Tolsana Wilderness Campground Glennallen, Alaska

Mileage:  43,905

We woke up a little chilly at 5 am.  We decided to pack up the tent and go.  I was hoping for 3 things…pretty morning light, wildlife, and little traffic.  I got all 3!  We saw tons of rabbits and on Tim’s side a moose and on my side an owl.  We also saw the swan family again.

We got back to the RV and unpacked our tent stuff, showered and we were on out way out of Chitina.  We were not sure where we were going to end up but that is hardly surprising!

We stopped at a roadside turnout and took a nap…tent camping is not very restful…though still very worth it!

When we woke up we made a plan to stop at the Tolsona Wilderness Campground.  The office was on the other side of this bridge…you want us to drive our 24,000 pound RV over THAT???

It was perfectly safe and we did!

I asked about hiking trails and the camp host told me of three.  #1 on  a gravel road round a meadow.  #2 in the woods on a gravel path.  #3, for the more adventuresome, a hike to see the mud volcanoes.  The trail is a little rougher, over some roots and trees, but only  a mile and it leads you to these bubbling mud puddles that are pretty cool.  We chose 3.  We were prepared today with water, bug spray, bear spray, and even mosquito nets.

Years ago we went to Ocracoke in the fall.  When we entered the campground we saw a whole family tent camping and dressed in mosquito netting…and we laughed…it didn’t take us long to understand why.  So we have head nets that we have never used…until today…and we were incredibly grateful to have them!!

The beginning of the trail looked like this.

Several times we took a trail around the trail because the ground was so loamy and boggy that it was difficult to negotiate.  We walked about 3/4 of a mile and it became too marshy for our tennis shoe clad feet. 6″ water all around and no way past…we turned around.

It is my theory that this is an area where the permafrost has melted.  The ground was heaved up thrusting roots of trees out of the mud.  Many trees were toppled and the short stunted black spruce trees were everywhere.  The ground-cover was all moss and lichen.  Even when we walked uphill it was very wet making me believe that the wetness was coming from beneath the ground.

It’s a little buggy but the creek is pretty.

No fireworks for us tonight…it doesn’t get dark enough.

Happy 4th of July!