Chena and Fairbanks

June 30, 2011

Yesterday we camped on the Chena River after spending some time in the hot springs at Chena.  It was very relaxing – sitting outdoors in a hot pool with about 20 other folks (mostly from somewhere in Europe). 

Later, while we were relaxing by the river, who happened to walk by but Nancy Olthoff whom we were meeting Saturday night in Denali Natl. Park.  Nancy and a friend walked by our camper and Nancy recognized Marty’s voice!  We spent the evening with them in their motor home since it was raining AGAIN.  It rained all night long – we’re really getting disappointed in all this rain.  We have had more rain here in the interior than we had in the rain forest of the South West!   One highlite of our drive back into Fairbanks from the Chena area was a large but young bull moose eating right alongside the road – I have a great pic of him taken with my 300 mm lens.  That thing is worth gold!

Bull Moose:

Today we spent the day in Fairbanks – ate b’fast out, dried our bathing suits and towels at a Laundromat, and visited a fabulous “Museum of the North” at Univ. of AK.  We spent 4 hours in there reading much about life in AK during various periods of time.  For me the most interesting part was a film about the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).  I think I finally understand a little better who we have them and that they exist at both poles at the same time.  Much of the rest of the museum emphasized various cultures in AK over the past 200+ years.

Now tonight we took a campsite right in the town of Fairbanks – we’re on the Western edge of the city in a State Rec. Area on the Chena River again, only this time we had to pay $17. 

Tomorrow our plans are to go to a research place for Northern animals – like Musk Ox and Caribou.  They have some of the animals and also give tours.  We also hope to go to a bird watching area that is popular.  We may head down toward Denali a bit, but may very well come back here again.

Next

June 27, 2011

Getting used to sleeping all night when it’s light out is becoming a challenge.  Last night we went to bed around 11 pm and the sun had not set yet.  I suppose if you lived here that would not be a problem after awhile, but I woke up at 6 AM and it felt like nearly noon already with the sun quite high in the sky.  I guess if you live here you have to do as much outdoor living as possible during these 4 or 5 months since the snow is already falling in late September.

I’ve been thinking about how to value a trip like this – it is priceless.  Marty and I are having such a wonderful time together and find ourselves at times just silently being in each other’s company.  I think it’s the mark of a deep friendship.  I marvel that after 43 years our relationship seems to slowly keep deepening.  Another aspect of traveling like this is the people we are meeting.  Fellow adventurers who like to travel and see new places.  It’s been fun.  There’s Charlie and Joan who talked about losing their daughter to cancer and how painful that was.  There’s Tom and Mary who are from Denver and have two dogs along – we shared a beer and some smoked salmon with them one evening and heard about their two boys.  There’s Nancy and her husband who are making the trek from CA.  These folks all have good marriages and are also celebrating as they travel.  A third aspect of travel is that one’s mind is broadened – you realize there are many ways that people speak and live – travel is a good antidote to provincialism.

Well, enough now.  We have to plan our day’s travel.

June 28, 2011

Yesterday drove through majestic mountains south from Delta Junction to Paxon where we turned West on the Denali Highway – 20 miles of paved road ending at Tangle Lakes Bureau of Land Mgmt. campground.  It was another freebie. 

Roadside flowers South of Delta Junction, AK

View of Alaska Pipeline heading to Valdez

View of the Alaska Range - looking South

Bureau of Land Mgmt Campground - 20 miles West of Paxon, AK on the Denali Hwy

In the evening we saw a cow moose and her calf feeding along the river just below our campsite.  Pretty awesome.  I got a couple pretty good pics so I’ll post them.

Calf on other side of the river (taken with 300 mm lens):

Cow on our side of the river (also taken with 300 mm lens):

We woke up this morning with it pretty cloudy and light rain falling.  However, I think we’ll continue the 110 miles on gravel to see what wildlife will be out.  We may not see a great deal of scenery because some of the clouds are pretty low.

