So if you’re a glutton for punishment, we’ve mapped our routes in each year of our travels, so good luck trying to make heads or tails of it! Below the map is a record of every stop we made on our journey that will culminate with a home in Prescott, AZ.
Year 1- the Red Line (2019-2020):
- Santa Fe, NM:
- Prescott, AZ: Orchard Ranch RV park,
- Tusayan, AZ: BLM land near the Grand Canyon
- Glendale, UT: Bauers Canyon Ranch RV Park
- Kaibab Paiute Indian Reservation
- Loa, UT:
- Torrey, UT: Thousand Lakes RV Park, Capitol Reef Natl Park. Nice RV park, red cliff in the distance, close to Capitol Reef, which is an amazing place.
- Dinosaur Natl Monument, Jensen, UT: Green River Campground, visited both UT & CO entrances, saw the dinosaur wall at the Utah exhibit, so cool.
- Kemmerer, WY: overnight, Riverside RV Park. Meh.
- Ririe, ID: Juniper Campground, a county park @ Ririe Reservoir: Kayaked Ririe and Palisades Reservoirs (ask Gary about the lost fishing pole). Beautiful campground with large “front yard” and LOTS of goldfinches, LOVED that!
- Clinton, MT: Beavertail Hill State Park, rained a lot so visited Missoula a lot. Clark Fork River was running too fast to fish but beautiful to see. Saw our first moose of the journey.
- Polson, MT: Flathead Lake KOA Wow. What a massive, beautiful lake. Kayaked twice, once very windy, once very hot and calm. Drove to Kallispell for a day, visited Glacier National Park from the West side, the Over-the-Sun Road was closed because it was still snowed in. Beautiful scenery regardless.
- Coeur d’Alene, ID: Tamarack RV Park Lake Coeur d’Alene with WaSu. Rotten park, great time! Pontoon rental on the Lake, a continuance of the tradition way back on Lake Granby in Colorado.
- Fairmont Hot Springs, British Columbia: Spruce Grove Campground backing up to the Columbia River and the back of Jasper National Park. Gary fished right out our front door. Beautiful view of the back of Jasper Natl Park. Wow. Kayaked the Columbia, hitching a ride back to the starting point with a kayak rental company. Drove to Banff National Park and visited Lake Louise. Jam-PACKED with tourists, difficult to get that ultimate shot that appears in all the travel brochures… LOL
- Hinton, BC: Hinton KOA, stopped enroute beside the Athabasca River for a beautiful lunch stop. Day trip to Jasper Natl Park and town of Jasper. Incredibly beautiful.
- Dawson Creek, BC: Northern Lights Campground, Mile Marker Zero on the Al-Can Highway. Very skinny sites, just a stopover to re-provision and a quick kayak trip on a small lake nearby. It’s the beginning of the famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) Alaska-Canada highway, known as the Al-Can. Good thing we didn’t know what lay ahead. LOL
- Fort Nelson, BC: Triple G RV Park, narrow sites, laundry/errands day. Meh. First glimpse of the road conditions on the Al-Can.
- Al-Can Highway, Racing River BC: Beautiful boondocking site right beside the river, meant to stay two days, got rained/mudded out and bailed after 1 night.
- Liard Hot Springs, BC: Wow. wow. wow. Boondocking in a beautiful provincial park, hot springs were amazing, jungle environment. Walking along the boardwalk toward the springs, spotted a moose grazing in the marsh.
- Whitehorse, Yukon: Pioneer RV Park up top in the trees. The Yukon river was low. We were able to kayak the Yukon off the Al-Can highway, it was amazing! Drove to Skagway, awesome town! Three hours for lunch and fun with the waiter in the Bonanza Bar.
- South of Beaver Creek, Northern Yukon: Discovery Yukon Lodgings, beside a grass airstrip, lovely. Repaired the first broken window valance courtesy of the Al-Can. A note here: The scenery along the way is jaw-dropping around every curve and straight in front. BC is where we saw the most animals, right beside the road. Black bears, Grizzlies, moose, foxes, just amazing.
