This has been (and will continue to be) a week of busy evenings, good things but still time-consuming. I expect (or at least hope) next week will be a little less full.
August 22nd -- We left the McCarthy area, heading towards Tok and eventually home. I was interested in getting somewhere with a garage as there was a quite nasty sounding noise developing when steering and maneuvering around parking lots and the like--sort of a fingernails on the chalkboard sound. (The first inkling of this was back in North Pole, where it was a single little squeak once. I figured it was probably a pebble from the Dalton Highway stuck in the works somewhere, or perhaps the steering damper having dust in it, and made a mental note to try to keep tabs on it. It was not improving, and a little investigation made me suspect a ball joint was the culprit.)
Click For Full-Size Image.
We came upon a friend of Bullwinkle's wandering along the McCarthy road. It's a fairly long walk from Frostbite Falls, MN, I believe.
Click For Full-Size Image.
I think this was someplace along the Tok Cutoff, but I don't remember for sure.
We camped for the night at the little Porcupine Creek State Recreation Area campground, which was neatly kept up (by the owners of the Hart D Ranch under contract).
August 23rd -- We continued on to Tok, and enquired about a repair shop. They could not look at the motorhome until the following morning, so we spent the night at the Three Bears campground. This is probably the least fancy commercial campground in Tok, but it appeared reasonably maintained and we certainly had nothing to complain about.
Since we had a good part of the afternoon free, we got to take in more of the sights at Tok, such as they are. The library is quite nice, attached to the visitor's center, and has decent WiFi when it's open. The large gift shop next door has some good quality handicrafts and such, particularly upstairs, for a price.
I did make an important discovery at the Three Bear's grocery store. In the evening, the bakery donuts are significantly discounted.
August 24th -- The garage confirmed that the ball joints were the source of the noise. Apparently the seals for the "permanent" lubrication had failed, and the lubrication leaked out, and that was that. Their opinion was that they were not unsafely worn at that point, but obviously wouldn't last much longer without grease, likely not long enough to get to Vermont safely--nor did I really care to drive that far with them being so noisy.
The 24th was a Thursday. They could get parts in by Monday, possibly Friday, but would not be able to do the repair before Tuesday at the earliest and more likely Wednesday or so. That sounded like a very long time to be in Tok twiddling our thumbs. After a good bit of consideration, I decided to carefully drive to Whitehorse and see about getting them repaired there; I thought I'd rather be stuck in Whitehorse for several days than in Tok. I can't say for sure if that was the wisest decision or not, but it ended up working out well in the end.
Heading towards Whitehorse, we stopped for a bit at the Tetlin NWR visitor center. This is quite a lovely facility (though fairly compact) with some good views. The displays inside were I thought quite well put together. One that seemed especially clever, aimed at children, had a sand table and various animal track stampers that could be used to make tracks in the sand. I'll admit I played with it for a couple minutes.
Across the border in the Yukon, the road parallels Kulane Lake for a fair distance. This is an especially pretty section of the road.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
I found it rather fascinating that the lake and its drainage had been altered by glacial action relatively recently (in the past few hundred years).
We camped at Pine Lake Territorial Park, near Haines Junction.
August 25th - 28th -- We made it safely to Whitehorse and, after asking around and pursuing a few leads that didn't pan out and getting directions, we got to Horsman Mechanical who checked things over (yep, needs ball joints) and could schedule the service for Tuesday.
We got a site at the Hi Country RV Park for the four nights. This is the closest RV campground to the city, and the only one near a bus stop. It's quite nice and well-maintained, and had the best Wi-fi of any campground we stayed at. That meant we had a few days to relax and to see things in Whitehorse we had skipped over the first time we were there.
The highlight for both of us was doubtless the superbly done Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. I found this museum to be fascinating, and learned a good bit about the subject which I was completely ignorant of previously. Apparently during the last ice age, due to the mountains and prevailing winds and so forth, the region was not iced over (as many areas further south were) but was a rather luxuriant, though cold, grassland. There were a number of now extinct creatures that roamed it: wooly mammoths, giant beavers, Jefferson's ground sloths, and Yukon horses, among others. What's more, there are remarkably well-preserved fossils of these animals, preserved not due to the bones turning to stone by absorbing minerals (as I always thought of fossils as being) but by being frozen in the permafrost until they were unearthed by miners. Among them was a horse fossil, with a good portion of the hide and some of the intestines containing some samples of what the horse ate.
I'd rate the museum a must-see for Whitehorse visitors.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Outside are some statues (and also some plywood cutouts) of some of the animals from the period.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Inside are some of the fossils on display, many in dioramas. This is a Jefferson's Ground Sloth, quite a bizarre (and good-sized) creature.
Click For Full-Size Image.
American Schimitar Cat, not to be confused with a Sabertooth Tiger (which it does resemble at first glance). The fur patterns are conjecture.
I was glad that the portrayals of stone-age peoples in the museum did not make them out to be uncultured or unintelligent as too often seems to be the impression given. Clearly to survive in the climate of the area they would have to have rather sophisticated clothing and shelters, and the cultural means to pass the know-how for such things on. Even today primitive tribes are sometimes seen as unintelligent and uncultured, but (as I've had the opportunity to see firsthand) that's absolutely untrue.
I also visited the Yukon Transportation Museum next door. This museum has a pretty large collection, but it's not especially well organized or presented, with spotty coverage of identifying panels and informational signs. I did have a pleasant time there, none the less.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Some sort of giant unidentified US army vehicle, I assume used to transport supplies when building the Alaska Highway or supplying airfields during the war. The tires are labeled as being 48 x 68; I'm glad my motorhome takes a somewhat smaller size. I'd hate to think what one would cost!
One interesting thing I did learn there, in a spot where the signage was good, was that the whole system of container transportation was developed by the White Pass and Yukon railroad, who also built the first container ship.
On Tuesday, as promised, Horsman replaced the ball joints in my motorhome. I was entirely satisfied with how they treated me; the work was done properly (so far as I can tell), they fit me into their schedule as soon as they could, and their charges were entirely reasonable and fair.
August 22nd -- We left the McCarthy area, heading towards Tok and eventually home. I was interested in getting somewhere with a garage as there was a quite nasty sounding noise developing when steering and maneuvering around parking lots and the like--sort of a fingernails on the chalkboard sound. (The first inkling of this was back in North Pole, where it was a single little squeak once. I figured it was probably a pebble from the Dalton Highway stuck in the works somewhere, or perhaps the steering damper having dust in it, and made a mental note to try to keep tabs on it. It was not improving, and a little investigation made me suspect a ball joint was the culprit.)
We came upon a friend of Bullwinkle's wandering along the McCarthy road. It's a fairly long walk from Frostbite Falls, MN, I believe.
I think this was someplace along the Tok Cutoff, but I don't remember for sure.
We camped for the night at the little Porcupine Creek State Recreation Area campground, which was neatly kept up (by the owners of the Hart D Ranch under contract).
August 23rd -- We continued on to Tok, and enquired about a repair shop. They could not look at the motorhome until the following morning, so we spent the night at the Three Bears campground. This is probably the least fancy commercial campground in Tok, but it appeared reasonably maintained and we certainly had nothing to complain about.
Since we had a good part of the afternoon free, we got to take in more of the sights at Tok, such as they are. The library is quite nice, attached to the visitor's center, and has decent WiFi when it's open. The large gift shop next door has some good quality handicrafts and such, particularly upstairs, for a price.
