Month: July 2015

Valdez, AK

Valdez, AK

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We spent a week in Valdez and thoroughly enjoyed it! Valdez is a pretty small town with only one grocery store, but it makes up for its lack of “town” with the sheer beauty of its surrounding landscape.

We knew we were in for something special as we drove through Keystone Canyon oooing and ahhhing over the many glaciers, waterfalls, and ice caves! Nicholas and Alex are standing in front of Bridal Veil Falls in the left photo. We had to chuckle about the name since we’d just seen a Bridal Veil Falls in Canada too. And then around the corner there was Horsetail Falls. Valdez should be known as the land of waterfalls! Everywhere you look you can see waterfalls cascading down the mountainside!

This was our breathtaking view for the week. Not bad, right? We weren’t mad about it.

There was a great marina not far from the RV park we stayed in. I just love all of those jagged mountains behind that calm beautiful water.

Did you know the town of Valdez moved in 1964? The entire town moved four miles down the coast to a more protected part of the coast after a tsunami generated by an earthquake destroyed the original town. You can drive down to the original town site. They have some interpretive signs explaining what happened with some old pictures of what once was. You can see some of the old roads and even a few of the old building foundations and what’s left of the dock in the top picture above. The tide was coming in or we would have gotten closer.

We were in Valdez over July 4th and our RV park had some celebrations! Ever wonder what it would be like to shoot fireworks in a place that never really gets dark? I think it was about 10:30pm-ish when we heard the pops and bangs start going off. We headed outside and enjoyed the show with everyone else in the park!

our favorite thing to do in Valdez was to drive down to the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery and try our hand at fishing! We hadn’t planned on salmon fishing while we were in Alaska, but so many people asked us if we were going to that we felt like maybe we should! We got permits, geared up and had such a good time! The boys all learned to really fish with Jerl and I got to take pics and watch for wildlife! It’s a great place to fish for salmon!

They each caught something and some amazing memories were made! I’m so glad all of those people asked if we were going to fish in Alaska…we would never have thought to do this with the boys and honestly, I think it’s a memory they’ll cherish for the rest of their lives.

When we went to clean the fish back at the marina, we found out that the eagles loved to sit on the fish guts shoot with the sea gulls. Jerl showed the boys how to fillet a fish (I think just Alex was actually interested in this).

We spent quite a lot of time at Solomon Gulch. We found ourselves going during high tide to watch the wildlife. The sea lions always put on a great show! They loved the high tide when they would come right up to the hatchery and feast. In the picture above…see the dark mass toward the bottom right? Those are salmon. Hundreds if not thousands of salmon.

All of those fish draw more than just birds and sea lions… We never actually saw a bear at the hatchery. I’m not sure what these rope barricades would do to protect us from an actual bear.

In the picture above, you can see the actual fish hatchery. Love those mountains!

Some smart birds. The birds let the sea lions do all the work for them during high tides. The sea lions would come in and eat their fill while leaving fish parts. When the tide when back out the birds would swoop in and fight over all the fish leftovers. The Bald Eagles even got in on the feasting. When the Eagles would swoop in all of the other birds would scatter. It was pretty funny to watch!

Solomon Gulch ended up being one of…maybe the…favorite memory of our time spent in Valdez. We spent a lot of time hanging out there.

There was a Ranger Station just down the road from our RV park that had a waterfall behind it. I didn’t get a great picture of it…but you could see where this waterfall started all the way up at the top of the mountain! Alex and Nicholas got to put on some bear skins and play at being bears. We got to see up close the differences between the grizzly and the black bear.

We drove to the edge of town to look at the Valdez Glacier. When we got to the dirt road that takes you back to it, we found the basting zone sign. It made us pause for a few minutes. Apparently, they warn you before they blow stuff up though…so we risked it. You can kind of see the glacier there in the center of the top photo above. We couldn’t get very close to it so we didn’t stay long. They were actually there working right next to where you have to stand to see the glacier so, I’m thinking it wasn’t really very safe to be there.

The last thing we did in Valdez was visit the Worthington Glacier! It’s definitely a must see if you’re ever in Valdez!

We walked the trail all the way to the glacier where we stood in awe before having to touch it. We ventured into the cave just far enough to snap some pictures and watch the waterfall. The blue was breathtaking!

Nicholas and Alex had to have their pictures taken while they were sitting on the glacier. It’s super cold. Go figure. Ha!

When we turned around to leave we saw how gorgeous the view was going the other way too! We’d been so intent on the glacier we hadn’t even noticed it. Valdez is going on our list of places we want to revisit someday. We loved everything about it.

And just so you know…bears use picnic tables too.