- Tok, Alaska: We made it! Tundra RV Park, Gary fishing the Little Tok River, kayaking Moon Lake, great RV campground.
- Fairbanks, AK: River’s Edge RV Park, beside the Chena River. Heavy smoke moved in from all the forest fires. Took the train to Denali Natl Park, took the free shuttle to Savage River and back, it was all we had time for this time, very HOT. No Denali sighting, no animals except in the far distance. On the way out of town, took the rig to a tire place to fix a flat, turns out the rim was cracked and had to have the spare put on.
- Parks Highway: Roadside overnight just north of the Natl Park. Went back into the park, took the full bus ride to Eielson Visitor Center, Denali in FULL VIEW (just before the smoke moved in and covered it). Unbelievable, we were part of the 10% of visitors who get to see the peak from its first vantage point on the road all the way to the visitor center viewing area. Then on towards Talkeetna. Where did we overnight? Roadside? Roadside breakfast stop later, a family ran out of gas there, took the dad into closest town for gas, found out they made it to Denali in time to get a bus to Eielson.
- Talkeetna, AK: Talkeetna Camper Park, OK but right beside RR tracks and small airport. Watched helicopters loading with water to fight nearby forest fire, yikes. Talkeetna was a VERY cool town.
- Anchorage, AK: Ship Creek Campground, in crappy part of town. Here mainly for the wheel rim repair that caused our flat in Fairbanks, also courtesy of the Al-Can & Alaska Highways. I did manage to find time for a massage, good ol’ Massage Envy.
- Kenai, AK: Diamond M Ranch RV Park; Fishing trip on the Kenai River for Gary (he got skunked), then a rafting trip down the Kenai for both of us, amazing turquoise water. Smoke from fires was very bad, fire was raging on the Kenai Penninsula. Very hot summer for AK.
- Sterling Highway: Roadside overnight on the way to Homer, overlooking Kachemak Bay. Stunning.
- Homer, AK: Baycrest KOA, A M A Z I N G. Overlooking Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay. LOVED Homer and the Homer Spit, where we spent lots of time. Flightseeing around two resting volcanoes, sea-kayaking (holy cow), Wayne (the KOA host) and his eagle “friends” perching and soaring overhead.
- Seward, AK: Seward KOA, fairly new park but just a gray gravel parking lot. Hookups were good though. Wildlife sea cruise to a glacier, wow, Seward Sealife Center, rained a lot. Hiked up to Exit Glacier, so much receding of the ice, so very sad. We were informed that the Boatmen’s Union strike cancelled our ferry over to Valdez, ugh, we had to drive it. Devastated, was soooo looking forward to that.
- Glenallen, AK: Slide Mountain RV Park on the Glenn Highway. Rest stop for a couple days on the way to Valdez. Had a flat tire on the way here. Long story with the wrecker that came to fix it. Slides acted funny when being put out. Didn’t know why. Washed the rig before departure and discovered the crack in the sidewall and realized the slide toppers, both sides, were torqued from the tow driver lifting the rig. Grrrr…
- Valdez, AK: Eagles Rest RV Park. Very close together but had all amenities. Gary’s fishing trip catching halibut. Wildlife cruise, unbelievably beautiful Prince William Sound, saw whales fairly close, otters, seals, Columbia Glacier. Shopping. Really liked Valdez.
- Tok, AK: Tundra RV Park again. Back to Tok to start heading back down to lower 48 via the Cassiar Highway. Had the shackle re-welded on the underside of the rig. Sigh. These “highways” (using the term loosely). <eyeroll>
- South of Beaver Creek, Northern Yukon: Discovery Yukon Lodgings again.
- Takhini Hot Springs, near Whitehorse, Yukon: Takhini Campground, nice, spacious campsite. Hot Springs sucked, old, dilapidated pool, so disappointing. Trips into Whitehorse, visited the SS Klondike II, river quite high now.
- Nugget City, Yukon: Baby Nugget Campground. Decent park, mean old man at check-in. Start of the Cassiar Highway heading south from the Al-Can. Went into the nearby town of Watson Lake, kayaked the actual Watson Lake.
