Alaska 2016 – C&T

Arrived back in the US on July 22nd via Abbotsford, BC into Washington state.  Went by Seattle – TOO MANY CARS!!  Get me back to Alaska!

Looking for a place to pull over for lunch we just happened to get off Exit 70 of Rt .90 in Easton, WA.  We found the BEST pulled pork ever at the Backwoods Café just off the exit by the gas station.  If you’re ever up that way you have to stop in.

So good I had to post a picture!  Continuing on through WA we stopped at a scenic overlook that has a Wild Horse Monument on top of a bluff.  It was really neat.  I did climb to the top.  Going up wasn’t so bad, coming down was worse.  It was rocky and slippery – sort of like hiking the moraine at Kennecott.

That’s me in the 3rd picture.

From here we’re booking across the lower 48 so I can get home for work.  Ughh.  We did stop at Little Bighorn Battlefield.  Recounts the entire battle and has head stones where the soldiers actually were found after the battle.  It also has a National Cemetery – just like Arlington.  This was the only park we had time to stop at…..went right by Devil’s Tower, Mt Rushmore, Badlands, etc…..So we have places to see once I retire and we have time.

Spent the night in Sundance, WY – this one’s for you, Marilyn!

The next night we stayed in Salem SD at Camp America which is owned by 2 women.  Both used to be nuns, now one is an ordained Catholic priest – yes, she is.  Interesting story but you’ll have to go there to find out!  It is a beautiful, well maintained campground.  Fun fact:  growing corn puts a LOT of moisture in the air so it raises the humidity level.

The only other big stop we made was in Elkhart, IN at the Jayco factory to meet with our customer service guy who is going to fix LOTS of things on our RV when we get home.  Did a tour of the factory – very interesting and helped me understand how the whole thing was put together.

Arrived home on Sunday, July 31st after driving 11,508.7 miles in 61 days.  What a trip!  Saw a lot of beautiful places and many more that we want to explore in the future.

Thanks for following our blog.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Terry & Carol

From this point on we are heading home.  We traveled back to Tok, AK to celebrate Sandy’s 79^th birthday.  I don’t have any pix but we had a great dinner at Fast Eddys.  Also got our tire fixed – long story…..

Headed back down the AlCan and stayed at a lovely RV park called Cottonwood south of Destruction Bay.  We actually decided to stay there 2 nights since it was so nice.  It was right on Kluane Lake and surrounded by mountains – perfect setting.  We had a campfire both nights which was rare.  AND they had a miniature golf course that was in sad shape but had a great time playing!   Don’t have pix of that either…..  But I do have pix of the rainbow from our last night:

The next morning we parted ways with our friends who we had been with for the last 5 weeks.  VERY SAD!!!  We had a great time together.  They are going to take a ferry down the Inside Passage.  We couldn’t go because I have to get back to work.  I am the only one that is not retired…..yet.

The picture at the top of this blog is a very nice pic of our RV looking out over the beach at the mountains.  Very nice.  If you were standing directly in front of that RV you would see that we have collected DNA samples of people from all over the world in the smashed mosquitoes and bugs on the front.  Below is a pic of the back of the RV.  Not sure if you can see how DIRTY it is!  We actually had to wash it 3 times while we were in Alaska.  Have you ever washed an RV???  Not an easy task.

 

After Kennicott we headed to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days.  On the way there we did stop in Palmer at the Musk Ox farm and saw the new babies.

Also stopped in Anchorage for dinner at F Street Station – good food, good fish and chips!  Before we left Anchorage we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center where we saw some games that are done at the annual Alaskan Native Olympics.  I have some new games for my TKD kids!

On the Kenai we stayed in the town of Kenai at a nice campground that overlooked the inlet to the Kenai river.  Watched the locals “dip net” for their quota of Salmon.

We could also see Mt Redoubt in the distance.  This is an active volcano.

We moved on to Seward where we went on a Wildlife cruise – saw otters, harbor seals, sea lions, puffins, kittiwakes and glaciers……but no whales.

Seward has a great Sealife center that we visited last time and had to go again.

This marks the end of our forward progress on this trip – sad.  From this point on we will be heading homeward………

This is our break from Rving.  Kennicott Glacier Lodge is a very special place in the middle of the Wrangell-St Elias National Park (the largest NP – the size of Switzerland!).   It was a copper mining town at the beginning of the 1900’s and when the copper was depleted the workers were given 2 hours notice to gather their belongings and get on the last train out of town.  So everything was left where it was – mining equipment, clothes, medical records, even dishes on the tables!  And then it was deserted for many years until someone decided to resurrect it as a tourist attraction and it became a National Monument.  It now has a beautiful lodge with phenomenal food and most of the buildings have been preserved and open to the public.

There are 2 ways to get there – by car or plane.  We did the shuttle van last time – 60 miles of the worst road ever.  This time we chose plane – small planes…..over BIG mountains.   I’m not sure which way was worse for me.

