crossing

3 Months in Baja: Border Crossing to San Felipe

Since we first moved into the Turtle, an extended tour of Baja had been at the top of our travel list, though it continuously got delayed due to too much fun in the border states! We’d prepared for the trip as much as we could manage amidst other adventures—which is to say we bought the book everyone recommends for travelers driving through Mexico. It’s called the Traveler’s Guide to Mexican Camping by Mike and Terri Church, and we found it a useful resource for planning the trip. We’d recommend it for anyone planning a van or RV trip to Baja and/or mainland Mexico.

It gave us enough information to choose a border crossing that worked best for us, informed us of the crossing process and procedure, what cards we’d need to obtain after arriving, and helped us make our lists of things to do before crossing, such as buy Mexican insurance, ensure we were up to date on the required pet vaccinations, and get some pesos to have on hand, as credit cards are scarcely accepted. It has a fairly up to date list of all the campgrounds in Mexico, which is quite useful since cell service is unreliable on the peninsula, making it difficult to look up places to stay while you’re on the move.

It also recommended we stay overnight somewhere near the border so we could cross earlier in the day when there is less traffic, which was something we’d planned on doing anyway as we still had some research to do now that our Baja trip was actually on the horizon. We found a great spot in El Centro—not far from our chosen border at Calexico—that was so fabulous that we decided to stay an extra day!

The Rio Bend RV Resort was the perfect place to relax, swim, and get all the necessary pre-Baja jobs done, such as laundry, flushing tanks, using WiFi to buy insurance and get it printed at the office, dying hair, etc. (Dying hair is on the to-do list for all travelers, right?)

They have a great dog park, a golf course, a pool and hot tub, an outdoor bar by the pool with great happy hour food and drink specials, special events like the Murder Mystery dinner we attended, and a staff that was so nice we felt like regulars the first hour we were there!

We were fully refreshed and super excited the morning we drove to the border. It was about 10 a.m. when we got there, and we only had a handful of cars in line in front of us! Of course since we’re in a van—and a bizarre one at that— we expected that every time a search was possible, for us it was inevitable. Over the next few months that assumption proved true, though every search was an easy and pleasant experience, including our first one going into Mexicali. They just asked us to get out of the van so they could look around in the back, and as I held onto Scout outside, Andy gave the tour and did his best with a language barrier to tell the young guy what our plans were in Baja. It took all of five minutes and we were on the way!

It was overwhelming driving our big van into Mexicali, where we didn’t yet know what all the signs meant and traffic laws seem optional. I recommend getting the signage basics under your belt before going to Mexico, since knowing that a sign with a big “E” means “Parking” is helpful when trying to navigate through a wildly busy city trying to find an invisible Banjercito. We somehow found a place to park, found the Banjercito, got our tourist cards, and got out of town!

We drove across miles and miles of desert on our way south, laughing about the funny thing that had happened the day before.

While we were staying at the RV park, we had casually been reviewing our plan to drive straight to San Felipe as we got ready to go for a swim. Andy sat on the couch and looked at his email, and after a few minutes smiling at his phone he let me know that he’d gotten an email from our friends Gary and Kiki, who we’d met at Mesa Verde National park last year and who have also been traveling full time in their charming van named Birdie. He related that they just wanted to say hello and let us know that they had decided to spend the winter in Baja, and presently they were enjoying a lovely spot on the beach just outside of San Felipe! Holy moly! Andy wrote back to let them know that we would see them tomorrow.

And now we were on our way, knowing we’d have a place to stay next door to friends!

We got to Gary and Kiki’s spot later in the evening, and sat outside for a few hours talking about where we’d all been and where we planned to go in Baja. It was totally surreal accidentally seeing friends in Mexico, and just so much fun.

We thought we’d spend at least a few days at that spot as we acclimated to the new environment and enjoyed some time with our friends. Birdie and the Turtle looked so cute on the beach together. Animal vans unite!

On our first day there we could hardly wait to go grab a few tacos, so we drove into San Felipe and picked a spot on the malecon for some carne asada and tacos adobadas. We sat outside with a view of the ocean and devoured those tasty cheap tacos. As we’re both big-time taco lovers, we made it our personal mission to find the best tacos in Baja, a job we exuberantly embraced.

We checked out a few nearby shops and then stopped at a cute spot for a beer while we tried to memorize the pesos to dollars conversion. I got all the coins out of my wallet to look at the pesos, and we laughed at the combination of change I had on me. It was a fun reminder of all the places we’ve been.

On our way back to the campsite, we stopped at the Calimax grocery store, and as we started the Turtle to leave we had our first Mexico breakdown! I took a photo for our records as Andy successfully fixed it. (It’s funny that these events are just a quick line item any more, as opposed to a tragic tale of how our day was ruined. Andy knows his stuff!)

On our second morning in Baja I woke up wondering where I was, as is part of my normal morning routine these days. I climbed down from bed and looked out the back window to this happy view:

What a spot for a morning frisbee session!

Until we learned more about the area and the potential wildlife that could be nearby, Gracie stayed inside or came out only on a leash. Luckily there were lots of birds around for her to chatter at through the window.

She also really enjoyed the warm weather and powerful sunbeams.

We also were very pleased with the warm weather, despite the first few days of wind. I spent a lot of time on the beach with Scout, who may have been the most pleased of all of us to have the endless beach at his disposal.

We also really enjoyed catching up with Gary and Kiki, who were the most fun neighbors during our first week in Baja!

We went for beach walks, talked vans and travel (of course), enjoyed morning coffee together, and sat out overlooking the water watching the sun set.

One evening as Andy and I walked along the beach with Scout, we came across this interesting fellow:

We also ran into another interesting fellow, our friend Jordan who we’d recently met at RTR, the van meetup in Quartzite earlier that month!

