Month: August 2015

Portage Valley, AK

Portage Valley, AK

Y’all know I’ve got my list of what is available to do in each place we will be going. On the way to Seward is the very small hamlet of Portage Valley. We didn’t think we were going to be able to do any of the activities I’d found in the Portage area because of time and the distance it ended up being from our base camp, but on a whim on the last afternoon we were in the Seward area we loaded up and went. We didn’t get to go to Whittier (which is also in that area), but we did get to go to the Portage Lake and the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (which are the two things I really wanted to do anyway!).

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Thought y’all might like to see what traffic can be like even here in Alaska. It’s always for road work. We sat here for maybe 15 minutes waiting. Not a bad view though!

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We went to Portage Lake and the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center first. In the picture above you can see two of the six glaciers in the area. Five of those glaciers are hanging glaciers, but the Portage Glacier is a valley glacier that comes all the way down to the water. In the picture above you’ll see the Burns Glacier and the Shakespeare Glacier.

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We saw several big chunks of ice floating in the lake. We didn’t get to see the Portage Glacier up close. You have to take a boat to get there.

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The boys had to see how cold the water in the lake was. It was cold and someone may or may not have been splashed…

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We were a little disappointed with the visitor center. It was a little…lacking. There was a small museum you could pay to go through which we thought was kind of odd. So far, we haven’t had to pay to go through a visitor center. We passed on it and headed outside for a hike to the Byron Glacier.

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Byron Glacier was beautiful. We stopped at the end of the trail, but you could venture closer. We thought about it, but The Harding Icefield Trail was still too fresh in our minds (and muscles) for anyone to really want to try and climb closer.

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So, we sat on the bench and enjoyed the view and watched as other suckers  people tried to scramble up the moraines to get as close to the ice as they could.

IMGP4459We turned to leave and got another beautiful view. It’s funny how on a hike you can be so single minded….you’re only thinking about getting to the end of the trail and seeing what’s in front of you. I don’t know how many times we turn around and are just as amazed at what’s behind us too. We’ve gotten into the habit of hiking for a bit then stopping and turning around to really take in the surroundings before moving on.

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We stopped at a little turn out along the road to our next stop and found this little gem of a pond. You’ll see Explorer Glacier in the picture above. The water was that wonderful turquoise color and was as smooth as glass.

Our next stop was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center! I had been looking forward to this stop for awhile. The AWCC takes in injured and orphaned animals and works to rehabilitate them so they can be released back into the wild. It’s never their intention to keep the animals for the expanse of the animals life. For those animals that can’t be released back into the wild, the AWCC works closely with several facilities in the lower 48 to find homes.

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All of the enclosures were huge and not crowded. I feel like the animals here are well cared for. The moose in the picture above is scheduled to be released next year.

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On all of the enclosures there was the story of the animal. Why it was there, if it would be released… This porcupine was munching on his dinner.

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This big elk was cracking us up! He was snoring! All of the females were awake and watching while this lazy guy was just sawing logs.

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We walked back by later and the whole herd was up munching. Mr. Snoring Guy watched us walk by like he knew we’d been laughing at him earlier.

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These two baby elk were having some fun.

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There were a few orphaned, Sitka black-tailed fawns. They were pretty skittish and stayed away from the front of the enclosure.

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This black bear was huge! He’d just had dinner was out prowling around. The bear enclosure was the biggest there…almost 19 acres. There is a boardwalk that takes you up and over a part of it so you can see the whole enclosure. There was a brown bear enclosure too, but she was hiding. It was a hot day for the animals so I’m pretty sure she was in the shade somewhere.

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This guy wasn’t part of the AWCC, but I thought he was too pretty not to include in the post. He was scavenging in the black bear enclosure.

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The elk herds were kept in separate enclosures. The AWCC rotate the enclosures for the grazing animals. There was a field that was empty that is worked into the mix.

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At the back of the park is a boardwalk that lets you see the Turnagain Arm. We were there at low tide so we got to see the mud flats. The mud flats are very dangerous. The mixture of the glacier silt and water makes for quick sand. People go out and get stuck and when the tide comes back in…well…it’s not good. Starting in Anchorage, we were warned against going out on the mud flats. The tide here is a 20 to 30 foot tide and many people every year foolishly think they won’t get stuck.

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We had no desire to set foot on the mud flats. They were really cool to see though!

