A few more pictures of the trip out

Here are some more memorable shots of Alaska and Canada. One last shot of Denali as we stopped along the Richardson Highway for some great shots at a pull off. Ross was dying to get a good view of it and we had been socked in with clouds on Sunday. We actually drove 10 miles west down the Parks Highway on Monday morning for some pictures before heading back to east. About an hour outside of Fairbanks, we took a slew of pictures from this vantage point. This is one big mountain. By contrast, Mt. Rainier dominates the Seattle skyline and it's only just over 14,400 feet. Mt. McKinley is over 20,000. I read on Wikipedia that Denali has a larger bulk and rise than even Everest. Partly that's due to Everest being on the Tibetan Plateau where everything is already 10-15,000 feet above sea level. Just so you know, people in Alaska don't call it Mt. McKinley. Denali means "the high one" in Athabascan. In 1897 the Mountain was officially named Mount McKinley, after U.S. president William McKinley. As the decades progressed Indian-rights activists began increasingly to view this renaming as colonial and disrespectful. When Denali National Park and Preserve was established by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, December 2, 1980, the Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain back to "Denali." However, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names maintains "McKinley". Alaskans tend to use "Denali" and rely on context to distinguish between the park and the mountain. There have been several campaigns to officially switch the federally recognized name of the mountain back to "Denali". However, the name "McKinley" is well-known and has support as well. The name "McKinley" also allows visitors to differentiate between the mountain and Denali National Park, in which the mountain is located.

The Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, Canada was a trip. People from all over the world have stolen, borrowed or bought road signs to put up here along the highway. There have to be thousands of them. The town just finished rehanging them this spring. Some of the wooden poles needed replacing due to weather. It was amazing how many European (particularly German) signs there were. And Texas was represented well. Thankfully, we did not see any Aggie signs. Those jokers have embarrassed Texas enough over the past few years. I really wish I had thought this through a little more. With some luck, Ross could have brought us a sign to hang. Oh well, there's always next time. Heh. I'd like to find a giant Longhorn to put in there. That'd be memorable, right? Watson Lake is also where we discovered that Chinese food is available in the strangest places. The town sports a population of just over 1,500. There were three gas stations and two Chinese food restaurants. Go figure.


Our last full day on the road was spent working our way toward Whistler and then down to Vancouver. It was a truly beautiful and remarkable drive. From Prince George, you wind through some scenic farm country and then into the Fraser River valley until you run into the Fitzsimmons Range of which Whistler Mountain is part. Whistler is a mix of cool and kitsch. The skiing there is supposed to be awesome but the town itself is a tourist trap. We had an excellent meal there so it wasn't all bad. On the way out of town we caught a great sunset and then wound our way down the Sea to Sky Highway to Vancouver. I regret that we didn't stay downtown. We ended up in a suburb about 25 miles east. As with most things in Canada, by 8:00 pm there was not much to do around our hotel. Since we had eaten in Whistler, we were content to find the hotel and sack out for the night.