He was traveling south to the mainland, and swung by San Felipe to say hello and get Andy’s assistance with some new solar panels. The more we travel, the smaller the world seems to be, and having a friend just “stop by” our campsite in Baja is now a thing.

The boys got to work wiring and affixing the panel, which was not always easy, but entertaining to watch.

We went for dinner and drinks after the job was done. Jordan introduced us to quesatacos, which are a perfect blend of carne asada and melted Mexican cheese, and became a favorite of ours throughout the trip.

We had a campfire that night while we watched Jordan’s first few YouTube videos documenting his travels. They’re hilarious and really well made, and if you want to follow his journey you can do that here:

We thought it was funny that, while we watched a part about a wood piece he’d had in the back of his truck but just removed, we were at that moment using it as fuel for the fire! So I took a picture of them side by side.

A day or two after Jordan took off for the mainland, we were still at our awesome beach overlook site when my birthday showed up! It was a most incredible day. For breakfast we had coffee and fresh Mexican pastries.

Then as I got ready for the day, there was a knock at the door and standing outside were Andy, Gary, Kiki and our other sweet neighbors Stashik and Dorota. They sang Happy Birthday to me and Stashik played a second verse on his harmonica. What a wonderful start to a special day!

I played on the beach with Scout for a while and collected sea shells.

Then Andy and I went into town for lunch. . .

Walked along the malecon. . .

And then on the way home we picked up some fireworks! We had a campfire with all four neighbors, and lit sparklers.

Then we went down to the beach and lit off some mortars, the first time my birthday was celebrated with fireworks! After the show, we went back up to the campfire and had birthday cake. Gary played some songs on his guitar, and we all told stories of our lives up north.

Then if all the festivities weren’t enough, that night was a full lunar eclipse! We all went to bed after the fire and set our alarms for 4 a.m. so we could wake up and watch the show. We had coffee and thin slices of birthday cake as we watched the moon disappear. What a day! It was all very special.

After a week at our lovely spot, we thought it was time to hit the road. There was still so much more to see! Stashik and Dorota were headed home to Canada, and Gary and Kiki had planned to stay a bit longer and then drive to their destination outside of Mulege. We all said goodbye-for-now, and Andy and I continued down the road.

We stopped for the night at a dispersed camping spot on the beach just south of Puertecitos. We got there right in time for a beautiful pastel sunset and a quick frisbee session before dark.

After the sun went down, we put our head lamps on and explored the rocky beach. We saw more sea life than some aquariums have to offer! It was super neat.

We’d also been tipped off by some locals that the beach had rock oysters, and after extensive searching in the dark we found about five of them, which Andy ate raw right on the spot. I tried one and did not enjoy it, but I do like the searching part.

The next day was another sunny morning in Baja. After coffee on the beach and some pelican watching, we hopped in the Turtle and drove further down the crazy Mex 5, bumping and lurching our way along the dirt road they call a highway that rivaled any we’ve braved before!

But that’s a whole other story.

Scout Climbs a Volcano and Gracie Turns Brown: Christmas at Mojave National Preserve

I think the member of our pack who is most pleased that we’re taking our time through the wilds of the desert is Gracie. This girl does not love being stuck inside.

In order to spend more time playing outside, we took I15 one small stretch at a time, enjoying the weather and the dispersed camping along the way. When we arrived in Mojave National Preserve, we hadn’t planned ahead to see what there was to do in the area, as is our usual way. So far it’s worked out brilliantly for us, and we didn’t share the concern we received from others when we told them we had no idea where we’d spend Christmas. We had decided months ago that in order to cover a little more ground this year, we’d skip the usual family gathering and just celebrate outside somewhere.

It was still about a week before Christmas when we found a great dispersed spot on the north side of Mojave National Preserve. The moment I opened the door, Gracie hedgehogged herself into a ball and just started rolling happily in the dirt.

The next loosely-planned stop on our journey was going to be Joshua Tree National Park, so I kind of thought that would be the first time I’d see a “forest” of Joshua trees. Nope. We were surrounded!

I think that’s one of the things I love best about not planning ahead—we get to be surprised on a regular basis. And a back yard forest of desert trees was a really fun surprise!

I continuously had to remind myself that it was almost Christmas. We had our wreath hung on the spare tire on the back of the Turtle and our string of lights hung inside, but in this environment it felt deliciously more like summer vacation.

We’re reminded that it’s winter only by the early hour of the sunsets, which come too soon, but make up for it by being magnificent.

We watched the colors until they fell into darkness, then went inside to make dinner. At one point Andy looked out the windows up front and pointed out a strange light in the sky. At first we had no idea what we were looking at, but I was totally convinced it was a UFO while Andy was sure it was literally anything but that.

Even I had to admit it looked maybe like a (human-made) rocket, but why would one be launching out here? I took a video so we could watch it later, then we went inside to look it up. Sure enough, a rocket had just launched in San Diego. If we had known, we probably would have driven out to go see it up close! But as it was, we were excited about yet another awesome surprise.

The next day we decided to drive right outside the preserve to pick up a few groceries since we loved this spot so much we thought we’d stick around longer than originally planned. We drove up to Baker and stopped first at this unexpected shop.

Then after picking up a few supplies, we headed back into the park, not realizing that the Turtle had relatives out here.

I found a good-looking dispersed camp site on one of our apps farther south than our last overnight stay, near a lava tube that is apparently a big attraction for visitors of the preserve. We decided to stay the night there and visit the lava tube the next day. After slowly driving the washboarded dirt road to the site, we parked next to an inactive volcano, apparently one of many around the area.

Gracie wasted no time leaping outside to try on some of the new local dirt.

I know cats like to take dust baths, but she takes it to another level. She loves it so much that she is turning semi-permanently brown! We just decided to say she’s a calico now.

The next day, we got our bikes out and rode with Scout by our sides down the bumpy road a few miles to the lava tube.

Scout waited outside for us under the shade of a Joshua tree with his water dish surrounded by rocks so he wouldn’t tip it over, and we went down into the lava tube.

