June 17, Anchorage, Alaska.

This is our last night in Alaska. Tomorrow we hit the road for a very long, 700km haul to Beaver Creek, just inside the Canadian border in The Yukon. This route is unlikely to provide us with any more spectacular scenery, just the never-ending wilderness that is Alaska. That's not to disparage the wilderness, but just driving through it is very different to experiencing it as we have over the past two and a bit weeks.

So, what do we think of Alaska? Well, firstly, it isn't white, it's green, well, at least at this time of the year. Also, it isn't cold, well, at least at this time of the year. What it is mostly is a great adventure, truly one of the last frontiers, well, at least in the developed world. For Americans, travel to Alaska is a bit like Australians driving to Uluru, much of the thrill is just doing it. So imagine what it feels like for Australians coming to what, to us, is the absolute end of the earth! Then there is the wildlife, the glaciers, the mountains and the wonderfully friendly, though sometimes eccentric, people who eke out a living in what must be one of the most difficult regions to live on earth.

All this aside, Alaska does have some minor down sides. Don't expect attractive towns or cities. Alaskans need to do a bit of work on their urban environments. Sure, there are all the usual services, even fuel isn't a problem if you are aware of the great distances, but the frontier nature of the lifestyle does lead to some lax attitudes to tidiness. For example, there must be as many derelict vehicles rusting away in front yards and vacant lots in Alaska as are on the road. Piles of building materials and other junk are a constant eyesore. On the other hand, Alaskans would rather die than throw a drink can out the window on a highway. Go figure?

In short, Alaska is an adventure, beautiful, wild and still uncrowded. Do it, but please don't do a cruise, you'll 'miss the boat' on what Alaska is all about.

June 18, Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Having done it, the 700kms from Anchorage to the Canadian border seems like a breeze. The good weather and great views for most of the way helped a lot. It was just more of the same old same old... incredible scenery at every turn! Does Alaska ever end? The distances are enormous and the country is so open and relatively untouched.

Finally, we have made it to Beaver Creek. Our last attempt to get here was foiled by a landslide that cut the highway a couple of weeks back. Not that Beaver Creek is 'the' place to be. It's just another tiny dusty strip of motels and gas stations. Just a place to sleep on the way to somewhere else. Mind you, Canada is not the accommodation bargain that the lower 48 states can be. Our motel tonight cost $104 for a room with no TV, no fridge, no coffee making, no free breakfast and what is worse for us, one power point! In Montana that $104 would get you a room big enough to hold a rodeo, corral for your horse, flat screen 200 channel cable TV, breakfast and dancing girls! The power point is for our travelling kitchen. This is what saves us heaps on these trips, but it does require power and as we have found out, our little portable hotplate draws a lot of current, blowing out the circuit breakers at least three times in motels we have stayed in so far. We just blame the hair dryer and get the office to turn us back on.

So tomorrow, off into the Canadian west in the path of Nelson Eddie and Jeanette McDonald. (look them up in your Funk and Wagnalls, or for non-boomers, just use Google.)

June 19, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

This is our second stay in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. Sad to say the better weather since our last stay hasn't improved our perspective on Whitehorse. One would need the rosiest of rose coloured glasses to find Whitehorse attractive. Sad, because it is situated in a very attractive part of the territory with high cliffs bordering the town on one side and views to snowcapped mountains on the other.

Another 500 km drive today through the wild Yukon this time. We had a few thrilling wildlife spottings with a mother bear and her two cubs ambling along beside the highway for a while. A bit further on solitary grizzly, probably a male, grazed beside the road. Later, a mother moose and her calf stopped us in our tracks.

We are finding Canada at least as expensive than Alaska. Petrol here is about as expensive as at home. In Alaska it was a little cheaper, but in the rest of the USA it is about $1 a litre at the moment. Motels are about the same as Alaska, $100 - $150 for a budget level room, which is around twice the price of the rest of the US. Food and booze are again expensive relative to the US, but probably on a par with Australia.