Alaska Experiences

Chena River State Campground is near the center of Fairbanks. We have water and electricity, and there’s a sanitary dump available. We even have access to WIFI. Here’s our home away from home; a lovely park.

This pizza place was in a strip mall near the campground. Good Pizza!

 

We did some caching, but also had to take care of the car … the battery kept losing its charge. We had it checked in Montana, and all checked out, but alas, it wasn’t going to make it the entire trip!, got new battery  

We traveled to the Denali RV Park about 5 miles from the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve. We were advised to go to the Wilderness Access Center just inside the park to make reservations for a bus trip into the interior of the park. Private vehicles are allowed to drive only 15 miles into the park and the Eielson Visitor Center is 66 miles (and an 8 hour trip) into the park … we wanted to see as much as we could and not leave Paco for any longer than necessary. He was really happy to see us when we returned … and we got him on a walk as soon as possible!

Wilderness Access Center at Denali National Park and Preserve.

Lots of parking at the Wilderness Access Center … and this was primarily the RV parking lot. The car lot was just as big and very full!

We arrived as requested to board the bus that would take us to Eielson Visitor Center. 

 

View of the inside of the tour bus.

Our bus driver a lovely young woman; she works at the park during the summer and at a ski resort in Anchorage in the winter … busy and enterprising lady.

This is as close as we got to some of the wildlife.

 

A red fox … part of the wildlife we did see (and were able to get a decent picture!).

Display at the Eielson Visitor Center. The day was a bit overcast and the clouds low so we couldn’t clearly see Mt McKinley from the Center.

 

 

We bypassed Anchorage enroute to the Kenai Peninsula. Homer and Seward are located on the peninsula. Alaska has some wonderful recreation areas. We stayed here as a base so we could see Homer one day and Seward the next day.

 

We stopped at a turn out where you could see the Cook Inlet …

Here’s Jerry looking in the viewer … set up for handicapped viewing!

 

This picture is as we were standing to the left of the viewer.

 

 

This view is from the right of the viewer.

Here are Debbie and Paco at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center in Homer.

 

Jerry at the visitor center trail; it was named because the Beluga whales have been sited there often.

 

 

The Trail …

This is at the Cook Inlet … where the Kenai Peninsula is on the left and the mainland Alaska enroute to Anchorage is on the right. This picture was taken from the Seward Highway.

While we were at the Izaak Walton Recreation Park, we took Paco for a walk. When we leave the rig, we always lock it. We returned, and the key wouldn’t open the door. We tried everything and nothing would work. We had to use the front doors to enter and exit the rig for a couple of days. When we arrived in Anchorage on a Friday, we only planned to stay one or two days; we stayed three.  

On Saturday, we phoned several repair places to find out if anyone could help with the door latch/lock. We were told our best option would be to wait until Monday. We did … and called as soon as possible. We found an RV shop that had the exact lock we needed. They said they would help us get the door open and we could replace the lock. 

Well, you know nothing is easy! It took two men (plus Jerry), multiple tools and power tools to get the door lock assembly off! It was a good thing we weren’t going too far that day!

We finally were enroute from Anchorage to Glennallen AK. This is the Matanuska Glacier.

 

Caching in Glennallen …

 

 We saw this log cabin while fueling the motorhome … roof could use a mowing!

 

Lot of rock graffiti … interesting!

 

 

Beautiful scenery … and handsome husband too!

 

 

Seasons change and in the higher elevations, the colors were already beginning to show their colors.

 

To be continued …

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Experiences

We traveled back to Tok Alaska began our trek toward home. We traveled the really bad Yukon part of the Alaska Highway again … ugh!

We decided to take the western route home (the eastern route is the one we took through Alberta CA). The highway we were on was called the Cassiar Highway. There were several Provencial Parks where we were able to camp for one or two nights. The picture below is at Boya Lake Provencial Park. What a view from our dinette window!

Same campground … looking down on our rig. The lake is behind the trees to the left.

Just a little sample of the wildlife at the campground.

The next Provencial Park we visited, Kinashan Lake Park, where we took a little trip in the car to visit Jade City. Great gift shop, lots of lovely Jade!

 

 

From Kinashan Lake Park we traveled to Stewart BC on the Glacier Highway. This is the only port that is ice-free in British Columbia. 

We stopped at a commercial park we knew of in Stewart, Bear River RV Park. I think it is the only commercial park there! We were really lucky to get their last spot that day. We wanted to stay at least two days longer but they were completely booked; we asked at the office and they told us about the Municipal Park in Stewart. Here’s the sign; we thought the name coincidental since the street we live on is the same! It’s a really nice park, electric with water available (but not at each site), nicely shaded with lots of space between sites, and there was WIFI! A real treat!
  

Our rig at the Rainey Creek Municipal campsite ... just like home!

We took a drive to see Fish Creek to see the bears fishing for salmon. We discovered that the bears usually only fish between 6 and 10 am and 6 and 10 pm … we missed them!

Bear crossing the street in Hyder AK.

 

Here we are at Fish Creek. You can see the clouds in the background … they were quite heavy and it was difficult to see the tops of the mountains.  

Crazy people in the rain with their cameras, etc., just waiting for that perfect picture of a bear snagging a salmon! We didn’t want to wait!

 Here is a picture of the bridge and people with creek in the foreground.

 

Bear display at Fish Creek … just look at those claws!

 

While we were in Stewart, we celebrated my birthday … significant because now I can receive my social security benefits! There are only two restaurants in town, and the one we elected to try was called Silverado Café and Pizza. From the name, you can already guess that the cuisine was not of the best quality, but it was tasty. Jerry had Salisbury steak and the veggies looked OK … at least not mushy. He said his meal was good. I had a burger … it was good. I don’t like it too rare, and this was definitely not rare (even a bit crunchy on the edges). Paco did like the leftovers, though.

Hyder Alaska is next to Stewart and to get to Fish Creek we had to enter Alaska, and then back into Canada. This border checkpoint had only 2 lanes and both were busy! Rush Hour!

This is the wall of falls … the glaciers are melting and the water cascades down to the creeks. It’s really beautiful and very soothing to listen to.

 

This is the Bear Glacier.

Single lane bridge … yield to oncoming traffic!

This is next to the single lane bridge … looks like it needs fixing!

From Stewart we traveled to Smithers BC but couldn’t stay at the campground we chose … there was a caravan. We stayed in the city and left for Prince George BC.  

Our park of choice was Sintich RV Park. Fortunately, we were ahead of the caravans, so we were able to stay three days. We did some caching and enjoyed the city. The park is about one-half to two-thirds mobile homes, and the rest RV spaces. We were fortunate to get the site at the end of the line farthest from the entrance. Much quieter with lots of space for Paco to wander! 

We camped at another Provencial Park, Lac La Hache, where we stayed two days and did some geocaching.  We then traveled through Hope BC, and are finally back in the US!

We plan to see family in Portland, and perhaps some friends in Nevada City, then it's the last leg of our trip home.