There are a few holes in the lava ceiling where the sun shines through, and we’d been given a tip by some friendly passers by the evening prior that light is at its best angle for around noon or 1 p.m. It was around noon when we arrived, so we hung out in the cave watching the light move and change.

Soon a strong narrow beam emerged.

And it grew wider and brighter.

Another beam shot in from a hole in the main dome of the cave as well. It was magical.

After the bumpy ride back to our spot, we were all feeling pretty spectacular about what a nice place this was to live for a bit. Even though cars drove by periodically, it felt like we had the entire desert to ourselves. Which was so exciting for our little adventure cat, who doesn’t get to go for walks when we’re in the city like Scout does. And all she wants in life is fresh outdoor air and a little space to explore.

She’s been loving the desert terrain so much that even when she comes inside she brings some with her.

Every time she comes back in, it looks like this:

We’re not bothered by it, though, as we spend our fair share of time outside getting dirty too. It’s just part of the life. And so are breathtaking sunsets. It’s a give and take, really.

We realized as we watched the sun go down that it was Christmas Eve! I guess we know where we’ll be spending Christmas.

On Christmas morning as we drank our coffee, we discussed how we wanted to spend the day. Scout chose to spend his morning trying to convince Gracie to throw the frisbee for him. He followed her around for some time, waiting for her to sit down and then gently tossing the frisbee to her just as he does with us.

She wouldn’t go for it.

So I did for a little while, as a consolation, even though we knew he’d be coming with us on the outing we decided on for the day: a hike up the volcano!

It was much, much more difficult than we’d anticipated. The entire face of the volcano was loose pebbles of lava rock, and it was so steep it required crawling on hands and feet. It was like being on a stair stepper. Every other step we’d hit a patch of gravel so loose it was a wonder it had stayed where it was in the first place, and we’d slide down a few feet. And because it was lava rock, when we’d grab out to catch ourselves, our hands would get sliced and shredded. It was exhausting, and since we had no intention of giving up, we took breaks every ten minutes or so to keep our energy and morale high enough to continue. I told Andy at one point, “I didn’t come here to climb to the almost-top of a volcano today.”

Here is the view from one of those breaks. See that little speck right off the road? That’s the Turtle! And at this point we were barely a third of the way up.

Even though it was a challenge just perching ourselves on the hill (one that does not look even remotely as steep in the photos as it truly was), Scout tried the entire time to get us to throw sticks for him. The OCD is strong with this one.

Here’s another view from a break. Can you spot the Turtle? We’re a little over two thirds of the way up at this point.

We scrambled and panted our way up this bizarre surface for much longer than we’d guessed we’d take making it up the 500′ climb. And then suddenly, we were at the top!

We earned our ecstatic victory photo!

We got great reception up there, so we called our families to wish them all a Merry Christmas, took some photos and admired the view of the desert far below.

Then we began the descent, which took like three minutes. We basically just walked down, each foot sinking down into the gravel and carrying us a few feet every step. It was like being a giant, which I now believe would be really fun, if it truly was anything like our speedy jaunt down the volcano.

That evening’s sunset was another beautiful one. We’re getting spoiled out here.

We were quickly growing fond of this site, and decided to stick around for a few more days to relax and enjoy ourselves.

Gracie got right on the job.

I spent the time finishing Andy’s belated Christmas gift, a tool holder for the driver’s side door, which took a little longer than expected since I had to hand stitch the whole thing. It turned out pretty nice, I think, and he loves the convenience it.

Andy had his own project going as well, constructing a temporary custom storage box from cardboard, and when Gracie heard the word “project”, she quickly responded by inserting herself in it—literally.

Between the fun day trips and the relaxing time all to ourselves, we weren’t sure how many days longer we’d stick around and where we might be for New Years Eve, but we were in no hurry to ruin the surprise.

Catching Some Rays at Arches National Park

Living in a van comes with its own set of challenges, which are made increasingly more difficult when the weather is freezing. We’ve spent many months living in icy climates in the Turtle, and while the learning experience was necessary and helpful, we’re ready to put the cold temperatures behind us for a while. Everything is so much simpler in the sunshine. We don’t have to worry about tanks and water lines freezing, running out of propane so quickly, and water and dump facilities closing for the season. We don’t have to insulate the windows, making the interior a cave without a view. Andy doesn’t have to do maintenance under the hood with gloves on. Everything just works better in warm weather.

We discussed this while we were up in Alaska, dreaming up ideas and plans for the winter. Last winter we spent most of our time in the snow, and this winter we decided we’d be crazy not to follow the other snowbirds down south to enjoy a little sunshine!

As we left the snowy weather behind us in Spearfish, we decided to break our self-imposed rule to not travel more than a few hours a day in order to get out of the cold as soon as possible. We made quick time through a few states and finally slowed down once we hit sunshine in Utah. We could hardly believe it was December as we drove out to some BLM land outside of Moab and parked the Turtle in the sunny desert.

Scout and Gracie were pretty pleased too. One of Gracie’s favorite pastimes is rolling in the dirt, and she got right to it. That little beast was so covered in dirt she didn’t even look like the same cat. Scout and I played obstacle course Frisbee between the grasses and shrubs and ran around the flat landscape. Andy got his tools out and turned some wrenches under the Turtle. Everyone was feeling spectacular.

The best part was that we were this joyful and had only made it to our campsite. We still had a bunch of places to explore just down the road from us.

The first was Arches National Park. Yay!

Arches contains more than 2,000 natural arches, many of which are visible by car if you’re making a quick trip, and the rest can be seen along the myriad hiking trails that could easily occupy a few days in the park.

The first day we spent time in Moab before going to the park, resupplying and running errands, so we just popped into Arches as the sun was descending to drive through and see a few things before it got dark. Among other great rock formations, we saw the Three Gossips, Balanced Rock, and walked the short distance to the upper viewpoint where you can see Delicate Arch from afar. (That’s the iconic one you always see in pictures of Arches and on the Utah license plates.)