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There were four huge enclosures for the wood bison. All scheduled for release later this year. We saw quite a few of these big beasts out in the wild on our way to Alaska.

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Meet Chena the Lynx! Isn’t he gorgeous!! He and his brother Venetie have been at the AWCC since they were young kittens and won’t be released because they don’t have the hunting skills to survive.

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There was also a small caribou herd. We’ve been looking for caribou out in the wild, but so far we haven’t seen them. There have been a few places a herd was rumored to graze, but they weren’t there when we were.

We enjoyed the AWCC more than the Alaska Zoo. If you have to choose just one…I would suggest the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Day Trip To Homer

Day Trip To Homer

While we were in the Seward area we decided to take a day trip over to Homer. We had no plans of actually staying over on that side of the peninsula, but we did want to see it.

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I thought a map might help you visualize where we went. We started in Seward and went all the way around to Homer. It doesn’t really look that far, does it? We left around eight in the morning and got back just after midnight. It was a very long day, but we feel like it was worth the drive.

The first city we stopped in was Kenai.

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And, the first thing we did was get lunch. We were starving!
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We asked at the Visitor Center where a good place to eat would be and was pointed over to the Burger Bus which was within walking distance.

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The portions were big and the food was hot!

Once we were certain no one would wilt away from hunger, we set off to see Kenai.

Kenai was the first European settlement on mainland Alaska when it was colonized by Russian fur traders.

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You can see the Russian influence in some of the buildings. The church and the chapel above were the prettiest and best preserved.

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Welcome to the Cook Inlet. That big peak you see in the photo above is a volcano.

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The entire beach around the Cook Inlet was covered with fishermen.

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Alaskan’s take their fishing seriously and the birds are always near to try and steal a catch.

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We found this huge patch of fireweed in a park in Kenai. I wanted to show y’all how big this stuff can get!!

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From Kenai we went back to Soldotna. Alaskan’s are serious about their fishing, but they’re also very serious about preserving their land. All around Soldotna and several of the other towns we passed through, there are fishwalks on the banks. The fishwalks are to ensure that the river banks don’t get ruined which would cause the fish to stop going there to spawn. You can see a fishwalk in the picture above. Notice there are even stairs that lead right down into the river. The fishwalk above is right behind the Soldotna Visitor Center.

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The Kenai River! It doesn’t really show up that great in the photo, but the water is turquoise! If you look closely, you’ll see all of the fishing docks along the right side of the river. Every available space was crammed with fishermen trying to get their daily limit.

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And, of course, there were amazing flowers!

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Tell me I’m not the only one who takes pictures of flowers everywhere! Alaska is overflowing with amazing flowers. All of that sunlight does amazing things for plants!

Right in the middle of Soldotna is one of the busiest places…

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The Moose is Loose Bakery!

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We stopped in and got a few goodies to have the next morning! They were tasty…and big! The chocolate covered donut you see there…it was the size of a plate.

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On our way out of Soldotna we stopped by the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters. Above, you’ll see a life size statue of a moose. They get big! Everything in Alaska is big!!

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The little boys worked for their first Fish & Game badge. We walked down a short trail to a lake near the Headquarters as part of their Junior Ranger requirements.

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The lake was calm and beautiful. I snuck out on the dock to get the picture above. Shhh…don’t tell anyone.

We spent about an hour there and the boys completed all of the requirements for the badge.

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This is one of my favorite badges so far. I really like that’s it’s blue and not just the standard gold that all the other badges are.

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This is called Devil’s Club. We see it all over the place. It’s not a nice plant. Pretty, but not nice.

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Look at all of those thorns! And the berries are poisonous. There was an abundance of Devil’s Club on the trail to the lake.

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Our next stop was Homer!

We pulled off at Bay Crest Hill to get a view of the area.

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Not a bad view, right?

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I got a picture of the Homer Spit from our vantage point.

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We drove all the way out to the tip of the Homer Spit to get a good look at Kachemak Bay. It was gorgeous!

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We haven’t found a bad view of coastal Alaska anywhere.

IMGP4224Homer We headed back up the Spit to check out what else it offered. Now, we had heard from a few people about The Salty Dawg Saloon. Y’all know saloons are not really our thing, but we went to check it out. The boys stayed outside while we stuck our heads inside.

