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JohnBoy’s Travel Blog

Photos and stories of my journey across the US and Canada

I am back in Durham after my big 2025 road trip and have now resumed posts.  I apologize for being so far behind but I have reviewed and prepared pictures taken through August 31 for posting and will post a few things at a time so as not to overwhelm people.  I will continue to review and prepare photos taken in September and will have them ready when I exhaust the list I have already.

Thank you for your patience!

I will eventually (probably the summer of 2026) be creating a number of pdf files which list all my previous posts, enabling visitors to find specific posts from earlier trips (over 1,300 and counting).  I know how to do it, I just need the time.  Lord knows I had plenty of that at home in the weeks leading up to my departure, but it was consumed with other projects, prepping and packing.  I will let everyone know when they are completed and will email them to anyone interested. 

If you use the calendar grid to the right, go back to May, 2025.  Then click on May 13th.  There you will find a post I made which contains 100 links to some older posts from 2018 (San Diego)/2019 (Eastern Canada) to give you an idea what I’m talking about.  You may also use the calendar grid on the right side of this page to go to any other month the blog existed.  I started the blog in the Spring of 2016.  I traveled and took photos for two years prior to that but have only posted a select few, and some of my early posts only included 1 photo (I was a blog newbie) and I need to post more from the tens of thousands of photos I’ve taken.

FOR THOSE OF YOU NEW TO THE BLOG:

Welcome to my travel blog, where I post photos of my trips throughout the United States and Canada.  For details on my intent for this project please click on “About” in the upper right hand corner.  If you have comments or requests please feel free to contact me by clicking on “Contact” in the upper right hand corner.

If you are new to the blog please note that you are seeing the most recent posts first.  As you scroll down you are going back in time.  You may read statements which may not make much sense right at the moment because they may refer to a discussion earlier in the blog.  If you want to find posts for a specific place (e.g. Grand Canyon) enter it in the search box.  You may also use the calendar grid to use the “way-back” function to time travel back to a particular day’s posts.

Enjoy, and PLEASE feel free to share the blog address with others.  Also feel free to copy and save any photos I’ve taken.  You should be able to right-click on them and save them to your device (but if you sell them and make a gazillion dollars, please slip me a zillion or two. We’ll just keep that between us).  The photos are best viewed on a computer or tablet, not a phone.  The larger the screen the better.

Mt. Revelstoke National Park

August 9, 2025

After passing through Glacier National Park I continued west on Hwy 1 to Mt. Revelstoke. It is located next to the highway, near the town of Revelstoke.

(Photo credit: Parks Canada)

I stopped at the information kiosk between the two Parks and the ranger there suggested I get to Mt. Revelstoke sooner rather than later, as parking near the top gets scarce as more people arrive. She was right.

The Trans Canada Highway doesn’t even go through the Park, but runs along part of the southern edge. Once I got close to town I pulled off onto the entry road and found that the only road in the Park is the “Meadows in the Sky Parkway,” a 16-mile, two lane road comprised of a set of many switchbacks (and with a low speed limit) which leads to the top. There were a handful of parking areas for hiking trails along the way.

This one looks down at the town of Revelstoke. Beyond it is the Columbia River, and the mountain in the distance is Mt. Begbie, which is almost 8,000 feet tall. I proceeded all the way up to the small parking area at the top (which I had to walk to as vehicles were lining up along the access road). There was a small cabin with rangers to answer questions.

The sign reports recent wildlife sightings:

There wasn’t even a view from this vantage point, and one had to hike out to the actual mountain peak to see anything. There was a sign indicating I was at 6,360 feet elevation.

I asked if there were places to get views on the way back down and stopped at two of the places that were suggested to me.

I should also mention that as I was driving up the mountain I was interested to see a sign in the road prohibiting dogs “beyond this point”. Of all the Parks I have been in I have never seen that restriction. Apparently, some dog owners would let their pets run loose, contrary to Park rules (which pretty much all Parks have. Pets must be on a leash). This often resulted in bear attacks, and then the bears might think that, hey, this might be a nice place to hang out. So this Park decided to ban dogs altogether above a certain elevation.

