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.

Alaska'a Inside Passage thru the Yukon back to Alaska

 Tuesday June 18th we boarded the Matanuska Alaska Marine Ferry from Prince Rupert, BC to Haines, AK.  It was rainy Tuesday the 6 hours we waited to board.  Going through yet another customs and border crossing.  But once we were on the ferry the clouds started to break and we had beautiful weather for our day and a half trip through part of Alaska's Inside passage.

 The beauty of this area is amazing.  Glaciers, hump back whales, sea lions, quaint fishing villages, light houses, and miles and miles of wilderness.

Once in Haines (12:45am docking), we camped in the ferry terminal parking lot for the night.  The next morning we drove to Chilkoot Lake St Rec campground.  So pretty and a great place to camp for two days.  We were blessed with sightings of eagles, baby eagles on a nest, harlequin ducks, and surf scooters.

 We left Haines and traveled the one and only road out, north through a bit of Canada to the Alaskan Highway then headed west back to Alaska.  We have been treated this entire trip so far with beautiful wildflowers.  Here is Lake Kluane in the Yukon.

 Below you see a sunset picture from Delta Junction just 100 miles south of Fairbanks.  What you need to know is that this was taken at 11:45pm!  The days here ARE long.  Sunset about midnight and sunrise around 3am!  And the "night" is not dark at all.  Glad our blinds in the camper are good at darkening.

 We are seeing a lot of moose now feeding along the roads.  And being spring we get to see the babies.  Here is an adorable little moose.  But they sure do grow up to be very big. 

 We were told many times in our research for this trip that there would be a lot of road construction along the way because the hard winters are tough on the roads and they have a very short window of opportunity to do their work.  We are seeing this very often.  But thankful they are doing it because there is many miles of dips, patches, and holes that still need attention.  You really have to drive below the speed limit or you will be air born, literally!

 We are camping just outside Denali tonight.  Tomorrow we will go to our reserved site in Teklanika campground.  It is 30 miles into the park.  No private vehicles are permitted past 15 miles so we are excited to get back in a more remote part of the park.  We are not permitted to move our RV once there until we leave (7days).  We have stocked up on supplies, will empty our tanks and fill our fresh water.  Lets see if we can make it stretch for 7 days!  Oh, did you hear that Alaska is having a heat wave?  Yes, 90o!  We did not pack enough shorts I fear.  But we probably won't want shorts as that just exposes more for the bugs!  Yes they are abundant too.  But we are still having a wonderful time!

Port Edward and Prince Rupert, British Columbia

We had 3 days to explore this area before boarding the ferry to Haines and our trip through some of the inside passage. It has been interesting. We arrived June 14th.  There was just 3 campgrounds in this area: a Provincial Park that is about 20 miles from PR; a private park in Port Edward about 10 miles from PR; and a park just 1 mile from the ferry terminal in PR. We looked at the PR one and decided to go to the Port Edward cg. Built literally on a hill and terraced to get the most units on the property, it really was not too bad. Lots of greenery. 

Saturday, we toured a reconstructed cannery, the North Pacific Cannery. Very interesting. We saw how they did the canning manually in the late 1800's and then how the mechanization came in. This cannery was used up to 1980. This cannery is on the Inverness Inlet. This day was the first day that the commercial fisherman were allowed to gillnet. There was quite a lot of boats out with their nets but we did not see them bring much at all in. They are only allowed to use the gillnets about 3 days at this time of the season so a poor day makes a big impact on them. Hope this doesn't foretell poor fishing for Les?

 

 

They have a Mess Hall here that is working as a cafe. They had Salmon Burgers, Salmon Cakes, Salmon Melts, Salmon Chowder and more on their menu. Les had the Salmon Cakes and I tried the Chowder. Both were delicious. We topped off our meal with a homemade cinnamon bun. One was big enough for both of us!

 Monday we took the day to stock up on supplies, fuel, funds and do some sight seeing. The diesel is more expensive here in Canada. Alberta was only about $0.50 per gallon more but British Columbia is running higher, around $1.30 higher. Groceries are approximately 30% higher.

As you can see Prince Rupert is a crossroads for many people and places as it has the ferries, cruise ships and rail services bring people here. It is also a very big fishing and freight shipping hub.

 We heard of a local favorite, Dolly's Seafood Market, that not only sells fresh seafood but has a handful of tables to enjoy their restaurant dishes. We stopped and they were full so we walked the Cow Bay area a bit. Taking in the info on the port, then returned to find a table open. Les had the seafood combo which included haddock, shrimp, scallops and smoked salmon. Yum! I had the fish and chips, halibut. Oh so good!

 Other sights in the area were a beautiful sunken garden and small island in the inlets filled with pines.

It has been interesting to spend some time here but we are anxious to continue our adventure. We leave tomorrow, June 18th, on the ferry around 3:30 pm. We will be traveling through the inside passage to Haines, arriving midnight Wednesday. One day and 9 hours on the ferry. We splurged and booked a cabin since they do not permit you to stay in your campers and we did not relish the other options: sleep in recliners on the observation decks or pitch a tent outside on the deck.

We saw a govt rec campground that looks good outside Haines. We will try for a site there first. The wildlife viewing here is suppose to be really good. Maybe seeing bear fishing for the salmon that are just starting to run now.

Hwy 16 West from Jasper to Prince Rupert, BC

What a lovely drive. Pretty good road, very little traffic, magnificent scenery. What more can you ask for. Oh, very nice Provincial Parks (Canadian equivalent to our Sate Parks). Our first stop was Purden Lake PP. Nice park, no hookups, few people, beautiful lake. Just a few yards into the road we surprised a bear. Lots of signs of elk while we walked a lake trail. Very nice stay.

Day 2 on this route found us at Prince George to explore awhile. While there we enjoyed a very nice lunch at a Greek restaurant. On the way out we filled our tank, stocked up on supplies and stopped to get a picture of PG man! (Prince George Man) It was rainy all day. We planned to stay at Burns Lake but found all the campgrounds had closed. So onto Houston, another hour driving, to a nice private park. Here at Houston they are big for fly fishing and have a LARGE fly rod that I had to see.

The next day we stopped at The Hazeltons where there was a reconstructed village of long houses and totems, 'Ksan Historical Museum. A very interesting display and tour explaining the culture of the Gitksan people.

That night we stayed at another Provincial Park, Kleanza Creek PP, Terrace, BC. A quiet, small, uncrowded park by a swift running creek of snow melt. The sound of rushing water lulled us to sleep that night. The next day we woke and took a walk on a trail to an over look of the small canyon. So pretty.

Then on the road to Prince Rupert. Oh my, the drive here was spectacular. Following the Skeena River to the Ocean through snow capped mountains. Wow. After arriving, looking around Prince Rupert, we stopped at Butze Rapids. A 3K trail takes you to a look out where you can see a reversing tidal rapid. The water flows over the rapids in the opposite direction just after low tide as the water returns.

We will hang around here until Tuesday when we board the ferry for the inside passage and Haines, Alaska.