The Great Alaskan Holiday Part 4--The Final Days

 Day 10--Sparky hikes the Mount Healy Overlook Trail, it was not far from the Denali Visitor's Center....She took a right at the train tracks instead of a left and got on the wrong trail. It was 300 steps down and on another trail and asking some hikers along the way, before she realized the trail she wanted was BACK up those stairs and the other direction, so back she went! The Mount Healy Trail travels part way up Mount Healy, a small mountain overlooking the entrance to the park. It's a steady mild uphill climb, then gets really steep near the top. It is NOT a loop trail, and is about 2.7 miles one way, with a 1700 feet elevation change, so Sparky got a good hike in today.

Mama Moose and babies at Riley Campground entrance!

Grizzlies 2021 tour bus trip

Day 11--The bus tour inside Denali National Park...it was FANTASTIC  as always...We have always seen grizzly bears (this time right on a hill right next to the bus!) moose, willow ptarmigan (the state bird), caribou, and mountain goats. Today was no exception, along with some new species we had not seen before--mew gulls. Along with the AMAZING scenery, we learned some new facts about the wildlife in the park. 

1.Mew gulls eat mice, then fly back to their nests and regurgitate the food to their young. EWWWWW! 

2. Hiking the tundra is difficult. It's moist ground and you can sink up to your waist sometimes.

3. Moose eat 15 out of every 24 hours. 80% of moose calves don't make it thru their first year. Moose are bigger than you think they are!n This we knew having seen moose up close and personal this time and times before. You do NOT want to encounter a mama moose with calves with trying to get close to get a photo. That is VERY dangerous and the moose will charge you. If you get close to ANY moose, they could charge you.

4. Grizzlies PRIMARILY eat vegetation! They eat fruits, berries and grasses mainly. They are omnivores which means they will eat meat occasionally like rodents or other animals such as downed caribou or moose.

5. Bighorn sheep attract a mate with the biggest horns or the "horniest" display, haha...the horns are more for display than fighting.

6. Taiga means "land of little sticks" in Finnish. The evergreen trees that you see in the national park are stunted and deformed because of the big winds and very dry air. The climate is very dry in Denali which surprised us. They only get about 15" of precipitation a year or about 2-3 feet of snow! There was an area of the park the driver called the "Drunken Forest" because the permafrost shifts the base of the trees all over the place. 

The scenery on the bus tour takes your breath away. The road the bus travels on is NARROW, one and a half lanes, it's scary if you look out the window on one side, so Sparky tries not to look. She always has visions of the road crumbling out from beneath the bus....

The bus stops several times for potty stops and photo breaks. There's the obligatory "try-on-the-antlers" look--caribou and moose antlers

and see how heavy these things weigh!

We had a wonderful bus tour, the drivers are all so very knowedgeable whether you go on the Green Transit Bus Tours, (not as complete and  full narration or guided tour information as the park tours) or the park sponsored tours. Jeannie was absolutely thrilled that she got to see this amazing place. We got back early in the afternoon, took a little nap, and decided to start heading back to Anchorage, cutting off some of the distance so we would have a little more time to sightsee on the way back and make one last stop in Seward before heading to the airport. We boondocked that night in a forested area/pullout about 98 miles from Anchorage. It was a mosquito laden area, the first really really bad experience of having mosquitoes ruin our stay. It was just one night but they swarmed in clouds, we kid you not--the quick in and outs of getting in and out of the rig let in a BUNCH of mosquitoes. They buzzed all around in and out of the coach all night and we slept poorly. We were killing mosquitoes from that one night stay for the next two days! We had not had a problem with mosquitoes the entire time we were in Alaska until that night.

Day 12--We drive to Seward on the Seward Highway by way of the Turnigan Arm, a spectacular scenic drive. 

We stopped for lots of photo ops....Trying to capture the beauty of Alaska one more time before we had to leave. The weather had turned gorgeous and so we made the most of the sunny couple of days that were our last.

The Turnagain Arm inlet has something called the Bore Tide. It's a wave about ten feet high that forms when there have been extremes in tides and the full moon is involved. People surf the tide, and sometimes the beluga whales follow the tide into the inlet to feed on the swarms of marine life that come in with the tide. You can read about the Bore Tide here: bore tide We wish we could have seen it, but the timing of our visit wasn't right. There used to be a water spigot on the Turnigan Arm drive where you could stop and fill a water jug with pristine glacier water, but we were not able to find it on the drive today. We think it's gone....On we drove to Seward....