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There’s a story about The Salty Dawg…I don’t know how true it is…but a long time ago someone went in and left a dollar for his friend who was coming in later. Ever since then, it’s a tradition to leave a dollar. It was neat to see all of those dollar bills posted up on all of the walls and ceiling. We didn’t leave a dollar…we didn’t get anything to eat or drink there so we didn’t really feel like we should.

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There’s also a small boardwalk with shops along the Spit. They are, as you would imagine…for the tourists. We saw the highest prices yet while in Homer.

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The Spit looks flat from above, so I was surprised to see actual houses right in the middle of the Spit. I love the bright colors of the houses in front of the mountains.

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The last thing we did on The Spit was walk by the Boat Graveyard…which ended up being someone’s privately owned property. So, we didn’t get to walk through it, but we got to see some neat boats.

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The owner of the Boat Graveyard actually lived in a huge, ancient boat right there on the Spit. I didn’t get a picture of it…I felt weird taking a picture of someone’s house.

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On the way back to Seward, we stopped at Anchor Point to snap a picture at North America’s most westerly highway point.

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We stopped at a pull off not too far from Anchor Point to get this shot. It was around 10PM and the sun was finally starting to make it’s way to the horizon. There was a small rainbow above the peak on the left.

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We even saw a few moose! This shot was taken just after 11PM. Dusk for this area.

We had a very long, very memorable day driving to Homer. We missed some of the things we wanted to stop and see, but there are only so many hours in the day.

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

#myalaska

Kenai Fjords National Park

Kenai Fjords National Park

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Kenai Fjords National park is 607,805 acres of unspoiled wilderness on the southeast coast of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. There are three ways you can visit the park in Seward: 1. Take a cruise, 2. Go to the visitor center in downtown Seward and do a Ranger Walk (the Ranger Walk isn’t technically in the NP), and 3. Go to the Exit Glacier portion of the park (this is the only part of the park you can drive to). We did all three of these things! I posted about the cruise in a separate post because it would have made this post too long.

We did our Ranger Walk on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

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The Ranger Walk is only offered on Sunday afternoon and is geared toward kids. Our ranger was a college student working on her Master’s degree in Zoology. It was at this point, our 15 year old decided maybe rangers weren’t all that bad. ;-P

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The boys had a great time walking along the shore line learning about glaciers and fjords and what kinds of things Rangers do. They also earned their Fjords Ranger Patch!

We went to the Exit Glacier portion of the park twice.

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The first time we went we did the easy one mile hike to the Exit Glacier viewing area.

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The boys did the Explorer Packs on this visit. The NP lets you check out a backpack that has all kinds of activities you can choose from. Alex kept track of water temperature in different places during the hike and Nicholas identified several plants and trees. This got them the Glacier Patch!

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The trail was a great path with stairs. This was our first glimpse of the glacier while on the hike.

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This is as close to Exit Glacier that you can get. They’ve got it all roped off.

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We saw this little guy on the way back down. He’s a red backed vole. He was amazingly not afraid of us. I walked right by him on the path.

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Here’s a picture of the glacier washout. All of the water running off the glacier runs through there. People camp out there too. I wouldn’t. It’s all rocky and prone to high water. That just doesn’t sound like a good time to me.

Now, I like to keep it real for you so I’m going to tell you about the hardest hike we’ve made on this trip so far. And boy is it a doozy.

The second time we went to the Exit Glacier area we decided to do the Harding Icefield Trail. We planned ahead and brought our hike packs with water and snacks…we even brought a couple of jackets because on prior hikes we’d run into rain and cold on top of the mountain. Remember Whistler Mountain in the Oh Canada post? This hike is an eight and a half mile (round trip) hike. It gains 1,000 feet of height per mile on the way up.

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It started off great!! A gentle upward hike through the forest to the trail board where you’re supposed to check in and out so the park can keep track of everyone. The up started right after the trail board. It was still pretty gentle. We’ve decided the NP was trying to lull us into a false sense of security.

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We would hike a while then stop and rest a few minutes. The little boys decided to do the Explorers workbook (which is meant for 13+ years) this time so they could get all four of the available badges offered at this NP. They would work on it during our breaks.

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Everyone was still feeling pretty good about the hike here. We’d gone maybe a mile…but we thought we’d gone farther than that.

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The views were amazing. We would huff and puff up to a flat-ish place and look up and see things like what’s in the photo above. When they said the trail gains 1,000 feet every mile, they weren’t joking. Right around here we got to a place in the hike that had a trail marker that told us we still had over two miles left in the hike. We were really feeling it. We were hot, our legs were wobbly, and the trail was more advanced than what we had ever hiked before.

