RVT.com RV Trader Blog

Vancouver Welcomes Olympic-Bound RVers

Vancouver is busy preparing to host the 2010 Winter Olympics from February 10 through March 2, but the Canadian city has already rolled out the welcome mat for RV campers. In addition to the many RV campsites surrounding the Vancouver area, the city’s park board is opening Jericho Beach and Spanish Banks to overnight RV parking during the games at a cost of $95 per night.

While there are numerous RV campgrounds on the outskirts of Vancouver and in nearby communities, only one commercial RV park is located near the downtown area and it already has a waiting list of 100. The park board’s commendable decision to open beach parking lots puts 365 more RV camping spots downtown close to Olympic venues.

If you travel to the Olympics make sure to take the Aquabus ferry across the bay to Granville Island for lunch at the indoor Public Market. Savory scented stalls sell and cook everything from fresh fish to exotic produce. It’s a good place to stock your larder. You’ll find lots of excitement and live music downtown, but if you want to experience the true flavor of Vancouver, locals say you’ll have to venture out to the city’s collar neighborhoods. That’s where you’ll find Vancouver’s funky boutiques stocked with Canadian designer fashions, Lebanese delis, Italian coffee shops and other avant-garde delights.

Enjoy the games if you RV to Vancouver, but spend some time exploring the city, too. It’s a place worth savoring.

Ken Burns Tours National Parks on PBS

Film maker Ken Burns, who teamed up with PBS in 1990 to bring us an epic series on the Civil War, chronicles the development of our country’s extraordinary national parks system in a 12-hour PBS series debuting at 8 p.m. this Sunday. The National Parks: America’s Best Idea will run on PBS stations at 8 p.m. on consecutive nights from Sunday, Sept. 27 through Friday, Oct. 2 (check your local listings). This series is a must see for RV travelers who enjoy camping at national parks. Each two-hour episode will explore the park system’s rich history, from its evolution to the people whose efforts turned dream into reality to the history and development of individual parks. Expect plenty of gorgeous film footage of scenic park vistas. The series promises to enrich your next RV trip to a national park while showcasing parks you may want to visit.

Many of our national parks were simply tracts of preserved land until President Roosevelt used the CCC to put people back to work during the 1930’s depression (see our last post). Roads, trails, campsites and visitors’ centers built by the CCC opened America’s national parks to the public, for the first time providing easy access to these natural treasures. Shenandoah National Park in Virginia was the first park to benefit. CCC-built Skyline Drive provides sweeping vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains as it twists through 105 miles bisecting the park. The beautiful RV campsites and great hiking and biking trails we enjoy at Shenandoah now began with the CCC.

CCC Boys Built Many of America’s Parks

Take a close look next time you park your RV at a state or national park. From campsites to lookout points, ranger stations to visitor centers, hiking paths to rest stops (known in camping vernacular as pit toilets), the incredibly beautiful park system RVers,  campers and day trippers enjoy today was largely built by the “CCC boys” of the 1930s. 

During our country’s last major economic disaster, the Civilian Conservation Corps was one of the ways President Franklin D. Roosevelt put America back to work. Established in 1933 at the height of the depression, the CCC lured men off the soup lines with the promise of food, lodging and $30 a month, $25 of which was sent home to their families. Signing up for 6-month hitches with many staying on for the full two years, the CCC’s ranks swelled with World War I vets, out of work fathers anxious to support their families and 18-year-olds forced to fend for themselves, though some boys as young as 14 slipped by recruiters.

The CCC sent huge teams of workers into the wilderness where they carved out the campsites and hiking trails we enjoy today. Those comfortable trails that meander through the forest, the timber-framed stair steps that make it easy to climb up hills, the rough-hewn log bridges over creeks along the path are all courtesy of FDR’s back-to-work program.

Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains was one of the CCC’s first projects. An RVers paradise, we’ll tell you more on Friday.

Scenic Byways Great Way to View Fall Colors

The leaves were just beginning to turn along the Blue Ridge Highway this weekend, but the big fall show won’t start for another couple of weeks. RVers still have plenty of time to map out scenic drives to enjoy colorful autumn leaves. America’s designated scenic byways are a natural for fall color tours. Promising gorgeous, panoramic views no matter what the season, scenic byways trace across America’s mountain ridges and through lush valleys, offering some of the most beautiful drives in America.

Scenic drives are marked on most state maps and some of the most famous, like the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina or the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Seward, Alaska, even warrant their own maps. A good place to start planning a weekend of autumn leaf peeping is the National Scenic Byways Program website. Sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration which designates scenic byways, the site provides an interesting overview of each scenic drive, including history, development information and sights to look for along the way.

Read personal accounts of trips taken along each byway with great tips on places to stop and things to do and see. The NSBP website also offers news of jazz fests, harvest markets and other interesting events along drive routes. You’ll also find information on waterfall drives, fall color tours and intriguing natural and manmade wonders to include in your RV traveling plans.

Farewell to Alaska; We’ll Be Back!

Our summer trip to Alaska was amazing. A land of majestic, rugged beauty, its hardy adventurers embody America’s pioneer spirit. We met folks who lived off the land in the bush in log cabins they’d built themselves. We shared adventures with RVers from across the U.S. and Canada and a few from around the world. We found Alaska to be very RV friendly. We could fill volumes with our Alaskan experiences, but it’s time to move on to the next RV trip.