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Wrangell St. Elias National Park

Wrangell St. Elias National Park

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Welcome to America’s largest National Park! We were only able to spend a couple of hours here at the Park Visitor Center as we drove through to Valdez. A person could spend a lifetime exploring the mountains and ice fields of Wrangell St. Elias NP! We really wanted to go to the Kennicott National Landmark (which is inside the NP), but it would have taken about 6 hours of driving just to get there…so we’re putting it on our “next time” list. Plus, the road to get to it is an old railroad and has been known to damage tires…we’ll definitely need to plan ahead for that kind of excursion.

In the picture above you’re actually looking at a huge mountain range …you just can’t see it because of the clouds. Just to give you an idea of how big this park really is…six Yellowstones could fit inside Wrangell St. Elias! That’s huge! Most of it is still wild and without roads or trails which can make it a challenge to explore.

The visitor center at this NP was great! It had several hands on displays for kids to actually pick up and touch. The one in the left photo was my favorite. It was really something else to be able to experience what the fur on these animals feels like. The skulls were really cool too! They had some teeny tiny skulls of bats all the way up to bear and moose skulls!

Here’s a few fun facts about Alaska’s unofficial state bird. Any guesses as to what these two containers are filled with? It gave me the heeby jeebies looking at them even though they’re dead.

And then there was this plastic container laying out on the table. Yup, that really says scat. For those who don’t know what scat is…it’s poo. I, of course, had to open it. I’m glad to report it’s not real. It looked very real and I paused before reaching in and touching anything.

There was a short path near the visitor center that wound it’s way in and out of the forest to a few overlooks. I kept peering into the forest looking for bears. I’ve heard they can be so quiet that they can sneak right up behind you and you won’t know they’re there until you turn around and see them…or they kill you.

And then there were the flowers! I love how delicate these look. I can’t get enough of these purple flowers! They’re really everywhere. I would love to get my hands on some seeds. I know a yard in Missouri they would look great in.

This is a fish wheel! We’ve seen several of them in the rivers and streams so we enjoyed the chance to get an up-close look at one. The boys earned another Junior Ranger badge! I think they’re up to eight now with two from Canada. Their knowledge and collection are growing!

Well, that’s all the time we had for this amazing National Park. We would love the chance to come back and do more exploring!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Tok, AK

Tok, AK

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Since we had to leave Haines early, we decided to drive all the way to Tok. There are around 250-ish miles between Haines and Tok and it only took us six or seven hours to drive it on some of the worst roads we’ve seen yet!

So.

Bad.

The one good thing about these roads is getting to see all of the flowers on the side of the roads! Sorry about the shoddy camera work…I’m a newb.

In between the Canada border crossing and the US border crossing we found a nice pull off with the international boundary marker. The boys were in two different countries at the same time! They thought that was pretty cool!

Tok is the first and last town you’ll visit in Alaska Proper.

We stayed in Tok for two days and didn’t do anything since Jerl was catching up on work. It was really kind of nice to have some down time. The campground we stayed at was the Sourdough Campground. It was a nice little campground in the woods, but the sites were kind of hard to get into even though they’re pull-throughs.

What we did like was the pancake toss in the evenings. Now, what we didn’t know, and weren’t really prepared for is the camp circle sharing and the fact that the owner’s sense of humor was…well…a little on the offensive side. He was trying really hard to make it fun, but came off as being too much in your face for most people there. It was awkward.

Alex and Nicholas were drafted to pick up the pancakes after people missed the bucket. Jerl was one of the few to actually get the pancake in the bucket and win a free breakfast. He and the boys went the next morning before we pulled out and collected his free breakfast.

I hope next time we’re in Tok we can spend a little time exploring.

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Haines, AK

Haines, AK

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We started our Alaskan adventure off in the small Portage Cove town of Haines. We had an amazing place to stay that was right on the water where we spent most days watching the Bald Eagles playing in the breeze.

The only problem with Haines?

The cruise ships.

When they came in to port the internet would come to a screeching halt which made it pretty much impossible for the Jerl to work. He would get up really early and try to get some done before the ship would come in and then wait until it left late that night. All that free time during the day gave us ample opportunity to do some exploring!

Haines is known as The Valley of Eagles! And Guys, there were a ton of them there! This is the best shot I got. Eagles like to fly high and are dang fast. It was hard to get a decent shot!! We drove through the Bald Eagle Preserve which is on the way into town, but we didn’t see any there. I guess we might have gone at the wrong time? That’s ok though, because we saw plenty of them around town!

