| Un fabuleux voyage en motorisé en Alaska et au Parc National de Yellowstone… il faut le faire ! par Danielle Carrière-Paris Ronald et Danielle Saumure se sont permis une « randonnée liberté » de 70 jours en motorisé, pour se rendre au sein du territoire mythique et sauvage de l’Alaska et celui du Parc National de Yellowstone. Quel exploit ! Les photos en disent long sur cette aventure mirifique.  En effet, les nouveaux retraités se dirigèrent dès le lendemain de la retraite officielle de Danielle, soit le 30 juin 2012, vers l’ancien territoire russe d’Amérique (Ronald était déjà retraité depuis 2011). Que de choses à voir et à visiter, et ce, en grandes parties, sur d’agréables routes d’accès et des voies panoramiques canadiennes et américaines qui traversent à la fois, montagnes, vallées et fuseaux horaires. La faune, la végétation et le paysage étaient époustouflants. Voici une liste non-exhaustive des nombreux lieux visités.  Ronald et Danielle passèrent d’abord par le Sault Ste Marie en faisant escale à Elliot Lake, lieu d’effondrement du Centre commercial. Puis, ils longèrent le lac Supérieur pour se rendre à Wawa et à Thunder Bay pour admirer le monument de Terry Fox. Ils traversèrent ensuite la frontière du Manitoba pour camper au Parc provincial du Manitoba Whiteshell, puis ils roulèrent à travers les champs de blé et autres, du territoire plat des prairies en passant par Swift Current et Moose Jaw pour se rendre éventuellement à Calgary pour participer au 100e anniversaire de son fameux Stampede par l’entremise du CTrain. Ronald était émerveillé. Il a pris 900 photos !!!  Ils défilèrent ensuite vers les sites enchanteurs de Banff, Jasper, Icefield Parkway, le Lac Louise et le Lac Moraine, puis vers Prince George, Bijoux Falls et Chetwynd en Colombie-Britannique pour admirer de magnifiques sculptures de bois, puis vers Fort Nelson. Ils empruntèrent ensuite la route de l’Alsaka qui relie Dawson Creek en Colombie-Britannique à Fairbanks en Alaska. Ils traversèrent également Fort Liard, une petite communauté Inuit aux Territoires du Nord-Ouest. Ils en ont profité, en cours de route, pour se détendre dans les sources thermiques locales. Ils arrivèrent ensuite au Yukon à Watson Lake, puis à Whitehorse. Les ours étaient au rendez-vous ainsi que les troupeaux de bisons. Ils en ont également appris beaucoup sur les aurores boréales lors d’une visite au Centre Northern Lights et se sont rendus à Dawson City via le Klondike Highway à travers une forêt dense sous un soleil ardent… 18 à 19 heures de luminosité en une journée, c’est hallucinant!!!  Il importe de souligner aussi qu’ils ont franchi trois frontières qui se chevauchent pour se rendre à Skagway, soit celle du Yukon, de la Colombie-Britannique et de l’Alaska. Et que dire, du site panoramique quelque peu enneigé du « Top of the World Highway », et de la magnifique randonnée au bord de l’eau dans la communauté de Valdez où ils ont ensuite fait une petite croisière de 7 heures où les glaciers, les chutes, les aigles à tête blanche, les marsouins et les baleines à bosse agrémentaient le trajet. Anchorage, Seward, Hope, Kenaï et Fairbanks étaient ensuite à l’itinéraire, suivi d’une excursion en autobus jusqu’au 66e degré parallèle du Cercle de l’Arctique où le soleil demeure au-dessus de l’horizon pendant au moins 24 heures consécutives au moins une fois dans l’année. Quel parcours enchanteur en lieux nordiques!!! Les voyageurs émérites peuvent dire honnêtement qu’ils ont parcourus d’un bout à l’autre l’Alaska Highway. Les aventuriers entrèrent ensuite aux États en direction pour le plus ancien parc national au monde, soit le « Yellowstone National Park » en passant d’abord par le plus grand barrage en Amérique nommé le Grand Coulée, puis par le « Lee Metcalf national Wildlife Refuge » et le « National Bison Range » où les voitures circulent parmi les bisons en liberté. Ils se dirigèrent ensuite vers Virginia City au Montana reconnu à l’époque comme une ville destinée à la ruée vers l’or.  En arrivant par la suite au Parc Yellowstone situé au nord-ouest du Wyoming, les « rangers » leur ont fait part des points saillants à visiter, y compris, entre autres, le « Old Faithful » (un geyser d’eau sous pression qui fait une éruption spectaculaire à toutes les 88 minutes… les wapitis et les bisons s’y sont pointés). Ils traversèrent ensuite le Parc National de Grand Teton au sud du Parc Yellowstone. Puis le retour s’est poursuivi via « Devil’s Tower » au centre d’un ancien volcan, « Mount Rushmore », les « Badlands », Wall au South Dakota, Iron Mountain au Michigan, et j’en passe… pour revenir au Sault Ste Marie pour boucler la boucle.  