When I got back down I went into town to get something to eat and then started back to Golden, a 2 1/2 hour drive. When I had stopped at the kiosk earlier the ranger had suggested two places I would now pass on my way home. The first was a place called the Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk, a wetlands area next to the Illecillewaet River (the name is pronounced Ill-a-silhouette) and the water flows down from an enormous glacier of the same name in Glacier National Park. It is well south of the highway and not visible from the road.

I walked towards the boardwalk but met some people coming back who told me that there was a chain across the pathway that prevented anyone from going any further. I found out later that there were probably birds nesting in the area and authorities didn’t want them to be disturbed.

So I drove to the Giant Cedars Boardwalk just up the road, and the lack of vehicles there should have been a clue. It, too, was closed:

It is in a small rainforest and some of the trees toppled, severely damaging the boardwalk.

So although it was a nice day it was incredibly disappointing in many respects. I was hoping to see much more, especially in Glacier, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Later in my trip when I shared with my family where I had been one of my brothers, an avid skier, asked me about the ski area at Mt. Revelstoke. I told him I never heard of it, and didn’t recall seeing any signs for it.

I looked into it and found that the Revelstoke Mountain Resort is across the road from the National Park, and is located east of the town of Revelstoke. It is actually located on Mount MacKenzie. It features the longest vertical drop in North America, at 5,620 feet (from a top elevation of 7,300 feet), and they compare themselves to Breckenridge in Colorado, which is an enormous resort, and is where my brother who asked me about it worked for one season after getting out of college. Revelstoke Mountain Resort is one third the size of WhistlerBlackcomb near Vancouver, and the longest run is over 9 miles!

Glacier National Park (Canada!)

August 9, 2025

After returning to Golden from Jasper National Park I had now seen parts of 4 of the 6 Parks I planned to visit while I was based in Golden. Today I would go west, continuing on the Trans Canada Highway which brought me to Golden, to visit Glacier and Mount Revelstoke National Parks. Of course there is a Glacier National Park in the United States (in northwest Montana) which connects to the Canadian border but on the other side of the border the Canadian National Park there is called Waterton. I will visit it later in my trip.

I arrived in Golden towards the end of the day August 7 and left early on the 8th to backtrack and go north to Jasper. As I embarked on my drive west today I had my first good look at some of the mountains around Golden.

Those are all located west of Hwy 1 (the TCH) and actually sit between Golden and Glacier NP, which is located due west of town. I would have to drive northwest on Hwy 1 to the town of Beaver before turning back south to get to Glacier.

(Photo credit: Parks Canada)

The map above shows the two Parks I would visit today. Compared to the Parks I have seen so far these are quite small. Glacier NP covers 521 square miles and spreads out on both sides of Hwy 1. About 10 miles separate the two Parks, and Mount Revelstoke covers only 100 square miles, all on the north side of the highway.

Here is another map showing some more details:

(Photo credit: Parks Canada)

As you can see, the Trans Canada Highway (Hwy 1) is the only road passing through Glacier National Park, although there are several hiking paths which branch off in multiple directions.

I saw this impressive mountain as I approached the Park.

Once again I am faced with the naming problem. I suspect that may be Mount Dawson (because it has snow on it and is over 11,000 feet tall) but it is located pretty far off the highway so I may be mistaken.

This, I believe, is Mount MacDonald, which is about 9,500 feet tall.

After seeing these two mountains as I approached the Park the area next to the road narrowed as it started to climb up to Rogers Pass. Before getting to the Visitor Centre there I stopped at one of the parking areas for the Hermit hiking trail. Here I found several signs with some stern warnings.

First, I was now in avalanche country.

As you can see from the “You are here” X, the road is passing through near the base of these mountains, creating both a significant avalanche risk (though hopefully not on August 9) and also preventing me from seeing other mountains on either side of the highway.

