Traveling Through Alaska 2026 Day 6

one of the smaller ones

Day 6...Today we traveled to Valdez on the Richardson Highway, AK4. On the way to Valdez is Keystone Canyon, a beautiful, scenic drive through waterfalls and canyon walls. Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail Falls are the two largest falls but in the spring there are many waterfalls in the canyon, some quite large. It started out as a cloudy day, so photos don't do it justice.

Bridal Veil Falls

Eldy is in front of Horsetail Falls...

There's a cool short railroad tunnel that never was finished that you can walk through if not flooded. The tunnel was hand cut into the solid rock of the Keystone Canyon. Nine companies fought to take advantage of the short route from the copper mines at Kennicott to the Valdez area but a feud interrupted progress and a right of way gunbattle was fought in 1903. The project was abruptly abandoned and the tunnel was never finished.

We are going to drive about 125 miles and stay at the Bear Paw Campground right across the street from the harbor. Price ranges from 55.00-75.00 a night depending on when in the season you arrive. The owner of the campground recently died and Sparky met the lady who is running the show currently, trying to keep things going. She was very spry, in her 80's! and doing a fabulous job. Things are up in the air whether this campground will stay open, someone will buy it out, family will run it, etc. but it's a wonderful campround, parking lot style with nice showers, laundry, and level sites with full hookups. Once we got there....Sparky explored the harbor....

Lots of cool sculptures around town...

Her favorite place for breakfast is a spot called The Potato. They serve a HUGE, amazing breakfast burrito. 

We stayed only one night as we wanted to get to Seward and there was very little fishing activity going on the day we were there. Town was very quiet and not busy at all, too early in the season to see very much. Sparky checked out the ferry option from Whittier to Seward, and although it would save a couple of hours of driving time, she decided she would rather do a whale/glacier watch tour than spend about 416.00 for our rig for 6-7 hours and a trip that would not stop for whales or other wildlife. So we decided to pass on the ferry. When you drive from Valdez to Seward, there is only one way to go, and that is back up north to Glenallen, then west over to Palmer, back south through Anchorage, and down the Parks Highway to Seward. 

That is a distance of 420 + miles, that's a long drive in the RV for us. But Eldy was thinking about doing it all in one day the next day.

fence near the ferry terminal

While we were in Valdez, we received messages from T-Mobile that we were about to incur roaming charges. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, T-Mobile does not offer service anywhere in Alaska, so we were using companion companies and towers while we were traveling, which we had not noticed. Sparky called the company and basically, they would be throttling us back, and suggested we use local wifi as much as possible. We were ok with that as we were not doing anything that required a high level of security, just basic local research and watching a show or two at night. So we kept on doing what we were doing and there was no change in our abilities to communicate.

Temperatures were in the thirties at night and high forties and low fifties during the day....Sunset was about 11:00 PM and sunrise was about 4:30 AM at this point. It did not bother us at all in the RV. We had very dark curtains on some of the windows and we managed to sleep just fine. 

In driving to Valdez and coming out of Valdez, you have to drive through Thompson Pass, a forbidding looking landscape with elevation at 2,678 feet. The last time we were through this pass two years ago, we encountered a blizzard! Today, it was a piece of cake--just a dreary day but lots of snow all around the area. The RV with the Ford engine handled the inclines and descents beautifullly. The drive is pretty spectacular, but driving in Alaska is pretty spectacular all the way around anyway!

Here you can see the frost heaves on the road below. It's like riding a baby rollercoaster, but it still makes Sparky's tummy do flipflops. The wiggles are where the frost has heaved up the road a little bit. Sometimes they are pretty big heaves, but most of the time little ones. You just have to slow down! Right, Eldo? (She thinks I take them a little too fast, explains E.)

frost heaves

Sparky and Eldo never tire of the amazing scenery....

And with that....we will see you tomorrow in Seward, Alaska.....

Traveling Through Alaska Trip 2026 Day 4, Day 5

Our highway guide-a must have!

