Time to Go Home...Alaska 2024 Last Day

It's our last day and we are always sorry that we have to leave! But we have seen a lot of Alaska we had not seen before. We were so happy to see a total of 6 moose, a mama with her baby, the Homer Spit, and how visually the Exit Glacier had receded since the last time we visited. We got to experience some new places to stay, we learned about moose fencing, we experienced some new hikes, we discovered that we really enjoyed boondocking and that our budget was majorly enhanced by doing so. There are so many things to do and see in Alaska, you could spend all summer and lots of money doing them and then still not cover everything there is in Alaska. Every person has their own agenda for experiencing Alaska. Some want to do lots of excursions and don't mind spending the money to do tours, cruises, and fly ins, but we had to keep it simple and basic to be able to go...And we really do prefer the simpler Alaska, just seeing the mountains and feeling the cooler air, seeing the freedom of the wildlife to roam in this beautiful state, that was wonderful for us. It's majestic, it's awe inspiring and we hope we can go again some day...We always say this is our last time, but we hope it isn't. It's that amazing.

very rough pavement 

Day 9.... We extended our RV return time from the usual 10:00 AM in the morning until 1:45 PM for an additional 63.00. You can get a shorter extension, around an hour to an hour and a half for free, but then the later you come back, there starts to be a prorated charge toward the daily rate or they are just going to add another day! We thought it would be worth it to take our time driving back to Anchorage since our flight didn't leave until 9:40 PM that night. You need to add extra time sometimes for road construction, which is ALWAYS going on in Alaska, if you are on a timetable. Seward Highway from Seward to Anchorage is really rough this year...

So we slowly took our time and enjoyed some pull outs for the last time like this one: The Kenai Mountains turn out where the beautiful purple lupines were abundant. Hard to believe these are invasive but they ARE everywhere in Alaska, lol.

We stopped at Potter Marsh where we have seen some amazing shore/wading birds and even a moose in the past, but today, being a rainy day, we didn't see anything but a super friendly robin and this cute little girl all ready for a rainy day and some puddles.

Potter Marsh is very beautiful and worth a stop even if you don't see as many birds or wildlife on the day you visit.....Lots of long boardwalks that take you all over the marsh.

There was a magpie in the parking lot. He's a big, beautiful bird, that's for sure!

Even on a rainy cloudy day, Alaska is still majestic in its beauty....

We wish we had explored the Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Trail, but we ran out of time. It looks really interesting! We'll just have to plan another visit for a longer period of time next time!

Or this is something maybe somebody else will be able to experience and write about...At any rate, the time passed by so quickly on the drive back...We topped off the gas tank and propane tanks within 5 miles of Great Alaska Holidays, which is required by contract, and then headed in.

We checked the rig back in, (everything was A-OK with the rig), and the shuttle transported us to the airport for a many hours' wait. Sparky never minds waiting at airports. There are always a lot of things to see, especially at the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage. It's like a museum, a friend said. Humongous taxidermies polar bears in glass cages, a sculpture of a salmon school swimming upstream made of a thin green glass slivers, paintings high up above your head of Native American tribes of Alaska, and a life sized taxidermied moose for size comparison with many other cool things to see that represent Alaska. We ate at the Norton Seafood House and the food was great! (terrific clam chowder) Sparky jumped on every photo opportunity to remember Alaska, much to Eldy's chagrin. But he's such a good sport!

And that, family and friends, is our Alaskan holiday visit...made all the more special by the quality unit we received from the Great Alaskan Holiday team, including a repair job that required a special visit from a tech, (thank you, James!) that went above and beyond the normal business hours to ensure that we could still have our vacation. We'd like to give a shout out to Alaska Airlines employees at the Anchorage hub, Denise and Betsy, who treated us as if we were first class passengers even though we weren't. (Eldy needed a little extra assistance with his bags and walking after hip surgery recovery..he's not completely there yet) Not to forget, we want to thank the wonderful managers we met at the KOA, who really made our last few days' stay special by caring about their campground. AND, if you are going to fly, we highly recommend Alaska Airlines out of Chicago to Anchorage. There is more legroom on Alaska in coach than on any other airlines, or so they say. We paid a little extra for premium seats in coach for even more legroom, to endure the six hour non-stop flight back to Chicago, and it was well worth it!

We hope you enjoyed our tour of Alaska, geared more towards the nature side this time...We hope you will continue to check back now and then to see what we are up to! So-o-o..We will see you down the road.....Bye for now, Alaska 2024.....