Another sign warned me that I was in Grizzly and Black bear country and that I should take appropriate safety steps (e.g. don’t hike the trails alone, keep your distance from wildlife and carry bear spray). There was also a warning about mountain goats in the area, asking me to report any sightings. Curiously the sign didn’t ask me to Dial 911 for emergencies but, rather, listed a traditional phone number with area code. I presume this is because there generally isn’t cell service in any of the Parks and you would need to send an emergency text IF you could find a satellite signal.

I later read that the number one cause of death among visitors to Glacier National Park is water. People underestimate the power and extreme cold of the water within the Park, and if they should fall into it they are quickly overcome.

I resumed driving and stopped at the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre, only to find it closed, but for the bathrooms (which are called washrooms in Canada). It is being renovated and/or replaced and was not open. I had apparently gained some altitude as when I looked across the parking lot as I was leaving I could see a mountain back from where I had just come.

As I was about to pull out onto the highway I could see a few more mountains spread out before me.

Further up the road I came to a spot where they were doing some road work.

When I mentioned this to my Airbnb host in Golden he said it is a long overdue project to widen the highway from 2-lanes to 4-lanes.

So that was really all I saw of Glacier National Park. There are lots and lots of mountains, and a large number of glaciers, but you can’t see them without getting off the road, and even then you may not see very much.

Jasper, Alberta – Part 2

August 8, 2025

After walking and driving through parts of downtown I drove “around back” to see two lakes located behind town. Once I got back there there was absolutely no indication that anything bad had happened.

This is Pyramid Lake, and behind it is Pyramid Mountain.

That is the Pyramid Lake Lodge and across the road is another view of the lake with docks and various watercraft for guests to use.

I wasn’t able to get to Patricia Lake, although I don’t think it was technically off limits.

I drove back towards the downtown area and crossed the Athabasca River to take a quick drive through the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge property, a high-end hotel. It is on the “fire side” of the tracks but was apparently protected by workers and firefighters and only lost a few small buildings. The main lodge and most of the other buildings appeared to be intact.

Just off the road to the Fairmont property I did see this animal, eating grass in a burned out area of the forest. I initially thought it was a cow moose but I now believe it was an elk because a few minutes later I saw 30 or so elk as I was leaving Jasper. I sent pictures of them to a few friends called them moose and one of my brothers pointed out that they were elk.

This is the intersection of Hwy 16 (Connaught Drive) and Hwy 93 (the Icefields Parkway) as I was leaving town.

Across the intersection is Whistlers Peak which is where the Jasper Sky Tram goes. It is the highest and longest aerial tram in Canada. As far as I can tell that part of the mountain was not affected by the wildfire. Left of that is Marmot Mountain where the Marmot Basin ski area is located. It, too, was unaffected by the fire.

Once I turned south on Hwy 93 there were several vehicles stopped on both sides of the road and people were milling about with their cameras. Of course I stopped and joined them. There were about 30 elk resting on the ground in a grove of burnt out trees. They appeared to be adult females and some younger ones but I didn’t see any antlers so apparently there weren’t any adult males.

I continued south towards Golden, wanting to get there before dark. This is the view as I approached Mt. Hardisty. You can see the burnt out trees on both sides of the highway.

Jasper (the town), Alberta – Part 1

August 8, 2025

I chose Jasper as my first National Park to visit after arriving in Golden (although I drove through 3 others getting there). I really didn’t know what to expect when I got to the town of Jasper, as I was aware of the wildfire in 2024 but didn’t know the extent of damage. The town of Jasper is about a 3 1/2 hour drive (if done non-stop) from Golden, although I stopped many, many places to take pictures.

As I mentioned in the last post, I started seeing evidence of the fire as I drove around two mountains south of town – about 16 miles away. All the trees on either side of Highway 93 were destroyed by the intense fire. When I finally arrived in town around 1 pm, I stopped to walk the main street in town. I also went to the Parks Canada Visitor Centre, which wasn’t affected by the fire. There I was told where I could and couldn’t go within the Park. While I was there, some parts of the Park were still off limits due to damage caused by the wildfire.