We spent a few hours one morning hiking through the rain forest. Did you know that Alaska has a rain forest? We had it on good authority that bears rarely visited this area because there wasn’t a food source for them, but I was still a little nervous. I kept looking behind me just to make sure there wasn’t a bear sneaking up on us. We made lots of noise and had a really enjoyable morning hiking through a forest that looked like it was made for a movie! Fun side note…We bought two bear bells before we started our trip because people kept telling us it was a good way to avoid bears. When we got to Banff we told one of the Rangers we had them and she kind of smiled and got this look on her face before she told us that the Rangers like to call bear bells…dinner bells. The bears hear them so much they ignore them so when you’re out on the trail thinking you’re alerting the bears to your presence so they won’t get startled…you’re not. The bears will sometimes even follow the noise of the bells in hopes of food. Needless to say…we haven’t been using them. The trail we were following was very spongy between all of the roots. It was kind of fun to bounce on and see some of the closer trees kind of move. Everything was sooo green.

We hiked down to the beach and took in the view for a bit before heading back to the car. The beach wasn’t sand…it was rocks. We’d been told about Love Rocks at the RV park and so we all started looking for them while we were on the beach. Love Rocks are a grey rock with a white stipe down the middle. We found a few! 

We also went to the local fish cannery. It wasn’t in operation the day we went, but we got to walk around the outside of it a little. You can see a it in the photo above. After we visited the Cannery, we went back into town and ate at a little fish shack owned by the Cannery.

It was your basic food truck set up. Between the five of us, I think we got everything they offered. I had the halibut and the rockfish. Jerl and I both liked the rockfish the most. It was so flakey and buttery…yum! 

This raven…he was so sure we were going to feed him. He watched and danced and even tried to sneak up under the table and grab a fry from Nicholas. There were just as many (if not more) ravens in Haines as Bald Eagles, and boy, let me tell you…those birds are so noisy! And big!! They have so many different sounds. One morning our cat, Magnus, was laying on the chair watching a great big raven out the door and I swear to you, it sounded like that raven was laughing at him. I got up and looked out the door expecting to see a person there, but it was one of the ravens sitting up on the electric pole look right at Magnus. I don’t think Magnus was amused.

One of our favorite things to do was visit Alaska Rod’s. We ended up going in there all but one of the days we were in Haines. Rod and Rhonda were a wealth of information on the area and became fast friends. It didn’t hurt that we always got free samples of the fudge Rod makes. It’s hands down the best fudge we’ve ever had. I think we ended up buying a couple of pounds of it! It didn’t last long…I’m seriously thinking about having him ship us some! If you’re ever in Haines, Alaska Rod’s is a must stop!

On our quest to find some bears (from the safety of our car) we drove up to this river where they have this contraption that goes all the way across the river so that the fish are funneled into this one small opening and this guy stands there all day counting fish. Sound like fun? No? The river was really pretty…but we didn’t see a single bear.

And…of course there were the flowers…so many pretty ones, but here are my favorites. The flowers in the bottom right photo above are called Fireweed. Yep, they’re weeds…and yep, they were everywhere! But, they’re so stinkn’ pretty no one minds. This beauty in the bottom left photo above is another weed. Go ahead…laugh at my infatuation with weeds. It’s ok. I often chuckle to myself about how many flower/weed pictures I take. So, this one… you don’t want to touch. We’ve heard it called a few different names now. Wild Celery and Cow Parsnip are a couple. The oils on this plant cause severe burns when you get it on your skin and then the sun hits it. This stuff is everywhere too. I don’t know what the name of the one in the top photo above is. It’s a type of rose and we saw them in quite a few places in town. They smelled heavenly!

Nicholas got an impromptu guitar lesson in front of our RV one afternoon by one of our fellow campers! Not a bad view for a lesson! I think Nicholas was thrilled to talk and play with someone and I think the Guy was just as thrilled that someone so young wanted to spend time with him playing guitars.

We got a chip in our windshield on our way to Haines. We had a guy come out and fix it and now you can’t really even tell it was there. Several of the other campers in Haines told us horror stories of their woes on the Alaskan/Canadian roads. Bolts being sheered right off…drawers bouncing out of the cabinets…doors coming off hinges… There was a long list or really bad things they listed off. All things considered…we’ll take the little chip and count our blessings. In fact, there were quite a few of the other campers (the guy who gave Nicholas his guitar lesson was one of them) here who were waiting on a spot on the ferry back down to the lower 48. They refused to drive it. They were just done with it.

We ended up leaving Haines early so Jerl could work. We’re glad we visited Haines, but can’t really see ourselves going back.

Unless it’s to get some more fudge…and hit that food truck again!!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Oh, Canada…

Oh, Canada…

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We crossed into Canada on June 21 and spent five very long days exploring Canada on our way to the Alaskan border.

