A Clark's Nutcracker and a butterfly near Lake Louise, a Mountain Bluebird (with bug in beak) at Yellowstone.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Home again
Tuesday, July 22
We've been back home for a couple of days now (got here Sunday), got the accumulation of bugs and grime scrubbed off the camper, so I suppose it's time to wrap up the blog and post our last thoughts. Nothing of interest happened after we left Mt. Rushmore last Thursday, except that we got separated from the Krupps outside of Rapid City and never quite got back together again. When we discovered they were no longer behind us we'd already covered some miles down I-90, so we pulled over at an exit and waited... and waited... and waited. We didn't know whether to go back and try to find them (in case they'd broken down or something), or keep waiting, or if they might even have gotten ahead of us. Finally after we sat there for over an hour Connie called us from a pay phone and it turns out they'd taken a different road and were about fifty miles down the road ahead of us. So we each went our separate ways home after that. We stayed on I-90 through South Dakota, Minnesota and into Wisconsin, crossed that state on one of those rural two-lane roads that seem to make time stand still, and hit U.S. 41 at Oshkosh. We spent Saturday night at a sweet little campground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Menominee, Michigan, and drove on home from there Sunday. Got here at about 2 o'clock and found our home-sweet-home in fine shape. The lawn was mowed, the house was clean and our house guest had even changed the sheets on the bed and left us a nice "Welcome Home" note. Everything but a complimentary mint on the bedspread.
So even though we only took five weeks to make what we'd originally thought might be a seven-week trip, we accompished what we set out to do: We drove to Alaska and back, 9800 miles total, in our little camper, saw so much incredibly beautiful country, wildlife and magnificent scenery, that it still hasn't all sunk in. Looking back through the pictures we took (between 1,500 and 1,600 of them) brings back the memories of all the great places we've been to, and I'm sure it will continue to do so in the years to come. Denise and I want to thank all of you who've been following our blog and especially to those of you who've posted comments and made such kind remarks. We're glad that our words and photos made it interesting for you. And finally, if you've never made a trip like this, but have harbored thoughts about doing so, we'd strongly urge you to go. Just do it, and don't wait too long. You never know what life's going to hand out.
We've been back home for a couple of days now (got here Sunday), got the accumulation of bugs and grime scrubbed off the camper, so I suppose it's time to wrap up the blog and post our last thoughts. Nothing of interest happened after we left Mt. Rushmore last Thursday, except that we got separated from the Krupps outside of Rapid City and never quite got back together again. When we discovered they were no longer behind us we'd already covered some miles down I-90, so we pulled over at an exit and waited... and waited... and waited. We didn't know whether to go back and try to find them (in case they'd broken down or something), or keep waiting, or if they might even have gotten ahead of us. Finally after we sat there for over an hour Connie called us from a pay phone and it turns out they'd taken a different road and were about fifty miles down the road ahead of us. So we each went our separate ways home after that. We stayed on I-90 through South Dakota, Minnesota and into Wisconsin, crossed that state on one of those rural two-lane roads that seem to make time stand still, and hit U.S. 41 at Oshkosh. We spent Saturday night at a sweet little campground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Menominee, Michigan, and drove on home from there Sunday. Got here at about 2 o'clock and found our home-sweet-home in fine shape. The lawn was mowed, the house was clean and our house guest had even changed the sheets on the bed and left us a nice "Welcome Home" note. Everything but a complimentary mint on the bedspread.
So even though we only took five weeks to make what we'd originally thought might be a seven-week trip, we accompished what we set out to do: We drove to Alaska and back, 9800 miles total, in our little camper, saw so much incredibly beautiful country, wildlife and magnificent scenery, that it still hasn't all sunk in. Looking back through the pictures we took (between 1,500 and 1,600 of them) brings back the memories of all the great places we've been to, and I'm sure it will continue to do so in the years to come. Denise and I want to thank all of you who've been following our blog and especially to those of you who've posted comments and made such kind remarks. We're glad that our words and photos made it interesting for you. And finally, if you've never made a trip like this, but have harbored thoughts about doing so, we'd strongly urge you to go. Just do it, and don't wait too long. You never know what life's going to hand out.