Seward campground on Resurrection Bay

We arrived and got our spot at the Seward city campground called Resurrection Campground. It's right on the banks of Resurrection Bay in Seward. 50-55.00 a night with hookups, but no sewer, just electric and water. It was windy and COLD...but we loved it. Remember, we came to Alaska May 25th, so the warmer weather wasn't there yet. 

Seward Point on the bay

Seward is a beautiful harbor town, almost as beautiful as Valdez. Great murals on walls around town, along with Native American stories and murals, a great aquarium, great shops, a quilt shop (yay!) and good restaurants. Jeannie 1(Sparky) and Jeannie 2 (Sparky's friend, Jeannie G.), LOVED our meals. Eldy did, too!

So we highly recommend  Ray's Waterfront Restaurant. The food was terrific and of course the company, fantastic!

The view just outside the restaurant at the harbor is outstanding as well!

The Seward Library has the coolest, color changing exterior depending on where the sunlight is. As it moves through the sky, the colors on the library's facade change. Even on a cloudy day, it's amazing!

Day 13-Two days to go....and tomorrow is a travel day back to the airport....We drive to the Kenai Fords National Park right outside Seward to take the Exit Glacier hike. You can take a short hike close to the glacier, or you can take a longer hike (8.2 miles) up the mountain/glacier to the Harding Ice Fields, which Sparky decided to do. Eldo always worries when Sparky hikes alone, but hey--there are USUALLY other hikers on the trail, and Sparky USUALLY has bear spray. Eldy has bad knees and Jeannie G. is not used to hiking rugged trails, so Sparky went up on her own today. 

Eldo and Jeannie were waiting on Sparky, so we all agreed to a three hour window. An hour and a half up, same coming back down, and if Sparky wasn't back by that time, Eldo would be calling for the ranger. Deal! She had a blast hiking! Here is a makeshift section of the trail that was helpful once snow was encountered.

Sparky never made it to the top of the ice fields, but it was a strenuous climb, great exercise and the views were fantastic! Some day, Sparky hopes to go to the very end, a hike of 8.2 miles. She thinks that is one way. Whew! 

A spectacular view awaits the hiker who makes it to the end, a horizon of ice and snow. (photo from the internet)

Time to turn around and come back down.....Here is one more shot of Exit Glacier. If you look closely, you can see the tiny people who are out in the mud flats of the glacier deposits. They are just tiny little dots at the bottom between the water and the rocks to the left....The enormity of the glaciers is indescribable. You just have to see them to appreciate them. The glaciers are shrinking, most of them, and we have been so lucky to have gotten to see them in our lifetime.

And that, folks, was the last day of activities in Alaska for us. It was with great sadness, that we returned to Seward, and gathered our belongings and began to pack. Sparky just had to sleep in the upper cab bunk the last night before returning the rig. She can still climb the bunk ladder, so why not?

Day 14--traveling to the airport...We stopped along the way at Potter Marsh, in hopes of seeing one more chance of wildlife. Sparky and Eldo have seen a moose there before. It's a beautiful marsh with beautiful boardwalks, a nice, final stopping point before going back to the airport. We turned in our rental RV's back to Great Alaska Holiday and got checked back in. All was good!

The Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport is a beautiful small airport. It has Native American artwork, great restaurants, beautiful sculptures, taxidermied bears and is a very pleasant place to spend a lot of hours while you wait for your flight back to your home destination. Sparky's favorite artwork is the glass slivers panel of salmon swimming upstream and the mosaic tiled ceilings near the moose exhibit. There is often a LONG waiting time leaving Alaska for flights back home, it's just the way the airlines schedule their flights out of Anchorage. But we love the Ted Stevens airport!

taxidermied moose at the airport

It was SO difficult picking out the best photos, the best scenery, and trying to explain why Alaska calls out to our hearts to keep going back. We are not sure if we can go again, we sort of figured this was our last time because of our age and expenses (which really were very reasonable), but never say never, says Sparky! There is something magnificent about the scenery and the culture....no matter if it is raining or snowing, or it's a dreary day, the magnitude of the beauty of this wild frontier has a strong pull for us. It was even more enjoyable sharing this Alaskan adventure with Jeannie Garrett-Kelly, Spark's friend of over 40 years. She was so flexible and so appreciative of everything we saw and did, and she was in awe of this beautiful state. It was wonderful seeing Alaska again through her eyes....