Here are a few more things you won’t want to miss in Alaska: 

* Salmon running in Ship Creek along Whitney Ave. and off the Reeve St. bridge in Anchorage.   

* Shoulder-to-shoulder “combat” fly-fishing along Bird Creek north of Girdwood.

* Breath-taking views of Portage Glacier near Whittier.   

* Dog sled ride and tour of a working Iditarod racing kennel at Seavey’s Ididaride in Seward.

* One-mile hike to the foot of Exit Glacier.

* Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward for underwater views of puffins, sea otters, seals and more.

* Great souvenir shopping in historic downtown Seward.

* Excellent full-day, ranger-narrated Major Marine Tours cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park. We saw sea lions, whales, puffins, porpoises and eagles and watched a glacier calve. Excellent salmon/prime rib lunch. Leaves from Seward wharf.

* Fishing boats displaying their catches at the Seward wharf. Watch for eagles.     

* Salmon dinner at Ray’s on Seward’s waterfront.

Visiting Denali: Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Denali National Park is home to North America’s tallest peak, 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley, but few RV travelers are lucky enough to glimpse it in summer. During a July trip to Alaska, we had glorious views during a morning tour into the park, but by afternoon the typical haze set in and the snow-capped behemoth disappeared. Many RVers we met never saw the mountain. The same is true of wildlife. Denali’s 6 million acres are home to moose, bear, caribou, wolves and dozens of other species; but without powerful binoculars or a telephoto lens, you’ll only see a brown splotch in the distance.

Denali offers limited RV campsites (no hook ups), so book early and pay attention to size restrictions. Visitors can drive 15 miles into the park, then must travel via park bus, hike or bike into the interior. The Wonder Lake tour at the end of Denali’s single, 135-mile gravel road is worth the 12-hour trip. Shuttles stop for scenic views and wildlife sightings and make a rest stop every 2 hours. Carry food and water; the only concessions are at the entrance visitors’ center.

Want to see McKinley up close? K2 Aviation in Talkeetna south of Denali will fly you right between the peaks and land on a glacier. A staging area for climbers and rafters, Talkeetna is a bit rustic but has excellent gift shops. Eat a gourmet meal at the Wildflower Cafe prepared by President H.W. Bush’s former White House chef, now a part-time dog musher!

Can’t Miss Alaska Attractions

If you can afford the time, plan to spend at least a month RVing in Alaska. Invest in a camera with a telephoto lens if you want to take pictures of wildlife. Here are our favorite attractions:

An old-fashioned paddle wheeler, Riverboat Discovery in Fairbanks cruises up the Chena River with stops at a sled dog training camp and Chena Indian village. A great introduction to Alaska. Pair it with the El Dorado Gold Mine tour and save. Our gold panning efforts netted $52 in gold flakes! Gift shop selections and prices are excellent. You won’t find better.

The University of Alaska Museum of the North overlooking Fairbanks offers excellent displays of native ivory carving and art, historic photographs, and Ice Age animals, including Blue Babe, an Ice Age bison mummy. On clear days, look for Mt. McKinley.

Experience the numbing cold of 40 degrees below zero at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. The Alaska Salmon Bake is worth the price. Shops offer native crafts at the best prices you’ll find.

Want to travel to the Arctic Circle? Unless you’re an experienced ice road trucker, don’t attempt the Dalton Highway; take a narrated tour with Arctic Circle Fly/Drive Adventure. On the 13-hour drive north, we passed several recent RV hulks alongside this dangerous, isolated gravel road. The Arctic Circle is just a disappointing sign, but the views of the tundra and oil pipeline are fascinating as is the 30-minute flight back to Fairbanks.

We’ll wrap up our Alaska RV tour Monday with Denali and more favorites.

RV Traveling in Alaska

Nearly three times the size of Texas, Alaska’s landscape, climate, attractions and activities change every couple hundred miles. Driving Route 3 from Fairbanks south past Denali to Anchorage then Seward, we passed through arctic tundra, glacier-carved valleys, meandering rivers, towering snow-capped mountains, temperate rain forest and rocky fjords. Our roadway bible was the Milepost, a mile-by-mile guide to campgrounds, attractions, scenic views, gas stations, restaurants, gift shops, emergency services, etc. along Alaska’s isolated highways. Keep an eye on your RV’s gas gauge; it can be a long way between gas stations.

If there’s something you want to see, do, eat or buy, do it when you see it. Don’t count on it being available later in the trip. This particularly applies to native Alaskan art crafted by nine regionalized tribes. Expect to pay over $100 to $1,000s for highly prized native art: scrimshaw, carved antlers, birch baskets and etched baleen. Less expensive replicas are available in gift shops. While souvenir prices seemed high, attraction fees, gas, food and restaurant prices were on par with tourist areas in the lower 48. Prices rose in remote locations due to higher shipping costs. Nearly everything in Alaska has to be shipped in, often by plane.

You’ll have plenty of time to shop, fish, hike and enjoy the sights during a summer RV tour of Alaska. Fairbanks enjoys nearly 24 hours of daylight. By the time we got to Seward nearly 500 miles south, it did get dusky at night but not fully dark.