Alaska2018

The fog was extremely thick this morning until close to noon, then it burned off for a beautiful day.  The wind has been as strong as the sun, however and several of us are sporting sunburns.   Ken and the children hiked Mt. Marathon.  Only Ken and Zeke made the summit.  The rest stopped and waited near "the bowl".   Mt. Marathon from our campsite. I stayed behind and accomplished much with regard to reorganizing, repacking, and cleaning the camper.  It needs a good reorganization about once a week in order to keep everything in its place. This was especially important since we switched from hiking to boating to hiking and thus all the backpack "stuff" had been dumped out and repacked a couple times.  Thanks to my parents solar set up and careful water conservation, I also got in a load of laundry.  The portable washing machine has been a good investment.  At $9/load or more, for the size of our family, the washing machine has earned its keep...

The fog lifted with perfect timing.  Today, we took a discovery tour with Kenai Fjords Tours into the northwest glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park.  It was a beautiful day for a 9 hour tour.  The seas were calm and none of our family struggled with any nausea or sea sickness, thankfully! We saw incredible scenery - waterfalls, alpine and sea glaciers, a bald eagle, seals, sea lions, otters, Dall sheep, Dall porpoises, puffins, and humpback whales.  We saw the baleen of one humpback up close - it had accidentally tried to swallow a bird, and as it released the bird from itself, we got quite the show of humpback oral anatomy!  The crew all cam to see as they had never seen anything like it.  Yes, there will be photos at a later date. At the northwest glacier, the captain anchored us for about 30 minutes,mourned off the engine and we experienced all the sights and -sounds- of an actively calving glacier!  Amazing! My parents, our son, and their ca...

After an interesting night consisting of very loud neighbors until almost 1am followed by a big cruise ship coming into port around 5a and a 6:30am wake up, we ended up having a fun filled day.  The loud neighhbors did quiet down significantly after I asked them nicely to hold it down and pointed out that we have canvas tent beds only a few feet away.  They were very gracious about it, thankfully.  We had an 8:30am reservation at the Seavey's Ididarod Dog Sled Wilderness Tour.  It was fantastic.  We learned about the dogs, the race itself, how the Seavey family builds their sleds, and so much more. The introduction was given by Danny Seavey, who has competed in the Ididarod, as have two of his brothers, and his dad.  His brothers and dad have won many times. All of the 60 dogs at the facility either have or will run the Iditarod.  We rode a two mile course with a team of 14 dogs pulling our family in a cart, mushed by our guide, Taryn. The children wer...

Our overnight stay along the Parks Highway was beautiful, but a bit loud and very buggy.  Somehow we ended up with 50+ mosquitoes in the camper.  Not pleasant.  Mom and Dad fared better in their hard sided Imagine.  But, we made it to Anchorage and got the needed auto maintenance done.  Then, onward to Seward along the  Seward  Highway.  The view was breathtaking.  It was cool and cloudy with low clouds and hit and miss rain.  Blue mountain glaciers and the low tide of the bay were a sight to behold.   Mountain glacier hiding in the clouds. Each of the children had a particular animal they wanted to see.  Isaac wanted to see an otter.  Well, he has been able to watch the sea otters play from our campsite at South Resurrection RV Park.   Two otters playing in the bay. The spaces are tight and the campground is "sardines", but the view is memorable, Isaac has enjoyed his otters, and we will fall asleep to the sounds of ...

Ken worked remote today - third time this week! Meanwhile, the children and I did our laundry, cleaned the camper and car, hitched up and did all the camper "stuff" to prepare to move on.  My parents readied their camper similarly, then Dad dumped the tanks in both campers (THANK YOU, Dad!). Once Ken finished work, we got a quick photo at the Denali entrance sign and made our way to a rest area / view point about 75 miles north of Anchorage for the night. Here is the view from our overnight destination: On a clear day, Denali can be seen from here, but today is not that day. Skipping stones Making dinner.  The boys were on KP for lunch, so the girls had cleanup for dinner.  (I didn't get a pic of cleanup.) Tomorrow morning we head to Anchorage for some vehicle maintenance.  No worries, nothing to be concerned about, all the vehicles are running smoothly, but Dad needs his tires rotated and we need an oil change and new tires on our SUV.  We knew that was a possi...

Well, we didn't see the mountain.  My. McKinley / Denali stayed tucked away behind the clouds from base to tip the whole day.  Only 30% of visitors actually get to see the mountain.  That said, we had indescribable views of the Alaskan Range mountains and glaciers all through out our 8 hour "green bus" Eilson Visitor Center.  We saw much wildlife up close (photos on the big camera).  Grizzlies, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, and the Alaska State bird were all out and often very near the road. Our driver, Ryan, provided some narration as we drove, and navigated us safely through Polychrome Pass - twice.  It was a bit harrowing when another buss passed us on the inside at one of the hairpin turns.  