We hope you enjoyed our visit to Alaska and that maybe we have inspired you to take a trip there, rent an RV, and go have the experience of a lifetime. Thanks for reading and following along with us.....

                                  Jeannie and Eldy

The Great Alaskan Holiday Part 3, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9

Here we are getting close to the end of our first week of our two week stay in Alaska, and are we getting the views and the experiences we will never forget! 

Jeannie Garrett

Forgot to mention that Valdez is a cool little town. Yes, it's for fishermen and whale watchers and kayakers, but there are cute little shops and restaurants there, too. We love the Fat Mermaid's sassy attitude, but we didn't eat there. You can see that the weather is cloudy. Yep. It was cloudy, chilly and rainy while we were there, but we still loved it! Love this Alaskan tee in the window. Pretty accurate in some Alaskans' opinions.

If you want to try kayaking, there are outfitter shops in Valdez. Guess you can kayak up pretty close to a glacier. They boat you in, and off you go in a kayak. Sparky says, "No, thank you!" Too cold, too risky with glaciers calving (splitting off big chunks) and she still remembers the time cruising where a giant slab of glacier broke off (bigger than a house, the captain said) and it crashed into the sea, causing a wave that rocked THE ENTIRE CRUISE SHIP. But guess outfitters are aware and knowledgable about those things and won't let you get THAT close!

Day 6--An early breakfast and a juvenile bald eagle posing at the docks. 

We go to leave Valdez, heading north again, and the sewer cap is stuck on the rental so bad, we can't get it off. Sparky tries WD-40. No dice. The hunky college dude in the next rig over can't get it off. A guy and an old man couldn't get it to budge. We get tools from the office and try to tap with a hammer and wrench with a wrench to get the cap off. Nope! Finally, Sparky asks one more beefy guy for help, and he gets it unscrewed like it's nobody's business. Geesh! Note to self: Road grit gets in the screw cap threads and becomes like cement. Keep sewer cap threads clean on future road trips in Alaska! 

Gulkana River Viewpoint

We head out, heading north, and drive most of the day. We boonddocked (no hookups) at the Gulkana River Spawning Viewpoint at MM 190. Jeannie and Sparky thought it would be fun to get the chairs out and have happy hour, so we did!

Day 7--We got to see the pipeline up close and personal as we were driving. Sparky and Eldo are always amazed that you can walk right up to the pipeline. You can touch it, you COULD try to climb it, but you are not supposed to. No alarms go off, no fences, it's right there.

There are LOTS of placards at the mile marker (MM) stops along the way--teaching you all about the pipeline. Sparky wrote about the facts in previous Alaska blog posts, but it is truly an engineering work of art how it was all completely privately funded, not a single taxpayer dollar went towards this project, and how the engineering of it keeps the pipeline from breaking up during earth tremors, of which there are an AMAZING number of occurrences in Alaska, you just never hear about them. As a matter of fact, there was an earthquake in Anchorage a few days after we had left there, and the residents were so blasé about it, it was kinda funny. Sort of like Floridians having hurricane parties....(SPARKY! STAY FOCUSED! reminds Eldo.) OH! Right...the pipeline...it has different kinds of construction depending upon whether it's above ground or below ground, whether it's on permafrost or tundra. You just gotta go back and read about the pipeline, it's really cool!

We saw a cool HORIZONTAL rainbow in a valley while driving, (we were so high up in elevation that the rainbow was beneath us) and we stopped at the Knotty Shop in Salcha, AK. It's constructed out of many burled beams and it's all wood. Don't miss it! Everything Alaskan, great ice cream, wildlife displays and outfitters' stuff. It's like a mini Cabelas. AND--we saw our first moose off to the side of the road. Eldy was in the lead vehicle, he saw it first. It took a week, but at last we saw one! No photo this time, but the moose photos are coming, just you wait and see! (And the moose poop photos, laughs E.)