Mount Rushmore
Thursday, July 17
We entered South Dakota today and drove up to see Mt. Rushmore. Neither of us had ever been there, and wondered if it really existed outside of photographs. Well, it does. And it's quite a humbling sight to behold. Those four great stone faces look out on some very rugged country, that being the Black Hills, and as you look up at them and take in their magnitude, you can't help but wonder how such work was done. Well, 90-percent of it was done with dynamite, we're told. And finished off with small jackhammers. Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt and old Abe. A pretty good group of guys to represent us on a mountaintop.We lost the Krupps at Rapid City and we haven't connected back up with them. It may be the end of the gruesome foursome. We did pretty well to stay together as long as we did! Tonight we're at a small campground in a small South Dakota prairie town called Kadoka "Gateway to the Badlands". Pressing on toward home tomorrow - no more sights to be seen other than the miles of Interstate we'll be slogging along.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Yellowstone National Park
Tuesday, July 15
Before leaving Helena yesterday we took a great boat trip on the Missouri River through a wild place that Merriwether Lewis named "The Gates of the Mountains" when he came through here with Clark and the rest of the gang in 18-ought-4. It's a wilderness area that they say hasn't changed much since that time, other than the water level is about a dozen feet higher due to a dam downstream. Saw some wildlife and some pictographs that had been there since way before Lewis & Clark's time.
After the tour we drove on down to Yellowstone Park, coming in at the north entrance. We took the time to stop at the Mammoth Hot Springs on the way in. Walked about a mile of boardwalk there to see a couple of small springs bubbling out of the rock. Then we drove on into the park to our campground at Canyon Village. Not real impressed with our campsite as its really nothing more than a turnout beside the road just wide enough to get our camper in and let the cars go past in and out of the loop. The park is full so when we asked for a different site we got nothing more than a "Sorry about that..." from the ranger. Oh well, that's what the comment cards are for.
We did the driving tour of Yellowstone today, from Canyon Village around the circle counter-clockwise back to Canyon Village. Took in the Flower Paint Pots, Old Faithful, the West Thumb geysers, Yellowstone Lake, Mud Pot, etc. The four of us walked from Old Faithful to Biscuit Basin - about 2 1/2 miles and saw numerous bubbling and spouting geysers and pools of steaming water. Connie and Leo left us at the West Thumb and went back to the campground. Denise and I stopped here and there wherever we saw something that interested us. We saw a lot of bison - many individuals at first, and then a large herd of them in a meadow along the Yellowstone River - and several elk. We saw one huge black bear (actually brown in color) just before getting back to the campground. The colors here are amazing - the soil, the foliage and the flowers, the boiling springs which range in color from gunmetal gray to the most startling azure blue you can imagine. Some of them remind you of the Caribbean until you see the huge lodgepole pine trees around you. Large areas of the park show the result of the 1988 fires that burned so much forest here, but it is making a comeback. Young pines are coming up thickly, a natural re-seeding from the fire, and some are already fifteen feet tall. I am adding 3 pictures to the blog. The first, of course, is of Old Faithful. We were lucky and only had to wait about 10 minutes for his regularly scheduled (every 90 minutes) eruption. The second is of one of the numerous pools we saw. The color is gorgeous, it looks like something you would want in your backyard. That is until you look at the 3rd picture and realize the water temperature is around 200 degrees. A little too hot even in the winter time. Enjoy. Tomorrow is day of driving and then on Thursday we will be at Mt. Rushmore. We should be home around Sunday or so. We are ready. We miss everyone and I hope Maggie still remembers us.
Before leaving Helena yesterday we took a great boat trip on the Missouri River through a wild place that Merriwether Lewis named "The Gates of the Mountains" when he came through here with Clark and the rest of the gang in 18-ought-4. It's a wilderness area that they say hasn't changed much since that time, other than the water level is about a dozen feet higher due to a dam downstream. Saw some wildlife and some pictographs that had been there since way before Lewis & Clark's time.