Our plane to Kennecott and some pix in flight (I had to keep myself distracted):

We were joined by Carol & Louise for this part of the trip.  Here is the happy group in our 4th of July commemorative t-shirts.

 

We were there 3 nights.  The first day we all took a guided walk to the Root Glacier.  2+ miles out and back, up and down rocky terrain.  But walking on a glacier is cool!

The 2^nd day we took the town and mill tour.  The mill is 14 stories high and the process of extracting the copper is quite impressive for that time.

We also went to McCarthy – the “sin city” of Kennecott since Kennecott was a dry town.  If anyone watches “Edge of Alaska” it’s all about this town and its residents.  One of the main characters is Neil.  We got to meet Neil and he gave us rocks from the Mother Lode mine which he is trying to open as a tourist attraction.

Our plane back to Chitna and some pix.  LOVE the moose in the middle of the pond!

 

Spent 2 nights in Valdez – nice to spend some time in one place.  The campground was a parking lot and it was July 4^th weekend so it was crowded.  But we made the best of it.  The views were spectacular – surrounded by immense mountains.  We took a couple of hikes, walked along the harbor and watched them lift a boat out of the water.  Had dinner at the Fat Mermaid – one of our favorites.

Saw some waterfalls right next to the road.

On the way out of Valdez, we drove through the clouds (wild!) and Carol got to play in the snow.

To describe the beauty, the magnificence, the grandeur of these mountains.  Pictures cannot capture what the eye can see but here are a few.  Basically these are from our trip to and from Valdez through the Thompson Pass and Keystone Canyon – one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever been on.

Worthington Glacier

Nope – pictures don’t do it.  You had to be there.

I have a good connection!  OK so this is where we were 10 days ago….

We’ve planned the next few days driving only about 150 miles a day.  This way we can stop and see the sites and not be exhausted by the time we get to each campground.  Will be stopping in Haines Junction, Beaver Creek, Tok, Gakona, then onto Valdez where we’ll spend 2 nights.

There is a LOT of construction on the roads – you think NJ is bad – nothing compared to this.  I WISH I had thought to take a picture of this one occurrence.  We came up to a red light in the middle of nowhere that has a sign on it to wait for the pilot car.  NO ONE is around…… We sat there for about 10 minutes before a truck showed up behind us.  Literally we were sitting at a stoplight in the middle of nowhere.  The pilot car did show up eventually.

We did see some wildlife along the way – one single grizzly then a mom with 2 cubs.

Finally got back into Alaska!  So we had to take more pix.

The RV had her first oil change in Tok, AK.  We’ve put over 7500 miles on her since we got her.  She may have some problems, but she’s been a trooper on these roads.

To get back to Haines from Sitka we had to spend a night in Juneau due to the ferry schedule.  Two more harrowing experiences getting our RV on and off the ferry.  But those folks know what they’re doing!

Even though we got to Juneau late we were still able to go see the Mendenhall Glacier since it doesn’t get dark here.  That comes in handy – you never have to worry about getting anywhere after dark!  However it was a little dreary.

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls:

We had another full day in Haines but since we had already seen pretty much everything we decided to take a ferry over to Skagway for the day.  The ride over and back was beautiful.

While in Skagway we had lunch at the Red Onion – what a fun place.  It’s set up like an old saloon complete with upstairs brothel and serving wenches.  They also played great music from the 70’s that everyone sang along with.  Spent the day walking around town looking at the shops.  Had dinner at the “Historic Skagway Inn” – cute little place.

 

Getting off the ferry was as hair raising as getting on!  I had to BACK out.  Luckily the guys on the ferry are really good at directing so we did finally get out.  We arrived on June 21^st – the summer solstice!  But it was cloudy so we didn’t get to see the sun “not” go down.  And we weren’t up at midnight anyway.

Our planned campsite in Sitka was in the rain forest with no hookups.  A little too remote so we found one closer to town that was actually just a parking lot but it had full hookups and a wonderful view of the bay.  And we were there for 3 full nights!

The 2 full days we had in Sitka were wonderful.  The weather is usually rainy and dreary but we had 2 beautiful sunny days.  The first day we did a Ranger guided walking tour of the downtown Russian-American history.

The second day we went to the Sitka Natl Park for a Ranger led Totem walk through the rain forest.   Very interesting.  Then we did a “Bach’s Lunch” at a local college where we heard some very fine music while we ate lunch.  But the best part of the day was the “Fortress of the Bear”!   This is a rehab center that rescues orphaned bear cubs.  They had 8 bears – 5 brown and 3 black.  They were so much fun to watch.  They actually do tricks for food.  They can’t be released back into the wild so they are sent to zoos around the world.  And there are local eagles who will come when called and catch food mid-air.  I got them flying but not catching the food.