We stopped for the night at Riverview RV Park in North Pole, Alaska. Very nice park, spacious sites and 55.95 for one night. We pull into our sites, side by side, and Jeannie's site has MOOSE POOP in the site lane! Woo-hoo! Moose frequent the area! Sparky is so excited to see this!!!! (She's a little "different", explains E. Hmmmm...Maybe that's why she was a special ed teacher for so many years?) Maybe.....

Sparky LOVES that North Pole town. All the street lamps are decorated in red/white trim, and all the street names are Christmasy. We stopped at the Christmas shop in town. It's great...beautiful ornaments and decorations (we bought a few) and you can purchase a postcard and mail it to your grandchildren from the North Pole (!) AK, so Sparky did that, too.

Day 8--We head to Denali National Park, passing through Fairbanks. It's 125 miles from Fairbanks to get to Riley Campground at Denali National Park. Sparky takes a hike on the McKinley Trail and takes the bike path on the way back. A young MOOSE is standing smack dab in the middle the bike path around the bend, munching on the bushes! Sparky waits him/her out and the moose moves on after about 15 minutes, tired of the gathering crowd in the front of her and the backup behind her. Yikes, she was CLOSE! But paid no mind to anyone around her, she was just hungry! You never know where you will see moose in the park, but you will see them! We ate dinner that night at Prospector Pizzeria and highly recommend the super friendly staff and fabulous pizza--AND the decor! We decided to go for an evening drive out to Savage River, the furthest you can go in your own vehicle unless you have special camping privileges further into the park. We saw another moose on the way back, a very pregnant one! 

Day 9--We attempt to get all three of us booked for the Denali National Park wildlife tour that lasts for about 7-8 hours on the bus, the Tundra tour. It's heavily booked and no seats available until two days from now. We decided to extend our stay at Riley Campground so we can take the tour. It's a fantastic tour and not to be missed. Denali National Park has restricted their tours and resumed a few since Covid is easing, but the buses are fully booked on all the tours available this early in the year anyway! We snag three seats for Saturday and we extend our stay at Riley without a problem. Just so you know, Riley Campground is totally boon docking, NO hookups. But since the rental had a generator and a full tank of water, we were in great shape! 

We will tell you all about the tour next time...it almost deserves an entire blog post, it's so cool! Bye for now.....

The Great Alaskan Holidays Part 2--Day 4, Day 5

Jeannie checking out the views

We are on Day 4 of our stay in Alaska. If you missed part 1, you can view it here on Blogger. The weather continued to be rainy and cold, but we were having a blast. Jeannie's words almost every day were, "OMG"...."OMG".....We were so happy she was loving her visit. she was a fabulous traveling companion and very flexible. If we had to change plans or switch gears, she was right there with us.

Day 4--We were headed to Valdez. We had run into a problem. Eldy was feeling sick. We made a fast trip by the major falls headed into Valdez and got a few photos. The drive into Valdez, through Keystone Canyon, is AMAZING! Waterfalls after waterfalls cascading down the cliffs. Even though it was raining hard, it still was so beautiful.

We landed at the Bear Paw Resort in downtown Valdez almost right on the waterfront. We had stayed here before and loved it. Site 10. It's basically a gravel parking lot, but you don't care, it's Valdez and you have the most amazing views right outside the park. It is spectacular, is it not? This is right outside our campground at the harbor, right in town.

Eldy continued to feel worse. It was obvious we were going to have to find a doctor or an urgent care center. By this time we were headed into Memorial Day weekend, and in Alaska, the stores close for the ENTIRE HOLIDAY WEEKEND THRU TILL TUESDAY. There was NO PHARMACY open within many miles. The only pharmacy there was was closed till Tuesday. There were no urgent care clinics open. The only solution was to go to the emergency room of the local hospital in Valdez and pay an astronomical fee even with insurance to get seen by a doctor and get antibiotics. Sparky called the hospital, explained the situation and low and behold, a wonderful doctor who just happened to own the clinic next door, listened to all his symptoms and our predicament about everything being closed and said, yep, you need an antibiotic. She could sell the antibiotic at her cost. We said bless you! and Sparky hoofed the 10 blocks to the hospital, (we couldn't unhook the RV easily in the park and just go drive and get meds!) The nurse met her at the door, and we got the meds we needed for Eldy and Sparky got her steps in for the day. (And some brownie points says a grateful Eldy.)