Here are some of the things I saw:

Those are railroad tracks on the south side of town, significant because they are a main transcontinental line operated by CN Rail (The Canadian National Railway). Rail traffic through the Park was suspended the night the fire started, and CN Rail brought in one of their firefighting trains to help fight the growing blaze. Just beyond the tracks is the Athabasca River (out of view), and in the distance are the Colin Range of mountains, located southeast of town.

That is the tourist “photo op” sign in Jasper (in a rare moment someone wasn’t having their picture taken in front of it), and behind it is the Parks Canada Visitor Centre.

Those are the views of Connaught Drive, the main street in Jasper, looking in from each end.

This is an Akita taking a break while his handler was on the phone.

This is a statue outside the pizza place where I had lunch.

This is one of the few signs of the fire I saw downtown. It is a set of gas pumps on the same side of the street as the main shops.

Another gas station was destroyed on the other side of the street. The structures destroyed in the fire have been razed and the lots cleared. Many of the businesses which were affected indicate online that they are only “Temporarily Closed”.

Here is a map of downtown Jasper showing which structures were lost in the fire. The map states that 420 structures were destroyed or visibly damaged while 620 showed no damage. Wikipedia states that 358 of 1,113 structures were destroyed. Either way, the town did suffer significant property losses.

(Photo credit: Calgary Herald)

These are trailers which were brought in as temporary housing for some of the residents who lost their homes. I saw them at several locations in the area.

The next post will show some other things I saw in the area before heading back to Golden.

2024 Jasper Wildfire

August 8, 2025

I am now approaching the town of Jasper, AB from the south and have started to see damage caused by the massive wildfire which started a little over a year before I arrived in early August, 2025. You won’t see much evidence of it in my photos but I would be remiss if I didn’t explain what happened.

Jasper National Park is the largest of the six National Parks I would visit over the next few days from my base in Golden, BC. At 4,335 square miles it is larger than Yellowstone National Park (3,472 square miles). Comprised mainly of mountains, forests, lakes and rivers, it is a popular tourist destination.

The town of Jasper has a population of around 4,800 permanent residents according to the 2021 Census. That population swells significantly over the summer months.

Around 700pm the evening of July 22, 2024, a fire was detected northeast of town. A short time later, other fires were discovered well south of town. All of the fires are believed to have been started by lightning, and spread rapidly.

Within several hours, authorities made the decision to evacuate the entire Park! This was done due to the weather and ground conditions, as well as the forecast for the coming days. There are not many escape options, and it was the middle of summer so there were thousands of people visiting the area, in hotels, camping or staying in their RV’s. It is estimated that 25,000 residents, employees and visitors were told to immediately evacuate the town and Park.

Here is a map of the area eventually consumed by the fire.

(Photo credit: Parks Canada)

As I stated, the fire started July 22, 2024 and wasn’t considered “under control” until September 7, more than a month later. Due to the remote wooded areas within the Park it wasn’t actually considered “extinguished” until April 1, 2025! In all, the fire consumed 156 square miles.

I am approaching the town on Route 93 and started seeing burnt out areas on both sides of the road after I drove around Mount Kerkeslin and Mount Hardisty at the bottom of the photo. Everyone south of town was probably encouraged to drive south on 93. People in and around the town of Jasper could go either east or west on Route 16. Due to the fact that some of the fires were northeast of town, most people probably went west and eventually ended up in Valemount, which quickly became overrun with evacuees.

Only one death was attributed to the fire. A 24-year old trained firefighter died northeast of town when a tree fell on him. He had come up from Calgary to assist in fighting the blaze. No doubt that quick action by authorities, mere hours after the small fires were first discovered, saved countless other lives.

I will discuss the impact on the town of Jasper in my next post.

Icefields Parkway to Jasper, AB

August 8, 2025

To refresh your memory, I effectively stopped making “current” posts with photos I had taken August 8 while en route from the town of Golden, BC to the town of Jasper, AB.

