ALASKA TRIP, PART 10

On Monday, July 16, we left Homer and drove 76 miles to the Fred Meyer in Soldotna. Bill and Gisela ran into some friends who were staying overnight in the parking lot, so we decided to do so, too.

The next day, we drove 104 miles to a pullout along the Exit Glacier Road north of Seward and spent the night. The pullout is along the Resurrection River and has a beautiful view of the mountains. The next day, we took a tour of Exit Glacier. You can walk almost to the glacier -- since a falling piece of glacier could kill a person, you can't actually get close enough to touch it; however, it's an amazing sight, anyway.

Exit Glacier:












Earl & Bill (back row)
Gisela & Linda (front row)











Since the view was so beautiful where we were, we decided to spend another night along the river at the pullout. However, at some time during the evening, our refrigerator stopped working on propane, so we had to get our generator out and plug our refrigerator in to it. Because of the problem with our refrigerator, we moved to an RV park the next day so that we could have electricity.

Thursday was Earl's 62nd birthday. I got him a nice warm shirt and some fuzzy warm slippers. Bill and Gisela gave him a log cabin kit (he'd been talking about log cabins) wrapped in a red bandanna (Earl's red bandannas, which he's been using for years as handkerchiefs, are really frayed). We went out to dinner at the Crab Pot to celebrate. Earl had whole king crab which was delicious (I had a bite or two) and I had a combination seafood plate with shrimp, crab, and scallops -- yum!

The next day, we drove back out to the entry gate at Exit Glacier to purchase Earl's Golden Age Passport.

On Sunday, we took the Kenai Fjords tour. It was an overcast day and we did run into fog when we got out of Resurrection Bay, but for the most part, we had a good day for a boat trip. We saw quite a bit of wildlife -- a brief glimpse of a Humpback Whale, porpoises, sea otters, a bear, a Bald Eagle plus lots of other birds, and lots of Stellar Sea Lions. We also had lunch near Holgate Glacier and got to see it calving. What a sight -- and sound! When a glacier calves, it sounds like loud thunder or a rifle shot.

Bear Glacier:

Black Oystercatcher:















Holgate Glacier:

End of a calving:











Horned Puffin:











Stellar Sea Lions:












On Monday when we were getting ready to leave Seward, we found that the batteries on the truck were dead -- we'd left the mirror heaters on when we'd driven out to Exit Glacier to get Earl's Golden Age card. Earl took the batteries out and took them down to have them recharged; however, they couldn't be recharged so we ended up buying two new batteries.

After we got the new batteries installed, we drove 131 miles to the Anchorage RV Park in Anchorage. Since it was after 5:00 PM when we arrived, we decided to go out to dinner at one of the local Thai restaurants where we had some delicious food.

Tomorrow morning, we take our fifth wheel in to get the refrigerator fixed.

ALASKA TRIP, PART 9

On Friday, Bill and Gisela, Kirk and Gen, and I took a boat tour over to Seldovia with a stop at Gull Island to see all the birds nesting there. Actually, Bill, Gisela, and I got off the boat at Seldovia while Kirk and Gen stayed on to go whale watching. The three of us (Earl had stayed home with the dog since the boat trip lasted about nine hours) had a good time exploring the shops of Seldovia, having lunch, and taking a hike down to the beach. We saw lots of birds at Gull Island -- Puffins, Sea Gulls, Murres, Cormorants, and a Bald Eagle as well as a young Stellar Sea Lion sunning himself on the rocks.

Wood sided RV seen at dock

Gull Island:











Sea Gull feeding baby:

More birds on Gull Island:













Tufted Puffins:












Bald Eagle:











Otters:












Stellar Sea Lion:

Mad Fish Restaurant:











Halibut catch:

House in Seldovia:











Log home:

Cache & wood carvings:

ALASKA TRIP, PART 8

On Monday, June 25, we drove 126 miles to Denali National Park. We dry camped for two nights at a large turnout along the Nenana River north of the park. Along the way, we were able to catch a glimpse of Mt. McKinley through the clouds.

Mt. McKinley (Denali):











On Tuesday, we took the Tundra and Wildlife Tour of Denali. We saw Dall Sheep, Caribou, and Grizzly Bears along with various birds. Unfortunately, the Caribou and Grizzly Bears were too far away to photograph. The weather was overcast, so we didn't get a chance to see Mt. McKinley while on the tour; however, the views we did see were spectacular -- when I could open my eyes (part of the road was very narrow with a sharp drop off which was especially scary for me on our return trip).

