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.
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| 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.....
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!)
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| 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