We overslept after a long evening of sightseeing and aurora hunting.  But, we still managed to see the famed Antique Auto Museum and the Ice museum before heading south toward Denali. This unique museum features magnificently restored antique automobiles and the restored period clothing to go with them! There is a dress up area and one car to sit in for photos.  The whole family got dressed up and photos were many.  Aliza was our costume manager. The ladies. The gentlemen. One Ken uploads the the big camera, there are photos of the parents and grandparents as well. Next up was the Fairbanks Ice Museum.  There was a 20 minute film about the International Ice Sculpture competition held in Fairbanks each March, followed by a opportunity to get up close and personal to some display pieces, followed by a short demonstration of ice sculpting.  This place was a try one man show.  We purchased our tickets from Andy, who started the film, then he helped everyone on ...

Ken worked today, the children, my parents and I headed to Denali NP.  The children completed their Denali Junior Ranger program and we went to a sled dog demonstration!  Most of us did a 1.8 mi. hike from  the dog sled demo station back to the visitor center.  Then a picnic lunch and Ken joined us.  Most of the kids went back to the campground (Midnight Sun RV park) with my parents, but Ken, Isaac and I stayed and completed a 3+ mile hike called Horseshoe Lake Trail.  We saw a snowshoe hare, few beavers and a moose in the lake. It was a fun hike except my boots were rubbing, so I did over two miles of it barefoot.  The upside is I didn't end up with any serious blisters and I got to soak my feet in the Nanana River along the trail.   Tomorrow we plan to take the green bus through Denali NP as far as Eilson Visitor Center.  It is about 8hrs round trip, or more.

The morning was work for Ken while I did some laundry and cleaned the car and camper.  Then, back to Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor Center for the Junior Ranger Program.

Today is our first full day in Alaska.  We spent the night at the Walmart in Fairbanks. It was loud.  Also, we have arrived at the beginning for a five day heat wave.  85+ degrees each day this week. 😢. We were hoping for 60-70.  Oh well. We worshipped in Fairbanks at a local CB church -- Bethel Church.  They had a banjo as part of the worship team!  The service was a much needed grounding and refreshment for the whole family.  Afterward, we spoke with two of the pastors and the tech team.  We really enjoyed our time there.   We moved to a campground -- Tanana State Fair Campground.  It is fair to okay, but we were glad to get showers and have electric for air conditioning, although the shower part was a bit more of an adventure than expected.  (There are keyless entry locks on the doors, and the battery died on the men's side - so the entire campground was using the ladies restroom and shower for the evening as the camp manager ha...

Again, we spent the night in a gravel turnout.  These are great places to sleep for campers - bear safe trash bins, clean vault outhouses, and magnificent views.  We heard coyotes in the early morning and have enforced the "take a buddy and bear spray, and tell an adult" rule for leaving the campers. Breakfast at the French Creek Bakery Craperie - it is a remodeled original lodge on the historical Alaska Highway.  Crepes are made to order. We did get a ding in our windshield yesterday on one of the gravel portions of the road.  Today we are driving through a lot more "frost heaves".  In general, the Alaska Highway has been a much better surfaced road than those in Pennsylvania, but there are patches here and there that are rough and require slower speeds / caution. WE MADE IT! Bi-national bench

We spent the night at mile marker 699- north of Watson Lake, Yukon Territory - on the Continential Divide between the Arctic and Pacific watersheds.  Many rest areas allow overnight parking here.   We have been coming in and out of rain since yesterday.  Short periods (mostly) of localized heavy rain while the sun shines.  Rocky Mountain Rain.   The drive is magnificent.  Our miles per day has slowed to about 1/2 of what we had been doing as we are stopping for animals and driving slower in the mountains.  I think we will cross into Alaska tomorrow.   Yukon Territory - blue skies, mountains, pines & aspen.   Crossing the Yukon River before Whitehorse. Lunch at Klondike Salmon & Rib in Whitehorse, YT.  Highly recommended. It's a bit cramped, but seemingly very popular and the food was excellent!  It was pink shirt day for us. Salt flats line the highway between Whitehorse and Haines Junction. Our first glimpse at the Sai...

We spent the night in a large gravel turnout near Steamboat Mountain on the Alaska Highway.  Now that we have met up with my parents, we have been able to spread out.  Isaac is riding in their truck and the boys slept in their camper last night.  Is is a huge help in bear country as we no longer need to open our tent beds. Between my parents' Blackstone, and our Coleman, we have been cooking and eating well along the road. Some views from the Steamboat Mountain section of the Alaska Highway: Muncho Lake in the Canadian Rockies - breathtaking! We stopped for a soak at Liard Hotspring.  Pictures are on a different camera, but we saw a mama moose and her calf up close.  They straddled the boardwalk to the swimming hole for some time.  The hot springs were a treat after days the car! Stone sheep along the road.  They look like goats, but they are called Stone sheep.  Lots of wildlife out today : black bears, caribou, stone sheep, moose, and bison. A s...