Day 5--We are still in Valdez and it's time to go for a glacier/whale watching cruise on the Lulubelle, something we had done before and found to be fantastic. Eldy was on meds and too sick to go, so Jeannie 1 (Sparky) and Jeannie 2 (Sparky's friend) headed out on the Lulubelle with Captain Fred. The next series of photos are from the Lulubelle cruise. Sparky couldn't resist the Titanic pose after she started seeing icebergs.

Captain Fred is now in his 80's but still captains the most beautiful boat for seeing wildlife and glaciers out of Valdez Harbor and Port William Sound in Alaska. 

He is a wealth of fascinating knowledge about marine wildlife, the oil industry and he pretty much discusses all of it over a 7.5 hour voyage, which can easily extend longer if he sees lots of wildlife. Captain Fred will get you up close and more personal than any other cruise ship in the area because his boat is a little smaller. This is a sea cave and we thought we were going to crash into the side of it! Jeannie doesn't look too worried, does she!?

This trip is a MUST for anyone visiting Valdez. There are a couple of other options in the area for seeing the glaciers and marine life, but we love the Lulubelle. The other cruise does not extend their time, it's a set time schedule and they head back when it's time. But not Captain Fred--if we are seeing wildlife, he stays out longer.

We saw two orca whales, Stellar sea lions, Dall porpoise, eagles, multiple glaciers, whales and speaking of whales, Sparky got the most lucky shot of all time--a humpback whale's mouth opening while feeding. All Sparky remembers is the captain saying, "He's going to open his mouth, get ready for it, here it comes...." and she just hit the camera button and this was it. She never saw the mouth in the viewfinder. Shot of a lifetime. Sparky is posting it through the camera viewfinder because she hopes it won't get stolen that way.

At one point, the captain asked if anyone wanted to drive the boat, and of course, Sparky and Jeannie both did! It was a lot harder than it looked to keep the boat straight on course! We returned from the cruise tired but exhilarated from our cruise today. Eldo is on the mend, yay! Tomorrow we get ready to leave Valdez to head to Fairbanks but not before visiting a couple of cute little places before we go. We just had to have breakfast at the Potato down at the harbor...a breakfast burrito for Sparky and and an egg sandwich for Jeannie....see you later!

FINALLY! The Great Alaskan Holiday Adventure Blog...Part 1

About time, Sparky! Here we go now....

We have been to Alaska several times, twice on a cruise. This would be our fourth time renting an RV. Eldy plans for months in advance...First he scouts flights--good times for departures and arrivals, and good prices. When he sees something very reasonable, THEN he asks Sparky, think we should go to Alaska one more time before we are too old? Sparky knows at this point, he's got good flight prices and good times to get there. HECK, YEAH! Let's go!

Our home for the next two weeks-a Minnie Winnie

We rented a 25 foot motor home from Great Alaskan Holidays. Their prices are the best, they don't gouge you on adding extras to your price list for the rental. Some companies charge you for dishes and bedding and other things. Great Alaskan Holidays does not. Their prices are the best for what you get, and they have mandatory training videos for newbies and for seasoned travelers. Their rigs have been in excellent condition and the three times we rented from them, we've never had a problem. We felt with the Canadian borders closed, that flying to Anchorage and renting the RV was the most cost effective way to visit Alaska. To drive there yourself is wear and tear on your vehicles, tire replacement probably necessary when you get back, and other worrisome things happening to your rig, like maybe a busted windshield. We opted for additional insurance to cover any windshield/rock incidents. (Bad sections of Alaskan highway are a given that are in repair mode as you travel while in Alaska in an RV.) We got the 25 foot Winnebago, the Winnie Minnie. What was even sweeter this time, was Sparky's very best friend of over 40 years, Jeannie Garrett, expressed an interest in caravanning with us to Alaska, so we enthusiastically booked our flights together and our rentals and off we went May 25th.

