4 August 2016 - Boat Tour of Kenai Fjords National Park

The standard tour routes shown. Seward, the starting point, is at the very top, at the end of Resurrection Bay. Holgate Glacier is the at the mid- left, below the "D" in Fjords, and Aialik Glacier at the top center arm, above the "P" in Park.

We opted for the 7.5 hour boat tour to the Kenai Fjords National Park, with Major Marine Tours. 

View from the upper stern deck of our tour boat while still at the dock

Our assigned seats were in the first row facing the front windows of the top deck - pretty nice! For the first 2 1/2 hours, although the skies were overcast, we could see the mountains fairly well. We saw most of the wildlife of the cruise during that time as we moved down Resurrection Bay – sea otters, eagles, harbor seals, sea lions, and a mountain goat while we were still in the bay. The captain strayed from the usual cruise course to go around the north end of Fox Island and around Cape Resurrection into Day Harbor, where orcas had been sighted. We did see the orcas surface a number of times, but not long enough for photos. A family of 4 adult and 3 juvenile mountain goats were visible high on the rocky slope, but are hardly visible in the photos. All along the way we saw many sea birds, mostly tufted puffins and common murres.

This sea otter looks like he wants to ask us why we're disturbing his nap. Otters are common in Resurrection Bay - Tom saw several just a few feet offshore from the walking trail by the RV park.

Waterfall and colorful rocks along Resurrection Bay west shore

Looking toward the islands at the south end of Resurrection Bay - another tour boat ahead

Mountain goat perched high above - how did he get there? More importantly, how will he get down?

Stellar sea lions basking on the rocks. With the warming of the ocean waters, the schools of fish that the seals and sea lions eat have diminished, and those remaining stay deeper down. Both seal and sea lion populations are declining as a consequence.

After a very bouncy passage in the Gulf of Alaska to get to Aialik (Eye-al’ick) Bay, we tucked into Three Hole Bay because a humpback whale had been reported. We never saw it, but a few other passengers thought they did. The fog had rolled in, and visibility was very limited. By the time we got to Holgate Glacier, we could barely see the top of the glacier. It and the larger Aialik Glacier have retreated quite a bit over the past century, and soon will be Piedmont glaciers, not connecting with the water, instead of the tidewater glaciers that they are today. 

Surprise Glacier, just to the left of Holgate Glacier. Called Surprise because it is not visible on approach up the bay until one is right at Holgate Glacier.

Holgate Glacier is about half a mile across

Ice melt gushing from underneath Holgate Glacier.

Twin waterfalls coming down from the  Harding Ice Field atop the Kenai Peninsula near Holgate Glacier

We saw a few small splashes of ice dropping off Aialik, but no significant calving.

Just a small part of Aialik Glacier, which is a mile across at the base

Close up of the top of Aialik Glacier, showing the strange patterns of unevenly melted ice.

A stitched together composite of 3 pictures taken from the same spot showing the whole width of Aialik Glacier. Its transformation to a Piedmont glacier is evident in the patches of rock showing along the base.

We again looked for the humpback whale on our return trip to Seward, and were rewarded with a few glimpses of its back as it swam along feeding. The rest of the trip was disappointing, as the thick fog had settled in down to the water so that all we saw was gray! The national park ranger on board the boat gave a running commentary on the animals we were seeing and on the natural history of the area, including a few jokes that were almost painfully contrived, but got chuckles anyway. As we neared Seward, he made quite a ceremony of awarding Junior Ranger pins and certificates to the children on board who had completed a workbook with information and questions about the sights of the day.

26 July - 7 August - Denali  National Park to Seward, AK

One last picture of Denali NP- Mountains at sunset, looking south up the Teklanika River toward Cathedral Mountain.

26-29 July – Wasilla/Palmer, AK

The drive from Denali to Wasilla was uneventful, with mostly good roads. The Palmer/Wasilla Elks Lodge has a number of 30-amp electrical hookups, but water available only at one faucet. The Lodge is on the north shore of Finger Lake, with views toward the Chugach Mountains, which are quite beautiful.

View from the parking lot at the Palmer-Wasilla Elks Lodge. Finger Lake with Chugach Mountains

We drove back to Houston to visit with Tom’s cousin Steven Aldrich and his wife Hazel. Hazel has a large garden that needed some serious harvesting and clean up, as she has been preoccupied with caring for Steven, who has advanced lung cancer. On our last day there, we returned to help harvest peas, and Tom did a fair amount of weeding and removing spent plants – it was fun for Barbara to get a garden fix, and Hazel rewarded us by fixing us a nice grilled steak meal, with veggies from the garden.

We visited the Musk Ox farm in Palmer, where a young woman took us on a guided group tour of the facility, explaining its history and the place of the musk oxen in Alaska history. The extremely soft and warm underfur from these animals, called quivut, is provided to native Alaskan women, who knit caps, scarves, hoods, and tunics from it. The wool is lighter, warmer, and stronger than even pashmina. The lovely items are for sale at the farm, but are extremely expensive.

Female musk ox

Female and her calf

Adult male musk oxen

We also visited the Iditarod Trail Race Headquarters and viewed an interesting film giving the history of the Iditarod race. Much of the film was a defense against those who say it’s cruel to “make” the animals participate – from what we have seen in Fairbanks and here, these dogs want nothing more than to run in harness. Outside the center, we were able to hold some sled dog puppies who seemed to be about 3 or 4 weeks old. They were very sleepy, probably from being handled so much, but very cute and soft.

30 July-2 August – Eagle River Campground, Chugach State Park, Anchorage, AK

We arrived at the Eagle River Campground after a short, 43-mile drive from Wasilla. The drive would have been even shorter had we not missed the unmarked new turn into the park, twice! The road has recently been realigned and lengthened, but Google maps has not caught up, nor has a sign been posted. We can’t make a u-turn just anywhere, so ended up driving back to the previous freeway entrance then back around.