  We stayed two nights in Banff exploring Banff National Park and the surrounding area. The campground in Banff was different from what we’ve seen before. Instead of having a small driveway type of spot for each campsite, you just kind of pull up on the road and stop next to your table and hookups. It was unusual, but worked for us.

We tried to do a hike, but found a sign letting people know that a baby bear had been spotted not far down the trail only 20 minutes before we got there. So, we poked around at the trail head and decided not to take the chance since we’d so brilliantly left our bear spray back at the RV and we all know how mama bears get around their babies.

We did get to see the Continental Divide! It was pretty neat to go a few miles toward Banff and see the rivers flowing one way and go a few miles toward Kootenay and see the rivers flowing the other way.

Everywhere we looked it was like looking at a postcard or a movie set here! I think we all just walked around with our cameras in front of our faces snapping constant photos! There wasn’t a bad view anywhere to be found.

We celebrated our first night in Canada with s’mores and a campfire!

A good portion of the next day was spent at Moraine Lake. We had a great time hiking around the lake and up what felt like 200 stairs to the top of the path to get the top picture above. But with a view like that, it’s hard to complain…too much. The mountains in the top photo above area called the Seven Sisters. I guess people come from all over the world just to get that shot. I have to admit…it’s probably the most beautiful lake and mountain view I’ve ever seen! I mean, just look at the color of that water!!

All along the roads in Alberta we saw this flower. They grow in patches and clumps. I love the way they look like flames along the roadsides!

We crossed into British Columbia and started down the Columbia Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper National Parks. The views along the road were wonderful…more postcards…more movie sets!

We stopped at the Icefield Center toward the middle of the drive where you can hike up close to the Athabasca Glacier. It was our understanding you could hike up and touch it, but it was all roped off. You can take a guided tour up on the glacier, but we didn’t have time and to be honest, it’s a little pricey to just go stand out there on slipper ice in the freezing cold. You can’t walk around on it by yourself because you might fall into a hidden crevasse. The view of the glacier was better from the visitor center than right in front of it. From the visitor center you can really see the size of it!

We stopped to get a picture of Bridal Veil Falls (left photo). We found a “trail” down to another waterfall. So, of course, we had to climb out, stretch our legs and get a picture with it!

We made it to Jasper, but only had one afternoon to get all of our site seeing done. We stayed at the Whistler Campground which was right down the road from the Jasper Gondola.

The Jasper Gondola takes you about 2300 meters up onto Whistler Mountain where you can then hike another mile or so to the summit. The view was spectacular!!

The boys had to throw snowballs off of the mountain. They thought it was pretty cool that there was snow during the middle of summer!

We had to get a photo to prove we were actually there too! We’re still not over those views!

From the gondola center on top you can see the town of Jasper. I love the different colors of the lakes and river! Can you spot the rainbow in the picture above? A rain storm had just passed by.

We got half way up to the summit and this came over the top of the mountain. We pressed on thinking that it was just another shower… And then ten minutes from the summit (we were sooo close)…the storm really showed itself and it wasn’t just rain. It was a winter mix of sleet and snow and wind! We kept going since we were almost to the top…until the lightening started. The first zip of lightening had my hair standing up and a guy in front of us on the trail immediately turned around and started waving his metal hiking poles in the air as he ran as fast as he could back down the mountain. We all stood still for a minute processing what had just happened and then we all started hot-footing it back down the mountain to the safety of the gondola center. In all of my hiking wisdom, I had on the absolutely wrong pants. I’d decided to wear my skinny jeans. They look super cute, but when they get wet they shrink and cling…so I basically had to kind of waddle back down the mountain with my camera shoved into my rain jacket. Jerl sent the boys ahead and he kept trying to hurry me along as the storm picked up. By the time we got to the gondola center we were soaked and frozen, but we have a great story and memories that we’ll never forget! We were bummed to get so close to the summit and not make it.


Once we dried off back at our home-on-wheels…and the storm passed, we decided to head back out to find the Athabasca Falls. We passed by it earlier in the day and it was completely crowded, but when we got there about 9:30 pm we had the place to ourselves! It was wonderful!! The double rainbow was the icing on the cake! It’s faint, but it’s there!

The next few days were…well…a blur. We had very long days driving from one campsite to the next. We got to drive the ALCAN Highway, got some of the best cinnamon rolls ever (they were still warm from the oven), saw mountains, glaciers, rivers, and lakes…

And then there was the wildlife…Stone sheep, wild bison, and bears! We saw some moose, elk, and deer too, but I didn’t get any good pictures of them.