(Photo credit: Parks Canada)

On July 7 I had traveled through Kootenay National Park (brown) and then through part of Banff NP (blue) and Yoho NP (yellow) to get to Golden, where I would be based for 6 nights. The following day I backtracked to Lake Louise and went north towards Jasper National Park (green) and have already posted photos taken in the northern part of Banff NP getting to the point where I crossed into Jasper NP, which is where the Columbia Icefield is located. The entire road (Highway 93N from Lake Louise to the town of Jasper) is called the Icefields Parkway and is considered by many to be among the most scenic roads in Canada.

Here are more photos I took as I traveled north, deeper into Jasper NP.

The two photos above are of the Athabasca Glacier, the largest one in a group of six which comprise the Columbia Icefield. I actually took those photos on my way south back towards Golden after having been to the town on Jasper.

The Columbia Icefield is a major tourist draw, so much so that I didn’t take part in the guided bus tour and excursion to the new Icefield Skywalk (a viewing platform similar to the one in the western Grand Canyon). To do those things most people make reservations at the Icefields Center, a large building next to the highway. Here are two photos I found on someone else’s blog:

(Photo credit: Thebanffblog.com)

Those blue buses will transport you to the base of the glacier so you may get an up-close look. They also give you exclusive access to the Columbia Icefield Skywalk:

(Photo credit: Thebanffblog.com)

There is another company that has large, red and white specialty vehicles with oversized snow tires which will actually take you out onto the glacier itself.

So you must park your car and use other means of transportation to truly experience the glaciers. I didn’t do any of those things.

I opted to continue driving north as I wanted to see the town of Jasper and get back to Golden before dark.

I am embarrassed to admit that I don’t know the names of the rest of these mountains. I have scoured maps and brochures but they don’t always name them and even looking at pictures online didn’t help, as they are often taken from other vantage points. In hindsight I wish I had taken better notes of exactly where I was when I took each photo. Most things don’t have signs explaining what you are looking at, and even using the time stamp on the photo didn’t help much since I make so many stops and frequently backtrack if I see something interesting.

My apologies!

I have the tour bus that was on the road ahead of me to thank for the last two photos. It had pulled off the side of the road to let the passengers take pictures of the bighorn sheep high up on the rocky hill next to the highway. I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.

If you are a hiker and plan to visit the Canadian Rockies I strongly encourage you to budget considerably more time than I did. There are MANY popular campgrounds and hiking opportunities and they can get you to places where you’ll have even more incredible views than I had from the road.

2025 Canada/Alaska trip recap

I am back in Durham after my 5-month 2025 road trip. I apologize for the long delay, but I have now reviewed all the photos I took between August 8 and August 31 and will begin posting them in small batches. Some days will have lots of photos, some days will only have a few. I will continue to review photos taken during the remainder of my trip and that should allow continuous posts highlighting my time in Canada and Alaska.

All told, I drove a total of 26,490 miles. 10,061 in the “lower 48” getting to and from western Canada, 12,608 in four of the provinces in Canada, and 4,421 in Alaska.

I spent 142 nights on the road. 20 with family and friends and the remainder in Airbnbs. Most of my time in Canada was spent in British Columbia (33 nights), with 16 in Alberta, 6 in Saskatchewan and 6 in the Yukon Territory (mainly stops while driving to and from Alaska).

I was very fortunate to have had good weather most places, and was able to get in and out of Alaska before any significant snow fell. I encountered little bits here and there, but nothing which impeded my travel. My car was a real trouper, only breaking down one time (in Utah) towards the end of my trip. In all the years I have traveled my cars have treated me very well.

My overall experience was AMAZING! I saw so many beautiful places and met some very nice people along the way – both fellow travelers and my Airbnb hosts. I have had very good luck using Airbnb over the years and find it a pleasant way to get local knowledge as well as staying close to the places I want to see. I passed on some of the more popular ways to see things (by air, by boat or by train) but prefer to do my own thing and travel by car. I avoided some of the more crowded venues.

I hope you enjoy the photos I am about to share.

Texas XX2.2L

They say everything’s bigger in Texas. That may be true until you start talking about Alaska , which in land mass alone, is 2.19 times larger. It’s a big place. And I have only been traveling in a small portion of it. The main roads are all in the southeast corner of the state and there is much, much more land to the north and west.

