In June 1993 we had planned a trip to the northern part of Scandinavia - to Lapland in Norway and Sweden. However competition for flights to the US rendered very low prices. SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) had a direct flight from Copenhagen to Seattle in Washington State on the West Coast for just above 3000 DKr pr person. With very short notice (two weeks in advance) we decided to change plans and explore the Canadian Rockies and the North Western part of the USA. This was to fulfil the magnificent vacation we had spent in the South-West the year before with our son Michael. He promised to look after our house in Jęgerspris and our lovely Bernese Mountain dog Picasso this summer. So we booked the travel for 3 weeks through the Gate Eleven agency in Copenhagen and made reservation for a size C car at Hertz. When we arrived at the Tacoma Intl. Airport late in the afternoon local time, we received the keys for a wonderful Toyota Camry which was a free upgrade and which took us on a 6000 miles round-trip without any troubles at all.

We spent the night at an airport motel reserved in advance. We were quite excited and woke up early in the morning and moved on North. We did not leave much time for exploring Seattle, but the famous Space Needle was a must. So we went there and bought a ticket to the top restaurant from where the views very magnificent. The weather was clear and we had nice views to the snow capped Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens which are both ancient volcanoes. Mt St. Helens had had a recent eruption, less than 10 years before we arrived (see later).

Our roundtrip is indicated on the map in black

From Valemount we still followed the Yellowhead Highway North to Prince George. Very few people live in the large forests along this highway. There were a few isolated wooden (painted red like in Sweden) farms on the hill sides but hardly any villages for this long distance of about 150 miles. At noon we had lunch at Bear Lake north of Prince George. Here steady rain started and this unfortunately followed us the next days. It was quite impressive that huge television parabols (at least 2- 3 m in diameter) were placed at almost every lawn in the village. Just north of Bear Lake a black bear enjoyed a walk along the highway. When we approached he went to the edge of the wood but was still watching us. We stopped but were too clumpsy to get the camera ready until he disappeared. At Hudson's Hope we went to the Peace Canyon Dam. Further north we left the wilderness and entered a farming area at the famous Alaskan Highway. One of our dreams has been to follow this highway north all the way to Fairbanks in Alaska. But this time we had to turn south. In Fort St John we found a nice motel in heavy rain.