Près de deux mois et demi plus tard, Danielle et Ronald entraient chez eux avec un portefeuille allégé de 5,423$ (plus le coût du camping de 2,386$) et avec un baluchon de souvenirs remplis à craquer, pour se remémorer ce long parcours de 18,292 km (moyennant 261 km par jour). Parmi les secrets du succès reliés à ce trajet, ils soulignent l’importance d’un esprit ouvert à l’aventure, le goût d’apprendre et la capacité de reconnaître la beauté environnante… Je vous invite à consulter le texte intégral et détaillé du récit de Ronald et Danielle pour en connaître davantage sur ce fabuleux voyage. Bonne lecture ! |
This is an article by KAREN KORNELSENThat was published in RVWest Magazine Winter 2016
A grand cross-country journey
In 2012 Ronald and Danielle Saumure took a trip of a lifetime, from Ottawa to Alaska.
Grizzly bear mom with three of her four cubs in Valdez, Alaska. — Ronald Saumure photo
High school sweethearts Ronald and Danielle Saumure have been travelling and camping together since 1974. The couple from Ottawa, Ontario, are now retired and have taken their travelling to a whole new level.
On June 30, 2012, the day after Danielle retired from being a public school teacher for 30 years, the couple took off on an epic trip which took them from Ottawa all the way to Alaska, then south through Yellowstone National Park and back home. The trip took 10 weeks altogether and they did it in their 24-foot Sunseeker with their Toyota Corolla in tow.
Photo taken in LaPasse, Ontario, the morning of their departure for Alaska. DENISE GAUTHIER PHOTO
The idea to head to Alaska was borne when the couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in 2004. They flew to Vancouver and from there, did a week long cruise to Alaska.
“Once we saw the scenery, we knew we would be back,” said Ronald. “We saw RVs in a few locations and thought, this is the dream.”
Ronald knew he was retiring in 2011 from his job as a public servant, so in 2009 the couple bought a new RV knowing they would have it paid off by the time their adventure started. The year before the trip, the couple spent about three months planning in total. The Mile Post travel book was an incredible resource for them, as well as other books on camping in B.C. and Alaska. They also used tourist websites and analyzed maps.
Ronald has been camping his whole life.
“I was born in late May and went camping for the first time in July,” he said. “We camped all the time. Danielle wasn’t a camper before we met in 1974, but that quickly changed. We have two boys and when they were younger, and because Danielle had two months off every summer, we would always go for a trip in a tent or a tent trailer.”
The family made trips to B.C. in the west and Newfoundland in the east, and in 2008 they bought an old RV for the first time. They upgraded when they decided on Alaska because they wanted the comforts of sleeping in a comfortable bed every night, having a private washroom and being able to cook in their own kitchen. It was also easier to tow the Corolla so that once they arrived in major centres they could get around and explore.
Alaska
On June 30, 2012, the couple set out for Alaska. They knew one stop along the way had to be at the Calgary Stampede. In their rush to see the Calgary Stampede Parade they made it from Ottawa to Calgary in five days. As an amateur photographer, Ronald absolutely loved taking in the sights of the cowboys.
The Alaska border to on the way to Skagway.RONALD SAUMURE PHOTO
The Saumures then headed through the Rockies and stopped in Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, Prince George and Chetwynd before heading to Fort Nelson. They took Route 97 up to Dawson Creek, B.C., then headed to Dawson City, Yukon. They knew from day one they wanted to take the Alaska Highway, which links Dawson Creek, B.C., to Fairbanks, Alaska.They also made it to Fort Liard, a small Inuit community in the Northwest Territories.
The couple really enjoyed Dawson City, Yukon. It was a beautiful, and hilarious, experience for them.