4:30 pm now – rain, rain, rain and more rain.  We drove the most scenic road in the USA and saw one moose and no mountains.  The truck is full of mud and the rear has so much caked mud that we don’t even care to open the door to the camper.  I just squirt off what I could at a dump station, but that wasn’t sufficient.  We’re planning to stay near Fairbanks tonight, spend the day there tomorrow and then go to the Chena State Rec Area hoping we can still get in because of the 4^th weekend coming up.  There is a hot spring there that is supposed to be nice.

On the way up here we also stopped at Denali Natl. Park visitor center, saw the exhibits, a movie and asked a couple questions.  Then we drove to the “Wilderness Access Center” to check on our bus tour and camping reservations for this weekend.  We noted that most of the tours were already booked solid so we’re glad we didn’t wait long to book them online.

Now, amazing thing (especially if you’ve lived near cities like we have (Seoul, Tokyo, New York, and Chicago)) – driving between Anchorage and Fairbanks, on a two lane road headed North, we have met one car about every 10 mins or more.  And here we are in wild wilderness, no houses, no other roads, no stores either.

We’re going to try to find a WI-FI spot tonight so I can upload this and send a couple emails too.

Tok, AK

June 26, 2011

Stayed in a Provincial Park campground last night - $12 again.  That makes up for fuel at over $6/gal in some places.  Today I bought just $40 worth to get us to Fairbanks and that was only $5.98/gal.  We didn’t do anything in Dawson City other than drive through and then took the free ferry across the Yukon River to the campsite.  The scenery here is different – huge expanses of rolling hills covered with trees with very little of the snowcapped peaks we saw in the SW of AK. 

We took Top of the World Highway today – dirt, holes, mud, some rain, max of 40 mph to the US boarder and then not over 25 to Chicken, AK.  From Chicken to Tok it was mostly paved with quite a few frost heaves so I had to drive very carefully.  For much of the ride we were above the tree line and rode through an area of Tundra meadows.  We also saw huge areas North of here that were burned from a fairly recent fire – must have been not more than 4 or 5 years ago because the new undergrowth is only about 5 ft high.

Tonight we took a site at a really nice private campground – we needed a shower and the idea of that and the ability to get on the web was attractive as well.  It’s 7 pm now and the sun is still shining high.  Soon we’ll cook supper, but we needed to have happy hour first and I also needed my shower – hair started to feel like it had bugs in it J.

BTW, we slept REALLY sound last night!

Some recent pics, including a nice Grizzly that sat by the road chewing:

This pic was taken leaving Skagway - up White Pass

Same little bear - a little closer this time (from the truck window :))

Waiting in line for the free ferry across the Yukon River

We had a lot of fun trying to write a heading for this one - maybe you can make one up for us?

Skagway

June 23, 2011

Last ferry ride on the AK Marine Hwy today – from Haines to Skagway, AK.  It was just a one hour ride, but wonderfully beautiful.  No clouds, blue sky, and about 70 deg out.  We went to the NPS visitor’s center  to see a 30 min movie about the 1898 gold rush, walked around the town and enjoyed our first ice cream cone since sometime in BC.  We’re camping at a NPS campground in Dyea, near Skagway.  It was a town competing for the gold miners business, but soon lost out to Skagway after the two year long gold rush was over.

Tomorrow our plan is to take a Ranger guided hike around the remains of the town and also see where the “golden staircase” began where miners had to lug one ton of goods to the top of the pass in around 40 trips up and down the mountain.  Most of them never found any gold, many died because of the weather and most turned around and went back home.

We will more than likely be out of touch now for 3 days or so as we’re going into the Yukon and then to Northern AK.  We may be able to find a hot spot in Skagway to post this and then you’ll have to wait a bit for more.

I’ll put up a pic or two of the scenery we saw today including one of Skagway.

