Along the WAy Home

 Summer Camp sessions are over and the church roofing project is almost complete. We winterized the camp and prepare to leave. This gorgeous autumn trail is our final view of the camp. The morning we left the temp was 38 degrees, the sky clear and blue.

 We drove through the town of Tok, past the border guard station and into the Yukon. Along the road side this mama grizzly munched berries while her two cubs scampered out of range of the camera.

 Many miles later we made an obligatory stop at the sign post forest in Watson Lake to add a new sign that includes Nick's and Monique's names and this year's date. The sign count is now over 74,000! up from 6,000 in 1988. The mass of signs behind us is a tiny fraction of the fascinating collection.

 After Watson Lake we left the AlCan (Alaska Highway) and turned south onto the Cassiar Highway through British Columbia to Washington State.  At the southern tip of Alaska, we crossed through Stewart, BC back into Alaska at Hyer. Hyer is the southern most town in AK that can be reached by road. Famous for Fish Creek and Bear viewing, Hyder boasts a summer population of 100 (plus tourists) and a winter population of 45 (plus bears). This group of photographers are waiting on a fenced boardwalk by the river.

 We followed the rambling of a black bear and her cub as they waded the river and strolled and grazed along the bank of a small lake.

Leaving the RVs behind, we road with the Martins in their small Kia to explore the Salmon Glacier. The dark bands along the edges of the ice are the moraines or rock rubble remains as the glacier grows in winter and shrinks during the summer.

 The terrain around Hyder is rocky and drizzling with waterfalls.

 Leaving Hyder we crossed the Canadian border into Bellingham, Washington. We skirted Seattle and took a ferry to Olympic National Park where we were fascinated by the rain forest of Sitga spruce and giant ferns. The air was damp and cool.

 We made many stops along the Washington and Oregon coast. Although there was much fog and mist and the tide was out, the strange rocks and cliffs were a welcome contrast to the Gulf Coast.

Following highway 101 down the California coast we traveled through the redwood forest of huge trees. This Tree House is no longer occupied but has been featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not.

Our California destination was Fresno where my youngest son, Chris, his wife, Maggie, and baby Chris live. Our visit with their family was way too short, but soon we had to begin our travel east through Arizona, New Mexico and finally back to Texas.
Returning to Beaumont is always a shock with temps in the 90s and high humidity, but it is good to be home.
I will be blogging on details of this past six months, travels and volunteer work, as soon as we get resettled.