To recap renting an RV through Alaska, you can get great service and pricing through Great Alaskan Holidays rentals. There are only 12 highways in Alaska, and when you rent an RV from this company, you can only drive on 5 recommended roads. They are: 1. The Glenn Highway- from Anchorage to Canada, 2. The Richardson Highway-from Tok to Fairbanks, 3. The Seward/Sterling Highway-from Anchorage to Soldotna- 4. the Parks Highway-from Palmer to Fairbanks- and 5. The Denali Highway, a mostly unpaved gravel highway which connects Paxon to Cantwell. The reason you can only drive these specific roads is because of road conditions. The four main interstates are in VERY good condition. Other roads are in terrible conditions--frost heaves, gravel, potholes, and you run the risk of damaging your rental RV with flying rocks and damaging your windshield. The Denali Highway is probably the most spectacular 135 mile scenic drive. It is one of the most scenic and remote drives in the world. It is also one of the worst highways to drive on, as it only has about 25 miles of it paved. We attempted it on one day but turned back very quickly as we could only go 25 mph or less and worried so much about damaging the RV we gave up on the rough gravel road. There was almost no cell service and we were worried about our tires going flat and getting help if we needed it. Nobody was on the road! Our goal this trip was to travel to a few different places we hadn't been before but this drive was not to be one of them!

The photo above is our travel "bible" for driving in Alaska--The Milepost. It has a mile marker by mile marker description of the roads-their conditions, the history of the area, places to watch for wildlife -"watch out for moose!" marked in red, and descriptions of reststops and pull outs. It's terrific! You can get it on Amazon and in bookstores. On to Day 4!

Day 4...We headed south out of Denali National Park. We saw a herd of caribou in a low lying field. It was 39 degrees last night! Then we saw a black bear along the roadside! We were driving too quickly to get any photos. We were headed to Talkeetna, a new town for us. It is often described as a quaint drinking town with a climbing problem. We took the Talkeetna Spur Road off the Parks Highway to get there. It's a cute, quirky little town-population of about 900. There is no official government there. If something needs fixing, the people rally together and get it done. The mayor for over 20 years was a cat named Mr. Stubbs. To be more serious, it IS the mountaineering staging area for Denali and a center for flightseeing glaciers and other trips. It has a vibrant arts scene, dirt roads, wooden boardwalks, and an old inn-The Fairview- with the oldest original bathtub in Alaska. There isn't much of a downtown at all, it's a conglomeration of small shops and a couple of small lodging places. There are a couple of really great restaurants there, and some famous spots to try like the spinach bread food truck. There are buildings with interesting placards that tell the location's previous history in front of each establishment.

There is no room for any RV parking downtown but there is a nearby visitor type center with a large empty gravel parking lot as you come into town where you could park a rig and then walk a short distance to town. You can take a short walk from there to see the braided river and mountains in the distance at the river front park. Braided rivers are a combination of silt runoff from the glaciers meandering through the river and giving it a braided look. 

Talkeetna Camper Park

tourist decals from all over on the sign

We stayed at a beautiful little RV campground called Talkeetna Camper Park, which had a terrific lodge style restaurant next door with great food, called "Latitude 62". It's a ten minute walk to downtown Talkeetna from the campground.

Talkeetna is also a place where you can take the Hurricane Turn Train and we did! The Alaskan Railroad has a dedicated track for this small train to ferry people and supplies to and from "the bush". The train stops for wildlife if tourists are on board. The train can be flagged to stop by people out in the remote areas by them just coming to the tracks and waving for the train to stop and pick them up. Drop offs and pick ups are informally requested. Supplies are regularly dropped off to the people living out in the boonies, backpackers get off and on at random stops, and random times. Everybody waved to us as we stopped and let people off and on....