Our campsite at Dyea, AK - near Skagway, site of the gold rush stampede:

Chocolate Lilly - Dyea NPS site

Skagway with tourists from 3 cruise ships plus several of us from the AK Marine Ferry

Haines, AK

Couple pics from yesterday that I didn't have time to download before:

A small lighthouse - we're told it's the northernmost one in the USA:

This was taken in the flower garden two days ago....stuck it in here because I don't know how to put it where it belongs.

Our ship approaching the Petersburg terminal while we waited in line to load.

June 21, 2011

Wow!  What a day we had today. Not only was it our 43^rd anniversary, but it was sunny for the most part when we left Juneau on what was the most beautiful ferry ride of them all.  Mountains standing nearly straight up out of the water, snow covered and in several cases with glaciers running down toward the water.  The ferry traveled deep into a fjord where we saw several humpback whales, Killer whales, purposes, sea lions along with bald eagles, mergansers, gulls and terns. 

Dorsal fin of an Orca (Killer Whale) - it's  all I got of him: 

On the ship to Haines, AK

Now here we are near Haines at the Chilkoot State Recreation Area campground – I hear a waterfall coming down the mountain into the glacial lake right in front of us and the campground is beautiful.  We can’t believe that we camp here for $10 per night and get such scenery.  Along with the scenery our host across the street let us know there were “many” bears in the area and he warned us about not leaving any food items out.  We actually have been pretty careful about that.  BTW, these are the large Alaskan Brown Bears (Grizzlies) he is now talking about.  There is a stream running out of this lake and we’re told that every day there is a sow there with 3 cubs – we hope to see her but from the truck J.

This morning Marty told me that I was “pensive” and I had not thought about that, but I have been all day.  This morning when we had breakfast I prayed that God would show us His glory today.  I saw His glory all over – in Marty my best friend, in the scenery, and in the animals.  I am so filled with awe and gratitude.  So, yep, I was pensive, but I had so much to think about and to be grateful for.  I have always noted that being close to nature brings me closer to God.  It may not be that for everyone, but you can’t help but stand in awe when you see the scenes we are seeing….and then try to imagine the creator of all of this and how He must clap with joy when we are enjoying his creation so much.

More of the incredible scenery:

June 22, 2011

Saw a wolf this AM but couldn’t get a picture of it.  We had a beautiful drive up the Haines Hwy to the Bald Eagle preserve, but saw no eagles.  Oh well, they are flying all over the place down here.  We hope to do a couple “historical things” this afternoon – museums, etc.  We also bought a small  piece of smoked King Salmon this AM which is REALLY good.  I only have a little while on the hotspot so I’m going to quit now and also post some pics.

This is taken across the street from our campsite in Haines:



last one today - our campsite in Haines at the Chilkoot State Rec. Area - $10/night!

Juneau

June 20, 2011

Tomorrow is our 43^rd anniversary.  Yes!  You can congratulate usJ.

Yesterday was a fun day.  We lazed around in the AM and went to some “Glacial Gardens” where the guy takes trees and sticks them in the ground upside down with the roots sticking up – fills that cavity with moss and dirt and plants beautiful flowers inside.  The ride up the mountain on a little golf cart was not worth the money we paid, but I would sure recommend seeing the garden.  Just wander around before they holler at you to pay your $25 eachJ.

After the gardens we wandered around downtown Juneau – parked right near the capitol building and walked.  By the way, we are sure getting in our share of walking! 

We’ve been eating dinner later and later – tonight we had “wine and cheese” and smoked salmon by some people we’ve met a couple times on our travels.  They happened to end up in the site next to us last night.  Tom and Mary are from Colorado.  We didn’t eat dinner till 8 pm!  And that is 12 midnight in GR J. 

Today after a morning of reading and walking around we took a drive north of here – 37 miles of it and then the road ends.  We stopped to see the mountains across the bay from here – the Chilkat Mtns. Those are all snow covered and very jagged indicating their relatively young age. Then, we went toward Juneau where we found a Starbucks with free Wi-Fi and I could check email and our bank acct.  We were back to the campsite around 4 pm and then we were able to read for awhile again before our wine and cheese at 6:30 pm.