We went about halfway in, and after the sun went down we drove back north to our wonderful campsite on Willow Springs Road for the night.

The next day we arrived earlier so we could spend the day in the park.

First we took the very short walk back through tall rock walls to see Hidden Arch.

It seemed like the kind of place someone might pose like this, so I did.

Then we drove to the end of the road at Devil’s Garden Trailhead and walked in to see Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. There were a bunch more to see farther down the trail, but that hike can take a full day and we definitely wanted to do the 2-hour hike to Delicate Arch. It’s famous!

The Delicate Arch trail is a lot of fun, and I’d go on that hike even if there wasn’t a gorgeous natural formation to see at the end. At first it’s a just a nice walk on a dirt trail surrounded by neat rocks and a pretty view.

Then midway through the hike, the trail suddenly stops at a huge smooth rock dome that you walk up-up-up and over, with incredible views from the top! Somehow, the only pictures I took faced away from the view. No one knows why.

Once you reach the top, you walk through little areas of desert bushes and juniper trees for a bit.

And suddenly you turn the corner and are walking on a rock path winding around a huge sandstone wall on your right. Andy climbed right up the side of it to peer through the little arch at the top, so I followed.

And what a view!

It wasn’t very busy that day, so by the time we walked over to the arch nobody was photographing it and we got to take our time getting some nice pictures.

On our way back we took a side trail to go see some petroglyphs.

As the sun began to set, we made one last stop at Double Arch. It was our favorite of the day! We climbed up a bit until we were underneath the arches, lay down on the ground and watched the shadows move across the rocks until dusk.

A quick trip to Moab Brewery rounded out the day perfectly, and soon we were back at our Willow Springs site. It was completely dark by then, but still warm enough to spend a little time outside before going back in for the night. Happily tired from a day full of hiking, we could just walk in and put our feet up. No insulating, no buttoning up to be done, no wet clothes to hang, no layers to put away.

It feels like summertime in the desert, and the living is easy.

All Kinds of Parties: Billings & Bozeman, MT

As October neared its end, we found ourselves back in Bozeman, MT to visit my family as we continued our journey south. It’s still beautiful there!

The weekend before Halloween, we drove over to Billings to spend the weekend with our good friends Blake and Martha. (Martha is taking this photo, so she is not pictured. Sorry Martha.)

We were excited to have time this year to make Halloween costumes, and while we stayed with Blake and Martha we’d planned to dress up and go out with some friends. Andy was a steampunk mad scientist, and after he put the outfit on I realized that this isn’t too far a cry from his real persona.

I was a steampunk mechanic, and the moment I put on the bustle I’d made (from curtains at Goodwill) I decided it was the one thing that’s always been missing from my daily wardrobe.

Once the group arrived at Blake and Martha’s, Martha unveiled the snacks that she had prepared (with some help from Andy and Blake, they’ll want you to know). Aren’t they adorable?

And isn’t the group adorable?

Off we went to a local pub downtown, where the Halloween party was just beginning. (Wonder Woman did not join us on this portion of the outing.)

We had a blast! It was a fun night, and a super-fun weekend hanging out with good friends. We watched a couple World Series games, ate some Chalet Market sandwiches (my favorite), Blake, Andy and Harper carved pumpkins. . .

And then suddenly Blake had to go back to work. BOOOOO!

He was probably relieved.

It was still sunny in Billings when we pulled away.

And no sooner were we in Bozeman than the snow began to fall.

Though Gracie enjoys snow as much as any adventure cat, she preferred my mom’s warm bed. And when it wasn’t available, she’d wait outside the door for her turn.

The rest of us enjoyed playing outside.

Then we’d come back inside to visit Gracie.

The last time we visited Bozeman, we made good use of my mom’s kitchen and cooked up a number of tasty feasts for the three of us. Andy and I both love to cook, and do quite well with our three small burners, two pots, one small pan, and limited counter space in the Turtle. (We had authentic Pho while cozied up inside our tiny house in Deadhorse! It was pretty fancy.) But a complete kitchen with lots of space and a full sized oven is a treat we can’t resist. Andy had his heart set on cooking a turkey, and if you’re going to cook a turkey, you may as well make stuffing, and if you’re going to make stuffing, you ought to make mashed potatoes and gravy and also bake a pie, right?

It was weeks until Thanksgiving, but it seemed like the plan was shaping up into a real party. We christened it Fall Feastival, and invited my sister’s family and a few friends over, and Andy spent all day carefully preparing the turkey.

Meanwhile, Clive and Scout and I played in the snow. That boy can really throw a frisbee, even with winter gloves on. Scout was very impressed.

My sister and I contributed to the meal a bit, but mainly it was Andy’s show and he was happy to have full reign over the kitchen. He made stuffing and gravy so good we all considered drinking it straight out of mugs.

It was a genuine feast! The turkey was without a doubt the best I’d ever had. Andy really knocked it out of the park! I made a pumpkin pie cheesecake and hot chocolate for dessert, just in case we didn’t feel we’d spoiled ourselves enough already.

Afterwards we played a little Pin the Tail on the Turkey, which Liam, Clive, and Bella all helped put together.

It was a wonderful celebration! Maybe the First Annual? Any excuse for a feast.

The Fall Feastival marked the end of our visit to Bozeman, so on we traveled toward our next stop: Spearfish, South Dakota. It’s always so hard to leave my people, but we’re grateful to see them as often as we do these days.

I mean, if we didn’t live in the Turtle, I may have never seen this work of art:

Liam made The Eye of Sauron’s girlfriend.

Like I said—my people.

Jasper National Park and Banff, AB

Happy Halloween everyone!

