The Kenai Peninsula

July 8 and 9 We toured Seward. The first day we took a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords Nat'l Park. What a lovely day. Perfect weather and great wildlife. There were puffins, gulls with babies on a rookery rock, sea lions, and seals.

And then there was the whales! Again we were blessed with multiple sightings of humpback whales. A mother and calf, a whale breached for us (popped up out of the water), a group of 5 together frolicking. What a treat.

We stopped at a glacier. And amazing experience. The temperature dropped significantly while we were stopped here. There was some ice falling from the sides, thunderous cracks and then pouring down the slopes. Much ice floating in the water. The blue appearance of the glacier is due to the extreme density of the ice and how the light is absorbed.

July 10 to 16 We moved to Soldotna and the Kenai River. A world famous river for sockeye salmon. The peak run for the salmon is the 15^th to the 17^th. We arrived at a city campground on the river and snagged the last of the river sites. After that the campground began to fill and within 3 days the place was full with people trolling for sites. We were so blessed. They have a daily fish count: Sat: 6,798 fish; Sun: 23,052 fish; Mon: 92,734; Wed: 214,000. As the fish increased so did the number of fisherman. Thankfully, Les got great fishing done by Tuesday before it got too crazy and it did get crazy! Ask our stories.

July 17 and 18 We explored Homer. We camped on the spit in a city campground again on the water. A large barge was beached there waiting to be taken for repair. The eagles liked perching on it. Otters again were feeding off shore and fun to watch. The weather was sunny there but very windy.

July 19   I took a bush plane across the Cook Inlet to view bears. Just as we arrived a mother and her 3 cubs came down the bluff, across the stream and up the other side. She then disappeared and no more bear were sighted! Thank you Lord for them. While on our way back the pilot flew us over Double Glacier. How beautiful!

We camped that evening at Russian River and took a 3mile hike one way to a falls where you can see the salmon trying to jump up the rushing water.  Amazing that any make it!  The Fireweed here is sooo beautiful and everywhere!  This track was not on the road when we went up to the trailhead but was there when we returned!

We are now heading east to Skagway, a little more than 1,000 miles. There we will board the ferry and head south to Prince Rupert, BC. Then down to Seattle to visit Lori, Tacoma for a visit with Maryann and Ron, and San Francisco to visit Aaron. Our trip will be complete then! Only thing left is to drive home. Only another 3,000 miles!

Four Days in Hope, AK

We traveled south from Denali and camped here just below Palmer. The scenery has been wonderful. Unfortunately the campground this picture was taken at was anything but picturesque. More like a trailer park and feet from a very busy highway with a barking dog beside us. But there was beauty even here. A lake nearby had a loon that we enjoyed watching. One night and on down the road!

July 4^th, we traveled south of Anchorage to Hope, AK. This is the location of the first discovery of gold in Alaska. Once a boom town in the 1890's it quickly lost its appeal as the strikes in other areas drew the people away and it now close to a ghost town with 150 full time residents. This gives us a true feeling of old Alaska. We are here to visit our old friend from Shippensburg, Denny, who now lives here. He has been a great tour guide of this area and is very proud of this gem in the mountains.

 Friday, we rode our bikes around the town. There is a library, espresso shop, a couple artists/gift shops, museum, cafe and bar. A number of old miner's homes and cabins through out the hillsides. While in town we saw a cow moose with twin calves feeding along the road. We had lunch at the Cafe, Les had halibut fish and chips, while I opted for the Caesar Salad with grilled halibut. Very good and fresh fish.

 In the afternoon we saw a cow moose grazing just behind the campground. You are living with the wildlife here. Later, Denny took us on a drive through an alpine valley, Palmer Creek. July and snow still by the road. On the way back we caught a glimpse of the lights of Anchorage. We are noticing the evenings are getting a bit darker. This picture was taken at midnight.