We entered the Yukon on the fourth day and made a short side trip to Carcross, YT.

The town was neat, but we really went to see the desert. Yup, you read that right…there’s a desert in the Yukon! The visitor center was closed…I think we got there too early. I love the totem poles and the designs on the buildings!

We strolled around the dunes and played in the sand for a few minutes, then hit the road again! We had another really long drive day as were trying to make it to Alaska.

The roads weren’t too terribly bad. We’ve actually seen worse. We had to drive down this dirt road between Haines Junction and the border into Alaska. Our poor RV is a mess!!

We’re still adding stickers to our map! This is what it looks like right now.

We spent five very long, very eventful days traveling through Canada and we loved every minute of it!

Oh, Canada…we’ll definitely be back to visit!

See y’all on the road!

 #alaskabound

Huckleberry Valley and the Hoodoos…

Huckleberry Valley and the Hoodoos…

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Today we drove from Three Forks, MT to Shelby, MT to stay overnight on our way to Alaska! The drive between Helena and Great Falls was absolutely gorgeous!

This road was cut right through the mountain range and it was really cool! In the picture above you can see a bridge we went over and how the road seems to go right through the mountains.

We crossed over the Missouri River several times. There were quite a few people out on the river enjoying the beautiful weather. This area is breathtakingly gorgeous!

I can’t remember where I found this place. It was during one of my many research stints…and really it was just a mere mention and a photo. It took us a couple of hours on the computer using Google Maps to actually find it and then figure out how to get there. So, today we got to Shelby early enough to make the 45 min drive out to the middle of nowhere to see if what we worked so hard to find was actually worth it. We drove for awhile on a dirt road that turned so narrow it looked more like someone’s driveway which made us a little nervous thinking maybe we were trespassing, but we kept going…turned a corner…and found this… And the Oooos and ahhhhs started. We had the whole place to ourselves, but there were signs of some heavy partying. Glass shards and tin cans were everywhere. It’s such a shame people go to these places and feel like they have to trash them.

The rock formations in the picture above are called hoodoos. These are some of the smaller ones. They were really fantastic! We could have spent several hours picking our way through them! In the left photo above you can see the boys in a small arch we found.

Yes, yes…I know…it’s a weed, but it’s so gosh darn pretty!! I couldn’t resist.

And this is Huckleberry Valley. I didn’t see any huckleberries…I don’t know why it’s called that…but it is beautiful!

We had a great time exploring on our last afternoon in the Lower 48 for a while. Tomorrow we head into Canada and to start our journey all the way up to Alaska!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Madison Buffalo Jump State Park

Madison Buffalo Jump State Park

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Madison Buffalo Jump was used by numerous Native American tribes for about 2000 years. Young men called ‘runners’ were trained in speed and endurance. The ‘runners’ would wear buffalo, antelope, or wolf skins and cause entire herds of buffalo to stampede off the cliff. By using logs, the tribes would funnel the buffalo to certain points on the cliff where other members of the tribe would be waiting to start the long process of utilizing all parts of the fallen animals. It’s pretty amazing to think they did all of this without the aid of horses or guns.

 We walked the quarter mile to the interpretive center where they had great signs explaining the whole process. In the picture above you can see the cliff where the buffalo would fall. There are still tons of bones at the base of the cliff where the women of the tribe would prepare the buffalo to be used as food, clothing, shelter and tools. They used everything they could.

There’s a mile hike that takes you to the top…so of course we did it! The path started off just fine until we got to the part where it took us right up the side of the cliff. That’s when we started huffing and puffing and I started slowing down to take pictures of all the pretty flowers…and to catch my breath…but really I was distracted by the flowers. No one complained when we stopped every few feet for me to snap another few pictures! The view from the top was amazing! We stood there catching our breath and appreciating the view…and the fact that the hard part was over. It’s always hard while we’re in the middle of it, but we’re always so glad we did it. Especially, this particular hike. The lease for the land that this state park sits on is up soon and there’s talk of not renewing it.


Once we got to the top of the cliff it was another quarter mile or so to the front of the cliff. The path was flat and no one complained…I’m not sure if that’s because we were all enjoying the views or because we were all still out of breath.

See that dot toward the center of the left photo above? That teeny tiny dot is the interpretive center we started at! We found a side path while we were on top that led over to a different view of the cliff.

Going down was so much easier!! Gravity really can be nice sometimes. You can see that for most of the hike we were surrounded by pretty tall grass.

We didn’t run into any of these guys…but I was constantly looking for one. We’ve been in rattlesnake country for a month now and haven’t seen or heard one. I’m not complaining.

See y’all down the road!