I did make an important discovery at the Three Bear's grocery store. In the evening, the bakery donuts are significantly discounted.
August 24th -- The garage confirmed that the ball joints were the source of the noise. Apparently the seals for the "permanent" lubrication had failed, and the lubrication leaked out, and that was that. Their opinion was that they were not unsafely worn at that point, but obviously wouldn't last much longer without grease, likely not long enough to get to Vermont safely--nor did I really care to drive that far with them being so noisy.
The 24th was a Thursday. They could get parts in by Monday, possibly Friday, but would not be able to do the repair before Tuesday at the earliest and more likely Wednesday or so. That sounded like a very long time to be in Tok twiddling our thumbs. After a good bit of consideration, I decided to carefully drive to Whitehorse and see about getting them repaired there; I thought I'd rather be stuck in Whitehorse for several days than in Tok. I can't say for sure if that was the wisest decision or not, but it ended up working out well in the end.
Heading towards Whitehorse, we stopped for a bit at the Tetlin NWR visitor center. This is quite a lovely facility (though fairly compact) with some good views. The displays inside were I thought quite well put together. One that seemed especially clever, aimed at children, had a sand table and various animal track stampers that could be used to make tracks in the sand. I'll admit I played with it for a couple minutes.
Across the border in the Yukon, the road parallels Kulane Lake for a fair distance. This is an especially pretty section of the road.
I found it rather fascinating that the lake and its drainage had been altered by glacial action relatively recently (in the past few hundred years).
We camped at Pine Lake Territorial Park, near Haines Junction.
August 25th - 28th -- We made it safely to Whitehorse and, after asking around and pursuing a few leads that didn't pan out and getting directions, we got to Horsman Mechanical who checked things over (yep, needs ball joints) and could schedule the service for Tuesday.
We got a site at the Hi Country RV Park for the four nights. This is the closest RV campground to the city, and the only one near a bus stop. It's quite nice and well-maintained, and had the best Wi-fi of any campground we stayed at. That meant we had a few days to relax and to see things in Whitehorse we had skipped over the first time we were there.
The highlight for both of us was doubtless the superbly done Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. I found this museum to be fascinating, and learned a good bit about the subject which I was completely ignorant of previously. Apparently during the last ice age, due to the mountains and prevailing winds and so forth, the region was not iced over (as many areas further south were) but was a rather luxuriant, though cold, grassland. There were a number of now extinct creatures that roamed it: wooly mammoths, giant beavers, Jefferson's ground sloths, and Yukon horses, among others. What's more, there are remarkably well-preserved fossils of these animals, preserved not due to the bones turning to stone by absorbing minerals (as I always thought of fossils as being) but by being frozen in the permafrost until they were unearthed by miners. Among them was a horse fossil, with a good portion of the hide and some of the intestines containing some samples of what the horse ate.
I'd rate the museum a must-see for Whitehorse visitors.
Outside are some statues (and also some plywood cutouts) of some of the animals from the period.
Inside are some of the fossils on display, many in dioramas. This is a Jefferson's Ground Sloth, quite a bizarre (and good-sized) creature.
American Schimitar Cat, not to be confused with a Sabertooth Tiger (which it does resemble at first glance). The fur patterns are conjecture.
I was glad that the portrayals of stone-age peoples in the museum did not make them out to be uncultured or unintelligent as too often seems to be the impression given. Clearly to survive in the climate of the area they would have to have rather sophisticated clothing and shelters, and the cultural means to pass the know-how for such things on. Even today primitive tribes are sometimes seen as unintelligent and uncultured, but (as I've had the opportunity to see firsthand) that's absolutely untrue.
I also visited the Yukon Transportation Museum next door. This museum has a pretty large collection, but it's not especially well organized or presented, with spotty coverage of identifying panels and informational signs. I did have a pleasant time there, none the less.
Some sort of giant unidentified US army vehicle, I assume used to transport supplies when building the Alaska Highway or supplying airfields during the war. The tires are labeled as being 48 x 68; I'm glad my motorhome takes a somewhat smaller size. I'd hate to think what one would cost!
One interesting thing I did learn there, in a spot where the signage was good, was that the whole system of container transportation was developed by the White Pass and Yukon railroad, who also built the first container ship.
On Tuesday, as promised, Horsman replaced the ball joints in my motorhome. I was entirely satisfied with how they treated me; the work was done properly (so far as I can tell), they fit me into their schedule as soon as they could, and their charges were entirely reasonable and fair.
August 21st -- The day was spent exploring McCarthy and Kennicott. This was a very interesting stop for me. Kennicott was a company town, or perhaps more a camp, for the Kennecott copper mine. (The two have different spellings; the mine company got it wrong originally, and has never changed.) McCarthy, a few miles away, was a town where the miners went to do everything unwholesome that the company would not allow in Kennicott: drink, gamble, cavort with loose women, etc. Today, somewhat of the same distinction pervades, though toned down, and both are more or less kept alive for the sake of visitors and tourists. Much of Kennicott is maintained and operated by the National Park Service as a historical park.
Access to McCarthy is via a footbridge and a half mile or so walk (or shuttle bus ride). We elected to walk, not entirely realizing that it involved fording one or two spots of water.
McCarthy does have a nice little historical museum with some local artifacts and information about the mine. There's a reading room attached to the museum where you can spend time with books of local interest; some of them looked rather fascinating, but we didn't have limitless time to spend.
Downtown McCarthy has a number of little businesses, shops and restaurants and tour companies mostly. Here we took the shuttle to Kennicott, a $5 per van ride affair. (The shuttle runs between the footbridge from the camping area, McCarthy, and Kennicott, and the cost is the same regardless of where one gets on or off.)
Kennicott is surprisingly well-preserved. Mining operations stopped in the 1930s as the ore was largely depleted, but many of the buildings and their equipment are standing and appear in usable or nearly usable shape. The town is dominated by the massive (fourteen story) hillside concentration mill building. Ore would enter the mill at the top via aerial tramways, and the high-grade copper ore gets separated mechanically and, across the street, chemically from the matrix rock. Much of the ore mined was astonishingly rich, some containing up to 85% copper (whereas 5% to 10% is typical). The Museum of the North in Fairbanks has a very large copper nugget, weighing a few thousand pounds, from the area on display. All told, the mine produced nearly 600,000 tons of copper and quite a tidy profit for its backers.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The Kennecott mill building (and other buildings)
Click For Full-Size Image.
The building with the smokestacks is the powerhouse; beyond it the machine shop and ammonia leeching buildings. In the foreground are two of several cottages for managers and their families.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Buildings along National Creek: on the left, the hospital and the remains of the assay office (destroyed by flooding in 2006). On the right, some of the bunkhouses for the majority of the workers.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Kennicott was built right next to the Kennicott Glacier. This glacier has shrunk in height (though not so much in width or length) over the years; it is now some distance below the settlement, while it was on a level with it when Kennicott was built. The glacier is covered in a moraine, so has the appearance of being piles of gravel rather than an ice sheet.
I paid for a tour of the mill and associated buildings, which is the only way to see the interior of many of them.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The top of the mill building, with the terminus of the two tramways that carried the ore. (The tramways are a sort of cargo version of a chair lift.)
Click For Full-Size Image.
One of several roller mills, which crushed the rock between two steel wheels.