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We talked to some people coming down the trail and they assured us that the hard part was almost over. If we could just make it up the switchbacks, we’d be home free…the trail would flatten out. So, we pushed on after taking in the great view.

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The views during this entire hike were breathtaking. It’s hard to be in a bad mood when you’re surrounded by the wild beauty of Alaska. It was during the switchbacks that Jerl’s legs started cramping up and we all started to really feel the burn. If you work out, think about a leg day that you pushed yourself way too hard…that’s where we were and we still had about 2 more miles of up to go. Any normal family would have called it quits and gone back down while they could still move. Not us though. Oh, no…we kept getting told how we were soooo close and how if we made it up to this certain point it all flattens out. We didn’t’ want to wimp out so close to the finish.

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We met up with this marmot. He chirped and chattered at us the whole time we shuffled by him. He was super cute!

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We finally made it past the switchbacks and all of the huge rocks you have to get up and over. They put them cleverly on the path to act as steps…I’m sure giants have no trouble with them. By this point I was really ready to just head down. The boys were miserable, I was beyond done, and Jerl was having issues with his legs. But…we thought maybe we’d finally reached the promised “flattened out” area. We couldn’t stop now! Right?

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This is also where the landscape changed. We’d hiked up past all of the trees and shrubbery to where it’s just rock and snow. I love the way the melting snow made little waterfalls. It was so nice to be able to reach into a stream of cold water and wipe off your face. The boys loved seeing all of the snow.

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The change in the trail gave us a second wind. It never flattened out…I don’t know why those crackpots told us the trail flattened out, but it never did. Not even a little! I think they felt bad for us and were trying to encourage us to go on. Anyway, we got a second wind and the trail wasn’t quite as hard as it had been and the views…well…look at the photo above. That was the view. Jerl had to sit for a while here and told us to go on. We really were so very close to the prize.

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The boys and I went on. We all had fun slipping and sliding over the snow. The boys were amazed with all the snow and kept saying, “There’s snow in the summer!”

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We hiked up and turned a corner and came face to face with this. We were eye level with a mountain top! We marveled and guessed at just how high we really were as we hiked on.

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As soon as we started seeing snow, the boys wanted to make snow angels. They asked every time we came to a snowy patch, but it wasn’t until this patch that I felt like it would be safe enough. They took off their packs and had a good time playing for a few minutes.

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We rounded another corner and saw this. We really were surrounded by beauty! It felt kind of like we’d been zapped to another world.

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There’s a storm shelter near the top. We had maybe half a mile left at this point. We took a small breather to explore the cabin and then pushed on.

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And this…this is the reason we hiked all the way up there. This is the Harding Icefield! This icefield spawns off more than forty glaciers! It stretched on so far we couldn’t’ tell where it ended and the clouds started. It really looked like it just went on forever.

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Another family at the top offered to take a picture of us. We finally made it to the top!

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We turned around to head back down and to find Jerl when we noticed the mountain goats! There were two different herds of them just hanging out on the slopes.

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We started back down and found Jerl had made his way up to almost the top! He’d stopped again just before the last climb. When he found out just how close he was he made it up to the top too! I’m so glad we all got to see the Icefield! We didn’t stick around long. It had taken us five hours to get up to the top. Yup, you read that right…Five. Hours. Five hours for just over four miles and now we had to trek back down those same four-ish miles to get to the bottom. Thank goodness it doesn’t really get dark here.

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We made better time going down. Gravity was in our favor.

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The trail changes abruptly form rocks to this. It looks lovely, but if you brush against most of those plants, they’ll try to eat you. There was a ton of the wild celery which you want to avoid at all costs. There were also a ton of wild raspberry and rumors of a bear in the area. We never saw the bear.

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This was on our last rest when we still had two and a half miles to go. We didn’t stop after this until we got to the car. I don’t think Jerl and I could have gotten up and going again if we’d sat down. We made it to the car just before 9PM. It took us nine hours, but we did it! The boys were troopers. They were just as miserable as we were, but they didn’t whine or complain. We’re so incredibly proud of how they handled the whole hike.

So there you have it…the hardest thing we’ve done so far on this trip. We really should have turned back. I guess what they say is true, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Lesson learned.

We now know our limit. We gave the boys the day off after our hike. We didn’t do much of anything…mainly because none of us could move.