Our last day, Denny shared one of his “spots” with Les for mining gold. Resurrection Creek is a favorite site to dig gold. Many people come here, set up camp and work the stream. There is a right way to shake that pan and show the gold you shoveled from the bank. Les provided the back work of shoveling the gravel and Denny showed him the technique.

July 8^th we move on to explore the Kenai Penninsula.

Denali Nat'l Park

 We entered Denali Wed, June 26^th. It was another extremely hot day, temps hovering around 90os. On to our back country camping experience. Our waste tanks empty, the fresh water full and supplies for 7 days inside the park. The park road is 92miles but private vehicles are only permitted 15 miles. We were permitted to drive to mile 29 since we had reservations to camp. Once in the park you must park and not move until you are leaving. This park wants to limit the impact of vehicles on the environment and wildlife. There is a shuttle bus system that takes visitors from mile 15 to 92. The wildlife do not pay attention to the buses and they are not running constantly on the road. Above you see a picture of us on a hike at mile 15 before we entered the “no drive” zone. A very nice 2 mile loop along a small stream where we saw lots of moose tracks, wildflowers and dall sheep.

 

 Some thunderstorms the first night cooled things down a bit (60's and 70's) but not enough to lessen the swarms of mosquitoes that attacked you immediately when you went outside. Everyone was bathed in repellent and lots were wearing head netting. Les was really not happy about the bugs but we found a great way to get out and not have them to deal with as much: biking! We were moving too fast for them. And we found the spray sufficient for our stops to take in the breathtaking views and wildlife.

Our first touring day we wanted to know what was west of us so we took the shuttle bus to the end, Kantishna. That gave us a good idea of what we wanted to do with the rest of our days and we saw some wonderful wildlife. That ride was 9 hours! With rest area stops, stops for wildlife and driving no more than 35mph, 63 miles was a very long way. We were anxious to get on our bikes to do our own exploring. We biked for 3 days. They call it the Denali Downhill: load your bikes on a shuttle, get off at the top of a pass and then ride down. One day we did ascend a 2 ½ mile section of road up 640 ft along with 5 ½ miles of downhill. This was wonderful! Due to the lessened traffic, much of the time that we felt we had the park all to ourselves. The roads were hard packed and most very good riding. 

 One day, after our bike ride, we were riding the shuttle back to the campground through the area we just rode through and we came across this mamma bear with 2 yearling cubs. Soooo cute but I'm soooooooo glad they were not there when we rode through, or were they?? Another day while taking the shuttle to a pass, we saw this sleeping bear on a hill side. We saw such great wildlife. We were so blessed. 

We were in the park 5 days and had not seen Denali mountain. It is covered by clouds most of the time and they say only 30% of visitors actually get to see the mountain out. We rode the shuttle out to the viewing sights and thank the Lord, it was out for us to see. How magnificent! This year is the 100 anniversary of the first ascent of Denali. A group of descendants of the original climbers is up there now trying to stand the summit as their ancestors did. Day 6 was very windy. We decided to hike the river by the campground. Along the way we saw a very large piles of scat and then very big bear tracks. Glad they were not fresh!

 We have been experiencing the northern days of light. It really never gets dark. They say the sun sets but not too far. This picture was taken at 1:30am. We could not have asked for more from our trip. We did not see any wolves, but we did see some tracks so they are here. What a great natural place.

We left Denali Tuesday, one day early, as the weather turned cold and blustery.  Not good for biking or hiking.  We are now just outside Anchorage.  On the way out we stopped by their kennels.  They patrol the park by dog sled in the winters so we stopped to see the dogs and were able to get a good look at some puppies.
    Tomorrow we will drive south of Anchorage to Hope where a friend from Shippensburg moved.  Denny is glad to have us come and visit and wants to take Les panning for gold.  He promises that Les will get some gold.  Maybe I'll get a piece of gold nugget jewelry out of that side trip??  ;-)  Then on to the Kenai where Les can try his hand at salmon fishing.