After the tour we drove on down to Yellowstone Park, coming in at the north entrance. We took the time to stop at the Mammoth Hot Springs on the way in. Walked about a mile of boardwalk there to see a couple of small springs bubbling out of the rock. Then we drove on into the park to our campground at Canyon Village. Not real impressed with our campsite as its really nothing more than a turnout beside the road just wide enough to get our camper in and let the cars go past in and out of the loop. The park is full so when we asked for a different site we got nothing more than a "Sorry about that..." from the ranger. Oh well, that's what the comment cards are for.
We did the driving tour of Yellowstone today, from Canyon Village around the circle counter-clockwise back to Canyon Village. Took in the Flower Paint Pots, Old Faithful, the West Thumb geysers, Yellowstone Lake, Mud Pot, etc. The four of us walked from Old Faithful to Biscuit Basin - about 2 1/2 miles and saw numerous bubbling and spouting geysers and pools of steaming water. Connie and Leo left us at the West Thumb and went back to the campground. Denise and I stopped here and there wherever we saw something that interested us. We saw a lot of bison - many individuals at first, and then a large herd of them in a meadow along the Yellowstone River - and several elk. We saw one huge black bear (actually brown in color) just before getting back to the campground. The colors here are amazing - the soil, the foliage and the flowers, the boiling springs which range in color from gunmetal gray to the most startling azure blue you can imagine. Some of them remind you of the Caribbean until you see the huge lodgepole pine trees around you. Large areas of the park show the result of the 1988 fires that burned so much forest here, but it is making a comeback. Young pines are coming up thickly, a natural re-seeding from the fire, and some are already fifteen feet tall. I am adding 3 pictures to the blog. The first, of course, is of Old Faithful. We were lucky and only had to wait about 10 minutes for his regularly scheduled (every 90 minutes) eruption. The second is of one of the numerous pools we saw. The color is gorgeous, it looks like something you would want in your backyard. That is until you look at the 3rd picture and realize the water temperature is around 200 degrees. A little too hot even in the winter time. Enjoy. Tomorrow is day of driving and then on Thursday we will be at Mt. Rushmore. We should be home around Sunday or so. We are ready. We miss everyone and I hope Maggie still remembers us.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
3 Days on the Road
Fri-Sat-Sunday, July 13
We finished the Alaska Highway on Friday morning. We hit the Mile Marker 0 and kept heading south. So for the past 3 days we have done just about nothing, but drive. On Saturday we drove through Edmonton and Calgary Alberta. Mike wore his Red Wings tee shirt and he made it out alive. That doesn't say anything for the traffic there. If was awful. The people drove like maniacs and so we had to also. Tonight we are just outside of Helena, Montana. Only 3 hours from Yellowstone and Ole Faithful Geyser. We were just reading that there are more people in the city of Calgary than in all of the state of Montana. This place is as beautiful as Alaska. It just doesn't have the animals like Alaska did. Mike and I decided maybe we could live here. Maybe not. Well, like I said just driving the last couple days so the pics aren't as spectacular. But we'll see what we can find.
We finished the Alaska Highway on Friday morning. We hit the Mile Marker 0 and kept heading south. So for the past 3 days we have done just about nothing, but drive. On Saturday we drove through Edmonton and Calgary Alberta. Mike wore his Red Wings tee shirt and he made it out alive. That doesn't say anything for the traffic there. If was awful. The people drove like maniacs and so we had to also. Tonight we are just outside of Helena, Montana. Only 3 hours from Yellowstone and Ole Faithful Geyser. We were just reading that there are more people in the city of Calgary than in all of the state of Montana. This place is as beautiful as Alaska. It just doesn't have the animals like Alaska did. Mike and I decided maybe we could live here. Maybe not. Well, like I said just driving the last couple days so the pics aren't as spectacular. But we'll see what we can find.
The first picture is of the Mile Marker 0 for the Alaska Hwy. The 2nd picture is of the Missouri River as it winds through Helena, Montana. It really is beautiful country
Thursday, July 10, 2008
purple flowers and bison
Wednesday, July 9
The last two days have been on the Alaska Highway, southbound from Whitehorse. Yesterday we re-covered the same section of the highway we'd taken on the way up - same frost heaves and construction mess as before. We stayed the night at a nice campground on the west side of Watson Lake, a lonely place, and had the best campfire of the entire trip. A good supply of dry firewood at hand sure helped, as did some dry weather for a change. Seeing a new bird sure helped MY disposition: a Varied Thrush, which I mistook for a robin at first glance. The others weren't at all thrilled for me. I don't understand it. Had to stop at the signpost forest in W.L. for a gander at all the signs (65,000 or so at last count).