“It’s an old town with dirt roads and wooden sidewalks and it looks like a Western could still be filmed there at any time,” said Ronald. “There is a casino there, the Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall. My wife and I don’t really gamble, but we heard they had a show on one night and decided to go. We walked in and sat right in front because there was lots of room. As part of the show, the can-can girls selected four men from the crowd to show them how to do it. They made the mistake of choosing me—as I have two left feet and they’re not very coordinated. I got a lot of laughter from the crowd. Then the other part of the show was to take off the young ladies’ garter belts. The first two gentlemen got them off in about 30 seconds. When it came to me—and I had only ever done this once, when I got married to my wife—I told the girl I was going to take my time. I made a big show of it, taking it down and putting it back up and licking her knees. It lasted almost a minute and I got a standing ovation from the crowd.”
“It was quite funny,” said Danielle. “The next day we had stopped in another campground in Alaska, and some people stopped us and asked if we still had the garter belt. It was so funny to be recognized.”
The couple took the Top of the World Highway from Dawson City to Chicken, Alaska.
“It’s a gravel road with an incredible view from all sides,” said Ronald. “Then when you cross the road into Chicken, Alaska, there is a population sign that says 2, for the one Canadian border guard and the one American border guard. We thought it was quite funny when we heard the reason they call it Chicken. The official bird of Alaska is called a ptarmigan, but because no one could agree on the spelling they ended up calling it Chicken.”
The couple spent about three weeks total in Alaska and loved every minute of it.
“We saw animals every day,” said Ronald. “We saw grizzly bears, moose, caribou, bald eagles... it was amazing.”
Bald eagle on the way to Valdez, Alaska.RONALD SAUMURE PHOTO
Valdez, Alaska, was a highlight for the couple. They took a cruise for a day on a boat and got to see whales and eagles. They also very much enjoyed Homer, Alaska.  “There is a big spit, a long sandy peninsula that goes out into the bay,” said Ronald. “There’s lots of fishing here for big halibut. We camped there and it was unbelievable. It was also the most expensive campground, but we’d definitely go back.”  Yellowstone National Park The Saumures then took their time and spent about two weeks travelling from Alaska to Yellowstone National Park. They drove through B.C. and stopped in places like Prince Rupert and Penticton. In Penticton, they spent a day tubing down the Penticton River channel, which is a canal about seven kilometres long. From there they entered the U.S. and headed to Yellowstone. “It was still sunlight when we got back, because the days are so long there,” said Ronald. “We don’t like the light in the mornings when we’re sleeping in the RV, so we actually had to block all the windows so we could at least sleep until 8 a.m. The days are really long.” 
The Saumure's RV in front of a glacier near Stewart, B.C.RONALD SAUMURE PHOTO
“Seeing the wood bison was a huge highlight for us,” said Ronald. “The geysers were also unbelievable, and it was amazing to see Old Faithful erupt. From Yellowstone we also went south to Grand Teton National Park, which was really beautiful. Basically you have a mountain and then large mountains, no foothills, so it’s quite incredible that the mountains are right there. We stopped in that area and had a good laugh because we told some people in French, Grand Teton actually means large boobs. It was named by French Canadians from the Hudson Bay Company. And they are quite big peaks!” 
Yellowstone National Park.RONALD SAUMURE PHOTO
The couple learned a valuable lesson about Yellowstone, and that was to not go on the weekends due to the high volume of tourists. They were glad for Monday to arrive, when traffic is reduced and there's lots of parking available. Ronald and Danielle spent about three days in Yellowstone, two days in Grand Teton, then headed to Mount Rushmore. They also stopped in South Dakota where the Devils Tower National Monument is and where Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed. The couple really enjoyed the area before heading back to Ottawa by crossing from the U.S. back into Canada at Sault Ste Marie.
Take your time
Ronald and Danielle’s biggest advice to travellers who want to take similiar journey or a journey of their own is to take your time.There are so many amazing places to see and so many adventures to have, it’s important not to rush.
Yellowstone National Park.RONALD SAUMURE PHOTO
“We really enjoy travelling and also learning from others,” said Danielle. “It’s about getting ideas from others and sharing your own. You learn a tip from someone and pass it on, whether that’s discounts at grocery stores or gas stations or tips on locations to check out, like a beautiful waterfall.”
Ronald and Danielle are also bloggers and blogged every single day of their Alaska/Yellowstone trip. They have now converted that blog into a small book so they can show people when they travel.
“We definitely intend to go back to Alaska,” said Ronald. “We will do it again. Once we know we’re going to be at the end of our travelling days, maybe getting older or our health is getting weaker, we will go back to Alaska. It’s nature at it’s best.”
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lundi 23 septembre 2013
| Voici une article écrite par Danielle Carrière-Paris à propos de notre voyage | This is an article by KAREN KORNELSEN about our trip |
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