Eldo and Sparky

Alaska 2024 RVing in Alaska- Part 3-Day 6, 7, 8

view from KOA campground-Resurrection River

KOA playground

Day 6... We moved from the Seward municipal city campground over to the KOA outside of the town of Seward, AK at midday. The Resurrection River runs right along the front side of the campground, just across the street. What a campground! Lots of amenities--a wonderful ship playground for kids, a gaga ball pit (a hot Indiana kids' game played at all the schools, kind of like a contained, low throw dodge ball game where you have to smack the ball with your hand and try to hit a player with the ball, below the knees. The ball bounces off a hexagonal wall pit adding geometry angles and a bit of strategy. It's a little bit like handball only in a very small contained area. Lots of action in a small space, and the kids love it.) The hot showers are AMAZING, and the shower floors are heated! The bathrooms are super clean and modern.

KOA patio deck for all campers

The sites are beautiful, level and gravel....some have Adirondack chairs with artificial turf, and they are improving sites with laying cement pads with bricked in fire pits. There is a very complete RV store with all kinds of goodies in it, the staff is amazing, and concierge services are provided if you want to try a lot of different activities in the area like: dog sledding, kayaking to the Aialik Glacier and lots more. AND--there is an active eagle's nest near the front of the RV park. We really enjoyed watching the eagles take turns watching over an egg. It was determined that there was one egg due to a fellow RVer who had a drone, and who very respectfully kept its distance as to not alarm the eagles.

Sparky walked the town in the afternoon and visited a quilt shop. She bought two quilting kits as souvenirs to make later. She really wanted a moose one, but there weren't any as attractive as the bear and the whales. These patterns are from Alaska quilt designers, so truly representative of the state.

She went looking for more murals and here is another one...They are all over town. The whale mural used to be three painted blue whales. The winter weather did a number on them, so the store owner wanted them replaced with something very similar so here is the updated, more weather resistant newest addition.

Later in the afternoon, we paid a visit to Exit Glacier at the Kenai Fjords National Park, which was just five minutes down the road. Sparky tried to hike the Harding Fields Ice Trail. That is an amazing trail with 40 glaciers in the immense ice fields. She managed only a couple of miles with her knees because all the boulder and rock scrambling was just too much for these 73 year old knees. It's an 8.2 round trip if you go all the way to the ice fields, and there are some shorter hikes that lead to beautiful views along the way, like Marmot Meadows. The visitor's center warned of a mama bear and her cub spotted in the area just three days before, so there is a chance you might see wildlife, but there were lots of people on the trails today, so mama has probably moved on....

Sparky did sign in at the Harding Ice Fields trailhead, just in case problems arose later. You never know....a bear or a moose might be in the area! Sparky documented her knees for posterity, lol...They will be officially 74 years old next month, haha. So much for posterity, they throw those sheets away, but it was fun to say she was there!

It's a bitter pill to swallow when you realize that you can't do what you used to do, not mentally, because you think you can, but physically because the body is telling you NOPE! Even with all the cycling Sparky had been doing beforehand, all that steep climbing was just too much for the knees! She could barely walk the next day....Sigh....

Tonsina Creek hike

Day 7...After some painkillers and ice the night before, Sparky thought maybe she'd try a hike right outside Seward, called the Tonsina Trail, a very popular trail with the locals. The drive to get to the trail starts right outside the Marine Museum in Seward along the Resurrection Bay heading towards Caine's Head State Park and goes a few miles before getting to Lowell trailhead. The moderate 3.4 mile out and back trail starts out on a vehicle shared road with hikers (minimal traffic from residences), then ventures off into the woods with a lot of switchbacks. Trailhead parking is 5.00 because it is part of a state park, but Eldo had driven the rig and dropped Sparky off and went and parked elsewhere, so off she went. It had rained a lot, so the trail was muddy and slippery, but beautiful, with views of the mountains on the left through spruce and hemlock trees. 

You had to cross the Tonsina Creek early on, to keep going on the trail. It was fun to watch families coming through and how they navigated the rocks and rushing water.

Sparky did not do the entire hike, due to incoming tides near the end of the trail where it comes out on the bay, but crossed two bridges on the way there, for two miles in and two miles back out. The views were spectacular once you got through all the muddy switchbacks. It was perfect temperatures for hiking, in the mid fifties and overcast a bit. She met families, dogs and quite a few people along the way, it's a popular trail. 

For dinner that night, we decided to try the Seasalt Grill, downtown Seward, which we mentioned earlier, was excellent, but expensive. Sparky would like to mention that the hamburger was weird. Weird, as in a different kind of meat. It was listed as a hamburger, but had the most different taste to it. There was a lot of mention of reindeer meat on the menu, perhaps it was a reindeer burger, but we'll never know, because she didn't ask. Fourteen dollars for onion rings, and they were good, but not THAT good!

