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Sunday, August 29, 2010

On down Interstate 15

We have moved down the interstate stopping at Helena, Mt for a night and stocking up at their Walmart. We were thinking of visiting Yellowstone NP but Ken looked up the weather and it said it was going to rain and temps were going to be in 20's at night so we made new plans. We are tired of being cold and want some sunshine and warmth.
So we continued down the interstate and have stopped here Idaho Falls.
We are staying here for a couple of nights.
Ken lived here when he was in the Navy, we looked for his old house but it is gone and he couldn't find any of his old landmarks.
Tomorrow we may drive over to the Tetons.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Montana

We crossed into to Montana the 25th and have been enjoying another one of our beautiful National Parks. Is this place famliar to anyone?It is the Many Glacier Lodge in Glacier National Park, we are not staying here but at the KOA St. Marys Glacier Park the most expensive RV park we've stayed in.
We've had sunshine and a couple of warm days to enjoy the awesome scenery. GNP is losing it's glaciers, at one time it had 150 now there are only 25 and it is predicted they will be gone in 2020. So if you want to see glaciers here come soon.
But it is still an awesome place, wish we were staying longer to walk a few more of the trails, we did a couple a very short ones.

This guy is trying to decide if he should be on the path!

We have seen Mt. goats every day, a grizzly and cub from across a lake and the cute ground squirrels and chipmonks.

We are heading further south tomorrow.

More photos of Glacier NP on Flickr.



Sunday, August 22, 2010

Goodbye Alaska

We have left Alaska after a few fun days in Skagway. We had no Internet connection there so that is why you have not heard from me in a while.
We rode the White Pass/Yukon train, took in a fun show about 'Soapy' Smith and the Gold Rush Days and did alot of shopping.
Skagway is the jewelry store capital of Alaska mainly because of the cruise ship trade, there can be anywhere to 5,000 to 10,000 people visiting the shops that have come off the cruise ships.
We had a great time in Alaska, learned alot about our 49th state.
It is a beautiful place to visit and if you can please do, don't wait til you are old like us it would have so much more fun to see it by kayak, foot, bicycle, or just a fishing boat. It is an outdoormans paradise!!
There are 100,000 glaciers, 70 volcanoes, more than 3,000 rivers and 3 million lakes, there are 6,640 miles of coastline and that is not counting all the islands coastline. There are National Parks, State Parks and trails for bike, foot, horse, ATV's, snowmobles and dog sleds.
The culture is varied from the native Alaskans, the Russians and the pioneer spirits from the gold, oil and homesteaders.
The wildflowers are beautiful, there is no poison ivy, or oak.
There are no ticks or chiggers to worry about when hiking just mosquitoes, flies, gnats and bees, lots of bees.
There are no snakes to worry about just a few bears, moose and bison in some places.
There are no house sparrows, few pigeons, no starlings but lots of ravens.
We saw alot but not all that we would have liked to, we would have liked to visit the Arctic Circle, maybe Nome, travel the inside passage, visit Glacier Bay NP, visit more of the islands and view the northern lights. Guess we'll just have to go back.
We are now back in Dawson Creek, remember Mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway. We are retracing the same road we took up and the rain is following us. Dawson Creek was in a draught with much of B.C. having wildfires as we travel through it has been in light rain. Rain B.C. desperately needs to stop the fires.
I will be trying to add more photos to my Flickr site.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Juneau

We had a nice day to visit Juneau Friday, it was partly sunny and warm.

The trip over was a little cool, we saw sea lions, whales and on the way back we probably saw the same ones.Juneau is where most of the cruise ships stop but we were lucky only one docked Friday usually there are 6. It is hard to imagine what the tiny streets look like with 6 boats letting crowds out.



Saturday was beautiful, sunny day and we explored the state parks in Haines. Of course,we had to watch the bears again, Mama is teaching her cubs to fish. The fence is called a weir where the fish and game department force the salmon thru one opening so they can count and tag them, good easy spot for the bears to find dinner.

Monday we are putting the RV, car and us on a ferry and going to Skagway, Ken figures the cost is almost the same if we drove the 300 plus miles over.

Haines celebrated their centennial this afternoon with a street party and a town photo. We went down and watched the action and had a free hamburger and hot dog and sampled some of the good stuff the towns folk brought.
Oh, yes, it was another sunny day and the warmest we've had must have been in the 80's.
On to Skagway tomorrow.