This is a sign I saw in Earthquake Park, north of Anchorage, a few days ago.

It talks about comparable areas of wetlands between the two. which is a whole nother matter.

There are 4 major highways in Alaska, not surprisingly numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Yes, there are other, smaller ones I’ll talk about in a minute.

1 – Runs from Tok, southwest through Glennallen, west through Anchorage and south to Homer. 538 miles, 9 hrs 38 min (per Google).

2 – Runs from the Canadian border with Yukon, northwest through Tok, Delta Junction, and Fairbanks plus a few more miles to Livengood. 624 miles, 7 hrs 34 min.

3 – Runs from Palmer north to Fairbanks. 327 miles, 5 hrs 36 min.

4 – Runs from Delta Junction, south through Glennallen to Valdez. 268 miles, 4 hrs 37 min.

Yes, there are shorter stretches of highway with different numbers:

11 – The “Dalton Highway” north from Livengood to Prudhoe Bay, a dangerous stretch of road not for the faint of heart, and not considered a major highway.

9 – Which branches off from 1 to run south to Seward.

5 – Which branches off from 2 to run northeast to Chicken.

7 & 98, in the Alaskan Panhandle which run south to Haines and Skagway respectively, though I will drive through much more of the Yukon Territory and extreme northwest British Columbia to actually get to them than I will while I am in Alaska.

This is part of the reason I am so far behind posting photos here on the blog. It takes me a long time to get from Point A to Point B, plus the time to stop and take photos. My 2 hr 22 min trip to Valdez took over 6 hours because I stopped every 4 minutes to take pictures! So please be patient with me. Believe me, I am seeing many amazing things EVERY DAY and I am banking lots of photos. I will get caught up eventually.

Welcome back to the United States, JohnBoy…

…. now let me see your oranges!

Real time post – A week ago today I crossed the border from the Yukon Territory into the United States near Beaver Creek, YT. It was around 6pm PDT, which then became 5pm AKDT when I crossed the line. As big as Alaska is, most of it is in one time zone – except the extreme southern Aleutian Islands which are on Hawaii Time. And Alaska only has one Area Code – 907.

Actually, I was already in the US – I had crossed the line about 30 miles earlier but the Customs Inspection Station wasn’t until later. I guess they really want to nab you before you can slink back into Canada.

When it got to be my turn it was pretty straightforward until we got to the subject of fruit. The agent was only interested in my 1 1/3 bags of mandarin oranges which I had purchased at a Walmart in Prince George, BC. He didn’t seem to care about the one banana I had left, or the two partial bags of apples I was packing.

He confiscated them. (He took two large potted plants from the woman in the car ahead of me. Lord knows what was in the U-Haul her traveling companion was driving).

Maybe he was hungry and was outfitting his apartment.

Anyway – I was cleared to go shortly thereafter and on my way to Tok (pronounced toke), AK.

And I just talked about road conditions in my last post. The first 10 miles or so of the highway in the US were pristine. Newly paved and without blemishes. (Take THAT, Canada… we know how to do roads over here!)

Then things started to go south. Same issues as in Canada except little or no warning at offending spots, and POTHOLES! Lots of POTHOLES! I honestly don’t think I saw a single pothole on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon. I swear they must go out every morning and patch them before they get worse. Not so on the US side.

Guess AKDOT needs to tuck it’s tail between it’s legs….

In their defense, I will give AKDOT kudos for repairing the road near Anchorage after a major earthquake many years ago. I remember seeing news stories about how they removed and replaced entire sections of the badly damaged roadway in record time. They apparently had all the materials ready to go, and moved in as soon as it was safe to do the rebuild.

That IS impressive.