Day 1---We flew out of South Bend, IN airport, leaving at the wee pre-dawn hours, having spent the night in the hotel near the airport. As we left the hotel, we could hear opera music playing outside the hotel. Sparky asked the hotel shuttle driver where that was coming from? She said the local 7-11 next door plays opera music 24 hours a day to keep the loiterers away. They hate it! 

We landed in Anchorage in the afternoon....We waited for Jeannie to arrive, she came in on a very delayed flight plan so we left the next morning. Great Alaskan Holidays allows you to stay in the parking lot for the night if flight plans are messed up and it's too late to depart the day you pick up your rig. After reviewing the weather for both northern and southern routes on our rough itinerary, we decided to head north. It was going to be colder  in Denali (about 20 degrees) than the southern parts of our route later in the week! We drove to Denali State Park while the temperatures were good and got to see Denali totally unobscured by clouds. It was a beautiful sight! Here, another tourist takes in the amazing view.....

Denali in the center

We stayed at K'esugi Ken Campground in Trapper Creek, Alaska that night. This is a beautiful campground that is relatively newer than most campgrounds. The sites are big and spacious and easy to get into. Sparky took a lone hike on one of the trails, then decided to turn back after seeing a lot of bear signs, like fresh scat and berry bushes blooming.. She also saw fresh moose poop on the trail! Oh, boy! (Sparky gets excited about some weird stuff, sighs E.) This is moose poop, in case you wanted to know...(Uh, no, they don't, silly woman! laughs Eldo).

There is a beautiful visitor's center at the campground with beautiful artwork.

Sparky's friend, Jeannie

Day 2 --We spent the morning planning an itinerary. We weren't sure how far Jeannie could drive her RV, never having RV'd before, and we didn't know how soon she would tire of driving, so we were going to take our time and plan our route almost day by day, unless we knew that there was someplace we definitely wanted to make reservations for, like Riley Campground in Denali National Park. We had scored reservations for Riley campground park later in the week during our planning stages pre-trip so we headed south to Palmer on the Glenn Highway. Next stop, Mountain View RV Park where we spent the night, and had good pizza delivered right to our site! 45.00 for the night, not bad for a private campground in Alaska. It was very empty this early in the season. It's truly a beautiful view....

Day 3--driving to Glenallen...We stopped LOTS for scenic views so Jeannie could get photos. She was doing GREAT driving and got the hang of driving a motorhome very quickly. Sparky sat up front with her most of the journey to guide her and remind her of the steps when we would stop and park and how to hook up. 

We stopped at yet another spectacular point of one of the river views and we came across three Russians, at least that's what we think they were speaking. Sparky asked to get their photo, as it was cool seeing them in perspective against the mountain/river view. They spoke very good English, and were glad to oblige. They loved Sparky's photo and asked her to air drop it to all three of them, so she did! Sparky got a thumbs up on their way out....We climbed in elevation, and the weather got steadily worse. As we neared Sheep Mountain, at 2750 feet, it started to snow. And then, IT REALLY SNOWED! We were in a blizzard. Jeannie was nervous. Sparky was nervous, Eldo was nervous. But of course, Sparky loving cold weather and winter, we had to stop to get a few snow photos. "LOOK, JEANNIE, IT'S SNOWING!" Eldy called out.

The weather started to change

And how! Sparky LOVES snow....

Sparky wanted to have a snowball fight, but Eldo wanted to keep going. Her friend, Jeannie, voted to keep going, too.

We had some tough driving to get through, with the heavy snow, so back out on the road we went again.....

We stopped for the night at a very interesting place called the Ranch House Lodge RV park. The owners are working hard to restore and upgrade the park. It's one of the original roadhouses on the Alaskan Highway, and boy, did the owner have stories for us that she told over homemade  chili, served with any number of hot sauces you could possibly imagine! we laughed so hard at some of the names, and Sparky had a dickens of a time trying not to mess up the pronunciation of the last sauce on the right. You KNOW what she kept mispronouncing, right? Haha.

The roadhouse walls are original and the chinking between the logs is old army mattress stuffing for filler. That chili was a welcome meal from the cold that now enveloped the area.  Sparky bought the book the owner wrote detailing the history of the roadhouse. It was fascinating! They reused and recycled
everything! Proceeds from the book are poured right back into upgrading the park. Tomorrow we drive to Valdez. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Great Alaskan Holiday trip....Bye for now!