Click For Full-Size Image.
This gizmo is the key first-level sorting machine, where through agitation in water the ore is sorted out based on size and density into the various take-off hoppers/spouts on the right to be directed for further processing. The metal bars are what agitate the slurry.
Click For Full-Size Image.
A few floors of the mill complex were taken up by these sorts of shaker tables, which separate the ground ore by weight. Lighter (waste) material goes over the bars more easily, while the heavier copper bearing ore tends to stay behind and gets directed elsewhere. The wooden troughs at the far end of each table distribute water across the table to keep the material in motion.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Across the road in the ammonia leaching plant, low-grade ore was separated and concentrated chemically by dissolving the copper out of the rock with concentrated ammonia. Gauging from the evidence of leaks (and the associated copper residue) on these leaching tanks, I suspect it was not the most pleasant place to work.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The four massive boilers in the power plant. These were set up to burn either wood, coal, or oil; as it turned out, oil was nearly exclusively used.
We stayed a second night at the Root Glacier Base Camp. I would have liked to have spent another day in the area and hiked to the root glacier.
Access to McCarthy is via a footbridge and a half mile or so walk (or shuttle bus ride). We elected to walk, not entirely realizing that it involved fording one or two spots of water.
McCarthy does have a nice little historical museum with some local artifacts and information about the mine. There's a reading room attached to the museum where you can spend time with books of local interest; some of them looked rather fascinating, but we didn't have limitless time to spend.
Downtown McCarthy has a number of little businesses, shops and restaurants and tour companies mostly. Here we took the shuttle to Kennicott, a $5 per van ride affair. (The shuttle runs between the footbridge from the camping area, McCarthy, and Kennicott, and the cost is the same regardless of where one gets on or off.)
Kennicott is surprisingly well-preserved. Mining operations stopped in the 1930s as the ore was largely depleted, but many of the buildings and their equipment are standing and appear in usable or nearly usable shape. The town is dominated by the massive (fourteen story) hillside concentration mill building. Ore would enter the mill at the top via aerial tramways, and the high-grade copper ore gets separated mechanically and, across the street, chemically from the matrix rock. Much of the ore mined was astonishingly rich, some containing up to 85% copper (whereas 5% to 10% is typical). The Museum of the North in Fairbanks has a very large copper nugget, weighing a few thousand pounds, from the area on display. All told, the mine produced nearly 600,000 tons of copper and quite a tidy profit for its backers.
The Kennecott mill building (and other buildings)
The building with the smokestacks is the powerhouse; beyond it the machine shop and ammonia leeching buildings. In the foreground are two of several cottages for managers and their families.
Buildings along National Creek: on the left, the hospital and the remains of the assay office (destroyed by flooding in 2006). On the right, some of the bunkhouses for the majority of the workers.
Kennicott was built right next to the Kennicott Glacier. This glacier has shrunk in height (though not so much in width or length) over the years; it is now some distance below the settlement, while it was on a level with it when Kennicott was built. The glacier is covered in a moraine, so has the appearance of being piles of gravel rather than an ice sheet.
I paid for a tour of the mill and associated buildings, which is the only way to see the interior of many of them.
The top of the mill building, with the terminus of the two tramways that carried the ore. (The tramways are a sort of cargo version of a chair lift.)
One of several roller mills, which crushed the rock between two steel wheels.
This gizmo is the key first-level sorting machine, where through agitation in water the ore is sorted out based on size and density into the various take-off hoppers/spouts on the right to be directed for further processing. The metal bars are what agitate the slurry.
A few floors of the mill complex were taken up by these sorts of shaker tables, which separate the ground ore by weight. Lighter (waste) material goes over the bars more easily, while the heavier copper bearing ore tends to stay behind and gets directed elsewhere. The wooden troughs at the far end of each table distribute water across the table to keep the material in motion.
Across the road in the ammonia leaching plant, low-grade ore was separated and concentrated chemically by dissolving the copper out of the rock with concentrated ammonia. Gauging from the evidence of leaks (and the associated copper residue) on these leaching tanks, I suspect it was not the most pleasant place to work.
The four massive boilers in the power plant. These were set up to burn either wood, coal, or oil; as it turned out, oil was nearly exclusively used.
We stayed a second night at the Root Glacier Base Camp. I would have liked to have spent another day in the area and hiked to the root glacier.
August 20th -- After purchasing gas at the Hub of Alaska--which involved a fair bit of waiting in line--we headed south on the Richardson Highway. The next main destination was the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park, and more specifically Kennicott and McCarthy.
A couple of miles south of Glennallen is a turnoff to a good view of the Wrangell Mountains. The mountains and clouds tended to merge together for us, making the peaks somewhat indistinct and hard to make out, but it's still a very nice view across the Copper river.
Click For Full-Size Image.
I think this is Mt Drum, or at least its base.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Someone who had at least been to Hawaii had stopped at this viewpoint at some time and left a greeting.
Not much further down the road is the main visitor's center for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This complex, spread out over several buildings, has the usual accouterments: an information desk, exhibit hall, theater with a video presentation, nice restrooms, picnic tables, gift shop, etc. There's also an Ahtna cultural center with displays.
The video presentation is impressively pretty. The narration, as seems standard for many of these films, was evidently written with frequent reference to a thesaurus.
Somewhat unusually, the visitor's center is not actually in the park proper.
A little further south is the turn for the Edgerton Highway (to Chitina) and McCarthy Road (from thence nearly to McCarthy). The former is in quite nice condition, all paved, and easily drivable. McCarthy road is rather rougher and slower going and has two small segments that are very narrow, only a single lane wide. Both stem from the fact that it's the converted roadbed from the Copper River and Northwestern railroad. The first of these segments is very close to Chitina, a deep cut through rock. The second is the bridge over the Kuskulana. There are a few other pretty narrow places and bridges, but they're not longer unbroken segments.
Click For Full-Size Image.
There are occasional impressive mountain views along this road.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The Kuskulana bridge, from underneath. The roadbed is on top of the upper chord of the bridge (and not the lower one with railings, which apparently is used as a maintenance catwalk). This impressive bridge was constructed for the railroad. The river is in a very deep chasm below the bridge; even from the bank here, it's impossible to see the river in the bottom of the canyon.
Click For Full-Size Image.
We were obliged to wait for ten or fifteen minutes while a couple of tour group vanfuls strolled leisurely across the one lane bridge, and for their vans to drive slowly across after them.
Click For Full-Size Image.
On the return trip, as nobody was coming or waiting, I quickly strolled across the bridge myself and attempted to get pictures showing how deep and narrow the canyon was. I'm not sure I succeeded too well in showing that.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Another view; this bridge would be very rough going for the acrophobic.
Somewhat further along are the fairly well-preserved remains of the Gilahina River trestle, the largest of the many trestles along the railroad. It was originally built in eight days in extremely cold conditions, a most impressive feat. (It was later rebuilt in ten days after it caught fire and burned down.)
Click For Full-Size Image.
The old Gilahina trestle, and the new and comparatively unimpressive Gilahina bridge.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Some of the trestle has collapsed, and portions of the rest looked fairly unsteady; many of the uprights are no longer sitting on their proper pilings.
