Alaska, wrap-up!

Well, we made it thru Canada!  Stopped at a different park, Johnson’s Crossing in the Yukon

Then continued on to British Columbia, staying at Baby Nugget’s for an overnight.

 

On back to Fort Nelson.  Somebody is getting tired of poseing for the camera!  Passed thru the Pink Mountain area and spotted this lone caribou,

Made it across BC, and stayed at Fort St. John along the Alaskan Highway.  From there, we headed into Alberta.  Stopped at Whitecourt, AB and Olds, AB for stops and then onto Medicine Hat.  Toured the Elkwater, Cypress Hill Provincial Park.

 

Then onto Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

Visited with some friends we met last winter in Yuma.  Thanks for the accommodations, great food, and laughs! Onto Regina to tour the RCMP training center and museum.

Its actually called the depot, and is the training center for all of the Canadian Mounties.

The mounties always get their man…

 

 

Overnighted Saturday and had the wind to our backs.  Got 13.7mpg with the wind.  Sunday we drove across the wind south into North Dakota.  Not so good MPG!!  Heading towards northern Minnesota and back into Wisconsin!  Not much else to report, so we’ll stop blogging for a while!

Tok, take two!

Entering and leaving Alaska via the pavement requires passing thru Tok, about 90 miles from the Yukon border. The other port of entry is via the Marine ferry.  With an rv the cost is, well, costly!

We left Delta Junction, heading east to Tok on the Alaskan Highway.  Didn’t get to far before the moose became visible.

This one meandered down the center of the highway before heading to the bush.

During our stay at Tok, Alaska we took a day trip to the town of Chicken.

Not much, but everything had a chicken theme.

The signpost indicated the distance from Chicken, Alaska to such places as Chicken Scratch, NC, Clucker’s Hall, IL and many more.

Everything in Chicken had a chicken theme…

 

From Chicken, we had planned to cruise the ‘Top of the World’ highway.  Started heading that way, but the roads were wet, muddy, just didn’t look like fun.

Some of these rigs had passed on the highway, we elected to return to Tok.

We’ll be heading south towards the lower 48, back thru Canada.  The internet was sketchy, so probably not much blogging.

 

 

 

Stayed at Sheep Mountain Lodge on the way to  Delta Junction. 

We had stopped here a month ago heading into Anchorage.  The owner is a nice guy by the name of Mark.  Can’t be a bad guy! His parents live in the Destin area, so we have some bond, the Destin connection.  Great food.

Saw this moose at the lodge.

Had a chance to check out the Matansku Glacier. 

 

The next day we moved further up towards Delta Junction.  Moose on the loose!  Ten miles from our campsite was our first moose, a nice big bull.  Another 10 miles a cow with twins.  Another few miles was a cow charging across the highway followed by   her calf.  The brakes got locked up, but everyone made it to their destination!  To busy to take pics!

Delta Junction was another crossroads.We overnighted and toured the visitors center.  Delta Junction is the end of the Alaskan Highway.  We’ll be leaving the Junction and returning to Tok.  

Anchorage Take 2!

Anchorage take 2!

We returned to Anchorage and stayed at Centennial Park. 

Had a chance to catch up with Sam and catch a meal or two.

As Sam was leaving, he alerted us to a moose in the park.  A group of Boy Scouts had camp set up in a field, and this cow came for a visit.

Drove down the Ship Creek to watch the Salmon fishing. 

Saw many fish being caught. 

We also caught up with nephew and new bride, Ben & Cassie. Ben explained that when fishing for the ‘silvers’ you try to lay the line in front of the fish and grab the fish by the lips.  Unlike the fishing in Valdez where they where snagging the fish…

Saturday, we drove to Palmer,

seems that the town was home to immigrants from the mid-west

 

home to some record vegetables as displayed at their visitors center. 

Had lunch and grabbed a healthy drink of birch water. 

Not quite the same as Budweiser.  

Also visited Independence Mine,

close to Hatcher’s Pass. 

It seems that the mine operated, mining for gold, receiving $35/ounce, but it was costing $45/once to mine.  Some wizard with the checkbook declared it unprofitable and closed the mine in the early 1940’s.  Things were abandoned, but the Alaska State Historical Society is working to restore parts of the grounds.  Sam and I found this railroad car that needed a push.

Were off to the Delta Junction Area next!

Denali State Park

Denali State Park

Found this great state park, K’esugi Ken Campground. 

This campground was opened in 2017 and according to the ranger we hiked with, was built as a campground to alleviate the camping demand at Denali National Park.  The National Park supplies interpretive rangers to the state campground. The name, “K’esugi Ken” is not a person’s name, but instead is a place and means “Base of the Ancient One.”

Hiked around Moose Flats with the our own personal ranger.  According to her, the wood frog is unique because it can nearly freeze and then thaw and repeat throughout the cold winters.  She scoured the marshy area to find a wood frog, but when something slithered in the underbrush, the hunt was over…

A nice lake with canoes is also part of the area.  We paddled around the lake one day and had an encounter with a pair of loons.

The grand lady, Denali popped out for a showing as we paddled!

The water was crystal clear and reflective.

