Before you begin this blog, I will warn you there are lots of pictures in here. It has been so beautiful & so many things to see, I just didn’t know where to draw the line. In the pics with the animals, be sure to double click them, so you can get a better look. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the views.
While still in Anchorage, we decided to do a little sightseeing with our friends. Jim decided we should visit the Musk Ox farm & the reindeer farm. Musk Ox are big, furry, horned animals that can weigh up to 900 lbs. They are definitely not the cute & fuzzy type.
We found the reindeer much more interesting. Both sexes grow antlers & they fall off every year. They new ones can grow as much as an inch a day when they start again in the spring. This reindeer farm had all sizes & we were allowed to go into the pen & feed them.
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| Collins Feeding the Reindeer!!!! |
July 11th we left Anchorage for Seward. It was only about a 3 hour drive & we enjoyed scenic views along the way. We also passed a Wildlife Conservation Center & decided to stop for a look. We were able to see some of the Alaskan wildlife close up.
Moose also grow new antlers each year
Double click on this picture. It gives some interesting information on Moose
They also had a couple of bears at the conservation center.
they train them to sit, open their mouths & do other things, not as tricks, but as a way for the handlers to check them without too much fuss.
It was fun to watch them.
They had a porcupine, which I'd never seen close before. He certainly isn't furry!
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| Owl |
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| Bald Eagle |
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| Octopus |
Seward is a small town of about 2700 people located on Resurrection Bay & the east coast of the Kenai Peninsula. While we were there we went to the Alaska Sealife Center. They rescue sea creatures & either keep them there til they’re able to be released or, if they can’t go back, they are kept there. It was a very interesting place & we got the chance to have a close up view of many of the sea creatures you only see at a distance. This is a picture of an octopus & all the round white things you see on it are it's eggs.
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| Horned Puffin |
I was excited to finally see a Puffin. They’re cute little creatures.
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| Tufted Puffin |
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| Eider Down Duck |
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| Star Fish |
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| Sea Creatures |
Steller Sea Lions can grow to 1200 Lbs or more
They can live around 20 years
The RV park we stayed in had a huge mountain with a glacier right behind us.
One day Collins was trying to fix a problem with our Tow Bar. He asked our friend Jim for some help. Next thing I knew, he had 3 more helpers. it's always that way in an RV Park. People are always ready & willing to help.
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| Seward Harbor |
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| Seward Harbor |
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| Check out the blue water in the Kenai Fjords |
We also took a boat trip in the Kenai Fjords National Park.
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| Kenai Fjords |
It was a beautiful, sunny day & we saw more glaciers & critters than we did on our whole cruise we took in May.
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| Check out the whale (Double click the picture) |
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| Another whale |
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| Glacier in Fjord |
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| Fjords |
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| Seals on the rocks (Dbl click picture) |
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| Glacier in the Fjords |
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| Glacier in Fjords |
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| They have so much blue color |
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| Floating piece of glacier ice |
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| Our boat captain |
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| More seals warming themselves on the rocks |
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| World War II Bunkers on top of a rock in the Fjords |
We also went to Exit Glacier Park. We listened to a Ranger speak about the bears & he had the fur from a grizzly & a black bear.
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| Karen made it to the Exit Glacier |
You could walk out close to the glacier, which I did. You can see the crevices & the blue coloring really well. Collins says you’ve seen one glacier, you’ve seen them all, but I really enjoyed it.
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| Path to the Glacier |
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| Path to the Glacier |
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| Camping at the beach 11PM |
Our new friends met up with us in Steward & we all continued to Homer. Homer is on the southwest Kenai Peninsula. It’s a cute little fishing town, with beautiful views. We were able to get a campsite right on the water & stayed there for 3 nights.
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| View from our RV |
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| Another view from our RV |
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| Terry & Collins Waiting for Wives - check out what the bench says |
One day we just walked around the little shops by the bay & stopped into the Salty Dawg for a drink. The Salty Dawg started out as one of the first cabins built in 1897, soon after Homer became a town site. It served as the first post office, a railroad station, a grocery store, and a coal mining office for twenty years. In 1909 a second building was constructed, and it served as a school house, post office, grocery store.
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| Jim, Joann, Collins, Elka & Terry having a drink at the Salty Dawg |
The bar is known for the thousands of dollar bills signed by visitors and tacked to the walls. This practice started many years ago, when a visitor tacked a dollar on the wall, explaining that his friend would be by later. The dollar was intended for buying the friend a drink.
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| Homer Harbor |
For those of you who watch the TV show “The Deadliest Catch”, Homer is the harbor home of “The Time Bandit”. We didn’t see it when we were there.
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| An old RV made into a shop |
We also saw this old rv that was used as a store. The owner said it still runs. All he has to do is remove the flower boxes & he's ready to roll.
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| Collins at the winery |
There is also Bear Creek Winery there, It is known for it’s fruit wines, which tend to be sweeter. Since Collins & I are peasants, that’s the kind we like.
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| Karen, Joann, Jim & Elka at the Winery |
Believe it or not, we ended up buying 6 various bottles & actually had a hard time choosing.
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| Bonfire on the beach |
As we were dumping our water tanks after camping on the beach, we saw this Eagle in the tree. There was a nest there with babies in it. There are a lot of eagles in Homer & some people plant dead trees upside down so the eagles can nest in the roots.
We crossed the Kenai River on our way back to Anchorage. The water was a beautiful shade of blue/green.
After our visit to the Kenai Peninsula, we had to return to Anchorage to buy Collins a new computer. His chose to die in Seward & there was no place around to even consider buying one. Anchorage had a Best Buy store, so we had good options. Of course, with a new computer comes a whole other set of problems. We’re lucky because we keep everything automatically backed up online with a great program called Carbonite, so at least we didn’t lose anything. However, you still have to reinstall all your program software & download everything that goes with it. The new computers have Windows 8, which has a new look & I spent several hours trying to figure that out. The Geek Squad at Best Buy was nice enough to keep our computer connected to their network so it could download a lot faster. As it was, it took 24 hours. One of the guys who worked there was nice enough to show me how to get to a screen that looked like Windows 7, so for the most part we’re getting it all figured out. That took several days of our time. I may have mentioned in our last blog that we were having trouble with our inverter. If we were connected to electric, all our outlets worked fine, if not, none of them worked, unless we ran the generator. We don’t camp without electric hookups very often, but we did in Homer. Luckily, it stays light long enough, so we didn’t really need a lot of power. We had decided just to wait til we returned to the lower 48 to get it fixed, because it’s so hard to get parts here! HOWEVER, the night before we were to leave Anchorage, we lost all our outlets but 2 in the bedroom & we were plugged into power. We called the next morning hoping to get into a repair shop there. We were told everyone had gone fishing & there was nothing they could do for a couple weeks – I’m serious!! The salmon were running & when that happens, everyone goes. We decided to go ahead to Denali & hope for the best. We were able to make an appointment in Fairbanks where we were headed after Denali.
July 18th The distance from Anchorage to Denali is about 240 miles with Wasilla along the way. Now if that name rings a bell but you can’t quite place it, think Sarah Palin’s home town. Since our drive was only going to take us four hours, we decided to stop in and pay our respects. Unfortunately, she wasn’t home, but we did meet her daughter Bristol, who told us Sarah was off trying to actually see Russia. We were able to again meet up with our now traveling companions, Elka, JoAnn, Terry & Jim in an RV park outside of Denali &, for the next several days, played the tourists that we are & saw the sights.
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| Karen gets ready for rafting |
Karen was able to achieve another of her “goals”, this time white water rafting.
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| Collins gets ready to go |
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| We're ready to go |
Now to ensure one has a clear idea what this type of rafting means in Alaska, the water in the river is straight from the glaciers, meaning its temperature is between 34* & 36*F. Unlike water from melting mountain snow, which runs crystal clear, glacier water is the color of sloppy cement… dull gray.
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| this is the river we rafted |
This particular river was tested & determined to have a silt content between 16% & 25%. The two hours of rapids running were great fun: nothing like getting slapped in the face by a wave of freezing water while your wife screams in your good ear.
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| This is what our raft looked like. We sat in the front, but this isn't our raft |
Luckily, they gave us what they called “dry suits” to put on over our clothes, along with a bootie type shoe & some nice rubber gloves. They did keep us dry, altho our hands & feet were cold by the time we finished.
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| Mama moose in our RV park |
By now we have seen so many moose, caribou, bears, both grizzly, black & cubs, as well as an assortment of other creatures, that we are jaded when another pops up along the road, or in our RV Park as several of them have done. We saw mom & her two calves the morning we were leaving Denali.
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| Mt. McKinley |
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| Mama bear & her cubs |
To get an “oh wow” out of us now takes a lot more than when we started. To that end, we were fortunate that Karen scheduled our Denali Park sight seeing day when the skies were blue & Mt. McKinley, or Mt. Denali as it’s known here in Alaska, was in its full glory.
Site seeing trips by bus take you 65 miles into the Park on a 1 ½ lane, or less, two way dirt road without guardrails & 1,000 foot drop offs. Buses are now the only way allowed; personal autos are forbidden to minimize ecological damage. Our driver has been doing this for 21 years& , not only being extremely knowledgeable about everything around us, but he had a great sense of humor. Part of his routine was that, if he fell asleep while he was driving & we were going off a cliff, please don’t wake him, he always wanted to die in his sleep. From my part, I kept thinking about the stories you hear about buses in third world countries going off a cliff; from Karen’s perspective, it was coming down the mountain in our RV last year.
Park Rangers told us that about 60% of the time one cannot see the top of, or frequently much of, the 20,600 ft mountain. No picture can give you that same feeling when you get to see this huge mountain taking over the sky, covered in snow & shining in the sun. It is truly an “oh wow” moment. To get a small perspective of its mass, the distance as the crow flies between the mountain’s two peaks is 3 miles, & the glaciers are well over 1,000’ deep.
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| Caribou |
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| Denali Park |
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| Mt. McKinley |
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| Karen & Elka at Denali Park |
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| More Bears |
These are the antlers of two moose who locked horns in battle & couldn't get them apart. They both ended up dying because of that.
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| More Denali Park |
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| The braided Savage River in Denali Park |
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| Two Moose Calves cross the street in front of us |
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| Us at Denali Park |
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| Karen & Collins meet a bear |
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| Sun setting around 11PM |
The night before we were leaving for Denali, our Inverter issue came back to bite us. Our refrigerator was flashing low DC (power) & our lights were very dim. Thank heavens for the “midnight sun”. We realized our batteries weren’t charging for some reason & soon we would have no power, even tho we were plugged into shore power. We unplugged everything in the coach & hoped we’d have enough power to keep the frig running til morning. The next morning the frig was still running, barely, & the RV started with no problem so off we went to Fairbanks. Our first stop was to the RV repair shop. Lucky for us, we were directed to a great repair facility – Alaska RV. A great guy named Dave came out to the RV & said he thought he knew what the problem was, but he checked everything before making a diagnosis- the breaker to our house batteries had tripped & they weren’t charging. We still have a bad circuit board in the inverter, but it’s charging the batteries so until we can get back, he suggested we just wait & get it fixed then. It’s really hard to get part here & it can take up to 2 weeks. An hour later we were back on the road with everything working. Needless to say, we’re happy campers!
Fairbanks, like Anchorage, is a large city with just about every store you would need. The city itself has a population of about 32,000, but when you add in the outlying areas, it’s almost 99,000.
July 26
Our week in Fairbanks was enjoyable; We even got to visit the North Pole
& sit on Santa’s lap.
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| Karen & the Grizzly Bear |
The University
of Alaska is here, as well as a Museum depicting Alaska’s past… I know, go
figure. It’s actually very modern,
interesting & shows a movie on the Borealis, as well as one on a gentleman
who, in his 50’s & in the mid 1950’s, decided to leave civilization &,
by himself, build a cabin in the Alaskan
wilderness. Using a tripod to hold his
movie camera, he detailed his work to build his log cabin & the efforts needed
to survive (gardening, fishing, hunting).
Absolutely fascinating. His
efforts and workmanship with just some basic tools created a cabin most anyone
would be comfortable & happy in. He
finally left when he was 82 years old; we were told he decided it was time to
find a woman & settle down.
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| Alaska Pipeline |
The pipeline
runs right thru Fairbanks so it was easy to see & learn about what it took
to be build & maintained. Couple of
facts we found of interest: it took them
a year to build the road from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez and then only another two
years to build the 880 mile pipeline.
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| Interesting facts about the pipeline - double click |
Considering its size & the terrain it traversed, that struck us as
quite the achievement. Then we met one
of the engineers presently maintaining it & he told us they employed 28,000
works to do the work, so it wasn’t quite as herculean as first appears. By the way, it took 14 days for the initial
oil to get to Valdez & over the last 40 years the line has pumped 16
billion barrels; They estimate there is another 40 billion barrels available
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| More info - Dbl click |
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| Collins & Snuggles by the pipeline |
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| Dbl click |
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| Pig in the pipeline |
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| Retired Pig |
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| Snuggles stands next to some giant cabbage |
Our visit to
the University’s Botanical garden was a major disappointment. Due to having virtually 3 months of
continuous sunshine here, flowers & vegetables get huge. Regrettably, this piece of land has been left
to go to the dogs over the last few years.
Based on posted literature, whoever was in charge stopped tending it in
2011.
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| Field of fireweed |
The only points of enjoyment were
the beehives & large field of Fireweed.
Apparently Fireweed nectar produces the best tasting, & most expensive,
honey. The proliferation of this weed is best compared to dandelions in the
lower 48; where forest fires have recently decimated an area, one can see
entire mountain sides in shares of pink & green (Fireweed & new
growth).
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| Elka & Terry- last Happy Hour in Alaska |
July 30th we left Fairbanks & were off to Tok. Not sure, but this may be our last couple of nights in Alaska. We’ve reconnected with our new friends & will travel with them probably thru the rest of our trip. We’re spending 2 nights here. Not sure if we’ll stay in Chicken or just stop there for a quick look.
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| Joann & Jim |
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| Gold Nuggets we saw in a gift shop |
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| Welcome to Chicken |
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| Chicken |
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| Outhouse in Chicken |
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| Town of Chicken |
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| Gold Dredger in Chicken |
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| Karen & Collins in Chicken |
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| Field of Fireweed along the road |
Aug 1 We left Alaska today by way of the Top of the World Highway, going from Fairbanks to Dawson City,(Yukon) Canada.
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| Top of the World Highway |
NEVER take this route.
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| Views from the Highway |
While the views offer you an opportunity to see forever, hence the highway’s name,
it could also be call The Worst Piece of Crap Road in North America. Traversing some 165 miles, & going thru two quaint towns called Chicken & Tok, this donkey trail is narrow & carved out of the side of mountains.
Note that nothing has been said about “paved”; occasionally a grader must push some dirt or gravel around in selected sections, but only mountain goats would be pleased with this path.
In some sections the two lane road is about 20 ft wide, which is ample for two cars meeting each other. However, when two 8 ½ ft wide RV’s (not including any extending mirrors) meet, it’s necessary to come to a stop & then crawl by each other.
While this in itself adds just that extra bit of excitement you’ve been looking for all day, what really does the trick is realizing that, at the 21st foot, there is a shear drop-off plummeting 1,000 plus feet into a gorgeous valley.