The (privately owned) gravel bar at the end of the McCarthy road is rather grandly termed "Base Camp Root Glacier." From a rational point of view, spending the night here is rather expensive given the very limited amenities: space to park, a couple of vault toilets, some picnic tables, and stones that can be arranged into a fire pit cost $20 per night. However, I think the setting made up for it, at least in large part. The mountains surrounding the area are beautiful, and we chose a site quite near the river and could hear the flowing water even with the windows closed. Navigating around the rocks and dips safely took a little thought and care.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Our side of the camping area
Click For Full-Size Image.
The other side of the camping area
We stayed here for two nights. I would have liked to been able to stay another day (and hike to the Root Glacier), but the time we had available wasn't unlimited.
A couple of miles south of Glennallen is a turnoff to a good view of the Wrangell Mountains. The mountains and clouds tended to merge together for us, making the peaks somewhat indistinct and hard to make out, but it's still a very nice view across the Copper river.
I think this is Mt Drum, or at least its base.
Someone who had at least been to Hawaii had stopped at this viewpoint at some time and left a greeting.
Not much further down the road is the main visitor's center for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This complex, spread out over several buildings, has the usual accouterments: an information desk, exhibit hall, theater with a video presentation, nice restrooms, picnic tables, gift shop, etc. There's also an Ahtna cultural center with displays.
The video presentation is impressively pretty. The narration, as seems standard for many of these films, was evidently written with frequent reference to a thesaurus.
Somewhat unusually, the visitor's center is not actually in the park proper.
A little further south is the turn for the Edgerton Highway (to Chitina) and McCarthy Road (from thence nearly to McCarthy). The former is in quite nice condition, all paved, and easily drivable. McCarthy road is rather rougher and slower going and has two small segments that are very narrow, only a single lane wide. Both stem from the fact that it's the converted roadbed from the Copper River and Northwestern railroad. The first of these segments is very close to Chitina, a deep cut through rock. The second is the bridge over the Kuskulana. There are a few other pretty narrow places and bridges, but they're not longer unbroken segments.
There are occasional impressive mountain views along this road.
The Kuskulana bridge, from underneath. The roadbed is on top of the upper chord of the bridge (and not the lower one with railings, which apparently is used as a maintenance catwalk). This impressive bridge was constructed for the railroad. The river is in a very deep chasm below the bridge; even from the bank here, it's impossible to see the river in the bottom of the canyon.
We were obliged to wait for ten or fifteen minutes while a couple of tour group vanfuls strolled leisurely across the one lane bridge, and for their vans to drive slowly across after them.
On the return trip, as nobody was coming or waiting, I quickly strolled across the bridge myself and attempted to get pictures showing how deep and narrow the canyon was. I'm not sure I succeeded too well in showing that.
Another view; this bridge would be very rough going for the acrophobic.
Somewhat further along are the fairly well-preserved remains of the Gilahina River trestle, the largest of the many trestles along the railroad. It was originally built in eight days in extremely cold conditions, a most impressive feat. (It was later rebuilt in ten days after it caught fire and burned down.)
The old Gilahina trestle, and the new and comparatively unimpressive Gilahina bridge.
Some of the trestle has collapsed, and portions of the rest looked fairly unsteady; many of the uprights are no longer sitting on their proper pilings.
The (privately owned) gravel bar at the end of the McCarthy road is rather grandly termed "Base Camp Root Glacier." From a rational point of view, spending the night here is rather expensive given the very limited amenities: space to park, a couple of vault toilets, some picnic tables, and stones that can be arranged into a fire pit cost $20 per night. However, I think the setting made up for it, at least in large part. The mountains surrounding the area are beautiful, and we chose a site quite near the river and could hear the flowing water even with the windows closed. Navigating around the rocks and dips safely took a little thought and care.
Our side of the camping area
The other side of the camping area
We stayed here for two nights. I would have liked to been able to stay another day (and hike to the Root Glacier), but the time we had available wasn't unlimited.
August 19th -- We left the campground and headed up to Palmer (very briefly) and then up the Palmer-Fishhook Road (also called the Hatcher Pass Road) to the Independence Mine State Historical Park. The weather was generally cool and damp, occasionally damp enough to be drizzly.
The road crosses and then parallels the Little Susitna river ("Little Su"). There's a parking area by the bridge where it crosses, and some very pretty views to be had. It's a swift little river.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Little Su (looking upstream from the bridge)
Click For Full-Size Image.
Little Su (downstream, across the road from the pull-off)
The road winds its way up the mountains to the park. At the park, there are two options for parking: a lower parking lot, outside the fee gate to the park, with a mile and a quarter walk up to the mine site, or an upper one at the site. The fee structure seemed rather peculiar to me. Parking in the lower lot is $5 per vehicle, and walk-in entrance to the park free. Parking in the upper lot costs $4 per person. This means that, if you don't carpool at all, it's cheaper to park in the upper lot...but if you do carpool, you'd save money parking in the lower one. At any rate, we readily decided it was worth the $1.50 net per person for us to ascend mechanically. There's plenty of room in either lot for big vehicles, at least at this time of year.
The mine site was very interesting to me, and has a beautiful setting among the mountains. This was a hard-rock gold mine, apparently one of the better-managed ones in the area. Several of the buildings are in a fairly good state of preservation. Unfortunately, the mill where the ore was processed is not one of them; it's in ruins and one can only get a vague hint of how operations there proceeded.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Several of the mine buildings, looking down the valley.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The mill (in the foreground) and associated shop buildings, as it now stands...or doesn't stand; in the background are some of the surrounding mountain peaks, showing off a fresh dusting of snow. The "new" assay office is at the far left.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The mill as it once appeared.
All told, we spent maybe three or four hours here looking around. I think this day is where it "officially" transitioned into the shoulder season for us on this trip. The usual guided tours were not available due to insufficient park staffing (though, rather confusingly, their schedule was still posted).
After the mine, we drove along the Glenn Highway to Glennallen, This section of road has some spectacularly lovely scenery and goes quite close to the Matanuska glacier. This section of road surprised me some; I was expecting it to be merely scenic, but it far surpassed that.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
This is at Long Lake.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Matanuska Glacier; the picture really doesn't quite do it justice. The lighting was such that it looked almost iridescent.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
At Glennallen we stayed at the Boardwalk RV Park. This is a low-frills campground with hookups (parallel parking spaces and a couple of shared picnic tables at the perimeter), with appropriately reasonable fees. Glennallen is somewhat of a commercial center in the area, with a grocery store and gas station and some other businesses, but prices are pretty high when compared with most other relatively large towns. For gas, one doesn't have much of a choice generally (at least, we didn't with the standard 55 gallon Ford tank), but buying groceries elsewhere makes sense if you can.
The road crosses and then parallels the Little Susitna river ("Little Su"). There's a parking area by the bridge where it crosses, and some very pretty views to be had. It's a swift little river.
Little Su (looking upstream from the bridge)
Little Su (downstream, across the road from the pull-off)
The road winds its way up the mountains to the park. At the park, there are two options for parking: a lower parking lot, outside the fee gate to the park, with a mile and a quarter walk up to the mine site, or an upper one at the site. The fee structure seemed rather peculiar to me. Parking in the lower lot is $5 per vehicle, and walk-in entrance to the park free. Parking in the upper lot costs $4 per person. This means that, if you don't carpool at all, it's cheaper to park in the upper lot...but if you do carpool, you'd save money parking in the lower one. At any rate, we readily decided it was worth the $1.50 net per person for us to ascend mechanically. There's plenty of room in either lot for big vehicles, at least at this time of year.