We did go back to the visitor center the next day so the boys could turn in the workbook they’d completed.

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The boys earned all four patches/badges available at the Kenai Fjords National Park!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

#keepingitreal

Kenai Fjords Cruise

Kenai Fjords Cruise

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The Orca Voyager and her crew took us out on an eight and a half hour cruise around the Kenai Fjords Peninsula. We’d been looking forward to this cruise for a long time and it did not disappoint! I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how much commentary you’ll get on this post…the pictures kind of speak for themselves, but I’ll do my best to point out what I can.

The majority of this cruise was actually in the Kenai Fjords National Park which is about the only way you can actually visit this part of this particular NP. In this post I’m going to concentrate on the cruise, but I’ll do another post specifically about Kenai Fjords National Park.

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Before we even got out of the bay, we had our first wildlife encounter. Sea Otters! They spent most of their time diving down to get food then floating on their backs to eat it.

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The landscape along the waterline was really impressive. In this little cove we found a bunch of Seals.

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Our boat Captain was an expert at getting us up close to the wildlife. The seals lifted their heads to check us out then went back to snoozing in the sun.

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Something you should know about these day cruises… There are plenty of seats for everyone inside, but only a few seats outside. Now, if I’m going to invest in one of these cruises, I want to be outside where I can get a really good view of everything. We made sure to get to the boat early then claimed a row of seats (there were only four) outside near this back corner of the boat.

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I couldn’t get over the color of the water and how the shoreline felt so dramatic. In most of the coves we went into closer to Seward there were small fishing boats. I thought the picture above would help give you a sense of just how massive some of these islands in the coves really were. I call them small fishing boats…but they were the size of an RV.

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Now, because I’m going to keep it real for y’all, I’ll admit to you…when the pod of orcas showed themselves…I was stuck in the bathroom. I could hear the Captain telling everyone where to look and talking about them, but I couldn’t for the life of me get out the door. So, I missed most of it. I was super bummed about that.

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Luckily, Charles was there with his brand new camera and snapped several great shots! Both of the shots I’m posting are ones he took.

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This is what Mr. Man looked like most of the day. I think at the end of the day he had somewhere around 200 to 300 pictures. He likes to combine them and make new landscapes for stories he’s working on.

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I lost count of all the glaciers we saw. This one was pretty spectacular the way it just went on forever.

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And then there are the waterfalls! I’ve never seen so many waterfalls. They were in every nook and cranny.

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The day started off overcast, but the farther out to sea we got, it became more of a cloud dappled sky. We would get these moments of brilliant sunlight that would make us say “oh wow!” I’m not sure how many times we found ourselves saying that. It seemed to be the theme of the day.

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This group of sea lions started calling out to us as we passed by. It was like they were telling us to go away so they could enjoy their sunny rock in peace. Apparently, sea lions are very territorial and some actually jumped into the water to try and chase us off.

It was right around noon-ish in the trip and the crew passed around a light lunch. It was nothing spectacular, but it was very appreciated and tasted really good. The lunch consisted of a chicken Cesar wrap, a bag of sun chips and a granola bar. They did a modified wrap for Charles since he’s allergic to dairy…we thought that was really great.

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This was probably the highlight of our day. We got to sit close to this glacier for a while. We heard it moan and groan and then crack.

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We got to see it calve several times! It was really amazing!

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There was ice floating in the water. The crew scooped some out for everyone to touch and feel.

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I was informed by the two Little Boys that glacier ice out of the sea is way cooler than regular ice. These two monkeys grabbed a chunk of ice that had fallen off the big one the crew brought around. The glacier ice had tons of air bubbles in it.

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If you look to the left of the picture above, you’ll see a boat that was about the same size as the boat we were on. This picture really gives you a feel for how massive this glacier is.

This glacier was the farthest out our cruise would go so after we left there, we started back toward Seward.

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We stopped by an island covered in puffins. Two different kinds of puffins! The one in the picture above is the horned puffin (I think). The other one is called a tufted puffin. These little guys are probably some of my favorites. Puffins can actually dive 300 feet into the water to catch fish. Their bones are denser than most bird bones so they’re heavier and can travel farther down into the water at a faster rate.

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See the group of birds in the picture above? Now look right in the middle of them at the dark blob in the water. That blob is called a bait ball. Groups of different kinds of birds will work together to gather fish into a tight ball to eat. Puffins will dive down and scare the fish upward while other birds will start bringing them in from a shallower depth around the sides and then the birds feast. We saw several of these and they are kind of amazing to see!