This morning was bright and sunny, and still cool. About ten miles from Watson Lake we crossed into British Columbia. Beautiful country. Good road too, so we made good time. The highway is brushed back about fifty yards from the pavement, leaving a meadow of grass and wildflowers, which is where the buffalo roam, not to mention the bears. We saw plenty of both today, and at very close range. The bears were chowing down on grass, grazing just like the bison were - maybe a spring tonic for them? Denise and I took a brief soak in the Liard Hot Springs before lunch. Felt very good. Stopped and photographed Muncho Lake where the highway skirts along the lake's edge, and stopped for the night a few miles farther on at Toad River.
The purple flowers are for Carli, Kaylee, Alaina and Katie 'cause Gramma & Grampa know purple is their favorite color. And Tyler, the buffalo's for you.
The last two days have been on the Alaska Highway, southbound from Whitehorse. Yesterday we re-covered the same section of the highway we'd taken on the way up - same frost heaves and construction mess as before. We stayed the night at a nice campground on the west side of Watson Lake, a lonely place, and had the best campfire of the entire trip. A good supply of dry firewood at hand sure helped, as did some dry weather for a change. Seeing a new bird sure helped MY disposition: a Varied Thrush, which I mistook for a robin at first glance. The others weren't at all thrilled for me. I don't understand it. Had to stop at the signpost forest in W.L. for a gander at all the signs (65,000 or so at last count).
This morning was bright and sunny, and still cool. About ten miles from Watson Lake we crossed into British Columbia. Beautiful country. Good road too, so we made good time. The highway is brushed back about fifty yards from the pavement, leaving a meadow of grass and wildflowers, which is where the buffalo roam, not to mention the bears. We saw plenty of both today, and at very close range. The bears were chowing down on grass, grazing just like the bison were - maybe a spring tonic for them? Denise and I took a brief soak in the Liard Hot Springs before lunch. Felt very good. Stopped and photographed Muncho Lake where the highway skirts along the lake's edge, and stopped for the night a few miles farther on at Toad River.
The purple flowers are for Carli, Kaylee, Alaina and Katie 'cause Gramma & Grampa know purple is their favorite color. And Tyler, the buffalo's for you.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Catch up on the trip
Sunday, July 6
We haven't had internet service for several days so we'll play a little catch-up here. Actually we have no service tonight, either, but maybe tomorrow. Here it is Sunday, one week after we entered Alaska, and we're poised to leave the state already tomorrow. It doesn't seem right that we're leaving already when this was our main goal. But we've made the complete loop and now there's nowhere else to go but back toward home.
On Friday Denise and I drove from Portage to Seward - another spectacular, eye-popping highway - in the rain most of the way. We boarded the Star of the Northwest for our half-day glacier cruise of the Kenai Fjords National Park. We'd decided to take the half-day cruise as opposed to the all-day, eight hour cruise, because of the long day we'd had in Denali on Wednesday, and because of the all-day cruise we'd already taken from Skagway to Juneau. This tour was five-hours long and took in the full length of Resurrection Bay, down the east side to Resurrection Point, across the mouth and up the west side past the impressive Bear Glacier. The Star was a larger boat than we'd been on in Skagway and there were easily twice as many people on board. But the captain was a "mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and sure" and he maneuvered that boat into some mighty tight places between towering walls of rugged rock, so close at times that the meltwater from the heights above cascaded right down on the boat's deck. Yikes! We saw a great many sea lions along the rocks, and out at the point was a bird rookery just teeming with Kittiwakes, various gulls and murres and cormorants, and two species of puffins - the horned and the tufted, which were easily identifiable once we'd gotten in close enough to be able to see them on their nests, tucked into the crevices of the rocks. What a sight that was for a jaded old birder like me.