The mine site was very interesting to me, and has a beautiful setting among the mountains. This was a hard-rock gold mine, apparently one of the better-managed ones in the area. Several of the buildings are in a fairly good state of preservation. Unfortunately, the mill where the ore was processed is not one of them; it's in ruins and one can only get a vague hint of how operations there proceeded.
Several of the mine buildings, looking down the valley.
The mill (in the foreground) and associated shop buildings, as it now stands...or doesn't stand; in the background are some of the surrounding mountain peaks, showing off a fresh dusting of snow. The "new" assay office is at the far left.
The mill as it once appeared.
All told, we spent maybe three or four hours here looking around. I think this day is where it "officially" transitioned into the shoulder season for us on this trip. The usual guided tours were not available due to insufficient park staffing (though, rather confusingly, their schedule was still posted).
After the mine, we drove along the Glenn Highway to Glennallen, This section of road has some spectacularly lovely scenery and goes quite close to the Matanuska glacier. This section of road surprised me some; I was expecting it to be merely scenic, but it far surpassed that.
This is at Long Lake.
Matanuska Glacier; the picture really doesn't quite do it justice. The lighting was such that it looked almost iridescent.
At Glennallen we stayed at the Boardwalk RV Park. This is a low-frills campground with hookups (parallel parking spaces and a couple of shared picnic tables at the perimeter), with appropriately reasonable fees. Glennallen is somewhat of a commercial center in the area, with a grocery store and gas station and some other businesses, but prices are pretty high when compared with most other relatively large towns. For gas, one doesn't have much of a choice generally (at least, we didn't with the standard 55 gallon Ford tank), but buying groceries elsewhere makes sense if you can.
August 16th -- The day started out fairly rainy. In the morning we spent some time at the (very nice) Seward public library, which has good wifi, and got thoroughly wet walking the block from the nearest suitable parking we found, which was at the SeaLife Center. The weather did clear up as the day progressed, which I appreciated.
Moose Pass is a little burg that is along the Seward Highway not too far from Seward. There is a cute little water-powered public grindstone setup there. While I did have a hatchet that could use grinding, the speed of the stone led me to believe it would be a good while before it was in shape. There's further description of the water system for the wheel, which for a number of years supplied a small hydroelectric plant that powered some buildings in the community.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
We turned onto the Sterling Highway and headed west, following it around to Homer. We didn't spend a whole lot of time exploring along the way, though we did peek at the Transfiguration of Our Lord Church (Russian Orthodox) and attached cemeteries.
Click For Full-Size Image.
We camped for the night at the Homer Spit Campground, at the very tip of the spit. The campground (and Homer in general) has an impressive setting and views across the bay. This was a decent commercial campground in general. The facilities were functional and generally clean. The showerhouse and some of the other facilities would benefit from some general sprucing up, however. As I recall, the laundry room had some ironing equipment available for use, a nice touch.
Click For Full-Size Image.
This is the view across Kachemak Bay from the rest area on Homer Hill, outside of the city. The spit is the gravel bar visible in the water at the left edge of the picture, and the city center of Homer (as separate from the spit) is out of sight further to the left.
Click For Full-Size Image.
It's not a bad view from the campground, either.
Homer, and particularly the spit, is a tourist town to a fairly large extent. There are shops and boardwalks along the spit with quaint shops (or at least shops attempting to be quaint). That's not to say it's unpleasant by any stretch, or that everything's tacky.
On the outskirts of town there's the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitor Center, which has a fairly large and very well-done exhibit hall (with fairly high-tech displays incorporating video projections, audio environments, and the like). They do a nice job of having parts that are appealing to children as well as adults.
August 17th -- After visiting the Islands and Oceans center and spending a little time seeing the town (and doing laundry and other mundane things), we headed back up the Sterling Highway. We followed the Kalifornsky Beach Road where it branched off of the Sterling Highway, and stopped for a bit at the beach access in Kenai by the mouth of the river. There is camping available here on the beach for tents or I gather for intrepid RVers who drive up the beach a good distance, which really only seems wise if one has four wheel drive and good sand-driving tires.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The Kenai beach, with other people's tire tracks
We also stopped by the Soldotna visitor's center, which has a quite impressive exhibit hall (and a few outdoor exhibits). Among the indoor exhibits is a most impressive model of a gas rig.
We camped for the night at Discovery Campground in the Captain Cook State Recreation Area. There is a beach access at the recreation area, but it's a litle bit separated from the campground (which is more or less on a bluff overlooking the beach). The various roads and trails in this area were not the most clearly marked or mapped out. It's a pretty area, still.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The beach, featuring small stones, big rocks, and very fine sand that's almost clay--a rather eclectic mix. The mountains across the Cook Inlet are barely visible if you look closely.
(I guess I have a lot of beach pictures. Growing up and living in Vermont, beaches--and especially ocean beaches--are somewhat of a novelty.)
August 18th -- We traveled back from the Kenai peninsula, and camped at Elkatna Lake in the Chugach State Park, just north of Anchorage.
Moose Pass is a little burg that is along the Seward Highway not too far from Seward. There is a cute little water-powered public grindstone setup there. While I did have a hatchet that could use grinding, the speed of the stone led me to believe it would be a good while before it was in shape. There's further description of the water system for the wheel, which for a number of years supplied a small hydroelectric plant that powered some buildings in the community.
We turned onto the Sterling Highway and headed west, following it around to Homer. We didn't spend a whole lot of time exploring along the way, though we did peek at the Transfiguration of Our Lord Church (Russian Orthodox) and attached cemeteries.
We camped for the night at the Homer Spit Campground, at the very tip of the spit. The campground (and Homer in general) has an impressive setting and views across the bay. This was a decent commercial campground in general. The facilities were functional and generally clean. The showerhouse and some of the other facilities would benefit from some general sprucing up, however. As I recall, the laundry room had some ironing equipment available for use, a nice touch.
This is the view across Kachemak Bay from the rest area on Homer Hill, outside of the city. The spit is the gravel bar visible in the water at the left edge of the picture, and the city center of Homer (as separate from the spit) is out of sight further to the left.
It's not a bad view from the campground, either.
Homer, and particularly the spit, is a tourist town to a fairly large extent. There are shops and boardwalks along the spit with quaint shops (or at least shops attempting to be quaint). That's not to say it's unpleasant by any stretch, or that everything's tacky.
On the outskirts of town there's the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitor Center, which has a fairly large and very well-done exhibit hall (with fairly high-tech displays incorporating video projections, audio environments, and the like). They do a nice job of having parts that are appealing to children as well as adults.
August 17th -- After visiting the Islands and Oceans center and spending a little time seeing the town (and doing laundry and other mundane things), we headed back up the Sterling Highway. We followed the Kalifornsky Beach Road where it branched off of the Sterling Highway, and stopped for a bit at the beach access in Kenai by the mouth of the river. There is camping available here on the beach for tents or I gather for intrepid RVers who drive up the beach a good distance, which really only seems wise if one has four wheel drive and good sand-driving tires.
The Kenai beach, with other people's tire tracks
We also stopped by the Soldotna visitor's center, which has a quite impressive exhibit hall (and a few outdoor exhibits). Among the indoor exhibits is a most impressive model of a gas rig.
