Skagway

The Golden Circle/Skagway

Yesterday, we finished The Golden Circle highway from Haines to Skagway (360 miles by car/14 miles by ferry). If you remember back several weeks ago, we started our car trip from Haines, but we saved our trip down to Skagway on our return trip south. We drove most of the day from Dawson City following along the Yukon and the rivers and lakes that connect to this river. Many have traveled this route by water especially during the Klondike Gold Rush! After all the majestic scenery that we had seen to date, this drive was somewhat disappointing. Although after we left Whitehorse and finished our last 100 miles for the day, the drive became the Alaska we have come to love..."Colorado on Steroids!"...snow covered mountain, glaciers moraines, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, ...We slowly meandered down the winding highway up and over the White Pass and down to Skagway. Skagway was the hub during the late 1800's when the Klondike Gold Rush began. The miners would arrive by boat to Skagway and take either the White Pass route by pack horse or hike up and over the Chilkoot Trail. That was just the beginning of their journey as they then had to build a boat and travel the lakes and the Yukon to Dawson City.

Today, we biked to the Chilhoot Trailhead (9 miles) for a historical tour of Dyea and to hike several miles on the trail. Dyea was a boom town in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, which lasted only three years! The miners would start their journey in Dyea and begin their ardous journey of 33 miles caring 1 ton of provisions up and over White Pass. Along the hike/bike, we saw the salmon swimming up stream to finish their life cycle (spawning), various birds, seals, sea otters...
Tomorrow, we take the White Pass and Yukon railroad to Laughton Glacier. The train trip takes 45 minutes and they drop off hikers for a half day or all day hike to the glacier.  We will hike 1/2 day and then begin our drive out of Alaska to Canada.  Tomorrow, we start our trip south to the states through British Columbia.  We are not sure how long that will take...Pictures to follow....

Anchorage to Dawson City

We left Anchorage after a day of rain and a repair on our RV (refrigerator)!  We had two great meals, a trip to the museum and I finally got my hair done!  Then off to Glenallen along the scenic highways south!  Yes, I said South!  We are heading home which will take two full days and 15 hours to arrive in California to see Kate and family!  But along the way, we will trace the Gold Rush years from Skagway to Dawson City!  I've been rereading Alaska to  refresh my memory about the stampede for gold in the late 1800's!!!!  We started on the Taylor highway that took 5 hours of driving on "The Top of the World" highway and crossing the Canadian border!  Yes, you need passports and bear spray that is clearly marked with a bear on it!  Along the way, before our eyes we witnessed the hardship that the miners took on to reach their dream of finding gold in the Yukon!  We arrived in Dawson City, the home of one of the biggest gold rushes on the Yukon River.  We are camping right on the river watching the continue flow of a muddy wide river (it freezes solid around December).  Today, we spent all day mountain biking to the top of Dume Mt. for a view of the valley and to Dedge for a park service tour.  The town is a very interesting old mining town similar to Georgetown or Silverton in Colorado.  We might end our day at the local saloon to drink some Yukon beer and watch Klondike Kate's dance girls!  Off to Whitehorse tomorrow and then back into Alaska for our last adventure....

Denali National Park

Denali...all inspiring mountain!!!

We started our adventure with a drive from Willow to Talkeetna!  The skies were blue and the sun was out!  What do you do on a sunny day as approaching Denali...get on a plane and fly to Mt. Mckinley!  This is a must and worth every dollar spent to get above the clouds to the highest mountain in North America..a mere 20,320' above sea level!!! The views were unreal painting the sky with untouched wilderness...snow capped mountain peaks, proud glaciers, valleys, glacier streams, and the majestic Mt. McKinley!  Tears came to my eyes as we approach the "High One" named by the Alhabascan native people! I was so busy taking pictures and then stopped to just relax and enjoy mother nature at her best!  The flight was just too short to take in all the beauty around us...

After driving two more hours, we reached Denali National Park  and drove into the furthest campground on the park road that allows RVs...mile 29 of the total 92miles into the park.  The rest of the park we traveled by shuttle bus.  Along the park road, we traveled into the interior of Alaska that was formed by ancient glaciers and tectonic geological changes.  The shuttle took all day to travel the entire length of the road and back to our campsite.  Along the way, we depended on our binoculars and knowledgeable bus driver to point out animals along the way... 15  grizzly bears, herds of caribou, Dali Sheep, Artic Ground Squirrel, fox, moose, ptarmigan, and yet to see the wolf and lynx.

The next two days was spent joining Park Rangers on Discovery Hikes.  We took an all day hike along the Toklat River and a strenuous hike up Cathedral Mt.  Hiking in Denali is not like any hiking we have ever done before!  There are very few marked trails because they want  the area to remain wilderness.."leave no trace!"  So what do you do...bushwhack through willows, delicate tundra, rocky scree and at the same time calling out "Hey Bear, Hey Moose!"  (This is to prevent startling one of the 5 large animals in the park..Grizzly Bear, Dali Sheep, Moose, Wolf , and Caribou.)  The only animals that we saw along these hikes was a family of ptarmigan and three Grizzly Bears running along the river and eating their favorite soap berry.  While hiking the tundra,  we saw a large variety of berries (all are edible), lichen, mushrooms, wild flowers, mosses.... We leave the park saying goodbye to  the wilderness within Denali National Park!

Homer ...Here Fishy!