If you’ve been in touch with us over the last month, you’ll know that despite what the blog might lead you to believe, we’re not in Canada anymore! We got back to the states about a month ago, and are currently visiting my family in Bozeman, Montana after a really fun few weeks in Great Falls visiting Andy’s family.

But so many people had told us how much we were going to love Jasper National Park and Banff, Alberta, and we really, really did. So I’ll catch up with a quick photo-heavy post to share the beauty! It was cold and overcast as we drove through, but that couldn’t stop the views.

Neither of us knew that the town of Jasper was right in the middle of the park, which was a fun surprise.

We stopped for pizza. . .

We stopped to watch this handsome fellow for a while. . .

And admired these sweet little deer until they hopped back into the forest.

The sun set before we made it through the park, so we stayed the night at the only spot that was still open for the winter on the south side of the park. The Columbia Icefields National Park Centre keeps the lower parking lot open for overnight campers, which was around $15 a night. A little spendy for a parking lot, but we really didn’t want to miss the views!

When we woke up the next morning, we discovered that we’d been parked right across the street from two glaciers!

The rest of the drive was so beautiful that the $15 camping fee seemed like a really good investment.

After exiting Jasper National Park, we were immediately in Banff National Park. Another gorgeous drive! One of my favorite things about this stretch of the highway was the wildlife bridges. There are fences all along the road to prevent animals from wandering out into traffic, so in order to allow safe crossing they built these tunnels covered by dirt and grass so the animals can access the whole park safely.

Soon we’d passed through Banff as well, and by mid-afternoon we were back in Montana.

When we got to Andy’s dad’s house, we were exhausted from three months of nonstop action. We slept like logs, relaxed, and visited with Andy’s dad and mom over some IPA’s and home-cooked meals, ate Howard’s pizza more than once, and slept some more . It was exactly what we’d been waiting for.

We also took some time to reorganize and assess the state of the Turtle. Andy looked in one of the compartments and found that it was filled with hunks of the Dalton Highway! Hilarious.

We got the famous vacuum sealer out and sealed things up for winter storage. . .

Andy fixed up our front brakes. . .

And then we slept some more!

Wildlife Safari on the Alaska Highway

Remember that time I said we loved spotting wildlife? Well we really loved the drive down through British Columbia into Alberta.

As we pulled away from Liard Hot Springs, we made it about 100 feet before spotting this darling lineup of wood bison.

We read in one of our travel pamphlets that while wood bison are a subspecies of the American bison, they differ slightly from the plains bison that are more common in the States. The most obvious difference is in size: these guys are much larger than the bison we’d seen before, and when we looked it up we learned that they are the largest land mammal in North America. Large males can weigh over 2,000 lbs!

I found this handy visual online which compares the two:

As I read this information aloud to Andy as we drove, he tapped my arm and pointed up ahead.

There, on both sides of the road, were about 60 or more wood bison! They ranged in size from hulking males to darling little fuzzy babies.

We pulled over to watch them graze and nap in the tall grass, while others crossed the road right in front of us to meet their group on the other side.

It was very, very exciting—for us, not the wood bison. They seemed pretty nonplussed by the whole encounter.

After a while we decided to move along, and the landscape along the Alaska Highway was just as incredible to watch as the wildlife.

It wasn’t long before we came across another neat animal: a female rock sheep. She was the only one we saw during that portion of the drive, despite the signs all along the road telling us to watch out for rock sheep.

After we passed rock sheep country, we stopped to take a picture of the beautiful rainbow of fall colors on the hill, and this time I was the wildlife being observed from someone inside the Turtle.

The drive took us up into the mountains and then back down again as we approached Fort St. John, B.C.

Once we’d left the mountains we thought the wildlife spotting was over, but just outside of town we came across this handsome couple:

We hadn’t seen as many caribou as Andy had hoped, so this close-up view was just perfect.

There’s a great rocky beach just south of Fort St. John that lots of locals go to launch boats and spend the day, and we saw other boondockers there for the night as well. That night we watched the Northern Lights while Scout and Gracie sniffed around on their leashes, and in the morning we played outside for a while before getting back in the Turtle and driving some more.

Typically we prefer to move really slowly and drive a maximum of two hours a day when we’re not camped out. We’re not in any hurry, it’s cheaper and uses less gas, and we get to see so much more of the world and have more impromptu adventures that way. But since we were trying to stay ahead of the weather, we’d been driving much more frequently than usual, and it was starting to catch up with us. Being in a van all day is not why we’re living in a van!

So when we finally reached Whitecourt, naps were in order. Gracie is the best nap buddy a person could ask for.

Waking people up to interact and play is much more in Scout’s wheelhouse.

We pushed on, and within about 20 minutes of each other we watched a black bear cross the road in front of us, and then a lynx. I speculated that British Columbia wanted to make sure we left satisfied and was quickly sending animals out for us to have one last treat before we crossed over into Alberta.

Alberta felt very metropolitan compared to the rural areas we’d gotten used to, but it was exciting to have cell service and reasonable gas prices again. We decided to take a trip to the West Edmonton Mall to get our wave pool and waterslides on at the World Waterpark. It was a great way to spend a blustery day, and as full-time travelers we always appreciate a fun activity that ends in free showers.

The next day we returned to check out Galaxyland in the mall and went on the “largest indoor triple-loop roller coaster,” the Mindbender, which is very aptly named. Holy moly.

After a few days in town, we escaped back to nature. We had plans to meet up on the road with some friends we met at Diablo Canyon in New Mexico last year, Eric and his PBD (plain black dog), Willow.

We stayed for the weekend at a dispersed campsite outside of Hinton, AB. It was a great spot to catch up on the past year’s travels, have a few beers, enjoy a nice fire in the pit Andy built, and watch some animal playtime.

Now that we were moving away from the land of many predators, we let Gracie have a little supervised off-leash time, and she chose to use her freedom to revisit her favorite sun porch and oversee everyone else’s activities.

While we’re on the subject of wildlife, there are three pets in this picture. Can you spot them all?

