Our Northern Adventure – Part 5: Heading South
June – September 2026:
Having completed the Dempster Highway, it was time to head south, like snowbirds, before the onset of the winter in North America. Our destination was Calgary (4422km) from where we flew home to the UK for three weeks to celebrate David’s Mum’s 90th birthday.
We started seeing more bears. Lots of them – our count was around 35 by the time we reached the US border. Mostly from Big Bertha’s cab, but on one occasion, whilst on a hike and on another, from BB’s rear window! That curious bear was trying to get into Big Bertha (see our video below).
We started down the long Klondike highway to Whitehorse, stopping to visit Five Finger Rapids for a short hike and collecting a large stone chip on the windscreen on the way, thanks to a passing HGV. This we had repaired in Whitehorse. Trying to get our Dempster puncture fixed was less successful. After having patched the puncture, closer inspection revealed that another part of the tyre had a gash severe enough to relegate it to “worst case” spare. We treated BB to a jet wash before leaving on the Alaskan highway towards its end at Dawson Creek.
On the way out of Whitehorse we stopped at Miles Canyon for a hike beside the Yukon river. We aborted our attempt to traverse the Canol Road (poor weather forecast for the rough muddy track) in favour of an alternative route into Watson Lake and returned to the Alaskan highway. We quickly checked that our sign was still attached to the yellow digger in Signpost Forest (it was) and continued. Leaving Watson Lake we started seeing a good amount of wildlife: bison, elk, deer and bears, which kept us entertained until arriving at Liard Hot Springs, where even Francine was tempted to take a dip. (The bison in the photos look a little unkempt as they were shedding their thick winter coat.)
At Fort Nelson, on a rather dreary day, we visited the Fort Museum before continuing on the Alaska Highway. We stopped at a lake for Dave to do a spot of fishing and he caught a good sized trout for dinner. This had unintentional consequences – he put a rag used to hold the fish in one of BB’s lockers and after having parked up for the night, a bear came visiting. It was very inquisitive and didn’t leave until Dave let fly with BB’s air horns. We drove away immediately, in case he had a mind to return.
The next day we took a five day deviation from the Alaska Highway to visit the WAC Bennett hydroelectric dam, Chetwynd and Kinuseo Falls. The damming of the Peace river for the massive hydroelectric in the early Sixties was a very controversial event which the indigenous tribes have not forgiven until this day. Very rarely, the spillway had been opened because of excess water. We were in luck as this was one of those times and it was quite a sight.
Chetwynd is the home of the annual world chainsaw carving competition (who knew?) with entrants coming from all over the world to compete. Unfortunately, we arrived about a week after this years competition, but the best past entries are displayed all over the town (over 200) and there was a Winners Row for 2026. Each competitor is given a block of wood of the same size/weight and then their imagination takes over. We enjoyed walking around and viewing the impressive works of art.
Down a 65km gravel track from Tumbler Ridge is the Monkman Provincial Park with the impressive Kinuseo Falls. After a hike to see the falls we returned to the parking and found Jordan struggling with a flat tyre. Dave effected a repair that earned us an invitation to stay with him and his family at Pouce Coupe a few days later. Leaving Tumbler Ridge we stopped for a hike to view some dinosaur footprints at Flatbed Creek. A short way in, we came across a bear and both parties shot off in opposite directions – the bear into the woods and ourselves back to Big Bertha! We will leave seeing dinosaur footprints for another day! Instead, we continued our journey to Dawson Creek for the obligatory photo at the sign marking the start of the Alaskan highway.
Jordan, his dad and grandfather are from Pouce Coupe. The road is named after the family and a lot of the family is still there. We were taken to meet his parents and we spent a lovely evening with them. Jordan’s dad even took Dave up for a flight in his bush plane – taking off from the runway in his garden! They told us that most of the family fly and quite often they will fly in from their homes to have breakfast in nearby Dawson Creek, as the roads aren’t very good!
Onwards! We said our goodbyes to Jordan, Vicky, Phillip and Arthur and journeyed down to Jasper, to join the Canadian Rockies. On the way we visited Sulphur Gates to view the Sulphur River flowing into the Smoky River.
Unfortunately the Rockies were affected by smoke from nearby wildfires and the views were not the best, but nonetheless, the mountains were still impressive. This area of the Rockies is overwhelmed with tourists and campervans. Wild camping is not an option, campsites are expensive, are generally full anyway, and we found ourselves relegated to overflow campsites (aka car parks). It was a bit galling to pay good money to be crammed into a car park with herds of other unfortunates, but not every campspot is a dream!
From Jasper we took a detour to Maligne Lake passing a couple of huge grizzles on the way out from the campsite. The lake was beautiful and we can only imagine what it would have been like without the smoke haze. We spent the day exploring on foot and enjoyed a good days hiking before returning to Jasper.
The next day we explored Pyramid Lake above Jasper, then camped in another crowded overflow car park before hitting the famous Icefield Parkway south.
Ideally we would have liked to spend a couple of days on this very scenic route, but no campsites were available and so we headed down to Lake Louise and another, actually not bad, and cheap, overflow car park.
Our friend Ursula (South African solo traveller) and her friend Anneke from Calgary joined us for a few days to explore the area around Lake Louise and we had a really good time visiting Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, Takakkaw Falls, Field Town and taking the Lake Louise Gondola for a hike at the top.
After bidding goodbye to the ladies (we would see them again in Calgary), Francine and I made our way towards Calgary to visit Francine’s cousin Vejai and family. On the way we visited Johnston Canyon for a lovely early morning hike followed by a good full English breakfast and a quick look around Banff.
We last saw Vejai, who now lives in Airdrie just north of Calgary, many, many years ago in Trinidad, but he still has the same infectious smile. We spent a lovely evening catching up over a tasty BBQ with his wife, Kizzann and son, Kiran.
Given we had some time before flying home to the UK, we decided to explore the area to the east of Calgary, famous for dinosaur fossils for a few days. We spent a good few hours visiting the Royal Tyrrell museum, a world class museum that showcases the fossils found in the area and beyond. From there we had a brief look around Drumheller (dinosaurs everywhere!), then some hoodoo rock formations before going on to Wayne – crossing the 11 bridges to get there and having a pint at the haunted hotel.
Anneke very kindly invited us to her home to spend some more time with Ursula, herself and her friends. We had a lovely BBQ and the next day we all went to the Sunshine Meadows near Banff for a hike in the hills. Then it was time to deliver Big Bertha to her long term parking space and fly home for Dave’s Mum’s 90th birthday celebrations.
And now for the video…
