Alaska or Bust !

 Let the journey begin....

Part 1: Crossing the US up to the Canadian Border - Arizona to Chief Mountain, Alberta Canada.

To even make the trip possible Jack worked hard on upgrading and prepping our Dodge 3500 Diesel and our Outfitter Spire Camper so we were comfortable while camping and have a reliable vehicle to get us to Alaska. The finished product turned out to be what we needed to start on this bucket list adventure.

June 8th, 2026..... Let's get this party started!

As we pulled out of our driveway in 100 degree Arizona temperature we were hopeful that we were heading to cooler temperatures.  When we prepare for a trip like this, we try to stop for the night in cooler temperatures, which is known as 'chasing 70 degrees' in the nomad camping world. So we planned and plotted our route according so our first week brought us to:

Flagstaff, AZ - on the Mogollon Rim at 7,000 ft elevation, pine trees and cool air for sleeping!

Campsite at the Mogollon Rim outside Flagstaff, AZ.

Truck survived the first 120 miles!!

Duck Creek, Utah - at 8,400 ft elevation and again, cooler air.

In the pines again

Ely, Nevada - 6,400 ft elevation. Driving through western Utah and eastern Nevada, we drove NV HWY 50 which is called the Loneliest Road in America to get to Ely. The area is high desert plains/valleys with mountain ranges dividing the valleys for hundreds of miles and after a long day, we made camp in the trees at the foothills of the mountains. After a good night sleep we spend some time that next morning exploring the awesome local train museum. We were able to walk around their current restoration machine shop and talk to the mechanics and restoration guys about the unique trains they were working on, from 1890's steam engines to the newer 1950's diesel engines and a few specialty cars. This tour was two thumbs up for sure.

On our way to Ely on the Nevada HWY 50 - The Loneliest Road in America 

Coal tender car.

Rotary Snow Plow for clearing train tracks.

Hard not to want to jump in and get my hands dirty! 

Outside the Museum /Train Station

Bruneau Canyon Overlook in Idaho - We made a small detour off the straight north route to grab the Idaho's Cache Across America geocache.  When we arrived at the cache it was late so we decided to camp in the overlook area and were awarded with a beautiful canyon view and sunset all by ourselves.  Good sleeping.

Looking into the canyon at Bruneau Overlook

Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho. - We were surrounded by mountains and the only visitors we had were two wild mustangs that seemed to be curious why we were camping in their area.  The night was chilly and we were glad we have a heater in the camper.

At this point we had been averaging about 250 miles driving per day and dry camping for 5 days straight so we elected to stay a couple of days in Spruce On the River RV Park in Kalispell, Montana to take some really long hot showers, laundry and relax. Our RV site was next to the river and was our nature's symphony music for those two nights.

View from our site of the Flathead River

After a good rest we decided to head north again and visit near-by Glacier National Park.  We ventured into the west entrance of the Park only to find out that the Going-to-the-Sun Road, which transverses the park and connects the west entrance with the east entrance, was not open for the season as it still had snow drifts on the road, so we would need to drive the long way around to the east entrance to see the other side of the Park.  We are so glad we did. The glacier carved peaks, beautiful lakes and grand hotels are a sight to see.  After taking in the beauty from the St Mary's Glacier entrance the ranger recommended the Many Glacier entrance. This area seems to be less visited as the other areas of the park probably because of the 7 miles of dirt road. But yet again, it's so worth it. We were able to see more glaciers another grand lodge and less people.

West Entrance - Lake McDonald Lodge and old touring bus which is 
still used today.

Interior of the historic 1914 Lake McDonald Lodge

Views of Lake McDonald

Happy Us!

Mountain Goat looking a little shabby losing winter fur coat

East Glacier Entrance - View of Jackson Glacier

Everywhere you look... just WOW

Are we in Switzerland ?

Beautiful view of Many Glacier Hotel built in 1915 on the Swiftcurrent Lake
and massive peaks in the background

Interior of Many Glacier Hotel

Our journey continues to Alaska as we cross into Canada at the Chief Mountain Border Crossing just 80 miles NE of Glacier NP. We had no problems at the border crossing with only the typical inquiring questions and looking over our passports.  No person or vehicle searches. So we were pretty lucky.

Hello Canada

We have been on the road for one week, travelled 1900 miles and stayed at 7 unique places and crossed 6 states. So join us next time when we continue our travel through Canada to the Alaska border.

Thanks for coming along.

60th Annual Easter Jeep Safari - Moab, Utah

 As we sit here in an RV Park in Bluff, Utah surrounded by beautiful red rock formations making our way home we reflect on our experiences from the last 10 days in Utah's ever inspiring area of beauty and adventure and we would like to share our experiences with our family and friends.

We have attended the Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) in Moab, Utah for 14 years where we have experienced over 35 different trails and have met a lot of friendly fun Jeepers on those trails and this year was no exception. 

As the 40ft motorhome can be a bear to drive long distances we tend to break up our travel to Moab from Scottsdale in a 2-day journey where we usually stop at Cottonwood RV Park in Bluff, UT. It is a nice quiet park where we can stare at the nearby red rock cliffs or take one of the many Jeep roads in close proximity to this small town. Plus they have a couple of pretty good restaurants. 

Cottonwood RV Park
Bluff, UT

After we settled into our site we loaded up the Jeep with snacks and out we went exploring and caching in the nearby areas.  We found Forest Service Road 088 that took us to overlooks where we viewed the rock formations, mountains and valleys as far as our eyes could see.  These types of areas reminds us this is why we love to take the roads less travelled. These great views made this day drive a very enjoyable adventure in the mountains, but now on to the red rock county.

A road less traveled but FUN for us !

A fine example of the great scenery from this back county road. 

The 'Causeway' cliff view on one side of the road

Fun fact:  What is a Causeway? Jack had heard of a Causeway but I had not. So a Causeway, in this case, is a bridge or cross over built on the rocky and narrow divide over a deep gorge on each side.

Arrival in Moab

Welcome to Moab

View of La Sal Mountains from our Moab RV site.

We participated in two event runs this year - Seven Mile Rim and Moab Rim Trails.

Both trails afforded us amazing Moab views, red rock formations and many trail challenges.

Seven Mile Rim Trail:  The cliff rim portions of the trail were scenic but a little rough.  Stops along the trail included the spectacular Uranium Arch and Tusher Tunnel.  Both leaving us in awe of the formation and scenery.  Then there were the exciting sidehill slickrock driving areas where I (Deb), as the driver, had to put my big girl pants on and brave it while the Jeep was leaning so much I thought it could tip over but Jack assured me it wasn't even close to tipping.  His word against mine. LOL

Claret Cup Cactus

Uranium Arch

View of the eye catching geological formations of the Merrimac and the Monitor Buttes.
Named after two Civil War ironclads, the USS Merrimac and USS Monitor.

Monitor Butte in background

Our Jeep stands strong in front of the mighty Merrimac Butte. 

Slickrock sidehill

Determination Towers and our trail group

Tusher Tunnel entry - A feature formed as water coming down through the crack was forced laterally on encountering an underlying impermeable layer, so that lateral flow eroded the basal part of the crack into a flared cross-section. 

After walking over 100 feet through it, you come out the other end of Tusher Tunnel 

Views from Tusher Tunnel - La Sal Mountains

Moab Rim Trail:  Another day another trail. This trail has a lot going for it.  It is known for its technical 4x4 route that climbs a sheer sandstone cliff from the banks of the Colorado River.  Along the way we experienced many rocky off camber ledges, slickrock, 85 percent grade and stunning overlooks of the Colorado River gorge, the town of Moab and the La Sal Mountains.  There are areas of the trail that have names like 'Devils Crack, the 'Waterfall' and 'Z Turn' and did I mention the many tilted off camber slopes...  This was a fun trail and it made the Jeep work to get through all the technical obstacles and a few white knuckle death grips at the tilted side hills that I'm sure were worst than the ones on Seven Mile Rim trail (as Jack said since he was driving !).

 

Making our way on the trail from the parking lot up the side of the cliff with the Colorado river in the background. 

We had a great view across the river of Little Arch from Moab Rim Trail

Climbing and flexing across the Devil's crack.

Climbing up the waterfall obstacle.

Lunch with a view

Amazing views of Moab and the La Sal Mountains. Cliff side seating was the best.

Found it! I wandered off and found a cache while the
group took a pit stop. Shhhh, don't tell.

We stopped and checked out some petroglyphs from the native Americans over 800 to1200 years ago.

Exploration on our own:  On days that we don't have scheduled EJS trails we usually go out to find other roads less traveled.  In all the years we have been coming to Moab we have never taken the Onion Creek Canyon road.  It is approximately a 10 mile easy 4WD scenic route that winds through a narrow vibrant red rock canyon and finally opens up into Fisher Valley which is a cattle ranch with very green grass pastures and is neat to see with the red cliff walls in the background.   As we drove this road up the canyon, we counted 35 shallow creek crossings winding through the colorful canyon.  The spring or creek is called "Stinking Spring" because it has a mild sulfur odor and so named "Onion Creek".  We ended our tour at Fisher Valley Ranch and returned the way we drove in back through the canyon.  We noticed that other more rugged 4WD roads begin from the Ranch area but it was late in the day so we opted to return to town for dinner.

One of many water crossings

Celebrations!:  This year was big for celebration events throughout the week.  We attended a few lunch and dinner celebrations, vintage Jeep car show events, vendor shows and other promotions.  While EJS was celebrating it's 60th year in existence, the Jeep brand was also celebrating 85 years of off-road adventure along with 250 years America celebration.  Jeep put together an awesome drone air extravaganza to celebrate all three of the monumental occasions.  It was a great highlight to the week of having fun in our Jeep.

Thanks for coming along and celebrating the 60th Annual Easter Jeep Safari adventure with us. We hope you come back soon as we will start our Alaska adventure this summer.  Stay tuned. 

Happy Trails,

Jack and Deb