In contrast to the Skaway-Juneau trip, on which we lost count of the whales we saw, on this cruise we saw only one. But he (or she?) was a friendly sort, and he teased us by showing his back every few minutes just a short way off the ship, and finally, when we were getting ready to pull away, dove for the bottom, showing us his huge tail fins. You should have heard the oohs and aahs and the cameras clicking (but of course I missed the shot because I was sitting on the bench trying to recover from a short bout of nausea). As the five-hour cruise was coming to an end and we were about to dock, we spotted a sea otter in the harbor, clowning around right in the midst of all the hundreds of boats there. The otter was the one critter we hadn't had a good look at yet, so this guy was right on cue to make our day complete. When we got back to Portage that evening Connie and Leo were there waiting for us, having driven over from Anchorage. They'd gone out to Whittier and back that day.
Saturday morning we left Portage in the rain and drove the fifty miles back to Anchorage where I met up with my old high school chum Steve Spranger and his wife Ruth who live there in Anchorage. We had coffee together at a Fred Meyer while the Krupps went and found a laundromat to do some washing. Steve and Ruth decided to follow us out of town and camp with us that night, and that's what we all did. We found a nice little rustic campground on a rocky creek about sixty miles out of Anchorage. As our luck would have it, it started raining as we got to the campground and it kept it up off and on all evening. But we still had a great time, making a picnic of hot dogs and hamburgers and macaroni salad and Connie's bodacious garlic mashed potatoes. Steve and I hadn't seen each other in over thirty years (and man, does HE look old!) and we had a great time looking through our high school yearbook and remembering all the stupid things we did way back when we were stupid teenagers. His wife Ruth is a native Alaskan, and told us some interesting things about the state and about growing up as a Native in a small village in the Nome area. Her father is still living there and is 100 years old! We all wished we could meet him and listen to some of the stories he'd be able to tell. Ruth spoke only the Yooptik (not sure of the spelling) language as a child, but when she went to school she and the other children were forbidden from speaking it - they were only allowed to speak English. Nowadays, she says, very few of the Native children can speak Yooptik naturally, but are being taught the basics of it in their schools. We kept a campfire going as late as we could despite the drizzly rain and no one really wanted to go to bed, but sometime near midnight (still very light outside!) we all retired.
This morning we said our goodbyes to Steve and Ruth as they set off westward back to Anchorage, and we set out sights to the east. We had entertained notions of making a side trip down to Valdez to see the earthquake museum and the terminal of the oil pipeline, but as we'd gotten a late start this morning we decided to skip it and head for Tok and the Alaska Highway. Tonight (raining again!) we're at another of those little freebie campgrounds, just ten miles down the road from the one we stayed in last Sunday night at Deadman Lake. No campfire tonight (who wants to sit out in the drizzle again?)
It's now Monday (I think). We are 350 miles down the road. Laundry is done, dinner is cooked and showers are taken. Not much happened today other than driving. The pics I posted are from our trip out of Seward. We saw several eagles that day, but this was the best picture we got. It's a little blurry, but they sure are pretty magnificent birds. This one's for you Kenny. The last picture is a glacier we saw on the boat trip. The blue color of the ice just doesn't come through in the picture. The glaciers we've seen really are beautiful. We'll have to bore you with thepictures when you come to our house. Enjoy. Talk to you all again from down the road.
We haven't had internet service for several days so we'll play a little catch-up here. Actually we have no service tonight, either, but maybe tomorrow. Here it is Sunday, one week after we entered Alaska, and we're poised to leave the state already tomorrow. It doesn't seem right that we're leaving already when this was our main goal. But we've made the complete loop and now there's nowhere else to go but back toward home.