Eric is a 5-star animal lover and was a patient and accommodating friend to Scout, throwing toys for him almost every time Scout asked. That meant he was busy from morning to night. Willow loves a cozy chair and a sunbeam, so she didn’t mind watching her human play with another dog.

In case you were wondering, this is what the aftermath of two days of being totally spoiled looks like:

The next day, he was back to his old self and ready to go again!

Of all the wildlife we’ve gotten to see along the way, these two are the strangest and sweetest.

Hmm . . . make that “these three.” Wild beasts, all. I think I’ll keep them.

Heading South: North Pole and Chicken, AK Are Real Places

After our long journey up to Deadhorse and back, we needed a few days to recover.

We decided to post up in Fairbanks for a day or two to do some laundry, resupply, see the Ice Museum, and just generally knock the dirt off of ourselves.

After a few days, we began the journey back down south which surprisingly brought us to the North Pole! Ok, not THE North Pole. But North Pole, Alaska which is as close as you can get to the real thing.

The whole town is Christmas themed year-round, from candy cane light poles to road names like “Mistletoe Drive” and “St. Nicholas Drive,” and there are resident reindeer who live next door to the Santa Claus house, where we spent some time getting in the spirit of Christmas a few months in advance.

We’d had our hearts set on seeing a huge herd of caribou in the wild while we were up north, but we made do with Santa’s reindeer. (Which we learned on this trip are the same animal—reindeer are just domesticated caribou! The more you know.) But then on our way toward Tok, AK we came across a darling mama moose and her baby, and felt very lucky indeed. They hung around right alongside the road for over ten minutes before meandering back into the trees . . . but not before they posed for this glamour shot.

The sun was setting as we neared Tok, which we’d traveled through on our way up and had stayed overnight with the dirt bike rally racers at an unused airstrip outside of town. We went back to the spot, and had the whole place to ourselves! That night we saw the best Northern Lights of the trip so far, and the next morning we raced around the track at Top Turtle Speed. I’ll let you speculate on what speed that could be, and hopefully you’re generous.

A much-needed Turtle bath afterwards helped us offload many of pounds of dirt, and we wondered if maybe we should have gone back to try the race track again to see if we could shave some time off our record. But we had more stops to go, and with the dirt highway ahead of us, we knew we were pressed for daylight.

Beyond Tok lay Chicken, Alaska: a real place that I did not make up. We got to town shortly before the one store that was still open for the season was closing for the day, so we looked around, admired how wonderful the chicken soup smelled, took some enormous chicken photos, and drove on.

The next portion of the road is a beautiful drive called “The Top of the World Highway” which was where we finally had to say farewell to Alaska as we crossed back over into Yukon once again.

We had an amazing vantage point to watch the sun set over the valleys far below.

The sky was dark as we approached Dawson City, YT, and since we hadn’t had cell service for most of the last few days, I hadn’t noticed the map showed an unexpected break in the highway until we were right on top of it.

The Yukon River divides the road right outside of Dawson City, so we got to take the Turtle on a small ferry that was luckily still operating on summer hours and ran every 15 minutes or so. Had we been two weeks later, I’m not sure what we would have done, but we took our accidental good timing and ran with it.

This actually might have been one of Andy’s favorite parts of the entire trip. He was so excited. He kept pointing ahead and telling me to look! even though I was of course looking already, but he just couldn’t help himself. It was pretty funny to be sitting in our Turtle and watching water flow by on all sides.

We spent a few days in Dawson City, a historic town full of stories of the Gold Rush and prospecting and super-tough men and women. In the interest of time, and because they haven’t made many appearances in this post, I’ll just show you a few adorable pictures of Scout and Gracie at a nice site we found for an overnight stay as we left Dawson City.

The Alaska chapter of our journey was done, but as we mapped out our progress over Tiropitas, it was clear that there was plenty of adventure ahead!

On Top of the World: Deadhorse, AK + The Arctic Ocean + An Arctic Fox

Here is what you need to know about Deadhorse, AK. It’s a small town in northernmost Alaska near the Arctic Ocean with a population that is often listed at 25-50 permanent residents. The town’s primary function is to house the workers at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, which when including the temporary workers brings the population to around 3,000. In order to house the workers, “pre-fabricated modules” (cozy!) were shipped up and put on man-made gravel pads on top of the tundra, where the workers live for the duration of their employment.

Most people work 12-hour shifts daily for two weeks straight, and then have a week off. The town has a very small airport for transporting workers at no charge, so most people fly home and back in that week. Each work camp has its own building, with different amenities from camp to camp. Some have theaters or gyms or basketball courts, but these are all housed right in the work camp building.

It’s not as if anyone would want to pass the time outside their camp anyway; the mean annual temperature is 12 degrees Fahrenheit, and even the warmest month—July—sees an average temperature of only 47 degrees! Lows in the winter are generally below -40 degrees. It’s freakin’ cold up there. Almost every parking spot in town comes with a power cord.

What this means for tourists is that after being shaken around in your vehicle like dice in a Yahtzee cup for somewhere around 18 hours, there’s not a lot going on up there to do! Well, that’s not necessarily true, but the accomodations for tourists are limited to a gas station, general store, Napa store, a handful of buffet-style cafeterias for the workers that are open to the public during limited hours, and a hotel with a little snack shop and coffee counter inside. So we did all those things on our first full day there.

The white building up there is the hotel. It didn’t look any different than the housing, General Store, or gas station and the town really doesn’t waste good money on signage.

We also came across one of my favorite wildlife sightings to date: a little arctic fox! He was just the sweetest little thing and stayed close enough for us to watch him scamper around for about 5 minutes.

There is also a tour bus that you can book 24-hours in advance (to run a security check), which will take you past the security checkpoint and up to the Arctic Ocean! They charge $70 per person, but once you get that far, you really have to go all the way, right?