If you are on the train to go to the Hurricane Gulch which is one of the tourist stops, the train will stop for wildlife sightings and even back up for a better look! We started in Talkeetna, the train station was right behind our campground! We did the round trip to Hurricane Gulch and back, and thoroughly enjoyed it. You have to bring your own food and snacks on board as it is a no frills train and the trip was about 6 hours. It travels about 25-30 mph, and there is a person who gives a little history about the area and how the train operates as you go along. We saw a baby moose running uphill. We stopped at an Alaskan author's home right beside the tracks to see her studio and peruse her books. We stopped to let another train go by to use the tracks and visited an old Alaskan Railroad set of train cars with the old historic snow plow.

We saw a mama moose way back in the woods, which the train stopped and backed up so everybody could see it. The engineer saw a mama black bear and baby, but we missed it. 

Hurricane Gulch

We stopped at the famous Hurricane Gulch Bridge, dead in the middle of the tracks overlooking the gorge, and took photos out the open baggage car window. The bridge is 296 feet above the gorge and is the longest, tallest steel bridge in North America. Stopping in the middle of the bridge with just skinny little cables between you and the drop below, and looking down was not for the faint of heart! Sparky felt a little dizzy. The price for this historical train trip was 125.00 a person. We had a great narrator host along for the trip and it was very educational and fun. This is not a well known tour so many people miss this opportunity to see more of the "real" Alaska.

We arrived back at our campsite around 7 and had dinner next door at the Latitude 62. Great food and highly recommended! We had a wonderful conversation with our waiter, Matt, who shared his personal story with coming to Alaska and trying to make it in the difficult climate and the challenges of building and establishing a home for his family.

Day 5... We traveled to Glennallen, AK, to the east, a distance of 219 miles. On our way, we saw a sled dog team pulling an ATV with people on it. That's one of the "sled dog tours" you can take in the summer in the area. On the way driving to Glenallen, we saw a young female moose in a parking lot, just moseying through the lot looking for grasses. You never know where you are going to see moose. They are often by the roadside! Less than a mile away, we saw ANOTHER moose at the side of the road! A little while later, TEN caribou quickly crossed the highway quite far in front of us, but it was still a thrill to see them.

Sparky and Eldo watched the moose for a little while and got one more iconic photo of the moose in front of the Mantanuska Glacier. Wow!

We wanted to stay at a roadhouse called Ranch House RV Park which we remembered from a past trip. It's a cool place, an original Alaskan roadhouse with an historic tavern, on mile marker 173, on the Glenallen Highway. They have added more campsites since the last time we visited a couple of years ago, and the sites are along the Tolsana River. They have full hookups (electric, water and sewer) and some pull thrus.The sites are gravel and level. It's a great stop between Valdez and Anchorage. The lodge/tavern has tremendous fireplace and rockers. Eldy was missing his rocker from home so there he is. 

Which is your favorite name?

The Ranch House has great chili and hot sauces galore as well to choose from! Sparky loves the names of the chilis and the sauces...but no hot sauce for her!

Here is our pull through site at Ranch House RV campground....wish we could have had the windows open at night to hear the rushing creek, but it got down to the low thirties and our water hose froze briefly! 

Ranch House site

Tomorrow we head towards Valdez, 125 miles to the south, and the remarkable Keystone canyon with multiple waterfalls before entering the harbor town of Valdez. See you then!