Dall Sheep:

View from the bus:











Another view from the bus
(note road in the distance)











On Wednesday, June 27, we drove 186 miles to the Talkeetna River Adventures Campground in Talkeetna. Due to heavy cloud cover, we were not able to catch glimpses of Mt. McKinley on our way there.

Talkeetna is a quaint little town from which much of the flight seeing trips over Mt. McKinley depart. When the weather is clear, the town has great views of the mountain.

On Thursday morning, Bill knocked on our door early in the morning to tell us the mountain was out. I hurriedly got dressed and drove down to the overlook with Bill to take pictures. After taking Maxx for his morning walk, Earl joined us bringing Ron Wilcox and Anne Moffatt with him (Ron and Anne are from Newfoundland, Canada and are friends of Bill and Gisela). It's not often that Mt. McKinley is out -- we were very fortunate in 1998 to see it and our luck was holding on this trip, too.

Mt. McKinley (Denali):











On Friday, June 29, we drove 87 miles to the Mountain View RV Park in Palmer, Alaska where we spent eight nights. We were originally going to spend only a week, but had to delay our departure by one day due to Bill and Gisela having a problem with bent spindles on their fifth wheel's axles, for which they made numerous trips into Anchorage.

Earl and I drove into Anchorage to pick up our mail and do some shopping at Costco. Earl also went golfing -- the first time he's golfed in quite a while. All of us also went out to dinner a couple of times.

On Saturday, July 7, we drove 154 miles to the Russian River USFS campground near Cooper Landing where we dry camped in the overflow area. We walked across the street to visit K'beq (Footprints) center where the Dena'ina Athabascans (otherwise known as the Kenaitze Indian Tribe) share their traditions and culture with visitors. We took a guided walking tour through archaeological sites as our guide explained about the traditional plant use of the Dena'ina.

View of Kenai Mountains from a rest stop:











The next day, we drove 54 miles to the Kenai RV Park in the town of Kenai, the largest town on the Kenai Peninsula. We toured Old Town Kenai, which is a blend of Russian and Alaskan territorial history, including the Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church which was built in 1896. Kenai is located at the mouth of the Kenai River where it empties into Cook Inlet. We looked for Beluga whales, but didn't see any. I overheard a local telling someone that the Belugas had not yet been spotted this year -- they are apparently becoming scarce.

Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church:











On our second day in Kenai, we took a drive up the Spur Highway to Nikiski, an area homestead in the 1940s that grew when oil was discovered in 1957, and on to Captain Cook State Recreation Area where we walked the beach on Cook Inlet.

Moose spotted along Spur Highway
(she had a calf with her, but I wasn't quick enough to get its picture)











On Tuesday, July 10, we drove 84 miles to the Oceanview RV Park in Homer, Alaska which is at the end of Kachemak Bay and is as far west as you can drive on the North American continent. We stopped in Ninilchik on our way to Homer where we had a delicious lunch of clam strips and clam chowder. That evening, while we were sitting around outside, someone stopped by selling fresh Halibut for $3.00 per pound, so we bought about 4 pounds. Now we won't have to spend a couple of hundred dollars to go out Halibut fishing!

On Wednesday, we drove down to the Homer Spit and walked around looking into all the shops. The Homer Spit, jutting out for almost five miles from the Homer shore, is a neat area with lots of camping spots (mostly dry camping, although there are some spots with electricity), restaurants, lots of stores offering fishing and tour charters, and other more "touristy" shops.

Thursday, we drove back up to Ninilchik to further explore the town. We had lunch at the same place we'd stopped and eaten on our way to Homer. From the dining room on a clear day, you can look across the Cook Inlet and see four active volcanoes that mark the beginning of the Aleutian Chain -- Mounts Saint Augustine, Iliamna, Redoubt, and Spurr. Since 1984, three of the four volcanoes have erupted. While in Kenai, we'd seen steam coming from Mount Iliamna.

Russian Orthodox Church:

Mt. Redoubt Volcano & Bald Eagle:











Moose seen on way to Ninilchik:

House with washing machine:













Fireweed:













Fireweed blooms all across Canada and Alaska. It gets its name from its appearance after wildfires or any other soil disturbance. It blooms from the bottom up and locals say that when the top flowers bloom, winter is just around the corner.

Bald Eagle:

Kenai Mountains:











Kenai Mountains & Homer Spit:

Kenai Mountains: