This summer was one of those in which the journey was as exciting as the destination. Alaska's Kenai Peninsula was the final destination, but I got there indirectly from south Texas by way of Minnesota, across the northern states to Montana where I picked up my travel partner, then into Canada and finally Alaska. And then back again, on a different route.

I haven't checked my mileage, but I'm thinking 12 to 15 thousand miles touching on or across 14 states, two Canadian provinces and one Canadian territory in two and a half months.

Despite Alaska's cool and rainy weather, our trip was incredible, filled with majestic mountains, soft valleys, rushing rivers, (sadly) melting glaciers, vast beaches, glassy lakes and flowery hillsides. We saw grizzlies, black bear, moose, humpbacks, puffins and eagles. We saw blue sky and heavy thunderstorms, sometimes at the same time.

My travel pal and I had taken a trip to Alaska 14 years ago and vowed to go back. But we wanted to drive this time and had no regrets doing so. The scenery to and from was spectacular, adding more enjoyment to the trip.

The pictures on these pages reflect the trip chronologically except I grouped the north-bound and the south-bound Canada pix on one page. In some states, specifically from Texas to Minnesota, I didn't stop for pictures. I had a wedding to attend!

Since I had already been to many of the locations, I added a link to previous pages of those areas...for those who are interested in seeing more. Below are photos of a few of the destinations.

Today's drive was one I'll remember for a long time because it was the kind that puts me smack dab in the middle of my happy place. State Highway 200 is a quiet, lightly-traveled two-lane, well-paved highway that runs east and west. I caught it in Glendive, Montana. and took it 350 miles to Great Falls. I could stop for photos when I wanted, which was often. After arriving in Great Falls, I picked up my travel partner from the airport, and we took in three of the five falls for which the city is named.

We didn't have a whole lot of miles to travel today, so we took our time getting over the border into Alberta, Canada, where we'd be staying for the night. Our first stop was the Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park located along the Milk River Valley in southern Alberta. It's sacred ground to the Blackfoot tribe. The soft sandstone rock was formed by nature millions of years ago, creating wonderful hoodoos and other unusual formations.

The next day we started a beautiful drive through the Alberta countryside and began the stunning road called The Icefields Parkway. The parkway runs from Lake Louise to the town of Jasper and has been called one of the most beautiful drives in the world. We made several stops along the route which offers magnificent scenery including turquoise-colored lakes, rocky mountains, gushing waterfalls and oh so much more.

Having left Mora, Minnesota. around 7:30 in the morning, it was late afternoon when I was starting to think about quitting for the day and finding a place for the night. I pulled into a rest stop to make lodging reservations, and discovered it was the entrance to the eastern side of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. What a pleasant surprise. There was no way I could pass up a drive through this stunning scenery, even though dark was soon to come.

There couldn't be a prettier province in Canada than British Columbia. We took three days to travel a little more than a thousand miles (1641km) through B.C. going north, with lodging in Saskatchwan River Crossing, Fort St. John and Fort Nelson. Our southern route took four days, covering 1500 miles (2396km) from Whitehorse, Yukon, to the city of Vancouver. Our night lodging was in Iskut, Houston, Clinton and Vancouver. I had been to Vancouver before, but spent a little bit longer this time and investigated a couple areas that I hadn't been to on previous visits. I'm not crazy about big cities, and Vancouver is no exception, as far as traffic goes. But it truly is an amazing city. We spent our last four days of the trip there.

The Yukon is one of Canada's three territories. It's the most western and the smallest.

We were excited about traveling through the Yukon since it's so remote. We didn't see as much wildlife as we thought we would, which was disappointing. But it was still a great drive. Good roads, no traffic.

Having done Alaska's interior and the Inside Passage, this trip focused on the Kenai Peninsula, spending most of our time in Homer and a few days in Seward. The surrounding towns of Homer, first nation towns, were so very interesting as was the drive getting there. We explored Talkeetna and Skagway, then took the Alaska ferry system from Haines to Juneau and back.

I know. Out of the way. But I had an invite to see the Apostle Islands and to do some kayaking, for the first time in my life. The kayaking was a short two-hr trip along the shore at Washburn. The caves were not very deep, nor was the water. But the weather was perfect for being on the water.

We also took the ferry over to F and did a roughly two-mile hike along the Big Bay Sand Spit and Bog Trail. We were excited to see sandhill cranes in the bush there.

What took me to Minnesota on this trip was my sister's wedding. It was a four-day trip, two days before the wedding and one day after. I don't normally include personal photos on my web pages, but she was such a beautiful bride, I had to include it. Her picture is below.