We camped for the night at Discovery Campground in the Captain Cook State Recreation Area. There is a beach access at the recreation area, but it's a litle bit separated from the campground (which is more or less on a bluff overlooking the beach). The various roads and trails in this area were not the most clearly marked or mapped out. It's a pretty area, still.
The beach, featuring small stones, big rocks, and very fine sand that's almost clay--a rather eclectic mix. The mountains across the Cook Inlet are barely visible if you look closely.
(I guess I have a lot of beach pictures. Growing up and living in Vermont, beaches--and especially ocean beaches--are somewhat of a novelty.)
August 18th -- We traveled back from the Kenai peninsula, and camped at Elkatna Lake in the Chugach State Park, just north of Anchorage.
Thanks for the kind replies!
August 15th -- the day was pretty well taken up with the Kenai Fjords Tours boat excursion. We went on the nine hour Northwestern Fjord tour, and at least this particular time it was spectacular.
There's fabulous scenery.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
We saw many different marine animals--these are not in any particular order.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Humpback whale -- they aren't the easiest to photograph!
Click For Full-Size Image.
Harbor seals
Click For Full-Size Image.
Steller sea lions
Also seen, but not decently photographed, were some Dall's porpoises (which look like miniature orcas), orcas, and a sea otter.
Click For Full-Size Image.
We saw a mountain goat with her kid. I suppose that cannot count as a marine animal.
We saw many birds.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Kittiwakes
Click For Full-Size Image.
Puffins (admittedly, not a great picture); these were much more fun to watch than I anticipated. They need to flap their stubby wings very rapidly to fly, and don't have a tremendous amount of agility in the air, which makes them appear somewhat bumbling and uncoordinated. The physiology that makes for less perfect movement in the air helps them to dive more effectively.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Bald Eagles
Click For Full-Size Image.
Various gulls (perhaps Johathan Livingston?)
The Northwest Glacier was beautiful. Even in person, it's hard to get a good feel for the scale of things. The "little" floating bits are probably large enough to do significant damage to the tour boat (which carries a couple hundred or so on two decks).
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Disembarking after a fairly long but very enjoyable day.
August 15th -- the day was pretty well taken up with the Kenai Fjords Tours boat excursion. We went on the nine hour Northwestern Fjord tour, and at least this particular time it was spectacular.
There's fabulous scenery.
We saw many different marine animals--these are not in any particular order.
Humpback whale -- they aren't the easiest to photograph!
Harbor seals
Steller sea lions
Also seen, but not decently photographed, were some Dall's porpoises (which look like miniature orcas), orcas, and a sea otter.
We saw a mountain goat with her kid. I suppose that cannot count as a marine animal.
We saw many birds.
Kittiwakes
Puffins (admittedly, not a great picture); these were much more fun to watch than I anticipated. They need to flap their stubby wings very rapidly to fly, and don't have a tremendous amount of agility in the air, which makes them appear somewhat bumbling and uncoordinated. The physiology that makes for less perfect movement in the air helps them to dive more effectively.
Bald Eagles
Various gulls (perhaps Johathan Livingston?)
The Northwest Glacier was beautiful. Even in person, it's hard to get a good feel for the scale of things. The "little" floating bits are probably large enough to do significant damage to the tour boat (which carries a couple hundred or so on two decks).
Disembarking after a fairly long but very enjoyable day.
August 14th -- We started out the day at the Portage Lake (and Glacier) area, including looking through the visitor's center. We did not take the little cruise to the glacier, as I recall partly due to poor meshing of our schedule with the cruise times. The visitor's center complex is nicely done, and has a magnificent setting among the mountains and glaciers, even though the Portage glacier itself is no longer visible from the visitor's center.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Many of the various park visitor's centers have three dimensional topographic maps of the area. This is the one here, and it gives a handy overview of the general area...
Click For Full-Size Image.
...and a fair distance beyond.
Click For Full-Size Image.
A view from just outside the visitor's center
Click For Full-Size Image.
Looking across Portage Lake
There is somewhat of a view of the glacier from a big turnoff just before the tunnel to Whittier. The edge where it meets the water is not visible, though.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Looking across the lake from this turnoff. I think this glacier is not the Portage Glacier.
Click For Full-Size Image.
I think the one on the left is the Portage Glacier; my memory on that detail is a little foggy, though.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Looking back down the road from the turnoff.
After Portage, we continued down the Seward Highway all the way to Seward. On the way, we stopped briefly at Canyon Creek, where a short walk down a trail (a segment of a longer bike trail) leads to and over the former highway bridge over Canyon Creek. This has a quite pretty view and, as I recall, a couple benches from which to enjoy it.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Canyon Creek (upstream)
Click For Full-Size Image.
Canyon Creek (downstream, towards its confluence with Sixmile Creek, just beyond the new highway bridge)
Seward is situated at the end of Resurrection Bay, in an impressive setting among the mountains. It's a main access point to the Kenai Fjords National Park, which is inaccessible by road; cruises and flights are available, however. The city runs a number of campgrounds, the larger portion of which all sort of merge together along the waterfront. We stayed in Resurrection South, which is one of these waterside campgrounds. It's really more of a big parking lot with tables and fire pits, but it is convenient and the views across the water are fun. A bit further inland is a municipal tent camping area that looked pretty nice with decently sized sites and trees and so forth.
Click For Full-Size Image.
A portion of the large small boat harbor at Seward. (The boats are small; the harbor is large.)
Click For Full-Size Image.
RVs making use of the camping area; DrewE's is not really visible.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Besides a number of other RVers, we were sharing Seward with the Crystal Serenity cruise ship. In spite of what one may imagine, the crowds were actually not unmanageable. Seward has a convenient free circulator shuttle bus that runs during the day.
We stayed two nights at Seward. On the 15th, we took a glacier cruise with Kenai Fjords Tours that proved to be exceptional; there will be much more about that in the next installment. Seward is also home to the Alaska SeaLife Center, which we did not see but seems to be quite highly regarded. (We both felt that there were other things we'd prefer to spend our limited time in Alaska seeing. I do have a world-class aquarium within reasonable driving distance from my house, the New England Aquarium in Boston.)
Many of the various park visitor's centers have three dimensional topographic maps of the area. This is the one here, and it gives a handy overview of the general area...
...and a fair distance beyond.
A view from just outside the visitor's center
Looking across Portage Lake
There is somewhat of a view of the glacier from a big turnoff just before the tunnel to Whittier. The edge where it meets the water is not visible, though.
Looking across the lake from this turnoff. I think this glacier is not the Portage Glacier.
I think the one on the left is the Portage Glacier; my memory on that detail is a little foggy, though.
Looking back down the road from the turnoff.
After Portage, we continued down the Seward Highway all the way to Seward. On the way, we stopped briefly at Canyon Creek, where a short walk down a trail (a segment of a longer bike trail) leads to and over the former highway bridge over Canyon Creek. This has a quite pretty view and, as I recall, a couple benches from which to enjoy it.
Canyon Creek (upstream)
Canyon Creek (downstream, towards its confluence with Sixmile Creek, just beyond the new highway bridge)
Seward is situated at the end of Resurrection Bay, in an impressive setting among the mountains. It's a main access point to the Kenai Fjords National Park, which is inaccessible by road; cruises and flights are available, however. The city runs a number of campgrounds, the larger portion of which all sort of merge together along the waterfront. We stayed in Resurrection South, which is one of these waterside campgrounds. It's really more of a big parking lot with tables and fire pits, but it is convenient and the views across the water are fun. A bit further inland is a municipal tent camping area that looked pretty nice with decently sized sites and trees and so forth.
