Along the Denali Highway

For reasons you can probably surmise by going to this link, we have elected to not take our RV on the Denali Highway; however, we did drive a number of miles of it today with the car.  It is quite a beautiful drive, but although some folks drive the full length of the road, we've opted to have a chance to return to the lower 48 with our Suncruiser still mostly intact.  Deb spent part of the trip picking blueberries while I was chasing down and photographing a wide variety of mushrooms, ranging in size from just a few inches to nearly a foot in diameter.  Photos are available at this link.

Odds and Ends

As we continue our Alaska experience, not every day is a great exploration or discovery, but there is always our immediate surroundings to enjoy and little tidbits we encounter day to day.

In this small collection of photos, you will see another amazing sunset over the nearby mountains.  Next is one of the hazards that can be encountered while traveling around the area.  Yes, that is mud covering a trailer that arrived here from Fairbanks.  Understand that most of this area is wilderness and of the few roads that are available, many are under constructions and others are mostly gravel.  For instance, there is only a single road that goes through the 6 million acres of Denali National Park.

In the next photo, a white rectangle on the mountain is an outdoor movie theater for folks on ATVs.  Next is some Alaskan rhubarb that Deb was preparing for an excellent pie. Finally, thanks to Eileen, there are a few more photos from our recent visit to the Wolf Den Kennel.

Cantwell to Denali Village

These are yesterday's photos which include views of the area surrounding Cantwell, AK, and some stops along the Parks Highway between here and Denali Village which lies just a few miles to the North of the entrance to Denali National Park.  We decided we would spend the day getting a bit familiar with the area and delay our first visit to the park until next week.  In the meantime, we will keep an eye on the weather forecast in hopes of selecting the best day.

Our time at Denali Village was mostly spent in checking out the gift shops.  Although they are quite nice, many of them seem to carry the same items.  I should point out that the prices in the area are very high.  As an example, a generic gallon of water was priced $4.50!  Also while there, we took a special photo just for Jessica.

Going to the Dogs

Last night, Deb and I joined Eileen (owner of the Cantwell RV Park) for a visit to the Wolf Den Kennels, just a short drive to the West of our location.  This enterprise, owned and operated by Mike Santos and his wife is really quite amazing and you can learn more about it via this link.

Prior to this visit, I was always a bit concerned about the care and welfare of mush dogs, but the love displayed between these owners and dogs is quite evident and absolutely a two-way street.  The dogs are well kept, well fed, appear to be completely satisfied with their situation, and primarily READY to RUN.  Find photos here.

Quartz Creek and Points North

For our final weekend with Tracy and Jeff, we met up with a bunch of their friends at a campground at Quartz Creek in the Chugach National Forest.  This is a beautiful site which is located just about 8 miles to the West of the Seward Highway along the route we previously took on our trip to Homer.   This was our first experience in our 8 years in the RV with 'dry' camping (no electricity, no water, no sewer) for more than one night. Fortunately, all went well.  Our main concern was with our house batteries and I would not try this for more than 2 nights.

The main event of the weekend was a 50th birthday party for one of the crew and we were fortunate to have a day of perfect weather for the event.

These photos also include our first views of Mount McKinley that we spotted as we traveled North out of Anchorage toward the Denali area where we will be spending the next 6 weeks.  McKinley, at over 20,000 feet, is easily quite visible and imposing from over 100 miles away.  There will be more on all of this in some future blogs.

Talkeetna

Last weekend we traveled to Talkeetna, AK, which is located about 14 miles East of the Parks Highway, about midway between Anchorage and Denali National Park.  On the way, we passed through Wasilla which is considerably larger than we expected (there is even a Starbucks).  We also drove through Willow which was at the center of the Sockeye Fire which I mentioned in a post about a month ago.

This will be our last week in the Anchorage area and after a weekend visit to Quartz Creek, we will be heading to Cantwell, near Denali, where we will spend six weeks taking in the sights of that part of the state.

Link to photos

Link to Talkeetna Information

Link to the Aurora Forecast - Hoping for some views soon!

Exit Glacier and Mount Marathon

For the Fourth of July weekend, we traveled in our RV along with Jeff and Tracy and a bunch of their friends, many also in their RVs, to Seward, Alaska.  Tracy and some friends were involved in a Softball Tournament where they played 7 games in two days and we also took advantage of the timing and location to enjoy some other activities.

On Friday, we took a short drive followed by a hike of about 4-5 miles to enjoy some great views of Exit Glacier and the surrounding area.  On Saturday, we were in Seward to observe the end of one part of the Mount Marathon Race which is held each year on the 4th.  We then spent most of Sunday, after the softball games, enjoying some local fare in Seward.

Mount Marathon Information

Exit Glacier Information

The weather was not always perfect, but nice enough to have a great weekend with some nice people as we enjoyed some awesome sights that we are pleased to share with you via some photos.

Exit Glacier and Mount Marathon Photos

Seward Views and Return Trip to Anchorage Photos