Tuesday, June 10, 2008 

This morning on the way to the wash room (that’s what it is called up here), we got to see an elk sitting not far from our campsite.  It stayed there for a few hours chewing the cud.  When it got up to leave, we could see there was a baby with it.  It wasn’t long before another momma elk and her baby joined them to walk around the campground.  The babies were eating grass but stayed very close to their moms.  We feel very blessed to have seen so many animals in the last 24 hours.  The campground staff told us it is calving season.  I don’t think these babies were very old.

We stayed at a very nice campground last night. There was a small creek running at the side of our campsite.  We had a cross a little bridge to get to the washrooms.  After breakfast we showered and then packed up to get on the road again.  We stopped in Jasper to get gas and a few groceries.  Gas was 136.9/liter and milk was almost $5.00/gal.  Ouch!!

We left Jasper on highway 16 to go to Hinton and then north to Great Prairie and Dawson Creek.  Not far from Jasper we saw several elk in a grassy area and then a few more miles down the road we got to see a moose and then a momma moose and her baby.  The baby was so cute. It stayed very close to its mom and followed wherever she went.  It would be great to know how old the baby was. It didn’t appear to be very old.

It was rainy today with a few periods of sunshine. We are so glad that if it was going to rain it rained today instead of yesterday when we were driving through the ice fields.  We wouldn’t have been able to see the mountaintops and the glaciers if it had been very cloudy.  We still can’t believe the blessing yesterday of seeing so many animals roaming wild by the roadside.

We stopped today for a picnic lunch in the Rocky Mountains at the Pierre Grey’s Lake Provincial Recreation Area.  There was a pit toilet and a picnic table.  We had our usual sandwiches.  Each day we get different chips to give us some variety.  How did those Israelites eat manna every day for 40 years?  It quit raining for a little while so we could have lunch. 

When we got to Grande Prairie, Alberta we found a Wal-Mart.  We were so excited and we all went inside.  We hadn’t seen a Wal-Mart since we left the USA.  It looked just like an old Wal-Mart in the US. 

Most of today was driving and the scenery was pretty driving through the Rocky Mountains.  After we got out of the Rocky Mountains, there were rolling hills with trees on them.

We stopped for the night at Dawson Creek.  Again we stopped late enough that everyone was starved so we had McDonalds, as they are much quicker than cooking over a campfire.  We stayed the night at Mile 0 Campground.  It is in Dawson Creek that we get on the Alaskan Highway.  Of course we have many miles to go to actually get to Alaska but we are enjoying the scenery on the way.

Mileage for the day: 360

Temperature high: 50’s

Camping fee: $23.00

Price for gasoline: $1.38.9/liter