Seward to Homer...Fishing, fishing, fishing!
We made it to the Kenai Peninsula on a Sunday afternoon after passing car after car driving in the opposite direction towards Anchorage!  This was a shock to us after spending two weeks in remote areas in Alaska! The Kenai Peninsula is famous for fishing for King Salmon, Halibut, and Silver and Red Salmon.  This was their busiest week of the summer!  The fishermen were lined up on both sides of the river.    We continued down the highway to the fishing town of Ninilchik (named by Russian fishermen), which is about 50 miles north of Homer.  Jim and I spent the next day fishing for King Salmon on the Kasilof River.  Jim was determined to catch himself a King!  This time, we did what is called flat trolling (floating down the river, your line drifts ahead of the boat and the guide slows the boat by oaring upstream ). Interesting concept, but not enough action for me!  You basically sit in the boat,  watched your line until a strike and then  reel the fish in. After 7 hours on the river, Jim was the only one out of 4 that caught a fish!  We celebrated with a Salmon dinner with roasted veggies, salad, bread and the most beautiful Sunset (sun doesn't set until approx. 11:30) looking out the mountain range!
The next day Jim went fishing for Halibut on a boat out of Ninilchik.  The Morgans and I headed to Homer,  the " Halibut Capital of Alaska!",  where we took a water taxi to the state park on Kachemak Bay with the Morgans. We left the Homer Spit (a 4.3 mile long, narrow bar of gravel) for an 18 min. taxi ride across the bay to the park.   We spent a lovely day hiking the Glacier Lake trail and the Ridge trail to another bay where the taxi picked us up at the end of the day.  Glacier Lake was beautifully  with the backdrop of a Glacier dropping into the water depositing iceburgs.  The only sounds that we heard were the seagulls squawking and the iceburgs cracking with pieces splashing into the ice cold water.  Along the hike, we saw definite proof of "Do Bears Shit In the Woods?"  Well, if you need an answer to that question...we have a digital picture to prove they do!!!! We were obviously following the bears preferred route to berries, grubs, fish, bark, etc. were happy to reach our destination withour a bear encounter this time!
Jim had a very successful time fishing for Halibut!  After an hour high speed boat ride they arrived at the fishing spot just in time to watch two pods of Orcas feeding on Salmon.   He was the first one to catch his limit of 2 fish... one 50lbs. and another 25lbs.  Dinner last night was delicious with smoked salmon on crackers, fresh  halibut cheeks sauted in butter, garlic , onions and spices, grilled fresh halibut, orzo with pesto and tomatoes,  and sauted snap peas!
We now have   45 lbs. of halibut and salmon being shipped to Kelly's house!  Thank goodness she has a freezer!  We'll be cooking up Alaskan Halibut and King Salmon for the next year!

Girdwood/Alyeska Ski Resort

We'll be are on our way to Denali National Park and stopped to see Carol Smith's favorite spot in Alaska...Girdwood!  A small ski town south of Anchorage with the famous Double Muskie restaurant!  We decided to make it a "Date Night" and get a condo for the night!  Great stop...mountain biked to the Cold Creek Mine to view some panners and took the tram up to the top of Alyeska Ski Resort!  Perfect day to do it because the sun was out and we were able to hike to one of the 7 glaciers in the area!  We decided not to ice climb, rock climb or paragliding!  Although, I was very tempted to try paragliding!  The trouble with Alaska is there is too much to see and do!!!!!

Hear Fishy!!!!

Valdez To Seward

The last two days we have traveled to Valdez (the location of the oil spill) to Seward on the Kenia Pennisula.  The drive to Valdez was spectacular..snow on the mountain peaks, large pristine lakes, meadows and waterfalls (Briday Veil Falls).  The scenery just gets more magnificent as we continue are travels!  As we approached Valdez, the traffic increased ...the salmon was in and swimming up the streams to spon!  RVs were everywhere with serious fishermen!  We spent the night in a state campground that had closed off two sections due to an eagle habitat and frequent visits from bears.  The next morning, we drove to the ferry to cross the Prince William Sound!  (I saw 4 bears that morning!)

The ferry trip along the sound was spectacular...if you don't have time to take the ferry up the Inside Passage, then this is the trip to take!  In three hours, we saw a condensed version of the Inside Passage...snowcapped mountains, glaciers dropping into the sea, iceburgs, whales, birds, sea lions, etc...

After we got off the ferry, we drove to Seward on the Kenai Pennisula which included driving through a 6 mile tunnel that is shared by the train (one way direction for both cars and train)!  Again the drive to Seward was beautiful much like Colorado with mountains, lakes and streams.  We also began to see fishermen along the streams!  Seward is a busy little town due to a location 2 1/2 hours from Anchorage!  But, the location is convenient to fishing, kayaking, the glaciers, hiking, etc..  The crowds were a bit overwelming after seeing no one in the Copper River area!  We decided to try out our kayaking skills and go on an adventure to Orca Island and Humpy bay!  It was a lovely drive over in a water taxi and then we were guided in our kayaks to a beautiful waterfall!  The afternoon ended with a bike ride to town, but ended with our first really strong rain and wind!  We were soaked and muddy by the time we returned to our campsite!  The day ended with a pot luck  dinner with fresh halibut cooked by the owner of Miller's Landing!  Alaska continues to draw us  to more adventures and further exploration......