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We saw a few humpback whales. They never came all the way up out of the water…just up for a breath then back down. I did catch the tail of a momma and the hump of the calf. We stopped in this area for several minutes hoping to see more of them, but the Captain had a schedule to keep and was trying to get us to Fox Island for our dinner. He apologized for not being able to stay longer but he was afraid the Chef would get after him for making us late for dinner. We didn’t mind. Fresh, hot food sounded so good by this time! Honestly, anything hot sounded good by this point!

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This is Fox Island. We docked here and unloaded for a steak and salmon dinner!

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The dinner was buffet style. Sorry for the blurry picture, but…well…food. I was lucky to get this one shot off before grabbing a plate. We only had an hour to eat and do any exploring we wanted to do. There were some cabins on the island that you could rent.

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Here’s a picture of the dining hall. The food was great. The service was spot on. And there was a Park Ranger there who gave a presentation about Kenai Fjords NP while we ate.

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Any guesses as to what animal this skull belongs to?  It’s an orca skull! Look at those teeth!

The crew passed around freshly baked chocolate chip cookies as we were leaving Fox Island. They were still warm…

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The boys wanted to get their picture taken with Captain Eric.  He was a great Captain! He really was amazing at getting us right up close into the tight spaces so we could experience Kenai Fjords better. See those cups the boys are holding? Those are $7 souvenir cups that you can buy and get free refills in all day.

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Here’s a picture of the boys with the First Mate and the Crew! I really feel like we lucked out with the Captain and Crew that we got. They were stellar! They made the day fun and entertaining and made sure everyone had everything they needed. If y’all ever find yourselves in Seward make sure you go to Kenai Fjords Cruise and ask for Captain Eric! You won’t regret it!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Hatcher Pass

Hatcher Pass

Our absolute favorite thing to do in the Pamer/Wasilla area was to explore Hatcher Pass in the Talkeetna Mountains.

In 1906 Robert Lee Hatcher staked the first gold claim in the Willow Creek district. Gold contained in quartz veins within solid rock is called “hard-rock” or lode gold. With the discovery of the Hatcher claim, gold mining switched from panning in the streams to digging underground. In 1937, construction began on the Independence camp and mill which later became Independence Mine. By 1941, the Independence mill, camp, and mine employed 206 men and 16 families who recovered 140,000 ounces of gold before the mine was shut down in 1943 after gold mining was classified as nonessential during World War II. In 1974 the Independence Mine was placed into the National Register of Historic Places and in 1981 was dedicated as a Historic Landmark. Today, Independence Mine is open to the public to explore and learn what life was like for the miners and their families back in the 1940s.

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There are several trails and plenty of buildings to explore. We only had two hours before the gates closed so we kind of rushed through the Independence Mine.

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I always find it interesting to compare the cost of living then to the cost of living now.

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The Visitor Center closed forty five minutes after we got there so we quickly borrowed a few gold pans and tried our hand at panning for gold in the stream that ran through the Independence Mine area. We didn’t find any this time, but we aren’t giving up!

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Some of the buildings have been preserved so nicely,

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while many other buildings have fallen into ruins. It made for a very interesting hike.

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The photo above gives you a good idea of the landscape and how the Mine was dotted about the natural land formations.

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There were views in every direction.

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This is the only tunnel left. You can walk to the back of it and feel the temperature drop several degrees. I believe it was called a water tunnel.

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The train tracks had long ago fallen.

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It looks like when the Mine was closed down the residents just got their belongings and left without any thought to the supplies left in the shops.

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This is an old train. The carts could dump things to the front or to the side.

We had to hurry through the gates before they closed for the night. If you’re unlucky enough to get stuck there they impound your car and it’s a very long walk back to the RV Park.

A few days later we came back to Hatcher Pass to explore the Summit Lake State Recreation Area where you can drive to nearly 4,000 feet above sea level on a winding dirt road to be rewarded with an alpine tundra meadow. There were several hiking options. We chose the April Bowl Trail.

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The April Bowl Trail climbs up to a height of 4,811 feet.

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It was a steep, rocky climb!

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The path takes you right by a lovely turquoise tarn called April Bowl.

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Once we got a little higher, we saw more of April Bowl and noticed there’s still snow and ice around one of the little ponds. Excuse the water drops on the lens…it started sprinkling on us.