On Friday Denise and I drove from Portage to Seward - another spectacular, eye-popping highway - in the rain most of the way. We boarded the Star of the Northwest for our half-day glacier cruise of the Kenai Fjords National Park. We'd decided to take the half-day cruise as opposed to the all-day, eight hour cruise, because of the long day we'd had in Denali on Wednesday, and because of the all-day cruise we'd already taken from Skagway to Juneau. This tour was five-hours long and took in the full length of Resurrection Bay, down the east side to Resurrection Point, across the mouth and up the west side past the impressive Bear Glacier. The Star was a larger boat than we'd been on in Skagway and there were easily twice as many people on board. But the captain was a "mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and sure" and he maneuvered that boat into some mighty tight places between towering walls of rugged rock, so close at times that the meltwater from the heights above cascaded right down on the boat's deck. Yikes! We saw a great many sea lions along the rocks, and out at the point was a bird rookery just teeming with Kittiwakes, various gulls and murres and cormorants, and two species of puffins - the horned and the tufted, which were easily identifiable once we'd gotten in close enough to be able to see them on their nests, tucked into the crevices of the rocks. What a sight that was for a jaded old birder like me.
In contrast to the Skaway-Juneau trip, on which we lost count of the whales we saw, on this cruise we saw only one. But he (or she?) was a friendly sort, and he teased us by showing his back every few minutes just a short way off the ship, and finally, when we were getting ready to pull away, dove for the bottom, showing us his huge tail fins. You should have heard the oohs and aahs and the cameras clicking (but of course I missed the shot because I was sitting on the bench trying to recover from a short bout of nausea). As the five-hour cruise was coming to an end and we were about to dock, we spotted a sea otter in the harbor, clowning around right in the midst of all the hundreds of boats there. The otter was the one critter we hadn't had a good look at yet, so this guy was right on cue to make our day complete. When we got back to Portage that evening Connie and Leo were there waiting for us, having driven over from Anchorage. They'd gone out to Whittier and back that day.
Saturday morning we left Portage in the rain and drove the fifty miles back to Anchorage where I met up with my old high school chum Steve Spranger and his wife Ruth who live there in Anchorage. We had coffee together at a Fred Meyer while the Krupps went and found a laundromat to do some washing. Steve and Ruth decided to follow us out of town and camp with us that night, and that's what we all did. We found a nice little rustic campground on a rocky creek about sixty miles out of Anchorage. As our luck would have it, it started raining as we got to the campground and it kept it up off and on all evening. But we still had a great time, making a picnic of hot dogs and hamburgers and macaroni salad and Connie's bodacious garlic mashed potatoes. Steve and I hadn't seen each other in over thirty years (and man, does HE look old!) and we had a great time looking through our high school yearbook and remembering all the stupid things we did way back when we were stupid teenagers. His wife Ruth is a native Alaskan, and told us some interesting things about the state and about growing up as a Native in a small village in the Nome area. Her father is still living there and is 100 years old! We all wished we could meet him and listen to some of the stories he'd be able to tell. Ruth spoke only the Yooptik (not sure of the spelling) language as a child, but when she went to school she and the other children were forbidden from speaking it - they were only allowed to speak English. Nowadays, she says, very few of the Native children can speak Yooptik naturally, but are being taught the basics of it in their schools. We kept a campfire going as late as we could despite the drizzly rain and no one really wanted to go to bed, but sometime near midnight (still very light outside!) we all retired.
This morning we said our goodbyes to Steve and Ruth as they set off westward back to Anchorage, and we set out sights to the east. We had entertained notions of making a side trip down to Valdez to see the earthquake museum and the terminal of the oil pipeline, but as we'd gotten a late start this morning we decided to skip it and head for Tok and the Alaska Highway. Tonight (raining again!) we're at another of those little freebie campgrounds, just ten miles down the road from the one we stayed in last Sunday night at Deadman Lake. No campfire tonight (who wants to sit out in the drizzle again?)
