We drove into Anchorage and headed straight to Costco, can you believe it ?... Filling the cabinets and the refrigerator we drove back to the Palmer area (because we didn't find a campground in Anchorage I liked AND wanted to pay their EXTREMELY high prices ) and spent the night at the Wasilla / Palmer Elks Club ($15with hook ups AND right on the shore of this beautiful lake. I just have to say THANK YOU Bob and Shirley for not only recommending that we join the Elks, but sponsoring us as well...this is one of the many things that Louise and I look back on and say "Thank You" for all the great people we have met through the Elks but also the wonderful campgrounds around the country that we have stayed at in the last 5 years. I posted our stay at the Elks yesterday but I'm going to do it again because it was one of the most beautiful that we have stayed at with only the Elks in Glouchester, Mass. ranking higher in our minds. This early afternoon we decided to leave the Anchorage area and head towards Valdez with many stops in between. One of our stops was to take a short hike (2 miles return) to see the Matanuska Glacier. The width of the ice at the end of the glacier was just over 4 miles wide but about 2 miles distance from us. There was a road that would take us to the glacier but we couldn't find it..so sorry...but maybe next time. A couple things we did find though was a truck that got in front of us at a road construction site and we had to follow for MILES on MILES... the good a out following him was he was filled with trout and arctic char. I decided that it might be kind of cool to see him "stock" a lake so when he pulled off and into a hugh mountain lake, we followed...amazing sight and adventure for us "oldies". We had also read about this high mountain lake called Lake Louise that was found after following a heavily heaving and bumpy road for 17 miles. We were NOT disappointed but we were the only ones there. This lake is AAMAZING with 2 "A's"... Oh hell, give it 3...
0 Comments
We left Fairbanks about 4 heading towards Anchorage. About 8 we pulled off to spend the night at a stste campground. It also has a great view of Denali AND is the location for a GREAT memorial for all the Alaskan World War 2 Vets... it sits about halfway between Fairbanks and Anchorage.
Yesterday we continued sightseeing in Fairbanks including a couple hours at the starting point and log house museum for the 1000 mile dog sled races each year.
We have just finish a FULL day here at this AMAZING museum, the University of Alaska Museum of the North...tomorrow, Denali
We finally passed into Alaska only to find about 12 miles of gravel. After a lite lunch we found a trail that would take us about one and a half miles into this beautiful lake (fortunately we didn't see any bears or moose, we were told to be aware as they were plentiful in the area. Then it was on to Fairbanks to catch up on laundry, washing of the truck and camper, and FB
It's Sunday and what would you expect but these pictures ??? The both of these pictures are of Catholic churches and date back to the early 1900's with a few additions later. The 1'st is an old corrugated army building, the second from a log cabin joined on to an army mess hall. This is about half way between Whitehorse and the Alaska border.
On our way into the Yukon with a stop at the Jade shop and then across the border to Watson Lake and take in the "Signpost" gallery...amazing...but unfortunately we didn't plan ahead so that we could leave one. Maybe next time. Right now we're in Whitehorse and enjoying our second day here. Tomorrow we head up to Dawson City... We are TOTALLY hooked on the Yukon and are already planing a return trip but for a little later in the "season"
On our way to Alaska day 5... We can't believe the weather so far, sun, sun, sun AND more sun with our temps remaining in the mid 60's to low 70's daytime.
First thing this morning we visited another First Nation community Gitanyow, to see their amazing totem poles. Again, their community center was closed (because the chief needed it for his office) but we could enjoy the totem grounds. A great photo op and aa wonderful experience for us. Next stop on our agenda was Stewart, BC and then across the border to Hyder, ALASKA... Just before entering Stewart we caught ourselves dazzled by the sights of Bear Glacier. Of particular interest and amazement was the "wave"like areas of the glacier. Crossing into ALASKA at Hyder was no more than driving through a "border-less" (American side) border, it's just when you cross back into Canada that you go through the border questions (although I doubt she has no more than 10-15 crossings a day). We really wanted to see Hyder even though we knew we were much too early for the bears to be in the area feeding in the river (it's almost a holiday atmosphere when the bears arrive to gorge on the salmon in July). Our destination was the Salmon Glacier some 23 miles out on a gravel road... Thank God this road bed is maintained by the mining companies so it wasn't a bad drive until we left the mines behind. Then we got into the high mountain areas with rock slides dropping onto the road, dead trees, and snow... about half way up we had to slip into low 4 wheel drive and push ourselves through the csnow and mud. Finally we got to a point were we could see the glacier down in the valley but we could go no further because of a larger rock slide that totally closed our route. Ok, time for lunch and head back to find a place fogr the night...Meziadin Lake Provincia This is day 4 and "all is well...", fact is it has been an amazing journey. We left Lk. Louise and drove beside some of the most beautiful scenery of snow capped mountains and glaciers we had ever seen. It was breath taking... Years ago we had driven to Jasper and unfortunately it didn't leave any real desire to return but now, you've got to go...Jasper is very nice with some of the best people you can be around. At this point we decided to head west and make Prince George, BC before dinner. The last two nights we camped in Provincial (sp) parks and to night, the big WM... We've been averaging about 300 miles each day with 3 to 5 stops to enjoy the sights along the way. Today one of our stops took us to a First Nation Cedar House at the Ksan Village just outside of Hazelton, BC. The village was closed (Mothers Day) but we still enjoyed the outside exhibits. Tomorrow morning we start up the Cassiar Highway, due north... Oh yes, we are still seeing lots of wildlife.
|
*Locations*
All
*Archives*
November 2016
|