Homer Spit Campground Homer, Alaska

Mileage:  44,375

We are so thankful for the excellent care that Dr. Chet provided yesterday.  We were in a place where we were lucky enough to see a good doctor and where there was a pharmacy.  Tim felt much better today and he was ready to move on!

The morning was chilly and misty.  The dramatic clouds made for some cool pictures.

The scent of wild roses hung heavy in the air.

We drove on the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula.  We were surprised that there was tons of traffic, but this is an area where the avid sport fishermen come for the spawning salmon.

As we made our way toward Homer, we encountered a marine layer.  This is a picture at the scenic turnout that has amazing views of the “Pacific Ring of Fire”  or the group of volcanoes across Cook Inlet.

Maybe we will get a better picture on the way back to Anchorage!

Mount Redoubt erupted in 2009, Mount Douglas has fresh lava flow, Mount Iliamno has had some earthquake activity, and Mount Augustine was active in 2006 with 13 eruptions in a 2 week period.

We stopped at the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center.  A neat place with great exhibits and educational and fun stuff for kids…of all ages!

Route 1 in Alaska ends at the end of the town of Homer.  Homer Spit is probably the remains of an ancient moraine from a glacier.  If people had not intervened, this piece of land would have washed away a long time ago.  Now it is a popular fishing spot.  There are also lots of shops and restaurants.  It’s a very neat place to be.  We went out for dinner and walked around a for awhile.

We saw a mama eagle with 2 eaglets in a nest.  As we approached, she moved in front of her babies to block our view.

Papa eagle sat on the next pylon keeping watch.

We are quite literally at land’s end!

Resurrection Bay RV Park Seward, Alaska Day 2

We were at the Seward Community Health Center before 9 am.

We met Chet, the doctor who cared for Tim.  He walked in wearing a plaid button down and jeans.  He looked like the very image of a small town doctor.  He was a kind and gentle man from Tennessee.  We wished we had taken his picture, I am sure he would have obliged.  Tim had a fever of 101.5, wheezes, and rattles.  Diagnosis:  pneumonia.  Dr. Chet treated him very aggressively with a nebulizer and injections of antibiotics and steroids.  He sent us home with two kinds of oral antibiotics, oral steroids, an emergency inhaler, and steroidal inhaler.

We knew we weren’t going anywhere today.

Lots of rest and fluids and soup for dinner.  Tim is already feeling a little better.

Resurrection Bay RV Park Seward, Alaska

Mileage:  44,201

As we traveled toward Anchorage today we felt like we were in a bit of a culture warp.  We were on a real highway with real interchanges, and exit ramps, and smooth roads and everything!  You could move this highway to the middle of Ohio and we wouldn’t know the difference.

Except for the moose crossing signs…

Anchorage has everything you could want…malls, cinemas, a major airport, Home Depot and Lowes.  We couldn’t wait to get out of all of the congestion and traffic.

We were headed to Seward.  This picture was taken at Beluga Point.  The drive from Anchorage to Seward is really pretty.

Tim doesn’t feel well at all so he stopped to nap along the way.  His allergies are out of control and what usually helps are steroids and antibiotics.  I went into town by myself.

I did a little shopping.  I got some halibut for dinner and a couple little things from the Safeway.

Tim had slept again but still felt awful.  He didn’t really feel like eating much.  Another gentle suggestion from me about seeing a doctor and he finally agreed at a little before 6 this evening.  The clinics in town closed at 6.  They were very helpful when I called.  I could take him to the ER…but he doesn’t need that.  Walk in hours begin tomorrow at 9 am and we plan to be there!

We did go for a short walk.  We watched some fisherman trying to snag some salmon and we did see a guy bring one in.  The salmon aren’t really running yet.

The view from our campsite.

King Mountain State Recreation Site Chickaloon, Alaska

Mileage:  44,004

I was driving 15 miles to the IGA in Copper Valley for groceries, this view of the mountains before me.

Sometimes it strikes me…I’m so far removed from home but even more so from my ordinary life.  We are definitely living outside the box.  How grateful I am to spend each day surrounded by nature and this incredible beauty.  This became a theme for the day.

Fruits and vegetables were procured…so expensive because we are in the middle of nowhere.

We took the Glenn Highway today toward Anchorage….as the Milepost says, “a vista of incomparable beauty.”

Lions Head.

These poles are the snow poles I referred to in an earlier blog.  When the snow is very deep, it helps plows to find the road.

At one point we stopped at a scenic view turnout and I had to take a moment and pause to appreciate it all.  I took pictures.

To the right.

To the right front.

To the left front.

To the left.

To the rear.