A portion of the large small boat harbor at Seward. (The boats are small; the harbor is large.)
RVs making use of the camping area; DrewE's is not really visible.
Besides a number of other RVers, we were sharing Seward with the Crystal Serenity cruise ship. In spite of what one may imagine, the crowds were actually not unmanageable. Seward has a convenient free circulator shuttle bus that runs during the day.
We stayed two nights at Seward. On the 15th, we took a glacier cruise with Kenai Fjords Tours that proved to be exceptional; there will be much more about that in the next installment. Seward is also home to the Alaska SeaLife Center, which we did not see but seems to be quite highly regarded. (We both felt that there were other things we'd prefer to spend our limited time in Alaska seeing. I do have a world-class aquarium within reasonable driving distance from my house, the New England Aquarium in Boston.)
August 11th -- after leaving Denali National Park, we continued south down the Parks Highway. The impressive scenery continues on. (There don't seem to be very many unscenic roads in Alaska or northern Canada, come to think of it.)
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
We camped for the night at South Rolly Lake Campground in Nancy Lake State Park, in Willow. As I recall, many of the sites were not altogether level or a bit on the small side, but there were plenty to choose from and we got one that was suitable. It was a rather damp and drizzly night. We did enjoy seeing one or two families with quite young children walking about on the campground road, in their rain slickers, the kids being careful to step in every last puddle.
August 12th
The weather was a little nicer in the morning--still rather overcast, but generally drier.
Click For Full-Size Image.
A view of South Rolly Lake from an overlook in the park; the campground is a bit out of sight to the right (in the nearer inlet). Nancy Lake state park is a pretty large park.
We had a reasonably short drive to Anchorage, and spent much of the afternoon and early evening exploring the city a little bit. We parked in the pay lot near the 4th Avenue Market, which can accommodate RVs, at least ones that aren't too long.
Anchorage didn't have a tremendous amount of appeal for me, to be honest. It's a nice enough city, but at least the portion we saw was pretty much like most other decent size cities that attract tourists. Given more time, I think I would have explored the waterfront and parks more; I suspect that would be more to my tastes.
There were a few coupons in the TourSaver for free gifts at some souvenir shops in Anchorage. I think these shops are likely all under the same ownership. Not surprisingly, the free gifts are far from the nicest or highest priced things in the stores.
We did poke around the (4th street) market some, and generally stretched our legs and enjoyed the day.
For the night, we stayed at Centennial Park, run by the city. It was another rainy night. The park itself looked very nice and neatly kept, with restrooms that are very institutional. (They seemed to give everyone a spiel when checking out to the effect of please give a good review of the campground online so they would get more visitors and have more cash flow and be able to afford to renovate the restrooms....)
August 13th
We started down the Seward Highway. This is a beautiful road, hugging the edge of the Turnagain Arm and sharing the narrow shoreline with the Alaska Railroad. It would likewise make for a beautiful train trip.
Click For Full-Size Image.
I think this was at the Bird Point overlook.
For dinner, we ate at the Seven Glaciers restaurant at the top of the tramway at Alyeska Resort. This was a really special treat. The views were somewhat obscured, with clouds rolling in and out, but at least at times we could see across the arm and up into the mountains. The food was delicious, too. I have no trouble recommending dinner here, at least as a splurge. Reservations would be a very good idea; we failed to make them, and fortunately were able to get a table in the bar area as they were entirely booked for the evening.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Ascending via the tramway. (It is possible to hike or bicycle up the mountain, rather than take the tram, if one feels rater energetic and has plenty of time.)
Click For Full-Size Image.
The view from the complex at the terminus of the tram; besides the Seven Glaciers restaurant, there's a grill, a very little museum (which wasn't open when we were there), some hiking trails that go further up, etc. Of course, in the winter, there's plenty of skiing.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Glaciers and mountains a little further down the Turnagain Arm; also, the new desktop background on my home computer.
Click For Full-Size Image.
I chanced upon this fun looking homemade truck camper in one of the pull-offs along the Seward Highway.
Click For Full-Size Image.
We camped for the night at Williwaw Campground, one of a few at Portage. The setting for this campground is pretty, with a couple spots that give glimpses up of glaciers. Most or all of the sites don't have much of a view because of trees. There are some trails that connect the various campgrounds and the Portage Glacier visitor's center; it would be a fun area to spend a day or two, I think.
(I probably won't be able to post an installment tomorrow.)
We camped for the night at South Rolly Lake Campground in Nancy Lake State Park, in Willow. As I recall, many of the sites were not altogether level or a bit on the small side, but there were plenty to choose from and we got one that was suitable. It was a rather damp and drizzly night. We did enjoy seeing one or two families with quite young children walking about on the campground road, in their rain slickers, the kids being careful to step in every last puddle.
August 12th
The weather was a little nicer in the morning--still rather overcast, but generally drier.
A view of South Rolly Lake from an overlook in the park; the campground is a bit out of sight to the right (in the nearer inlet). Nancy Lake state park is a pretty large park.
We had a reasonably short drive to Anchorage, and spent much of the afternoon and early evening exploring the city a little bit. We parked in the pay lot near the 4th Avenue Market, which can accommodate RVs, at least ones that aren't too long.
Anchorage didn't have a tremendous amount of appeal for me, to be honest. It's a nice enough city, but at least the portion we saw was pretty much like most other decent size cities that attract tourists. Given more time, I think I would have explored the waterfront and parks more; I suspect that would be more to my tastes.
There were a few coupons in the TourSaver for free gifts at some souvenir shops in Anchorage. I think these shops are likely all under the same ownership. Not surprisingly, the free gifts are far from the nicest or highest priced things in the stores.
We did poke around the (4th street) market some, and generally stretched our legs and enjoyed the day.
For the night, we stayed at Centennial Park, run by the city. It was another rainy night. The park itself looked very nice and neatly kept, with restrooms that are very institutional. (They seemed to give everyone a spiel when checking out to the effect of please give a good review of the campground online so they would get more visitors and have more cash flow and be able to afford to renovate the restrooms....)
August 13th
We started down the Seward Highway. This is a beautiful road, hugging the edge of the Turnagain Arm and sharing the narrow shoreline with the Alaska Railroad. It would likewise make for a beautiful train trip.
I think this was at the Bird Point overlook.
For dinner, we ate at the Seven Glaciers restaurant at the top of the tramway at Alyeska Resort. This was a really special treat. The views were somewhat obscured, with clouds rolling in and out, but at least at times we could see across the arm and up into the mountains. The food was delicious, too. I have no trouble recommending dinner here, at least as a splurge. Reservations would be a very good idea; we failed to make them, and fortunately were able to get a table in the bar area as they were entirely booked for the evening.
Ascending via the tramway. (It is possible to hike or bicycle up the mountain, rather than take the tram, if one feels rater energetic and has plenty of time.)
The view from the complex at the terminus of the tram; besides the Seven Glaciers restaurant, there's a grill, a very little museum (which wasn't open when we were there), some hiking trails that go further up, etc. Of course, in the winter, there's plenty of skiing.
Glaciers and mountains a little further down the Turnagain Arm; also, the new desktop background on my home computer.
I chanced upon this fun looking homemade truck camper in one of the pull-offs along the Seward Highway.