We thought so. So on our third day in Deadhorse, we took the early tour through the oil fields and saw the sights on our way to the beach. There were five others on our tour: a French couple who had flown in, and a couple from upstate New York and their tour guide who had driven them up in a tricked out Ford Escape set up by the tour company specifically for the Dalton Highway drive. Their guide jokingly asked if we’d remembered our swimsuits, to which I replied, “Actually, yes!” He laughed good-naturedly, as it was the first day of September, and said he’d be amazed if we went through with it. Challenge accepted!

The beach access we were able to explore was a nice long stretch that jutted out into the ocean. When we got there, our view was especially lovely under a hazy rainbow.

The guide volunteered to take pictures for us, and got a nice play-by-play of our walk out, and Andy’s sudden and shocking dive below the water.

What a beast! That boy knows how to have an adventure. I take longer than Andy does when it comes to decisions involving plunging my bare skin into frigid arctic water on a 30-degree day. But of course I eventually got the job done.

Ok . . . half done. But I’m telling you; it was so cold that not even my five layers on top could save me from that icy shock, or the subsequent half hour of numb legs and toes! It was awesome. We are very proud new members of the Polar Bear Club, and have a pure white rock from the beach as our memento of the day we took the plunge.

By the time we got back to the Turtle, we’d warmed up under the blanket Andy had brought along and felt ready to take on the Dalton Highway again. We decided to break the drive up into three days this time, because we wanted to check another National Park off our list by hiking into Gates of the Arctic.

We turned southward and said farewell to Deadhorse. We were so glad we made the trip, but are fairly certain we won’t be returning unless Andy will agree with my brilliant idea to build a summer home there. And so far he’s not budging. Oh well . . . goodbye, Deadhorse!

The Road to Alaska – Part 6: Anchorage, AK with Friends

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times (I may have actually said it a thousand times): one of the best things about Turtle Life is the flexibility and freedom to visit our friends and family. And during our time in Anchorage, we were lucky enough to be able to spend quality time with both friends and family!

First we spent a week with Andy’s longtime buddy Sam and his wife Sara. Sam is a professor and has the summer off, so we took full advantage of his schedule by having a full week of fun.

Andy and I had caught some salmon in Valdez and kept two to bring along, which Andy prepared in his famous marinade and Sam grilled up for us.

*A tip if you like delicious things: Sam also BBQ’s up frozen seasoned hashbrowns as a side dish, which were so good I just got jealous of myself when I saw this picture of the hashbrowns I was about to eat when I took the photo.

Sam took us on a field trip to the fish hatchery, where we saw loads of spawning salmon! Pictured are only two, so please just take my word for it that there were a bunch.

Sam, Sara, and their son Oliver took us for a crisp and refreshing rainy-day walk up to Portage Glacier.

We hadn’t seen snow in a while, so we had to take advantage of the wintery playground and make ourselves a slide. I paved the way with the classic bum slide, and Andy immediately took it to the next level, as he is wont to do.

On the way home, all our dreams came true when we spotted a moose grazing right by the road in town!

We were really beginning to believe the area moose were a rumor created by the Alaska Chamber of Commerce.

And luck was really on our side—or else the COC had gotten wind that we were on to them and planted that moose in two spots so we wouldn’t spread the conspiracy theory around—because a day later we saw another one!

This one was on a walk through a beautiful park on the way to the beach. She had been grazing on the trail blocking hikers, and the locals who warned us about her presence smiled curiously when I threw up my hands and cheered about a moose on the trail. Somehow they could tell right away that we weren’t from around there.

We stood up the hill from her to admire her moose-y cuteness, then walked on to the ocean since it’s weird to stare at a moose all day. And what a day for the beach!

Another highlight of the trip was the delivery we had waiting for us at Sam and Sara’s place! After catching so many fish in Haines and Valdez, we decided we should spring for a vacuum sealer so we can pack more of our fresh fish and berry picking surpluses into the freezer and keep them for even longer. I was super happy about our newest purchase, and Andy was even a little more so. (Sam and Sara, I’m aware that I’m grossly underselling Andy’s excitement about this purchase, but if I did his joy any justice everyone would think I was exaggerating.)

Well of course we had to test the thing out. An hour and 50 vacuum bags later, Andy had made it as far as testing out vacuum sealing tortilla chips just to see what would happen, and suddenly it was bedtime.

When we got back to the Turtle for the night, we found that someone had caused a little trouble back at home. The culprit still remains at large as we try to gather more conclusive evidence.

On Monday Sara was back at work, so Sam took Andy and me on a beautifully sunny and very fun walking tour of Anchorage.

I’ll have you know that we had way more than a week’s worth of fun that week. Sam and Andy are two peas in a pod, and it’s awesome to see your sweetheart having fun like the old days with his buddy.

Although we tried our best to convince Sam to blow off another week’s commitments to goof off with us some more, he somehow decided to take the responsible road. Go figure!

Before we moved onto the next leg of the Anchorage Adventure, we needed a little battery-recharge, at which point it became apparent which of our friends are helpful when it comes to naps . . .

And which aren’t so much.

Oh, and in case you’re still wondering what happened to the vacuum-sealed tortilla chips . . . they were all ground to corn crumbles, except for one, which stayed completely intact!

Weird and worth the suspense, right?

The Road to Alaska – Part 2: British Columbia, Eh?

Greetings from Beautiful British Columbia!

It’s been an exciting first few weeks in Canada as we make our way north to Alaska. We’ve covered some ground and have been really enjoying watching the landscape change and become less and less familiar. The road signs are more frequently featuring moose, and though we haven’t yet spotted one yet, we did see a sleek little silver fox slinking around a park as we pulled in for the evening in Prince George! So that will tide me over for quite some time.

Our first adventure over the border began in Vancouver, BC. I briefly mentioned our stay in Vancouver in my last post, but now that I have all the photos uploaded I thought I’d fill you in further on the fun we had while we were there. Especially since, despite the fact that both of us have lived in Seattle, neither had ever been to nearby Vancouver so we were really looking forward to seeing the city.