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The views from the top were stellar!

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We were rewarded with 360° views.

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On the way back down, we stopped to play in the snow.

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And, of course, there were the flowers!

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There were flowers everywhere.

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Flowers and moss, but no grass. It was really…spongy walking around the alpine meadow.

This is the final post about the Palmer/Wasilla area. We had the best time in this area and we’ve all decided we’ll have to go back to this area if we ever get to come to Alaska again.

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Palmer/Wasilla Area Fun

Palmer/Wasilla Area Fun

We thoroughly enjoyed the Palmer/Wasilla area. It was exactly the combination of being close enough to the stores we need and being far enough from the rush of the city that we like.

One of the things I’ve been looking forward to doing is learning more about the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. We were able to go to the Headquarters in Wasilla for a few hours.

The Iditarod Trail started out as a mail and supply route from the coastal towns of Seward and Knik to the interior mining camps. Mail and supplies went in and gold came out all by sled dog. The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is a commemoration of the years mushers spent running desperately needed supplies to the mining camps. You really can’t compare any other competitive event to the Iditarod. The Mushers and their dog teams have to go through a thousand miles of the roughest terrain Mother Nature has to offer. Jagged mountain ranges, frozen rivers, desolate tundras, and dense forest…lets add in the weather now…temps far below zero, winds that cause complete loss of visibility, and the long hours of darkness that make up the Alaskan winters. Sound fun? Yeah, you couldn’t pay me enough to do this race. Maybe that’s what makes me so curious about it. Why would anyone willingly do this?

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The race starts the first Saturday in March when the racers line up in Anchorage and race all the way to Nome. Every year, people come from all over the world to participate in this historic race. It takes a lot of people to make this race possible, from the veterinarians that come to check each dog to the volunteers that help man the outposts that dot the raceway. It’s been called the “Last Great Race On Earth” and it’s easy to see why.

IMGP3158While we were in the main office of the Iditarod Wasilla Headquarters, we were told that we should go play with the puppies. That, in fact, playing with the puppies is a vital part of their training because it helps them get used to being around a lot of different people. Well, OK…twist our arms…we’ll go play with your adorable puppies!

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I mean, look at that sweet little face…how could we turn down the opportunity to cuddle…I mean…train Iditarod Sled Dogs?

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We tried our best to wake them up. We passed them around, jiggled them, pet them, talked to them…and they slept and grunted through the whole thing. The boys hated every minute of it…can’t you tell by the looks on their faces?

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After we got our fill of puppy lovin’ we headed over for our turn on the sled. Meet our dog team.

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Here we are on the…er…sled/buggy. The owner actually asks if you want her to take pictures. We didn’t have to ask, we didn’t have to pay… We thought that was a really great touch. The owners genuinely seemed pleased that people were coming to see their dogs and help them train them.

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Our team was quick and nimble. One kept trying to lick all of the bushes and another one kept trying to jump over the dog in front of it. Hey, we did tell you they were in training. The Little Boys spent the entire time giggling and laughing and all three boys talked about it for days.

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We had to do a little more Sled Dog lovin’. They really are awesome dogs. I had four boys (you can see them in the picture above) who were wanting to sneak a puppy home.

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In the picture above you can see one of the older sleds used in the race.

That same day we went to the Matanuska Valley Musk Ox Farm in Palmer.

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The Musk Ox is a descendant from the last ice age which means they used to roam around with woolly mammoths and saber tooth tigers.  The musk ox is known to the Alaskan Natives as “Oomingmak”, which means “The Bearded One”.

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There was a great little museum with all kinds of touch and feels for the boys to look through while we waited for the tour to start.

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The farm had around eighty muskoxen. We got to see maybe thirty of them. Apparently, muskox are twitchy little beasties with horrible eyesight. They think kids or someone bending down to take a picture is a wolf and they act aggressively. We actually got to experience this right at the end of our tour when a momma beastie tried to protect her baby from the kiddies (and me) looking at them through the fence. We moved along quickly.

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You can see the momma beastie in the picture above…and if you look very closely you can see the hooves of the baby beastie she was protecting from the wolf/kiddies. Moms…whattya gonna do…we protect our beasties.

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In a different area of the farm, there were some juvenile muskox who were all too friendly. The boys got to feed them some tasty morsels.

