter was so plugged up with dust. I told him I knew it was bad because I had driven over miles and miles of highway under construction with terrible dust. I was so happy they had a filter that was the right size for my RV. He also found a whole in my firewall where a rubber gasket had come loose. He asked me if I had been smelling any funky odors while driving. I told him yes I had but just faintly. He taped up the whole and had me on my way in less than 30 minutes.

After leaving Prince George, I stopped in a little town because there was a sign for a waterfall trail nearby. I wish I had taken a photo of the name of the waterfall, because now I can’t even find where I was on the map to learn the name of this waterfall.

It was a short but pretty hike to the falls. I enjoyed capturing many angles of the waterfall. The morning light was perfect, and the surrounding vegetation was so complementary.

While getting my RV repaired, one of the employees told me about a cool trail I just had to stop and hike. They made it sound so awesome that I just had to stop. The trail was called Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Park.

I was so happy to see the entire trail was a boardwalk!!! By now you know how much I love boardwalk trails. The trail is designed this way to preserve the forest floor of the ancient grove. According to the informational signs, the roots of the cedars need the lush overgrowth over them to keep them healthy. These roots are the lungs of the tree and if the soil around the roots is eroded away, the tree literally suffocates.

The trail led me to a beautiful waterfall. Bonus! 🙂

Another interesting feature of the trail was a 16-foot diameter trunk of an ancient cedar tree. Maddie shows you the scale of this massive trunk!

After a couple days of camping, I realized my hot water line (the line that had the leak) was not working. Yes, the leak was fixed, but no hot water was coming out of the line. I didn’t realize this right away, because initially I was using up the six gallons available in the tank. Once that ran out, no water was going in to fill the hot water tank. I had no idea when this was going to get fixed.

My last stop in Canada was at another stop that I forgot to take note of the name. It was a beautiful spot along a green-colored river.

The beach was sloped quite steeply and the roots of the trees along the river were so interesting.

It was another stop that let Maddie play in water. While throwing a stick in the river for her to fetch, a small burnt piece of wood came along while she was playing. For some reason she didn’t like this piece of wood. I guess it smelled different since it was partially burned. She was so funny how she wanted to check it out, but she was too suspicious to get very close.

Other than that, Maddie had a blast here!

After leaving Valdez, Alaska, and 2,200 miles later, I finally made it to the US border. I had hoped to stay in Canada longer and see Jasper and Banff National Parks. Sadly, the fires forced me to leave Canada early. On one hand I’m sad I didn’t get to see these renowned locations in Alberta, Canada. But on the other hand, I am happy to be out of Canada because it was so expensive. Even with the benefit of the 35% exchange rate savings on all of my purchases, it was still more expensive there than in the states.

Even though I’ve left Canada, my travels are far from over. I will be traveling to Montana and Wyoming to see several national parks that I’ve never been to before. So stay tuned for more adventures of Maddie and I and lots more beautiful photos.