Category: Backroads

Exploring around Hinton: Beaver Boardwalk and Ogre Canyon

On day 8 of the trip, Wednesday September 16, my son and I drove from Hinton to Edmonton to pick Cathy up at the airport at 12:30, then on Thursday the 3 of us explored the Hinton area, the highlight being a long hike to remote and spectacular Ogre...
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Yukon RVing: Squanga Lake Campground and the South Canol Road

On Friday morning, Cathy went to work while I went into town to buy a few things to re-stock the RV, then drove 90 km down the Alaska Highway to Squanga Lake Campground at Km 1315.9. Squanga Lake Campground gets little use by tourists, perhaps because when they’re this...
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To coal mining country in the Alberta Rockies

Yesterday was supposed to be an at-home day. No, really, it was – I was just going out for groceries! After putting a few bags of food in the trunk, I decided to go a few miles and get photos of some highway signs for my files, like this...
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Exploring the East Camino Cielo Road, California

On Thursday, Dad and I were out exploring on our own around Santa Barbara, and it turned out to be very different than we had intended when I found a road along the very top of the Santa Ynez Mountains. We were on the road just after 9:00 am,...
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Exploring the Aishihik Road & Aishihik air base

There aren’t too many roads in the Yukon, or even in Alaska, that I haven’t driven at some point over the last 23 years, but there’s one fairly close to Whitehorse that I hadn’t seen completely yet – the Aishihik Road (that’s pronounced ay-shee-ack). The furthest I’d been up...
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Exploring Miette Hotsprings and Hinton, Alberta

Both my son and his wife were off work for my free day in Hinton, and they suggested Miette Hot Springs down in Jasper National Park as the main destination. Any hot springs sound good to me, particularly one high in the Rockies on a back road. I’m extremely...
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Honouring Bomber Command and ancient buffalo in Alberta

My objective for yesterday was to re-visit the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site, 209 km south near Fort MacLeod, but I got sidetracked a bit as well 🙂 Trying to work with my car’s navigation system was extremely frustrating – the directions even to get through Calgary just...
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Spring exploring: the Kusawa Lake Road

Spring makes me crazy to get out of the house, and Friday (April 5th) looked like a good road-trip day, so Monty and I headed west on the Alaska Highway. It was -21°C (-6°F), sunny and windy when we left the house just after 9:30 – great for car-touring,...
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A bit early for Fall colours on the Canol

Having seen some excellent Fall colour photos from both the Top of the World and Dempster Highways the past few days, Cathy and I decided to head up the South Canol Road for a look on Saturday. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Johnson’s...
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Exploring the Aishihik Road and Otter Falls, Yukon

The gravel/dirt Aishihik Road runs north from Historic Mile 995 on the Alaska Highway. It takes adventurers to Otter Falls, most famous for being featured on the 1954 series of Canada’s $5 banknote, on to Aishihik Lake and ends after about 120 km at Aishihik village, a seasonal Native...
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