Day 8...Sparky's knees were all fired up again, after all those switchbacks yesterday, so after watching the eagles fly back and forth from the nest in the morning, we decided to drive back to Exit Glacier one more time and Sparky would hike the easy handicap accessible Exit Glacier trail. It's a one mile paved/compressed gravel loop and FLAT. It was misting enough rain that a raincoat was warranted. Nice easy trail and great views. (Thank you! said the knees.) Not sure which hike these guys were going to do, but fantastic that they are going to do it.  There's also another Exit Glacier hike that is a little more of a challenge, only because of slick rock surfaces, but very little elevation change and great views as well. 

Note: It's more than a half mile paved walk to get to any of the trails before you are actually on one of them, so figure a mile in and out just to get to and from the parking lot. This is the view from the regular Exit Glacier hike, the most common one people usually pick.

Here you can see visitors walking the glacier trail towards Exit Glacier.

Sparky saw PLENTY of moose poop on both trails--some old, some fresh, so they are definitely around. And just for the record, here is what moose poop looks like, haha. Bear scat is smaller, darker, and rounder in case you were wondering. (They weren't, laughs E.)

In the afternoon, we decided to go for a drive looking for moose as we had not seen enough and Sparky was seeing more moose poop than moose! We decided to drive 20 miles north on the Seward Highway and if we didn't see any, we would turn around and head back to camp. About 17 miles out, we look to the left in a marsh, and there was a mama moose and one baby. They were super close in the marsh next to the highway, just getting out of the water, but headed for the woods. Eldo parked right away just past where we saw them, Sparky hopped out and jogged over to the marsh, and they were gone. But we both got to see them very close by and were super happy!

Tomorrow we leave for Anchorage to fly back home. One more Alaskan blog and then we will be in summer mode back home in Indiana.   See you down the road....

                               

                                 Eldo and Sparky

Alaska 2024, Part 2- Day 4 and Day 5

We sure do love Alaska!

Alaska 2024--Day 4...We decided to take our time getting to Seward and drove to Cooper Creek Landing South campground on the way to Seward at mile marker 68 to boondock for the night. Cooper Landing is a very small town, population 224, but swells in the summer due to the amazing fishing available in the summer. One of our goals this trip was to stay less at expensive campgrounds and boondock more. SCORE! 

Cooper Landing South, AK

This campground had a rushing creek that looked more like a raging river just at the back of our site. There was a little path down to the river from the site. It was another USFS (United States Forest Service) campground, so fee for the night with a senior pass was 11.00. No hookups, but we were doing great with our water supply and propane. We had a great campfire with no one else around. Sites were very far apart and level. We could run our generator which we needed it as temperatures were in the thirties for that night. We encountered a few mosquitoes but nothing we couldn't handle. We had a wonderful campfire that night.

Day 5....Our next destination would be Seward, a distance of 48 miles from Cooper Landing, easy peasy.  The drive there was uneventful except we did see the ravages of the Swan Lake forest fire (caused by lightning) that happened in 2019. It burned from June that year until fall.The fire burned 170,000 acres and was considered a megafire. It was awful to see the damage. 

We also saw extensive moose fencing along the way through the Kenai wildlife refuge. It was very interesting to see not only the high high fence line, but moose "jump out" points. Guess there were so many moose car crashes they had to come up with something to reduce the number of collisions. A big moose can STEP over a 4 foot fence easily. Not sure how these work, but the idea is that IF a moose gets on the road side of the fence, the "gates" steer them into the corridor where they jump down below...they can exit this fencing from the roadside, but cannot come through it to get to the highway. Or so they say....They have also constructed a couple of corridors that go underneath the highway at some points.

Since it was too early to check into Seward (1:00 PM) we drove to the Exit Glacier trailhead. There was bear poop in the middle of the highway, but we had yet to see a bear anywhere. Sparky hiked to the glacier on the Exit Glacier easy trail hike. 

Because that was pretty easy, she then decided to hike the primitive Resurrection Bay trail. That was much harder and a little scary going it alone. Sparky met a hiker who said there was a lot of fresh bear scat. He had his dog with him and it didn't seem to bother him about the scat, but Sparky did not have bear spray and didn't want to chance it. Even though he said he saw a moose about a half mile further up the trail. A mile in on that one, and back out was enough for the day. She hiked a total of 7.8 miles today. Even with regular biking before the trip, the knees were complaining!

We planned to stay at the city's municipal RV lot right on Resurrection Bay for two nights. (63.00 a night, not on the water). It's just a gravel parking lot on the bay. If you have a front row site right on the bay, it's fantastic. If you are in the middle of the lot or towards the street, not so much, and it fills up quickly and tight all around you on the weekends, as the locals come in to camp.