Surrounded…by spectacular scenery.

This was our lunch spot.

We saw several huge glaciers.

After lunch we had 25 miles of very windy and narrow road with a 7% grade and no passing…yes he’s glad he bought the diesel pusher!

In the distance I could see King Mountain.  It is pyramid shaped.  The guidebook said that it is at elevation 5,809 feet.  Tim said…”just  little more than a mile.”  I am always trying to put the scope of all of this into perspective.  When I was a small girl I can remember learning that there were 5,280 feet in a mile.  For a long time as a child…if there was a lot of something it was 5,280…it was the biggest number I knew.  The one mountain is a mile high…we are surrounded by lots and lots of mountains…perspective.

I tried to get good picture of King Mountain.

We ended up camping across the Matanuska River from the mountain.  Pictures from our campsite.

On the way into the campground we met this pothole.

It threw the camper in an unexpected way.  The fridge door opened.  Guinness was the only thing that was harmed in the mishap.  Tim cried and I cleaned up a major mess.  So, the world is good.  We don’t let things like that slow us down, upset us, or ruin our day.  That’s why this RV thing works for us.  We know that stuff is going to happen…it’s all part of it.  When you drag your house down these roads you are going to have things to clean up!

For our Jeep excursion today we took the narrow gravel road to Lower Bonnie Lake.

This guy was on the back of the rock so you could only see him as you left.  We stopped and asked him for directions.

 

 

 

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!

 

 

Wrangell View RV Park – Chitina, Alaska AND Root Glacier Base Camp McCarthy, Alaska

Day 2

We woke up and it was 57 degrees with a cloudless blue sky and a forecast for low 70’s.

Today we traveled the McCaarthy Road with the Jeep, leaving the RV behind in Chitina.  Sixty miles of washboard gravel road.  This road sits on top of an old railroad bed.  With the process of freezing, thawing, and regrading the road every season, the railroad spikes often emerge.  Flat tires are common and there are tire repair guys at both ends.  If you have a flat tire on the way to McCarthy, you take the tire off your car and leave it with your cash by the marked post by 3 pm.  The guy comes to pick up the flat tires and brings them back around 5 pm…fixed and ready to roll.  That’s the kind of place this is!

We saw more than 100 wild rabbits all sitting right on the edge of the road.  We had to swerve and brake quickly a couple of times.  Hide and be safe little bunnies….there are lots of dangers in your world…cars, lynxes, raptors, wolves…

A trumpeter swan pair and their 4 cygnets.

Going to McCarthy is as much about the adventure of the ride as it is about the town.  We were treated to sweeping views of the river basin below.  The rivers are braided rivers.  The course of rivers of this type is determined by the sand and gravel carried along and by the depth of the water which varies significantly from one season to the next.  These deposits and the rise and fall of the water level, changes the direction the river takes creating intertwining fingers of river.

Most of the drive looked like this.

We passed over several bridges.  It is difficult to imagine how these roads and bridges were constructed back in the early 1900’s.

We chose to stay at the Root Glacier Base Camp.  We have a tent site by the Kennicott River.

McCarthy was founded when explorers found bright emerald streaks in the rock face.  They knew that they had found copper ore.  McCarthy was the town for all the miners at the Kennicott Copper Mining Company.  It had dance halls, women, and saloons where the cold, tired, and lonely men could spend their earnings.

You cannot take your car into the town so we took our bikes across this footbridge.

We ate lunch and bought tickets for the Kennicott shuttle.  Kennicott is another 5 miles up the mountain on a fairly rocky and rough road.

When  we first arrived we saw enormous piles of what looked like mine spoils.  We were told that all of these piles are actually the glacier!  Once you know what you are looking at…it is astounding!  The rocks and dirt that cover the glacier are known as the moraine.  Moraine is deposited as a result of glacial melting and erosion.  Those “hills” were 200-300 feet of ice.

We walked through the mining town touring the exhibits.

We hiked out of town for a couple of miles to get a better view of the glacier.  As we walked we could hear ice cracking and boulders breaking loose.  We didn’t plan for a big hike and we weren’t prepared (no water, after eating a big lunch, and NO bear spray) so we headed back before we got to the toe of the glacier.

We were actually in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park.  This park has 12 of the 15 highest peaks in Alaska.  Mount Wrangell is actually Alaska’s largest active volcano.  The goal is to preserve this “extraordinary relic from America’s past.”

One thing that surprises me every day is how different every place has been.  From fishing villages to glaciers to gold mining towns to copper mills…the adventure and the beauty just keep on keeping on!