SLOW means SLOW

I should have posted this earlier after I had driven across the southern edge of British Columbia the second week I was in Canada. During that leg of my trip I had to drive across a few small mountains (fortunately I drive around most of the big ones) and in lots of places the speed limit would drop as I approached turns, not uncommon on mountain roads. Now I will admit I sometimes channel my inner Shane van Gisbergen (* see footnote at end of post) and take some of these turns at speed, going wide on entry, hitting the apex, and going wide on exit. I am an experienced driver (though not on the proverbial closed course, so don’t start emulating me – I will plead the fifth) and only do this when I am well aware of the lack of traffic around me. In fact, when I was on Vancouver Island and drove north to Port Hardy my Airbnb host told me – “You will enjoy the road going up there. It is in good shape and you may not even need to slow down, just hold onto the wheel with both hands”. He was right!

I have learned, however, that when you see this sign:

that you need to SLOW DOWN. In Canada, when they say slow down they mean it! This also rang true in the Canadian Rockies. In the Canadian National Parks their roads are wide, sometimes multi-lane affairs (with passing lanes in some areas) and with a 90/kph speed limit in most places, but on tight turns you still need to slow down.

Even further evidence of this is when I crossed the southern edge of the Yukon Territory on my way west to Alaska. I was traveling on the Alaska Highway, what would be known as the Trans Canada Highway in other parts of Canada, is still referred to by its former name once one gets close to the US state. Because of the extreme cold this far north, parts of the Alaska Highway deteriorate rather quickly as potholes develop and/or the roadway “heaves,” creating undulations which, if repeated over a short distance, cause your vehicle to “porpoise” as if you were a dolphin swimming in front of a cruise ship. At full speed the result of these, usually unexpected, undulations can become catastrophic, hence the need to SLOW DOWN. These conditions can develop very quickly and randomly so instead of permanent signs, as was shown above, the Canadian Department of Transportation (probably called Transportation Canada) puts out temporary signs at each bad spot in the road.

And there are many.

Sometimes you only get the second sign, indicating a bump or dip in the road (which you can also see in the photo above. This one didn’t require any patches but can still catch the driver off guard), but the two signs generally travel in pairs. And God forbid you see an orange flag next to the Slow Down sign, as it means a severe undulation or road heave, which is sometimes like driving over a speed bump (or as Peter Sellers called it in the Inspector Clouseau movies, a “bimp”). Remember it – Orange Flag means SLOW DOWN, and big yellow sign saying SLOW means SLOW DOWN.

Now in addition to the signs, during the day the driver can often see major patches made on the road in advance, as they are all black of an otherwise gray roadway, and with black tire marks from the heavy equipment used to make the repairs. And often, if the repairs were major, they result in a very uneven surface, again necessitating a reduction in speed. I wouldn’t want to drive these roads at night – not only because of the risk of animals in the road, but also the inability to see the defects before arriving at them.

When I got in the extreme western part of the Yukon, “Transportation Canada” evidently ran out of small signs as there were NUMEROUS, major patches which were not marked (except an occasional orange flag). So in addition to worrying about animals in the road I also had to be on my toes for road conditions. I would sometimes cross to the opposite lane if the damage was confined to my side, again, well aware of other traffic around me.

And speaking of animals in the road – as I was taking the two orange sign photos above I saw two bison casually cross the road well ahead of me:

If I hadn’t stopped to take my pictures I would have missed it. One of the FEW wildlife sightings I have had during this entire trip.

And I will also note that the car which had stopped to let the bison cross the road also stopped when she got up to my car to ask if I had broken down. I assured her, no, I was just out of the car taking pictures but thanked her for her concern and for stopping to inquire. Before she drove off, she observed “They’re not tame” and I said “No ma’am, they’re not.”

  • Shane van Gisbergen is race car driver from New Zealand. He used to race in the Australian “Supercar” series but came to America to compete in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series street race in Chicago three years ago. He won. His first ever race in a Cup car, which some full time NASCAR drivers can’t even drive, AND he is used to steering from the right side of the car! Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks, himself a very successful road course driver, had provided a car for him to use in the race and immediately signed him to a full-time contract. He now competes full time in the Cup Series and wins most of the road course and street races he participates in, including the Xfinity “minor league” Series. Experienced NASCAR drivers openly marvel at his ability. He still struggles on the ovals, but he’s a damn good driver and loves his NASCAR!