River next to us set up on the wrong side, sigh...

Walking along the path along the bay

When we first pulled in, there weren't many rigs around us and we had a nice view of the bay, even though we were in the middle section and middle rows (#434) of the campground. There is a nice walk way for everybody down at the water front. The weather was cloudy and rainy...One thing about Alaska weather, it changes from minute to minute. One minute it's very cloudy and raining, the next minute the sun is trying to come out. We settled in and Sparky checked things out. Well, I'll be! If it isn't our neighbor with the donkey wheel cover, from Homer, following the same travel route! He's got a prime site on the bay. 

Sparky LOVES all the murals in Seward. They are all over town, some of them are Native American stories with artists' illustrations about the Raven and its significance in their cultures.

Downtown Seward

There is so much to see in Seward...the harbor, the murals, the cute shops, the bay, the marine museum there, the Iditarod sculptures of two men, Jujiro Wada and Alfred Lowell, who worked on establishing trails and the Iditarod route throughout the Seward area....

Jujiro Wada, Iditarod pioneer & renowned dog musher

Sparky LOVES the library facade in Seward. It's made of iridescent tiles that change colors throughout the day, depending upon the angle you look at it and the changing position of the sun. It reminds her of the Aurora Borealis, something we've never seen up north, but most certainly is on our bucket list for sometime in the future, maybe!

At the side of the library is a beautiful little garden, lovingly tended, and there are sculptures that have changed in the past several years that weren't there the last time we visited. Sparky LOVES these fish, they look like spawning salmon swimming upstream. Here is one of them at the left, and a photo of all them...very cool!

What made Sparky's downtown excursion more interesting, is that all of a sudden, the police were swarming everywhere and blocking off the streets surrounding the library. There was a BOMB THREAT at this beautiful library! False alarm but upsetting all the same to see this happen in a beautiful harbor town. 

What else can you see in Seward? A cute, Alaskan guest house....

Magpies...everywhere...Boy, are they noisy, and their bird chatter is like they are having a conversation...They don't sound like usual birds chirping, that's for sure. Sparky understands better the expression, "chattering like a magpie" after hearing these birds!

If you are lucky, you might see a Steller's Jay, one of the most beautiful Alaskan birds. Sparky saw this one at the Exit Glacier visitors center in Kenai National Park.

We tried a couple of restaurants in Seward which were very good but very expensive...Gold Rush Bistro and Sea Salt Grill. How about 24.00 for a simple hamburger and fries? Eldo's favorite--fish and chips--33.00. We didn't dine out much this trip as we found the prices a little daunting.

Seward Municipal Campground

Sparky met a little buddy while out walking. She loved his sweat shirt so much she asked his mom if she could take his picture. She said sure! In five minutes, Sparky knew who all his cousins were, where and how long they were staying and everybody in his family, including the dog. He was really cute! (Sparky is a kid magnet, don'tcha know? explains Eldo).

And in Seward, there are beautiful flowers blooming this time of year...These are elephant's-ears, also known as Siberian tea or winter blooming bergenia. They were gorgeous!

We were supposed to spend two days there, but got so socked in on all sides with RVs that we no longer had a view of any kind. One neighbor pulled in in a big motorhome right next to us, the wrong way. She was supposed to back in, and have all her "living area" (rugs, chairs, etc.) on the other side of her rig from us, which is the correct way to camp. But she had to have a view, she said, so she pulled in forward so her front window overlooked the bay, moved her picnic bench over to our living side, set up her rug and chairs inches away from us and thought that was ok, even though she fussed about her hookups because her cords were too short and she had to pass them under her rig. For a seasoned RVer, she knew better, but even after Sparky had a kind discussion with her about why her cords weren't reaching and how and where everybody's living space was supposed to be, (she knew perfectly well she parked and set up on the wrong side) she wouldn't consider that she was being rude by intruding on our camping space. With several kids and a dog right on top of us, no view, dirty bathrooms and showers, we decided to move a day early to a different campground, the KOA outside of Seward. Wow, what a difference!

Beautiful spacious sites, amenities of all kinds, beautiful showers and bathrooms, and an active bald eagle's nest right outside our door in the campground. Yes, it's a bit expensive, 93.00 a night, but the facilities were amazing, and the KOA was much closer to Kenai National Park and Exit Glacier. We loved it so much we extended our stay there for three days and that's where we would end our Alaska trip before heading back to the airport.

More hiking trails coming up, a nicer stay, with more news on our last couple of days in Seward...See you soon!

                              Sparky and Eldo