Wrangell View RV Park Chitina, Alaska

Mileage:43,828

As we climbed out of Valdez the snowy peaks sparkled in the morning sunlight.

One road into Valdez and the same road back out. Back through the Keystone Canyon, Thompson Pass, and the Copper River Valley.  We saw a mama moose and her baby standing on a dirt turnoff road.

And of course…

The Alyeska Pipeline runs along the road.  Tim figured that there are at least 4,224,000 barrels of oil in the 800 miles of pipeline.  The oil company is able to slow production of oil but cannot stop it.  If the flows halts, then the oil will become a sludge and harden.

We are taking another side trip.

We turned onto the Edgerton Highway toward Chitina.  The road is paved for 33 miles.  At the end of the paved section we camped at Wrangell View.

It is sunny and in the low 70’s.  A gorgeous day in Alaska.

We left the RV and went to explore the gravel road for a short distance.

We saw a moose feeding.  She was standing belly deep in a pretty little lake.

I don’t know if you can make out the little white cottony things floating in the air and there is a pile of them on the ground too!  They are hanging from bunches of cottonwood trees.  They are really making Tim sneezy and congested!

The gravel road is bordered by the Copper River to the north and the Chitina River to the south.

In this picture the white objects that you see are actually RV’s.

We aren’t sure why they were parked out there but it looks like the river consumed them.  I’m not sure how long they have been there but it is unlikely that anyone is coming back for them.

What in the world are these flowers?!?  At first glance I thought dandelion…because they turn into puffs but the “flower” is this twisted, worsted kind of thing!?!

This highway is unlike anywhere else I have ever been.  Tomorrow we will leave the RV behind and continue down the gravel road for another 60 miles to a town named McCarthy.  We are packing the Jeep with our tenting supplies and we will see where the road takes us.

Right now, the country music is on and the wine is flowing.  Shrimp on the barbie for dinner and a nice night for a fire.

Bear Paw Camper Park Valdez, Alaska – Day 3

We decided to spend one more day in Valdez.  We slept in after our long day yesterday.  There is a bike path around the harbor and the town and we wanted to get outside and do something active today.

We stopped for lunch a a cute place on the corner called The Potato.  We had excellent salmon rolls.

We checked on the leader board for the current standings for the halibut derby.  Apparently the Valdez record for the largest halibut ever was 374 pounds!

Today was also about doing ordinary things…like laundry and groceries.

And a second bike ride before dinner.

We spotted a second vessel from The Deadliest Catch – The Northwestern.

And predinner drinks by the harbor.

After eating we went back to the fish hatchery to see if the salmon were running…but not yet!

 

Bear Paw Camper Park Valdez, Alaska Day 2

Today was an incredible day!

There are no adequate words or pictures to convey the awesomeness of the Lu-Lu Belle Glacier Wildlife Cruise…

We left the Valdez Harbor at 11:00 am.  The Lu-Lu Belle is a smaller cruising boat with varnished teak  and oriental rugs inside.  There were about 30 passengers.

As we left the harbor we saw sea otters floating on their backs.  As we got closer they fled.

We entered Prince William Sound after passing through the Valdez Narrows.  We saw a juvenile humpback whale.  I watched in awe as he dove through the water.  Initially they thought he was feeding and then he started to travel forward and move on.  The boat followed him for awhile until we finally saw his fluke.  I honestly did not take a single picture.  I just wanted to be present and to watch.  I did not want to watch the whale through the lens of a camera.  I really just wanted to be right there enjoying the moment.  One of the crew members got a picture of the fluke and airdropped it to me.

We passed a fishing boat.  Soon there will be lots more.  The salmon are usually running by now.  We also passed the Wizard, one of the boats on Deadliest Catch.

The captain was able to maneuver the boat very close to the shore as we looked in cracks and crevices for puffins.  He had the boat close enough to the shore that you could stand on the bow and touch the rocks in the cave above the boat.  There was one little guy in there but he did not like all of us peering at him.

As we rounded the bend we saw piles of sea lions on the shore and lots of babies cavorting and flipping in the water.  We watched as they played king of the rock…I could have stayed there all day.  As the boat got closer we noticed the bigger males herding the babies in toward the rocky beach.  They posted themselves along the shore like sentries to keep the moms and the babies on shore and safe.

As be began to approach the glacier the captain had to wield his way among the icebergs floating in the water.  We were up in the bridge watching him navigate the obstacle course and it was impressive.  Sea otters bobbed along.

An iceberg.