Oh, and did I mention that people in this area have no concept of what guard rails are for.
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| Snuggles didn't mind the road a bit |
The only saving features were that, since we couldn’t travel above 30 MPH, we got great gas mileage and Karen took some great pictures. Either she has become conditioned at looking death in the face & now laughs at it or realizes she won’t live forever & might as well enjoy the ride.
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| Canadian Border Crossing |
We were all a little sad to say good bye to Alaska, but hitting the border meant we were that much closer to the end of that part of our journey. The Border Guards were in a good mood & passed us all thru with no inspections.
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| Welcome back to the Yukon |
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| The Ferry |
When we arrived at Dawson City, we had to cross the Yukon River on a ferry.
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| Getting on the Ferry |
It was rather small & could only fit one of us at a time.
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| Dawson City |
Our stay at Dawson City was short but entertaining.
Dawson City was the Yukon's first capital & a major mining town.
We spent part of the day wandering around the town, checking out the old buildings.
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| Dance Hall & Casino |
The Yukon River runs thru there & it is the 3rd longest river in North American.
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| It must be Gold! |
Karen decided to pan for gold in a creek near quite a few gold claims. Karen used a pie pan & found what she & Elka are sure is gold! Of course, you need a magnifying glass to see it. Jim found a rock which may have several small garnets inside. They are going to take a hammer to it one of these days to find out.
On their way back to the RV, they came across a fox who had just killed a very large hare. He was proudly trotting down the road, totally indifferent to the car & the gawking, picture taking occupants. We've come to realize most of the wild animals in this part of North America have little fear of interlopers.
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| Signs you don't see in the lower 48 - Watch out for Caribou |
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| Watch for Elk |
Aug 5 We had kind of a harrowing day yesterday. We were traveling with our other 2 friends & they were both in front of us. The roads were lots of gravels & bumps so we were driving pretty slow. We continued blissfully down the road until a car past us & signaled we had a problem in the back. Since there is about 55' from driver's seat to back of car there is never a happy ending when this occurs, just degrees of bad. Once stopped, we fearfully approached the car & were somewhat relieved to find our bike rack & bikes had fallen off somewhere along the road. As we were unhooking the car so we could attempt a recovery, a fellow RVer pulled up with the bikes & rack on the back of his truck camper. Such friendliness is truly the norm with RVers; the RV community is always paying it forward. Surprisingly, no damage was down to the bikes or rack & we went merrily on our way. Of course, we had lost our traveling companions because they thought we had stopped to change drivers & by the time they realized we hadn't caught up, they were quite ahead of us. of course, this was an area with no phone service. Luckily, they stopped in a campground & Terry came back to look for us. We were thankful to see him coming down the road in his little blue car.
The next day we came to a small restaurant, we had heard about as we were on our way to Alaska. They were known for the great cinnamon buns they sold, which were not only delectable, but massive. To say each one could just fit onto a medium sized dinner plate & two people would find it difficult to eat in one sitting is no exaggeration. The cost was $10 & worth every Loony (a Canadian Dollar).
By the time we reached Whitehorse, six RV couples compared damages incurred on the Top of the World Road and most everyone had some type of window or rig issue. Both our friends had chips in their RV windshields & Jim also had a crack in his car windshield. I think we were probably the luckiest, at least we got our bikes back with no damage.
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| Pretty rainbow after a storm |
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| Can you see the second one |
We were all happy to spend a few days in Whitehorse recuperating. We had been in Whitehorse on our way to Canada, so we mostly used our time doing some necessary cleaning & taking some time to kick back & do nothing. Elka, Joann & I took one day & roamed around downtown. Joann got a pedicure & we all did some window shopping. It was fun to have Girls Day Out.
Our last evening there, some of us went to a Vaudeville type show called the Frantic Follies. It was music, skits & humor. We all enjoyed ourselves.
1 comment:
Looks like you two are having a fabulous time. The scenery is spectacular.
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