One of my favorite resources as we visit new cities has been the online Atlas Obscura site, which suggests interesting attractions that aren’t found on most other “Things To Do In _______” sites. This time I told Andy that I was going to take him on a surprise tour of Vancouver and lead him to all the spots I thought sounded fun without telling him what they would be. He’s a good sport and agreed!

Our first stop was the VanDusen Botanical Gardens, which was one of the loveliest botanical gardens I’ve ever visited. The grounds are enormous, and the circuitous layout lends itself to a full day of wandering through paths and gardens reminiscent of Alice’s Wonderland.

Check out this delphinium garden:

Ok so if I’m being honest, the gardens were lovely, but the real reason for going here was something that’s been on my to-do list for as long as I can remember:

A hedge maze!

It’s one of only six Elizabethan hedge mazes in North America, and it was so much fun and more challenging than we gave it credit for going in.

Afterwards we went to the Granville Island Market, which my uncles in Seattle had highly recommended to us. It took us some time to find a spot to park, and it came in handy that Andy is a wizard. Look at this park job!

We wandered around the market and were totally in love. It was a bustling throng of people and the wonderful smells of hot espresso, cooking meats, fresh flowers and herby soaps. After picking up some darling wood map pins, we had lunch at a tiny Chinese restaurant downtown and then hit the road for the next stop on the secret tour . . .

The Steam Clock in Gastown. It’s a working steam clock built in 1977, which you can look inside and see the gears and levers moving. We were even there to hear the hourly musical whistles blow. In honor of the clock, we popped into nearby Steamworks Brewing Company for a beer.

Next we walked a number of blocks to the Marine Building, a remarkable Art Deco building that was conceived to look like it had risen from the sea, and it truly does. I mean it looks like something from a movie . . . oh wait, it is! To my fellow nerds out there, it’s also been featured in a number of movies, as the Baxter Building in Fantastic Four and for The Daily Planet in Smallville. Fun!

Afterwards we walked to see the Digital Orca sculpture, which we weren’t able to see up close due to an event that had the terrace roped off. (If you look closely, you can see empty glassware at the tail.)

It was a full day in Vancouver, and we left very satisfied. But after over a month staying in cities, I’d been so looking forward to getting back outside, and was happy to arrive at our next campsite at Gillis Lake. We stayed two nights, and got plenty of reading and swimming done.

When we woke up the morning of third day, the entire forest was flooded with smoke, which we later found out was due to dozens of forest fires throughout BC. A handful of towns had been evacuated, and the road we’d planned to take was closed. So we rerouted and drove through Kamloops to Prince George, windows rolled up to minimize our smoke inhalation. It was so thick my eyes watered, and you couldn’t even see the mountains beyond the freeway through the grey. And in the areas that we could see a fair distance, we saw fires licking the mountainsides. It was unreal.

We spent a two days in Prince George, or “PG” as the locals call it. (Which is pretty cute for a city in Canada, where everything is sweet and friendly and very “rated PG”.) When we got to town, we went to one of the best Railway Museums we’ve been to so far, and that’s saying something! We go to a lot of railroad museums, apparently.

We rode the little train around the grounds, and got to go inside most of the cars and engines. Andy had more fun than all the other museum-goers combined.

We stayed until they closed, then walked right next door to Cottonwood Island Park. I’d read that a local artist sculpted little pieces right into the trees, and as you walk through you can treasure hunt for them.

It likely comes as a huge surprise to nobody that my favorite was the gnome houses.

We stayed the night at the park’s lot and that’s where we saw the silver fox!

It’s a poor picture, but it was the best I could do at twilight while squealing with joy.

Over the next few days, we found ourselves in more picture-perfect campsites, all of which are free! We stayed a few nights at Co-op Lake, where we noticed a strange bubbling at the shoreline. As we got nearer to investigate, we saw that it was a massive mob of tadpoles!

We all had a wonderful time there, reading, hammock-ing, swimming, fetching frisbees in the lake, pouncing on bugs, paddling out to the middle of the lake in our floaties and watching the clouds roll by.

We then moved to another great campsite at the Eagle Creek Opal Beds, where we went on a gorgeous hike, hunted for—and found!—raw opals, discovered and ate the huckleberries along the path, and then hiked up a hill at midnight where we saw the Northern Lights flickering on the horizon. It was a pretty magical spot.

Scout even remembered how to pick huckleberries!

I could have stayed in any one of those campsites for weeks, but there is much to see in these parts, so we pressed on. We wanted to see Prince Rupert, a darling coastal town in northwestern BC, even though it was a few hours out of the way. On our way there, other things happened and they looked like this:

When we got to Prince Rupert it was a brilliant sunny day, which—we were informed by the locals—is not usually the case. We walked all around town, in and out of cute little shops, through the Museum of Northern British Columbia, and ended up on a bright patio overlooking the ocean.

We looked down and noticed crabs walking along the ocean floor, and the next day’s plan was born. After all, we’ve been carrying our crab traps around for over a year!

The next day we got our licenses and some bait, and headed down to the docks, where we discovered the depth off the edge was around 80 feet! We spent the entire afternoon into the evening sitting on the dock, chatting with locals, fishing, and reading books. We caught three crabs, one was a keeper, and Andy caught a small flounder.

So all in all the day was a success, and as we packed up we were treated to a perfectly picturesque coastal sunset.

Today was our last day in Prince Rupert, and we visited the North Pacific Cannery Museum on our way out of town. We accidentally stayed three hours, and enjoyed every last minute.

We’re now back in Terrace, BC, heading north for some serious camping way-off-grid, so the next post will be on the other side of the wilderness when we have service again. And though the silver fox was a superior thrill, here’s hoping that next post will include some photos of a moose. 🙂

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