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The muskox on this farm are pampered and fed nicely. Their whole purpose is to produce as much qiviut (qiv-ee-ute) as they possibly can. What the heck is qiviut? It’s the underwool of the muskox. Qiviut is eight times warmer than wool, softer than cashmere, and stronger than pretty much any other kind of fiber out there.

It also cost $95 an ounce. Littlest was extremely dismayed at this. He had been looking forward to buying some to crochet a scarf for himself. He had to settle for a $5 sample.

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We stopped at a pull-off near the Muskox Farm to feast on this view.

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

Anchorage, AK

Anchorage, AK

Anchorage is one of those towns I was really looking forward to seeing. I had grand visions of seeing moose right on the streets of the city…bears waddling around our RV park. I mean, it’s Anchorage, Alaska…it should be rugged and wild. When we were in Valdez we struck up a conversation with a couple who live in Anchorage and they started telling us how unsafe the city is. Now, to be honest, we’d heard a few disconcerting things about Anchorage before, but chalked it up to people visiting the wrong parts. Every city has good and bad parts, but this couple actually lived there. So, we changed our plans and decided to stay in the Palmer area. We’re very pleased with our decision. The RV park we stayed in is really nice. It was close enough to grocery stores but far enough from a city that we felt like we weren’t right in the middle of town. We’ve really enjoyed the Palmer area! I’ve been trying to do a post for each area we stay in, but I’ll have to break this one up into three posts!

So! Anchorage! We got to spend two afternoons in Anchorage. IMGP3120The first place we went was the Information Center. It was a log cabin! I was looking for rustic…it doesn’t get much more rustic than a log cabin. The rest of the city was, well, very city like. So, I was pleased to see at least some of my Anchorage vision was true.

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This part of Alaska is always boasting about it’s huge vegetables. They even have some cabbages planted right by the info center. I loved all of the flowers!

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There was this fantastic mural! I wish I could have gotten a better picture of it, but it was right beside a busy street.

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Every Saturday in the summer, Anchorage has Saturday Market. It’s a farmer’s market plus craft show plus vendor market. We saw some of those huge vegetables there! Squash and zucchini twice the size I’ve ever seen them!

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Totem poles are big in Alaska. Every town we’ve been in has had them. This one is the best one I’ve seen so far.

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We found a beach and had to skip some rocks. All of the beaches we’ve seen have been rock beaches. We’ve seen tons of sand here…just not at the beaches!

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There was quite a bit of graffiti at this beach, but…

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the views were stellar!!

IMGP3380The second afternoon we spent in Anchorage, we went to the Alaska Zoo! We really enjoyed this zoo. It was laid out a bit weird and some of the exhibits were empty, but all of the animals were healthy and happy and the habitats were all huge! Oh! And, all of the animals were indigenous to the Alaskan climate! We really enjoyed getting to see some of Alaska’s wild animals up close.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the zoo.

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Snow Leopard. *Picture taken by Charles

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There was an entire wolf pack.

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These two bear cubs are orphans. The zoo has an orphan center.

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Dall Sheep.

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Trumpeter Swan. We’ve seen tons of these in the wild, but we’re always driving down the road and I haven’t been able to get a picture of one.

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Polar Bear. Of course the Alaska zoo would have polar bears!! They’re getting ready to expand the polar bear habitat and it’s going to be huge! I’d love to be able to go back and see it when it’s done someday!

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Last but not least is the Bald Eagle! There were two of them in this exhibit and they were gorgeous!

Most of the animals at the Alaska Zoo are either orphaned or they were injured in some way and can’t be released back into the wild. We’re keeping a list of our top zoos. Houston still has the top slot, but Alaska is firmly in the number two slot!

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Am I the only person who goes to the zoo and takes pictures of the flowers?

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We ended our Anchorage adventure the only way any self-respecting tourist would…with chocolate. We went to the Alaska Wildberry Products store and got some chocolates made right there in the store! When you walk into the store all you smell is the chocolate from this huge chocolate fountain!

So, my overall thoughts on Anchorage…it’s the largest city in Alaska and just like any large city there will be good parts and bad parts. We saw both of these parts, but overall, we enjoyed our day trips there. You just have to be smart about where you go and when you go to some places. I wouldn’t want to stay there. We heard from several sources that there are a lot of shootings in Anchorage. We didn’t see any shootings (although we did witness a drug deal). My advise would be to stay in one of the surrounding cities (we love Palmer) and day trip into the city.

See y’all on the road!

#alaskabound