Alaska

Don't know if this actually counts because we left the WC home. Hope the poor baby is ok. We flew up to Anchorage on Sunday and rented a motor home. So far so good. Just can't get used to no nightime. It gets semi dark for about 4 hours. Drove north out of Anchorage and spent the first night in Cantwell. The park was nice and the lady that ran it was wonderful.



Next day we drove to Denali National Park. It was about 30 miles further. It was clear enough to see Mt Denali (formerly McKinley).



This is looking from our campsite. She was just as happy to graze on the willows. The sites were nice. There are no hook up's and if your generator is running a few minutes after the designated time, like ours was, the generator gestapo are tapping on your door.




We left Denali a day early to go south to Talkeetna. The reason that we left Denali was that we saw more wildlife at Yellowstone than we have since we have gotten here. Decided to take in a little fishing today. As you can see Karyn did pretty good. The King Salmon are starting to run. Limit is one a day.


Tonya's was smaller, but it gave her a run for the money. She actually wanted to bring the boots home with us. Some kind of fashion statement.


Talkeetna is a very eclectic town and serves as base camp for a lot of people going to climb the mountain. They fly from here part way up the mountain, set up camp for a week then start the climb. Tomorrow we have a plane chartered to take us up and land, weather permitting then bring us down and land on a glacier so that we can walk around. Will post more after tomorrows trip and after we have some of that salmon for diner.

NICE!!!!

Sounds like you all are having a great time. Keep sending pictures.

Awsome pictures keep posting them

I want to be flown to the brooks range so bad I can't stand it. Looks like ya'll are having a blast. Hope the weather does you right.

What a great trip - Tight Lines

Awesome pictures....thanks! Hope you enjoy the rest of the time and we would love to see more pictures.

Thanks for posting, and keep those pictures coming, please.

I hope to drive the Alcan highway with our rig in a few years. It will be a long trip but I expect to enjoy the time.

Driving the road,

It's a long haul yes and we rushed along it, after the first trip,
because it was in between where we were and where we wanted to be, 6
days from Anchorage to America as a rule. The route via Sumas WA
is more scenic than via Calgary but takes longer, the fuel is cheaper
via Calgary. Both meet in Dawson Creek. Take your time,
lots of animals to watchout for. Some of them are really used to
vehicles and will stand in the middle of the road staring at you daring
you to try and drive by, male Bison. Don't start the trip to
early in the spring. We drove it in mid-April and there were lots
of places not open. We drove it in early May and places were
open, for the most part, but often with no water or sewer because the
ground was still frozen. I suspect that by June they're fully
open, but we have the rig parked down on the Kenai by that time.
We usually left early in the fall because there're stretches where
you're driving at treeline in the mountains. I don't know about
you but my rig isn't very good in 3-5" of snow/slush, there have been
times when I looked out over the hood at the ditch next to the
road.
I'd figure at least 2 weeks to do it, one way, and actually stop to
smell the roses in a few places. We always did a short day
crossing the borders, where possible, in case there were problems of
some sort. If you have animals be sure to have a current health
certificate for them, not that anyone has ever asked us for one...but
you never know. NO GUNS!

If anyone wants I can give some recommendations for "cheap" RV parks along the route(s).

Today we went up to base camp. It is where the McKinley climbers get dropped off at. It is at 7300'. Quite an interesting landing. Climb to 8000' then drop to land uphill. I was lucky, I had the copilot seat.



It is a nice feeling to set down. There was a crevice just in front of the plane. Makes you feel safe.


The deep blue ice in the glacier is very highly compacted ice.


This is as we were flying up the glacier. It is about 2000' thick.


The glaciers come from the side and move into the big glacier. It is amazing to see all the rocks. Some are the size of cars.


I am told that the rivers that appear cloudy or muddy are feed by the glaciers. The constant grinding away at the rock makes the mud.


I think that it is safe to say that we are having a good time. Tonight we have to eat salmon again and some fresh blackberry pie made in town at a restaurant that was featured on the Food Network. There is another place in town that has a brewery (Denali Brewing Company) that has some of the best halibut that I have ever had and a chocolate hot pepper beer that the brew master is trying to perfect. He, myself and Karyn spent a good bit of time, and many glasses critiquing his brew. Found out that brew masters get tipsy also. The walk back to the RV was a magnificent one. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. For everyone else, there is MasterCard

Awesome pics. I've never had fresh salmon - I'm sure it's incredibly delicious!

First time for us and it is so different than frozen, We are having the rest of ours smoked and shipped home so that we can have it on salads.

Those are awesome pics.......someday hopefully I will make that adventure. That plane looks like quite the ride. There is nothing like wild caught salmon, especially on the smoker. Keep the pics coming, I am green with envy!

I do miss the WC. It has so much more room than the RV. We probably will come back next year in the WC, but spend 2-3 months. Alaskan cell service, even in the cities, is iffy. Have been having hard time with sporadic wifi, going to try this way.

http://picasaweb.google.com/robertz675/Alaska?feat=directlink

So Bob, are you guys going to take a crack at finding a little gold while you're up there? I hear the state's still LOADED.

Who knows, you might find enough to pay for your rental!!

TC

Probably not, we did hit "white gold" though.

I have put some more pictures up to look at. Hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

http://picasaweb.google.com/robertz675/Alaska#

We made it to Kenai. We think that this may be our final stop before heading back home. As you can see, the view and walk down the beach from our campsite is beautiful.






The wildlife down here has been pretty abundant too. As I sit here (it is raining) there are about a half a dozen bald eagles soaring.


We have been pretty lucky to get here at the same time that the local native Americans (or were they Russian) were having a festival.


The welcome center has a display set up from the Russian Orthodox Church while it is being renovated. They are also serving soup and seizure salad (yes, that is the way it was spelled). The local artists and crafters set up tents outside. Karyn got a beautiful set of handmade otter and beaver slippers.

Please No more super big fish pictures my heart can't take much more.

Glad you are having such a great trip

No problem. We are now in Anchorage and probably won't be fishing anymore. The funny thing was that with the halibut, when you add the cost of the charter, processing & FedEx, it was still cheaper per pound than we would pay in FL. The funny thing is that those were not really big fish by their standards.

The trip to Alaska is unfortunately over. It was a trip of a lifetime. Karyn and I are talking about going back next summer, but in the WC. It really works better for us than an RV. We are home again, but only for a short time. Leave on Thursday for Montana. Home long enough to look at mail and cut the grass, then back on the road.

Sounds like you had a GREAT TRIP, thanks for sharing it with us.

As said before, thanks for all the pictures and letting us share your trip with you. You have built memories that will last a lifetime.
Thanks again
Maxtor.