It's now Monday (I think). We are 350 miles down the road. Laundry is done, dinner is cooked and showers are taken. Not much happened today other than driving. The pics I posted are from our trip out of Seward. We saw several eagles that day, but this was the best picture we got. It's a little blurry, but they sure are pretty magnificent birds. This one's for you Kenny. The last picture is a glacier we saw on the boat trip. The blue color of the ice just doesn't come through in the picture. The glaciers we've seen really are beautiful. We'll have to bore you with thepictures when you come to our house. Enjoy. Talk to you all again from down the road.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Wednesday, July 2
Today was our day at Denali. There is limited access to the park, so we spent 8 hours and 132 miles on a dusty narrow trail bouncing along in an ancient green school bus, putting our lives on the line 4,000 feet above the park floor with a driver named Ned. We were very fortunate that today was beautiful and sunny and Ned said it was the best view of the mountain he's seen all year long. The driver was knowledgeable about the park. He made many stops for us to photograph grizzly bears (at least 9, including a mother with 2 cubs), foxes (3 of these), golden eagles (lots of these), moose (1 total), Dall sheep (6 total), hundreds of snow shoe hares, many arctic ground squirrels and who knows what else. The trip into the park was very interesting, but the return trip was just long and dusty and I almost got sea sick from the bouncing and jostling. Fortunately they had dramamine at one of our pit stops and all was saved. We came back to the campsite, ate delicious pizza across the road and now are writting this blog with only 1/2 brain left between the two of us. We're sooooooo tired, enjoy the pics and please excuse our brevity. It's onward to Anchorage tomorrow, about 270 miles to our next campsite, so it will be all day driving and we are going to wrap this up now so we can catch some sleep. It's a little tough to do that here, since it never gets dark. Talk to you all again soon.
Today was our day at Denali. There is limited access to the park, so we spent 8 hours and 132 miles on a dusty narrow trail bouncing along in an ancient green school bus, putting our lives on the line 4,000 feet above the park floor with a driver named Ned. We were very fortunate that today was beautiful and sunny and Ned said it was the best view of the mountain he's seen all year long. The driver was knowledgeable about the park. He made many stops for us to photograph grizzly bears (at least 9, including a mother with 2 cubs), foxes (3 of these), golden eagles (lots of these), moose (1 total), Dall sheep (6 total), hundreds of snow shoe hares, many arctic ground squirrels and who knows what else. The trip into the park was very interesting, but the return trip was just long and dusty and I almost got sea sick from the bouncing and jostling. Fortunately they had dramamine at one of our pit stops and all was saved. We came back to the campsite, ate delicious pizza across the road and now are writting this blog with only 1/2 brain left between the two of us. We're sooooooo tired, enjoy the pics and please excuse our brevity. It's onward to Anchorage tomorrow, about 270 miles to our next campsite, so it will be all day driving and we are going to wrap this up now so we can catch some sleep. It's a little tough to do that here, since it never gets dark. Talk to you all again soon.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Day of Rest
Tuesday, July 1
We stayed in a motel last night and today drove on to Denali. Of course there are no campground sites available in the park itself so we are staying in one of those "parking lot" places. They just pack you in side by side. It's just a mile from the park though, so that's good. We'll write again when we can. Gotta do laundry and some other necessary evils. Talk to everyone when we can.
Denise started this - I'll add a couple lines. I wasn't impressed with Fairbanks. Just another large city with expressways, strip malls and fast food places as far as I could see. But it did give us the chance to hit a Jiffy Lube and get the oil changed in the truck. It rained all the way from Fairbanks to Denali this morning, so between the low clouds and the madly wiping wipers, we didn't see much other than a very handsome fox by the roadside. The rivers we crossed (the largest called the Tanana) were all pretty wild-looking and it would have been great to stop and explore. We drove into the park first thing and purchased our tickets for tomorrow's bus tour, which will take us 66 miles into the park - an eight-hour round trip, with a chance to get out and maybe do some minor hiking. Hope to get at least a peek at the "tall one" - Denali that is, aka Mt. McKinley. But they tell us it's hit or miss on that depending on the cloud cover, and the average is to only see it one day out of three this time of year. The park is one huge piece of wilderness, you can hardly believe it. Leo and I drove in about fifteen miles this afternoon, as far as they let you drive in your own vehicle, and we barely scratched the surface. Talked to a guy who did the bus tour today and he said they saw ten bears - both blacks and browns - and a lot of other critters. Should be a great trip tomorrow.
We stayed in a motel last night and today drove on to Denali. Of course there are no campground sites available in the park itself so we are staying in one of those "parking lot" places. They just pack you in side by side. It's just a mile from the park though, so that's good. We'll write again when we can. Gotta do laundry and some other necessary evils. Talk to everyone when we can.