Traveling to Alaska 2026. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Since we use to full time in an RV for a total of 6 years, we never have quite gotten rid of the "hitch itch", that urge to travel in an RV to see and explore this beautiful country. Eldo decided it was time to whisk Sparky away to Alaska for another visit to the state for a change of pace. We both LOVE Alaska, the mountains, the wildlife and the summer climate. We LOVE renting an RV to travel all around Alaska, as we have done a cruise or two. So once again, we turned to Great Alaskan Holiday rentals for our sixth time renting. We went back and forth on size, comfort, and pricing. They were offering 15% off as the season has started slow and late due to a bad winter and tourism being down. We have rented a 25 footer before and found it too small for trips longer than just a few days. As we were going to be spending 11 days out on the road this time, we decided to go with a 31 foot class C. That has the overhead bunk over the cab, and the model we picked, a Winnebago, the "Minnie Winnie"--model 31 H,  had bunk beds and TWO slideouts. It has a strong engine, the Ford 7.3L V8 gas engine, so cheaper than diesel. Average price of gas in May 2026 for us was anywhere from 5.09-5.69. The average rental price for Memorial Day through June 8th was 200.00 per day, a bargain! We could cook our own meals (we did, a little, haha). We used the bunk beds to store luggage and other things, and the two slideouts made it a wonderful space to spread out and not get in each other's way! In Alaska, you don't have to have a campground every night. You can pull over to the side on the road on the many wide cement pullouts where you can camp for free...that's called "boon docking". There are large gravel or paved pullouts every few miles that are completely free to use and large enough to accomodate RV's. They are set away from the road, and the views are amazing. You simply run your generator for heat if you need it, and you are fully self contained with a water supply, shower, bathroom, and kitchen. We love it.

Ceiling of the restaurant

Eldy researched for months as he always does. He looks at all possible angles for best flight times, connections, and airport possibilities. He uses points for our air travel and so our airfare was paid through points. A bus option is offered from South Bend to Chicago as part of the plane ticket thru Alaska/American Airlines. Yay, no battling Chicago traffic! The bus takes you deep into the airport secured parking area compound and it's a LONG walk to get to the ticket counter. After we arrived in Chicago, we stayed the night at the Embassy Suites in Rosemont as we had an early flight the next morning. We had a delicious dinner at McCormick's and Schmick. The restaurant was beautiful!

Day 1....Sparky LOVES the scenery change from the air as you move out of the midwest, west and to the far north. As we arrived at the airport, a shuttle from Great Alaskan Holidays picked us up, we picked up our rental and after going over it with a fine tooth comb, and signing papers, we were on our way! First stop, Fred Meijer groceries, in Anchorage to supply our food needs. The RV comes with basics--dishes, utensils and all the basic needs, we added extra toilet paper, paper towels, and quick to eat meals that are easy to prepare. It's easy to overbuy as if you were buying groceries at home. You can't buy anything in very small quantities so we did our best to use up cereal, milk, butter, bread, and things like that during the week. Our first stop, K'esugi Ken campground, in Denali STATE Park, a distance of 138 miles. K'esugi Ken sounds like a person's name but it is Athabascan for Curry Ridge or "Base of the Ancient One".

The view along the drive to Denali State Park...

The mountains are heavily snow covered still....

This view was really something! We stopped often along pullouts and views to take in the amazing mountain scenery. The clouds were dissipating, and we started having sunny days....Temps were in the fifties during the day, and mid thirties to low forties at night most of

fiddlehead ferns

our stay. We really love those cool temps! Unfortunately, the wildflowers like the lupines, were not blooming yet. They come out full force in late May or early June. What was growing everywhere were fiddlehead ferns and dandelions, big ones.....

on the way to our first campground stay

K'esugi Ken campground is fabulous. There is a beautiful trail all around the campground. Sites are easy to pull in or pull through. There are 32 campsites, paved roads, three public use cabins and a beautiful interpretive center. We had electric but no water. No matter, we have a water tank in the RV! The price was 30.00 night. It IS in dense bear country, we did not see any bears but we did see this on the campground check in kiosk so be bear aware! Bear spotted two days before we arrived. Eldy thought he saw a wolf in the woods!

Our site faced away from the mountains, but on the trail, you can see the K'esugi Ken Ridge mountains. (Sparky did a mile hike while there.) There are interpetive signs along the trail and Sparky got a chuckle out of this one! "Have you ever noticed....

