Sprinting Back East

​After my mother fell and fractured her pelvis, Mark and I decided to make the long drive back along the Alaska highway, driving 4,637 miles from Anchorage to Bangor, Maine. This time we didn’t have much time to linger as we sped eastward.  Mark drove long hours every day as we headed south through mountainous Yukon and British Columbia.

Our Sprinter van on the road in the Yukon.

The alpine scenery there is breathtaking.

​*** Click here to see a slideshow of our trip down the AlCan Highway, including the beautiful Kluane National Park, Liard Springs, and the small businesses that scrape buy selling gas and snacks to travelers along the road.***

The tall, snowy Kluane Mountains are part of the Wrangell-St. Elias mountain chain.

After three days on the AlCan highway, we moved into the endless prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, where farmers, including dozens of Hutterite and Mennonite communities, grow wheat and canola in expansive fields that roll out in both directions as far as the eye can see.  Farm machinery is big business here, along with granaries and trains.

The Saskatchewan train fills up at the granary in Grenfell, just south of Saskatoon.

The town of Grenfell displays these pint-size granaries at the entrance to town.

​By the time we reached Ontario, the fields had been replaced by sparse wooded areas dotted by hundreds of lakes.  We stopped for gas several times a day and tried to find a lake where we could eat lunch and admire the view.

Lunch on the road in Ontario, Canada.

Some of the Ontario towns tried to distinguish themselves with unusual sculptures like this snowman …

Winter is never far away in Nipigon, Ontario.

​and a tribute to the fur traders who often portaged their canoes to travel the Missinaibi river from the Great Lakes to the Arctic.

A tribute to the early fur traders in Mattice-Val Cote, Ontario.

Just hours from the Maine border, we stopped outside of Montreal,Quebec to share a delicious  dinner that Lina and her husband Mauricio put on for us.  It was great to see this couple, as well as their beautiful children Potea and Pax.

Eight days after we left Alaska we arrived in Maine and eventually made our way to Lubec, the easternmost point in the United States.

Sunset near Lubec, Maine.

We are staying at campgrounds in Bangor for a month or so, then moving to a cottage for most of the fall.

Don't Miss: A Slideshow of Our Travels on the Alaska Highway!