Denise started this - I'll add a couple lines. I wasn't impressed with Fairbanks. Just another large city with expressways, strip malls and fast food places as far as I could see. But it did give us the chance to hit a Jiffy Lube and get the oil changed in the truck. It rained all the way from Fairbanks to Denali this morning, so between the low clouds and the madly wiping wipers, we didn't see much other than a very handsome fox by the roadside. The rivers we crossed (the largest called the Tanana) were all pretty wild-looking and it would have been great to stop and explore. We drove into the park first thing and purchased our tickets for tomorrow's bus tour, which will take us 66 miles into the park - an eight-hour round trip, with a chance to get out and maybe do some minor hiking. Hope to get at least a peek at the "tall one" - Denali that is, aka Mt. McKinley. But they tell us it's hit or miss on that depending on the cloud cover, and the average is to only see it one day out of three this time of year. The park is one huge piece of wilderness, you can hardly believe it. Leo and I drove in about fifteen miles this afternoon, as far as they let you drive in your own vehicle, and we barely scratched the surface. Talked to a guy who did the bus tour today and he said they saw ten bears - both blacks and browns - and a lot of other critters. Should be a great trip tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Alaska for Good this time
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Woke up late and had a lazy morning. Didn't get on the road until 10am. Course by that time here it was 1pm back home. So, we turned on the Tiger Ballgame on the XM Radio and listened to them beat the Rockies. Still get to follow our Tigers while we're out here, just a little earlier in the morning. Today we finally made it to Alaska for good. We arrived at about 4:30pm. We have been in and out of Alaska 2 other times. We've passed through Canadian and US Customs each time. We've never had a problem any of the times. The only problem today was Connie and Leo had to prove they had "safe" oranges. Apparently, there is a problem with oranges from Mexico, so the ones they had needed to be inspected. Not too much on the road today, just alot of frost heaves and lots and lots of dust. So much dust it made me feel like we were in the middle of a white out from a snow storm. 28 miles into Alaska we found a great campsite. It is rustic (no electric), but guess what? It's FREE. After paying $6.02 a gallon for gas in Canada, free sounded great. The campground is beautiful. It's on a lake in a wild life refuge and the sites are well maintained and lots of space between each. Not much else going on here. We are now 4 hours behind everybody, so as I'm writing this at 10pm, its 2am where you are. I can also still see the sun shining. It's hard to get used to. Tomorrow we will be in Fairbanks at some friends of Connie and Leo's. We'll have a bed and a shower for at least one night. That should feel great. We'll post some pics and write again when we can. Until then hope everyone is well and Hey, Melissa, how did you do on your last test? Still no phone service here.
Woke up late and had a lazy morning. Didn't get on the road until 10am. Course by that time here it was 1pm back home. So, we turned on the Tiger Ballgame on the XM Radio and listened to them beat the Rockies. Still get to follow our Tigers while we're out here, just a little earlier in the morning. Today we finally made it to Alaska for good. We arrived at about 4:30pm. We have been in and out of Alaska 2 other times. We've passed through Canadian and US Customs each time. We've never had a problem any of the times. The only problem today was Connie and Leo had to prove they had "safe" oranges. Apparently, there is a problem with oranges from Mexico, so the ones they had needed to be inspected. Not too much on the road today, just alot of frost heaves and lots and lots of dust. So much dust it made me feel like we were in the middle of a white out from a snow storm. 28 miles into Alaska we found a great campsite. It is rustic (no electric), but guess what? It's FREE. After paying $6.02 a gallon for gas in Canada, free sounded great. The campground is beautiful. It's on a lake in a wild life refuge and the sites are well maintained and lots of space between each. Not much else going on here. We are now 4 hours behind everybody, so as I'm writing this at 10pm, its 2am where you are. I can also still see the sun shining. It's hard to get used to. Tomorrow we will be in Fairbanks at some friends of Connie and Leo's. We'll have a bed and a shower for at least one night. That should feel great. We'll post some pics and write again when we can. Until then hope everyone is well and Hey, Melissa, how did you do on your last test? Still no phone service here.
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