...that hair like growth hanging from the trees? It's a lichen, and Alaskans often call it "old man's beard". Lichens are together with a fungus and an alga. Their rustic romance goes something like this: Freddy Fungus and Alice Alga took a lichen (groan) to each other. In this case, they drove each other up a tree, but don't let that fool you--they are perfect partners"...etc. etc. Well, Sparky thought it was funny at the time....

more lichen

Here is part of the beautiful interpetive center in the campground with fabulous metal art sculptures on the wall.

The next morning, Sparky hiked two miles on the trail with her head on a swivel looking for bears. No scat spotted, all good...It was a dreary day the first day (and that was the only day!) so no great photos.  

muskeg

Sparky learned a lot from the trail signs...a new word--muskeg--which is a common feature in a boreal forest--It's wet ground, like walking on a waterbed with the added danger of getting your shoes/boots sucked off the bottom of your feet..composed of partially decomposed plant matter, peat-which becomes overgrown with sphagnum moss, which can hold up to 30 times its weight in water!

After Sparky's two mile hike, we set off further north to Denali National Park, a distance of about 102 miles.

Dall sheep--from the internet

Day 2...We drive to Denali National Park. We see Dall sheep along the way! Moving 55 mph, we couldn't get a photo, but here is one from the internet as to what they look like. Sparky says they look like bighorn sheep but they have a different physical appearance. They are all white. Their horns are longer, thinner, and yellowish than big horned sheep.

We saw a bull moose in the woods off to the side of the road!

Riley Creek site 22A

We are going to spend two nights at the Riley Creek campground, no water, no electric for 27.00 a night with the senior pass. Beautiful wooded campground, you can take a shuttle bus into town and around the various campgrounds in the area. They have a camp store there, but prices were ridiculous. NINE DOLLARS and FIFTY CENTS for a roll of paper towels. GEESH! There were a few mosquitoes, but not bad at all. That's another reason we like visiting Alaska at the end of May into early June, the skeeters are not too bad yet. And they are VERY bad during the summer months and HUGE we hear.

We had our first snafu at the campground. Midday, the carbon monoxide detector went off. UH-OH! Gas propane leak somewhere. We turned off the gas at the switch outside, we opened all the windows, turned on fans and proceeded to try and find the leak. Sparky discovered a stove knob had been bumped when she leaned upwards to get something in the microwave. The knob was so loose, it turned on the gas supply with a bump of her stomach,  and that was the leak! Yikes! 

this is what moose poop looks like

Day 3...Sparky heard there had been moose active on the bike path, so she hiked it to the visitors' center, where we have always seen moose moseying around the brush near the center in years past. LOTS of moose poop on the trail, but no moose on the bike path or the visitors' center. Phooey! Sparky walked 3.4 miles that day. We wanted to eat pizza at the well-known Prospector's Pizzeria, but they had inexplicably closed for the day so Lynch's pizza was the alternative...bleh. Sparky found a beautiful yarn shop in town, Polychrome Fibers and bought some supplies to knit a national park beanie aptly named "Denali". After dinner, we took a drive deeper into the park to Savage River, that's as far as you can drive your own personal vehicle into the park. We saw caribou from far away. (sorry about the poor iphone photo--Sparky didn't bring a regular camera on this trip!)

caribou-iphone 16

We did not take a bus trip deep into Denali while we were there. There was a landslide about a year ago, and they are building a bridge to circumvent the slide. The project is still ongoing, and the busses are not able to get as deep into the park until that bridge is completed, about another year. We felt the trip would not be as worth it if we couldn't go deep into the park. We did hear about some excitement at the Savage River Campground, however, just beyond the point where we had to turn around. A dead moose calf was found in the campground area, a grizzly bear was spotted, attracted to a possible meal along with mama moose in the area as well, so they evacuated the campground.

On our way back, one bull moose spotted off in the wood, foraging! Yay!

So that is our first three days in Alaska. C'mon back and see us again for more adventures and more wildlife and more Alaskan scenes such as this one....

Next post later this week. Thanks for reading along and following us on our journey!

 

                                    Sparky and Eldo