We camped for the night at Williwaw Campground, one of a few at Portage. The setting for this campground is pretty, with a couple spots that give glimpses up of glaciers. Most or all of the sites don't have much of a view because of trees. There are some trails that connect the various campgrounds and the Portage Glacier visitor's center; it would be a fun area to spend a day or two, I think.
(I probably won't be able to post an installment tomorrow.)
Note: the pictures are not in chronological order here.
August 8th - 10th -- We stayed at Teklanika ("Tek") campground in Denali. This campground is the furthest in national park campground that RVs are permitted to use, and has a bus pass special where if you pay for a bus tour on the first day you can ride any bus the remaining days on a space-available basis for free. They do have a three night minimum. To do again I would stay at least four nights, as three nights really boils down to two days in the park and that's hardly sufficient.
On the 8th, we mostly just wandered through the visitor's center, got our bus tickets, and had a pleasant drive into the campground. The site we ended up with was basically next to one of the vault toilets, which didn't really smell but did mean a bit of a stream of people wandering through the general area. They generally were quite good about not walking through the site proper, I must say. We attended the ranger presentation at the campground on Caribou, which was both well presented and well attended. The presentations on the other nights did not particularly interest us.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Fireweed and Mountains
On the 9th, we had beautiful weather for our reserved shuttle bus travel. We elected to go the full length of the park road to Kantishna (on the theory of wishing to see everything). To do again, I don't think I would bother with going beyond Wonder Lake; actually, I would probably just take the initial shuttle to the Eielson visitor center as it's a bit less expensive and go further on later days. At any rate, it was an enjoyable trip, although somewhat grueling sitting in a school bus with upgraded seats for several hours.
Click For Full-Size Image.
View at the Toklat rest area, including a typical braided river
Click For Full-Size Image.
Also at Toklat
Click For Full-Size Image.
A brief stop at Polychrome Pass
The mountain was visible nearly all the day, possibly excepting for the very tippy top. It is a magnificent sight indeed.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
View from Wonder Lake. Apparently quite unlike some other times, there were not bad mosquitoes in the area when we were there.
On the 10th, I went to the Eielson visitor center and hiked around a wee bit, going up the alpine trail. The weather was overcast with low clouds (I got a fine view of the inside of a cloud) and occasional showers or threats of showers. I think my mom also ended up going to Eilson, although we were going our separate ways for the day.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Hiking into the clouds
Click For Full-Size Image.
Magnificent views from the end of the trail! Or so they say.
On the 11th, we departed the campground and spent a little time in the visitor's center area. We also went to the sled dog demonstration before heading out, continuing on south down the Parks Highway towards Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula.
Click For Full-Size Image.
At the savage river rest area, which is the limit for how far the general public may drive into the park generally. Going beyond (such as to the Tek campground) requires a pass of some sort; needless to say, campers receive such a pass, good for a trip into the campground and back out, but no further driving.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Tephra, a hard-working sled dog. I do like the rustic doghouses.
We were fortunate enough to see quite a bit of wildlife, including very good views of grizzly bears (and cubs), caribou, and a decent view of moose. We also saw Dall Sheep, but only in the distance as white dots on the hill--through binoculars, they looked like vaguely sheep-shaped, slightly larger white dots on the hill. Smaller animals included hare, ground squirrels, and various birds (including a short-eared owl on the way out from the campground). The gray jays at the campground were incredibly bold; if you turned your back for maybe four seconds they would steal supper right off the picnic table.
Click For Full-Size Image.
A bear cub right next to the road and bus...pretty cool
Click For Full-Size Image.
Bear and cubs cavorting
Click For Full-Size Image.
Spot the moose!
Click For Full-Size Image.
Caribou
Click For Full-Size Image.
Ptarmigan crossing and causing a traffic jam at the Toklat access road
Click For Full-Size Image.
Arctic Ground Squirrel
Denali is a beautiful but popular, park. The crowds, as one might expect, are pretty much concentrated along the road, on the busses and in the visitor's centers and so forth; while we did not do it, even a brief backcountry hike would generally allow one to be quite alone.
August 8th - 10th -- We stayed at Teklanika ("Tek") campground in Denali. This campground is the furthest in national park campground that RVs are permitted to use, and has a bus pass special where if you pay for a bus tour on the first day you can ride any bus the remaining days on a space-available basis for free. They do have a three night minimum. To do again I would stay at least four nights, as three nights really boils down to two days in the park and that's hardly sufficient.
On the 8th, we mostly just wandered through the visitor's center, got our bus tickets, and had a pleasant drive into the campground. The site we ended up with was basically next to one of the vault toilets, which didn't really smell but did mean a bit of a stream of people wandering through the general area. They generally were quite good about not walking through the site proper, I must say. We attended the ranger presentation at the campground on Caribou, which was both well presented and well attended. The presentations on the other nights did not particularly interest us.
Fireweed and Mountains
On the 9th, we had beautiful weather for our reserved shuttle bus travel. We elected to go the full length of the park road to Kantishna (on the theory of wishing to see everything). To do again, I don't think I would bother with going beyond Wonder Lake; actually, I would probably just take the initial shuttle to the Eielson visitor center as it's a bit less expensive and go further on later days. At any rate, it was an enjoyable trip, although somewhat grueling sitting in a school bus with upgraded seats for several hours.
View at the Toklat rest area, including a typical braided river
Also at Toklat
A brief stop at Polychrome Pass
The mountain was visible nearly all the day, possibly excepting for the very tippy top. It is a magnificent sight indeed.
View from Wonder Lake. Apparently quite unlike some other times, there were not bad mosquitoes in the area when we were there.
On the 10th, I went to the Eielson visitor center and hiked around a wee bit, going up the alpine trail. The weather was overcast with low clouds (I got a fine view of the inside of a cloud) and occasional showers or threats of showers. I think my mom also ended up going to Eilson, although we were going our separate ways for the day.
Hiking into the clouds
Magnificent views from the end of the trail! Or so they say.
On the 11th, we departed the campground and spent a little time in the visitor's center area. We also went to the sled dog demonstration before heading out, continuing on south down the Parks Highway towards Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula.
At the savage river rest area, which is the limit for how far the general public may drive into the park generally. Going beyond (such as to the Tek campground) requires a pass of some sort; needless to say, campers receive such a pass, good for a trip into the campground and back out, but no further driving.
Tephra, a hard-working sled dog. I do like the rustic doghouses.
We were fortunate enough to see quite a bit of wildlife, including very good views of grizzly bears (and cubs), caribou, and a decent view of moose. We also saw Dall Sheep, but only in the distance as white dots on the hill--through binoculars, they looked like vaguely sheep-shaped, slightly larger white dots on the hill. Smaller animals included hare, ground squirrels, and various birds (including a short-eared owl on the way out from the campground). The gray jays at the campground were incredibly bold; if you turned your back for maybe four seconds they would steal supper right off the picnic table.
A bear cub right next to the road and bus...pretty cool
Bear and cubs cavorting
Spot the moose!
Caribou
Ptarmigan crossing and causing a traffic jam at the Toklat access road
Arctic Ground Squirrel
Denali is a beautiful but popular, park. The crowds, as one might expect, are pretty much concentrated along the road, on the busses and in the visitor's centers and so forth; while we did not do it, even a brief backcountry hike would generally allow one to be quite alone.