Now it’s 9:15 and we plan to play a game or two of Rummy Cube which Marty presently leads by a few small points.  I plan to win.

June 21, 2011

Wow, we made it to 43 years :).  Who would have thought 43 years ago that so much would happen in our lives.  It's been a wonderful, sometimes painful, sometimes fun, and mostly just living normal everyday lives together in harmony.  Our kids might tell it differently, but this is how I remember it.

We woke up to mostly sun this AM which is the first we've seen of it since coming to SW Alaska.  We had a shower, breakfast of bacon and french toast, then packed up to head toward the ferry dock, stopping on the way for a couple hours at the laundromat.   I got a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop for $1.00 - can't believe it.  Anyway, time to post this and get outa here before Marty is upset that she has to fold all the laundry alone.

June 18, 2011

It’s been a few days since I’ve written on here.  We’ve been to Petersburg for one night – slept at Omer Creek NFS campground for $3 took a 21 mile loop dirt road through wilderness where we drove to a lookout point overlooking the La’Conte Glacier.  On the way down the hill we saw lots of fresh bear scat which led to a bear walking down the road (Black bear).  We went into town, bought a new bulb for our flashlight, had a nice cup of hot coffee at the Java House, walked around town, down by the fishing piers, etc.  it was a rather lazy day.  At night we ate supper at a small park where we cooked and ate while an immature eagle watched us from overhead. 

After dinner we went to the library where I had about an hour to do some checking of emails, pay bills, etc. online. We went to an “RV Staging” area where we slept for 2 hours and then went to the ferry terminal to wait for our 1:15 AM departure to Juneau.  After 12 hours on the ship we arrived yesterday at 1 pm and immediately drove to the Mendenhall Glacier campground.  While on the ship nearing Juneau we saw a huge humpback whale surface – it played near the ship for several minutes, but my camera was down in the truck L.

Here we have full electric, water and sewer hookups – I had made reservations here for 4 nights and paid for it six months ago so it feels “free” J.  After setting up we both took an hour nap, a nice walk, a shower (yes, two separate ones as they were free and nice and HOT), then dinner.  After dinner while I was in the camper and Marty in the screened in porch, a nice sized black bear came ambling down the road – in no hurry and didn’t seem to be looking for anything.  I got some pics of him after rushing to get my camera out of the truck. 

Later we took another brief walk and saw a porcupine casually eating in a small willow shrub so I got pics of him too.

Would you believe we slept till 8:45 AM after going to bed at 9:30 last night?  Today is decent weather, some clouds, but at least not rainy yet.

We went to the Mendenhall Glacier today so I'll put up a couple pics of that.  Then we visited the AK Brewery - sorry, no pics, just a 12 pack of their Amber beer :)

The Arctic Tern migrates 12,000 miles one way twice a year!  Incredible...and it's not a very big bird.

I don't have the name  of these yet, but the flowers in a recently glaciated area are beautiful!  Many small. 

Petersburg, AK

Well, we are now in Petersburg, AK till 1 AM Friday morning.  Then we have a 12 hour ferry trip to Juneau.  Below are some pics that I've had some fun taking:
Mature Bald Eagle on nest several hundred yards from our campsite - Nemo NFS site - 3 campsites.

Two of us after completing hike up 665 steps to view the waterfall behind us - Rainbow Falls, Wrangell, AK

Our ferry entering Wrangell narrows, a very narrow stretch of water with 70+ navigational aides for the ship.  We travelled through here at only 10 knots.

Gorgeous Iris plant near our campsite at Ohmer Creek, NFS, Petersburg, AK.

We drove up to a viewing area looking over Frederick sound and La'Conte glacier  (Petersburg) - you can see some of the blue ice....problem is that it wa so bright today and I wish I had a polarizing filter for my 300 mm lens....my next purchase :).