- Iskut, BC: Mountain Shadows RV Park. Beautiful, in front of mountain range and Kluachon Lake. Trail through the forest to the lake, Gary fished. Such a peaceful place.
- Meziadin Junction, BC: Meziadin Provincial Park Campground. WOW. On Meziadin Lake, kayaked a few times on the amazing turquoise waters, lake surrounded by glaciers. No fish biting because they were spawning. Drove through Stewart, British Columbia, to Hyder, AK, and Fish Creek, a famous creek where one can hopefully see bears going after the spawning fish. Nope. LOTS of dead (and live) fish, no animals. No bear, no eagles, no wolves, nothing. Oh wait, one black bear crossing the road as we were leaving.
- Witset, near Smithers, BC: Witset RV Park. Owned by local native Canadians. Very nice, large sites, nearly empty. Pair of Black bears one morning, got it on video!
- Prince George, BC: Northern Experience RV Park. Decent park, nice city with all we needed including Costco and Costcutters. Visited the Ancient Forest, wow! Western red cedars 1,000 years old.
- Clinton, BC: Willow Springs RV Park. Stopover just to rest. Meh. Small pond in front of us.
- Blaine, WA: Back in the lower 48. Birch Bay Thousand Trails. Open field, back-to-back hookups. Ugh. Went to the beach, though, dinners in town, great pizza.
- Fall City, WA: Tall Chief, Thousand Trails. Deep in the woods, would have been a lovely place but for the screaming kids 24/7.
- Hoodsport, WA: Dow Creek RV Park. WaSu! Couldn’t fit in the original sites they gave us, WaSu spent one night in a transient site, then moved to nice pull-through. Went to Olympia Natl Park, spent time in Hoodsport, a cool little town.
- Chehalis, WA: Can’t remember the campground or what we did except Suzy and me going shopping!
- Wilsonville, OR: outside Portland. Pheasant Ridge RV Park. Very nice, terraced sites up a slight hill. Dinner with Troy & Gina, wine-tasting tour (LOL), don’t remember much about it…
- Lakeside, OR: Osprey Point RV Park & Marina. Just an overnight. Meh. But stopped along the Oregon coast at a couple of beaches, including Bandon Beach, on the way to CA. Stunning.
- Crescent City, CA: Redwood Meadows RV Park: In the forest, very nice. Redwoods National Park, Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park (horseback riding, awesome!) Amazing forests, LOVED it!
- Redding, CA: JGW RV Park. Very nice place, pull-through by the highway but just an overnight for us.
- Minden, NV: Carson Valley RV Park next to a casino (how convenient). Tight but OK. Went to Reno, Tahoe (very windy, tried kayaking and nearly got swamped). Took a drive around the lake instead.
- Coulterville, CA: Horseshoe Bend Recreation Area. GREAT campground, HOT. Home base for Yosemite, which was incredible. Went into the park twice.
- Visalia, CA: Visalia KOA. Park was icky, good base for Sequoia. Amazing, amazing place.
- Pimm, NV: Buffalo Bills Casino, overnight in the parking lot.
- Cedar City, UT: Cedar City KOA. Driving tour of places we’d missed in earlier UT trip. THIS is where I saw Downton Abbey, the Movie.
- Palisades, CO: James Robb State Park. This was just an overnight on our rush to Denver for me to catch a plane. We were so afraid we were going to lose my mother.
- Golden, CO: Dakota Ridge RV Park: Stayed for three weeks, I flew to MI, Gary caught up with friends. On my return, Molly and Gail through us a huge party, so wonderful!
- Santa Fe, NM: KOA, overnight. Deja vu.
- Prescott, AZ: Orchard Ranch again. 5 days to visit Gene, Steph and the kids and take a rest.
- Phoenix, AZ: Desert Shadows RV Resort, Four months of down time for the winter, but hectic trying to get Gary his back surgery. We intended to stay three months but it took so long to get into a doc and get the surgery scheduled that staying into Feb was a must. Lots of fun here, though, (aquarium, car show, RV show, movies) and holidays in Prescott, really nice.
Jump to Year 2- the Orange Line