It was nice to be stationary for a few days.   Bruce caught up on a little rest, too.

 

And the views of Denali were enjoyed.  As we departed the park, Denali came in full view for us,

bidding a farewell!

Returning to Anchorage.

Nenana

Nenana

An overnight stop in the town of Nenana.  Good travels from the North Pole.  We visited the local visitors center/gift shop. 

The owners were a young couple with 4 boys.  Both were artists/photographers.  Sam, the husband,  has grandparents in Green Bay, and more importantly cheers for the Packers!

Just down the street was the old railroad station. 

It is in the process of being restored into a museum by another young couple.  He too had a Wisconsin story.  When he was 9 years old, he earned a spot in the log rolling contest at Hayward.  Made the trip 2 years in a row and took 2nd place.    Seems everyone up here has some connection to Wisconsin!

This is the town that President Harding traveled to back in 1923 to drive the Golden Spike for the new Alaskan Railroad. 

 

They have the railcar on display. 

Evidently, President Harding had brought his wife along with his mistress on this trip.  Story goes that Mr. Harding died of poisoning shortly after that trip.  It is always difficult to see a man being misunderstood especially by his wife…

Not much going on in Nenana in the winter, so the town has created a contest that involves a tripod being placed on the ice.  They call it the oldest guessing game in America dating back to 1917.

The town sells tickets to guess the exact minute the tripod breaks thru the ice.  Guess they have it rigged up to some type of trip wire to determine the exact time.  Prizes are 50/50 and have been over $300K. People from all over the world buy chances to be the winner.  We saved our $2 and will buy a lottery ticket instead!

Heading on south…

Fairbanks/North Pole

Welcome to the North Pole! 

I guess there really is a Christmas in July. 

The place is all decked out in Christmas decorations year round.  The streets a named ‘mistletoe drive,’ ‘Saint Nicholas Drive’ and ‘snowman lane.’  

Santa Claus House plays Christmas songs.  Full of Christmas gifts, and of course a place to drop of the Christmas letter.  No postage necessary here at the North Pole!

Even the Little Richard Dinner plays the carols!

The reindeer academy was right next door to Santa’s House. 

I suppose that is a logical place to keep the reindeer!

Time for an oil change so we had made an appointment in Fairbanks to get that taken care of. 

While in Fairbanks, we visited the Pioneer Park.  The park has many original buildings/homes that have been moved from the streets of Fairbanks to the park. 

Also a paddleboat has its home there. 

We watched the “Big Stampede Show.”  This was a theatre in the round where the audience was seated in the center on a revolving platform and gold rush murals were hung on the wall.  The platform would revolve to put the viewers in front of a mural as a script was played and described the various gold rush activities and drama.

We parked the rig at the Chena River Lakes State Park. 

Nice state park that was built by the US Army Corp of Engineers to help with flood control.

We’ll start our return  Anchorage.

 

Denali

Denali

Made our way from Trapper’s Creek Monday up to Denali National Park.  

We had visited the park a few years ago when we did a land and sea package cruise with Holland America. 

At that time we had taken the longer bus ride into the park and had a great tour guide and saw a lot of wildlife.  We decided to skip the bus this time.

Another warm day in the Interior along with smokey conditions.  Our ride into the park produced a caribou who was cooling off in the Savage River.

We took in the dog mushers demo.  These dogs were hot too!

As we made our way north, we went in search of the infamous bus featured on ‘into the wild.’  Drove down the road till we came to the end of the pavement.  

Found a replica at at the 49th State Brewery in Healy. 

 

Luckily the libations were able to quench our parched throats after the search…

Fairbanks and the North Pole are next! 

Trapper Creek

Trapper Creek & Talkeetna

Made our way from Portage thru Anchorage and on up to Trapper Creek. 

Trapper Creek is also home to the original Wal-Mike’s.  Quite the place, full of surprises.

 

Got set up at the RV park and got our bearings and touring plan.  Saturday we drove to the town of Talkeetna. 

The two towns are only a few miles cross country apart, but the Susitna River is smack-dap in between, so 14 miles back down the road and 14 miles back to Talkeetna.  Luckily diesel is back under $3!

Talkeetna is a small town that is along side the Alaskan Railroad and has become a little tourist town. 

Talked with a local shop owner about the winters, and she explained that things aren’t shutting down anymore.  Tourist like to shop!

Time for a little humor.

 

We have also found that these tourist towns are also good hosts for breweries…

The RV park is south of Denali.  Sunday we drove on  Petersville Road.  Some great views of the grand mountain!

Short visit here, heading north!

Portage July 4

Happy Independence Day!

 

Left Soldontna and the Kenai Peninsula on July 3

and headed to Williwaw National Forest near Portage for a few days.

 

yes, I know the truck needs a wash!

Drove to the town of Whittier for a quick visit. 

Well, not so quick since we had to travel thru a 2 mile long tunnel, single lane and shared with train tracks. 

The train has a schedule to keep, so they have priority!

 

Spent the Forth touring the National Forest visitors center.  Nice viewing area on the Portage Lake. 

No fire works in the area because of the dry conditions, but we had a great view of a glacier from the front of the campsite.

 

 

 

 

Off to Trapper Creek!