This immature eagle sat right here much of the time we ate our dinner tonight in a small park in Petersburg.  He's probably 3-4 years old as we're told they don't get the full white head and tail till they are 5 years old.



So, tonight we will get in line by the ferry around 10 or so and then crawl into bed for a couple hours.  The boat leaves at 1 AM stopping at one other small town along the way.  More later.........

More pics and couple comments

June 14, 2011

It rained all night and most of the day so far.  We slept in this morning, had our coffee and b’fast then went to town.  We bought groceries, visited some petroglyphs on the beach, came to the public library to work on this for awhile, had coffee and a pastry at a local restaurant and decided to head back to our camp with the eagle nest about 200 yards away in a high and very visible tree.

What we came for:

I have a couple better shots, but are till on the camera.

 One scene from our Stikine River tour

 Wrangell campsite - two nights at Nemo NFS site which is FREE!

Wrangell

June 12, 2011

In  Ketchikan we had a bear that kept coming into the campground and we never saw it.  One morning it wandered into a campsite and surprised folks eating b’fast.  Another morning it scared a neighbor who let her dog out and the dog took off after the bear.  Then yesterday, before leaving for the ferry, several dogs took off down a stream to chase a bear away.  In spite of all that action, Marty was content to “fight her fear” and go for a 3 mile hike up into the rain forest to a lake with a beautiful waterfall tumbling down the mountainside.  The day previous we had also taken the mile long walk around the lake.

The first day we were there we spent much of the time wondering around the town and taking in all the commercialism.  We did learn a little history as well, but not much.  There were 4 and at times, 5 cruise ships disgorging 10,000 people!

Yesterday, the 11^th we took the ferry at 4 pm and cruised to Wrangall arriving here here around 10 pm.  We stayed in a private campground that was literally a gravel parking lot.  The pits.  Tonight we’re in the Wrangall city campground and tomorrow we hope to move up the road a bit to Nemo National Forest Service campground.

It’s been raining on and off ever since we got here with short breaks.  This afternoon we took a boat cruise up the Stikine River for about 6.5 hours – didn’t see much wildlife but the beauty is indescribable.  At one point we got off the boat for a few mins and heard about some studies being done on the King Salmon in the river.  Then another time we got off the boat at a sandbar and found wolf prints along with a set of moose and calf prints.  Our guide surmised that the wolf was after the calf and was tailing the mom looking for an opportunity.  

Now tonight we’re going to play at least 3 games of Rummy Cube.  Marty is whipping me this round and that has to stop…right now.  I’m thinking that one of our friends has a good idea  - they don’t keep score!

June 13, 2011

Today is a “chore” day – laundry and showers first, the move to new site at National Forest Service campground – if they have room (4 sites only).  We just plan to relax, read, play a game, etc.  I’m still reading Mitcher’s ALASKA and am about 400 pages into it with 500 to go.  I especially enjoy the history part of his writing.

We have one more day in Wrangall tomorrow – will probably just hang around the campground, maybe take a walk on one of the Forest Service roads, or just read.  When I planned this trip, I really only wanted two full days here, but the ferry schedule limited us since we wanted to go to Petersburg as well.  Oh well.

Pics later.  Library closes in 5 mins for lunch.

Ketchikan, AK

Slept well last night near Prince Rupert.  Had to get to the ferry terminal be 3:30 AM for 6:30 sailing. Yuck.  Had a wonderful trip on the ship - smooth, not a lot of rain, but quite cool.

Relaxing on the ferry:

Ketchikan, AK



Dolly's House - a former place of ill repute for men.

The ugly side (to us anyway) of the Inland Passage - 10,000 visitors on 5 ships!

Camping at Ward Lake NFS - $5/night!

Last night we were so tired we not only took a short nap in the afternoon, but we also went to bed at 8:30 PM already and didn't wake up till about 7:30 AM!  We spent most of today (Friday) around the town, had some fish n'chips for lunch and now plan to go to a Totem Pole state park and learn more about native history.

Tomorrow we have to be at the ferry by 2 pm.