Thursday, August 12, 2010

Haines

What a beautiful day, sunshine all day we haven't had that for months.
We had no problem going thru Canadian customs yesterday and none going thru the US, we keep hearing of these stories of the agents going thru everything.
The road to Haines is awesome!!!
We drive along the edge of Kluane National Park, Canada's NP every corner there is a Kodac moment. Unfortunately I was shooting thru the RV window most of the time and getting reflections.
Haines is very picturesque, so far our favorite place.
Had my first salmon pita sandwich, very yummy, and watched the brown bears and cubs fish for salmon.
The internet is good but have only 15 min. free time.
Going on a cruise to Juneau tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Chicken!!

This is downtown Chicken, AK just a little tourist stop that relies on the Taylor Hwy traffic, which is also known as Top of the World road most of which is gravel.
This summer with all the rain the road has been washed out, not once but 3 times and one life lost on it, so this little spot is trying to hold on with the little traffic, like us, who visit from Tok. (The road to Chicken is mostly paved, the otherside to Canada is gravel.)
It started out as a gold mining town in the 1930's, the classic story Tishsa takes place here. It is about a bush teacher, I haven't read it yet but you know I will. We couldn't see the old school house, it's on private property and seen by tour only.
We picked up our pack of mail at the Tok post office today, we had it sent to general delivery we needed our new car tags.
We mailed a couple of packages out, Canada does not like certain Alaskan made gifts taken over the border, things made with marine animal skins, animal bones or fossils and we did purchase a few with the above so we shipped them home.
Tomorrow we cross the border and stop who knows where on our way to Haines, AK.
We need to go thru Canada to get to Haines and then again to get to Skagway.
I did get a few new pictures on my Flickr site please visit.
Until next the post.....??

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Watching....

A cloudy day, a pleasant day!
We watched salmon spawn, we watched a parade, watched the video on the Good Friday earthquake (free), walked thru a museum, did a little shopping and did a little bear watching.
Just a typical day in Valdez, Alaska!!!I think we both really like Valdez but we are moving on tomorrow.
I'm going to try a put a couple of videos on Flickr, the internet is working pretty good tonight.

LuLu Belle

Some charter boat had a good catch. On our cruise Sat. the afternoon started out partly sunny and by the time we returned it was misting but it was a good day for a cruise.
These are the icebergs from the Columbia glacier, there are so many that we couldn't get up to see the glacier it has been 6 years since they have been able too. So it is a very active calving glacier and one of Alaska's largest.

We did see wildlife, these sea lions were just a few basking on a shore of an island, we saw a mother whale and her calf, a couple of puffins, Dahl porpoises, sea otters and a couple of harbor seals. I did get some good photos of the whales and a video which I have been trying to post on my facebook but the internet is not working very good.
This morning it is very cloudy, can't see any of the mountains, but it is not raining so it may be museum day.




Friday, August 6, 2010

Valdez

We moved on to Valdez, what a beautiful drive pass glaciers, thru a canyon and pass waterfalls.
We are staying in Bay View RV park on the edge of town.
Here's a few interesting facts on the town;
Valdez is where in 1989 tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline oil terminal is across the harbor.
It is Alaska's northernmost ice-free port.
Cruise companies take tourists into Prince William Sound to see whales or fish for salmon.
(We are taking a cruise tomorrow to see glaciers and wildlife.)
In 1964, the Great Alaska Earthquake, and an accompanying tidal wave, destroyed Valdez. The town was moved to a new and safer place.
The annual snowfall in the city is over 25 feet.
The first Alaska highway started here to Fairbanks.
Population is just over 4,000.
This weekend they are celebrating how the town got started during Alaskan Gold Rush with parade and other activities.



This is part of the Kennecott mine with the Kennecott glacier in the background from our drive into Wrangell-St. Elias NP a couple of days ago.
After our first night in Glennallen the people at the RV park tweaked their internet, made it secure so secure we couldn't get on again.



Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Sunshine!!!!

We had a beautiful afternoon, sun and warm temps around 70 it felt so good.
We left Anchorage around noon today, it was misty there and as we crossed the mountains the sunnier it got. We are now in Glennallen at the Northern Lights RV park it has nice woodsy spaces and a Internet I can get on, I just don't understand it I can get on in the boonies but not in Anchorage or Wasilla. This is Wrangell Mt. range as we drove into Glennallen. We took a drive after parking the RV to get photos of the mountains as we may not have another sky like this.
The Wrangell range is in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest national park in the U.S. We will be spending a couple of days exploring what we can of it. There are only two roads in, both are gravel. We plan on just trying one that goes to Kennicott a mining ghost town 60 miles into the park.
We did catch up with my cousin in Anchorage and had a nice visit at his home on Mirror Lake and Dennis you'd be so jealous of his hanger/garage. (We're jealous of his awesome view, I'll post a pic on Flickr.)