The Columbia Glacier was amazing.  The air temperature was 35 degrees with a wind chill of 25.  The water temperature was 32 degrees.  At one point we were in 1,300 feet of ice cold sea water.  We were able to get within 1/4 mile of the face of the ice.  Even from that close it was difficult to fathom its scope.  The walls were 300 feet from the surface of the water and extend down below the water for 700-800 feet.  The mouth of the glacier was about 2 miles wide and it extends 33 miles back into the mountains.  We stayed at the glacier for about an hour waiting for activity.  We actually got to see ice calve off and fall into the water causing a wave that we didn’t feel for more than 5 minutes afterward.  The captain said he had seen pieces of ice as big as a house fly for 1/8 of mile.

The piece of ice off to the left fell off the day before while the captain and his passengers looked on.  It was apparently very dramatic!

The large piece of ice in this picture is bigger than a car.

We learned a lot about the Alyeska Pipeline.  The Port of Valdez is an oil port.  At the time of the oil spill in 1989, the area was not well prepared to deal with a disaster of that magnitude.  The accident happened about 30 miles away from the town when an oil tanker ended up 6 miles off course in shallow water.  There is a permanent marker at the site of the accident. It took years for the area to recover.  There are now lots of safeguards in place to prevent similar incidents and also to deal with a problem should one occur.  There are barges with emergency spill equipment posted every couple of miles along the passage out of Valdez.  These barges are equipped with a crew and ready to move at a moment’s notice should the need arise.  There is also a fully loaded cargo plane sitting in Anchorage that contains all the necessary tools and equipment to deal with an emergency that can be immediately deployed.  A crew is always prepared and on standby.

One of the ways that you can judge the health of a port is by looking at the sea otter population.  Sea otters have over 1,000,000 hairs per square inch.  This is what keeps them warm.  If the sea water contains pollutants then the hair becomes oily and matted and the sea otters cannot survive.  We saw more than 100 sea otters yesterday.  This is a sign that the oil company is practicing due diligence to keep the water clean and safe.  They also have all kinds of rules about how ballast water needs to be discarded and treated.

All of these additional standards and practices cost the oil companies a lot of money…but they too appear to be thriving.

We had an amazing adventure!  Thanks mom for the wonderful birthday gift!

We didn’t get back to port until 8:30 pm.  The captain doesn’t head home until he is sure that he has shown you all that he can.  He talked for about 6 hours of the 9 1/2 hour journey.  He has a wealth of knowledge about all things Valdez and Prince William Sound.  We would recommend this Lu-Lu Belle adventure to everyone!

Bear Paw Camper Park Valdez, Alaska

Mileage:  43,712.

We had only a short distance to drive into Valdez this morning.  We descended from Blueberry Lake into the Keystone Canyon, magnificent with its rocky cliffs, and waterfalls…one vantage point more stunning than the next.

This area gets  a lot of snow.  In December of 2017 it snowed 40″ in one night.  This massive snowfall precipitated an avalanche that closed 30 miles of highway for days.  There are snow poles that resemble street lights.  They are there to guide the snowplows along the road edge.  In the 1950’s they had a winter when it snowed over 950 inches and another 24 hour period with 62″ of snow.

We are camped at the Bear Paw Camper Park right in downtown Valdez.  I am not usually excited about camping in a big gravel parking lot with lots of other campers…but this is Valdez!

We got settled and then went out to see the area.

We began by taking the road to the pipeline terminus.  No one is allowed to go back there but it is quite a facility.  The pipeline extends from Prudhoe Bay all the way south through the center of Alaska to Valdez.  It produces 1,000,000 barrels of oil each day.

While we were out of the car we spotted this pair of bald eagles.  They were so close.  I got to see them take off and return to the same branch together.  The eagles are so large and majestic when they fly.

We stopped at the Valdez Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery where they harvest and raise pink and Coho salmon for release into the wild.  It is a very interesting place.  Sally the salmon is a little early for the season.  She is the only salmon we saw in the fish ladder which resembles the way a salmon in the wild would swim upstream.  In a couple of weeks there will be more than 400,000 fish that make their way through.

We saw seals swimming in the Valdez harbor – one catching and eating a fish.  We passed a coyote on our way out.

We drove to Valdez Glacier View Park and walked around the water’s edge taking pictures and marveling at the icebergs in the lake.  Some of the broken pieces of ice were as big as our RV.

As a real treat…we got a carryout pizza for dinner!

After eating we walked around Valdez Harbor.

Sea Otter.

Valdez bunnies are everywhere.  10 years ago a local campground had about 10 bunnies hopping around.  Bunnies did what bunnies do and now they are all over the town.  I must have seen about 20 walking around today.

Tomorrow we look forward to a glacier cruise on the Lu-Lu Belle in the Prince William Sound.  We are going to the Columbia Glacier.