As with most state and provincial parks, the Eagle River Campground is dry camping. The sites are nice, and some are long and level enough for us. As has been the case since we arrived in Alaska, we had mostly cloudy conditions with periods of rain. We walked a nice trail along the Eagle River, until it narrowed so much and had so many bushes that seemed attractive to bears that we turned back.

Big log jam in the Eagle River

Our good friend from histotechnology days, Sue Rajek and her husband John live in Eagle River, and we enjoyed dinner at their home, then a hike and two lunches with Sue – she is in much better shape than Barbara is! The dinner she made for us was the first time we’d ever had moose – she made “moose birds” – strips of round steak wrapped around bacon and onions and braised. It was really good! After dinner John built a fire in their back yard fire pit and we visited into the evening.

On Sue’s suggestion, we visited the Alaska Museum in downtown Anchorage, which has numerous displays of artifacts from the various Alaska native groups on loan from the Smithsonian in DC. Unfortunately, the Alaska history portion of the museum was closed for renovation. We wandered a bit around the downtown area, searching for t-shirts with embroidered, rather than printed, Alaska logos. There’s so much junk out there for tourists to buy! We finally ended up with polo shirts with small embroidered logos.

Sunny Aldrich, the wife of Steven's son Jay, came over one night to talk genealogy with Tom - Sunny has done quite as bit of research into the Aldrich line, as has Tom, so they had a great deal to discuss. Sunny's daughter came with her, and Barbara enjoyed a walk over to the river with her while the genealogists talked on!

On our last day at Eagle River, Sue came over to see the motorhome, then drove us north to the Thunderbird Falls trail head. It’s only a mile back to the falls, but portions of the trail are quite steep. The falls were quite pretty, very full from all the recent rain. We went down the steep trail to the creek, but were unable to get to the base of the falls without wading in the high water.

After the hike we were rewarded by Sue with lunch at the Eagle River Ale House; Barbara’s bacon mac and cheese was such a large portion it fed us for lunch the next day too!

Thunderbird Falls from the viewpoint across the creek

Barbara and Sue Rajek at the creek, with the base of Thunderbird Falls in the back right

3-7 Aug – Seward, AK

We awoke on 3 Aug, our 14^th wedding anniversary, to bright sunny skies, an unusual occurrence of late. The drive from Eagle River to Seward was as spectacular as advertised, with sheer mountains, rushing water, and pretty lakes.

Mountains across Turnagain Arm

Mountains and wild flowers along Kenai Peninsula

Hanging glacier along the Seward Highway

 We arrived at the City of Seward Waterfront RV park at about 1:00 pm – early enough to get a 50-amp electric and water site facing Resurrection Bay and the Chugach Mountains. The view from the motorhome was stunning. A nice paved walking trail follows the bay into downtown. We stopped by the visitor center and made reservations for a Kenai Fjords boat tour the next day - more about that in the next post.

The view straight across Resurrection Bay from our motorhome at Waterfront Park on Aug 3.

The same view from our motorhome on Aug 4.

Friday the 5th was another overcast, sometimes foggy, sometimes rainy day. We spent some time at the library checking e-mails, etc., and in the afternoon visited the Alaska SeaLife Center. Lots of fish, and displays about the marine ecosystems of Alaska. We were there at feeding time for the Stellar sea lions, who put on quite a show in return for their fish – it wasn’t a staged show (a la Sea World) with rows of seating, just two workers tossing fish and giving hand signals as we watched from the railing above while the sea lions jumped on and off the rocks and waved their flippers. Some of the tufted puffins in the sea bird section put on a funny show, flapping, twirling, and splashing water all over as they bathed. One pair of the red-legged kittiwakes was quite raucous as they fed a noisy chick; we kept ducking our heads as the kittiwakes flew close overhead, often dropping stuff we really didn’t want in our hair.

We had a nice visit with a new member of the Newmar Kountry Klub Fulltimer’s chapter, Bo Sharp and her visiting friend Pat – we talked our way all through dinner hour nibbling on appetizers and sharing our experiences. We look forward to seeing Bo again at the International Rally in Pueblo. As we were visiting, we saw that the large cruise ship that had been at the Seward dock was backing out into the bay, then turning 180 degrees to head out to sea. Watching this huge ship turn under its own power was fascinating:

Backing out from the dock, which was to the left

At mid-turn, with the bow of the ship facing us at Waterfront Park

On its way, being followed by a small fishing boat

We had planned to drive out to the Kenai National Park visitor center at Exit Glacier, and walk the mile out to the foot of the glacier, but with persistent rain and a fairly stiff wind, we stayed in and read our books instead! We felt sorry for the soggy tent campers:

Camping in the rain at Seward Waterfront Park

23-25 July 2016 - Denali National Park

 After dumping our tanks and taking on water at the Chena River Wayside State Recreation Area, we left Fairbanks heading south on the George Parks highway to Denali. As has been the pattern, we had a mix of rain and sunbreaks all the way. The steep-walled Nenana Canyon just north of the entrance to Denali was quite impressive.

After checking in at the Wilderness Access Center, we dropped our car off in the overnight parking area at the visitor’s center and drove the 29 miles into the park to Teklanika Campground. The 14.5 miles to the Savage River are paved and open to all park drivers; the 15 miles after that are narrow dirt and gravel. The earlier rain had settled the dust on this stretch, but when we arrived at the campground our rig was the dirtiest it’s ever been. We had plenty of sites to choose from in this 53-space park, as we arrived fairly early in the afternoon. We ended up 2 sites down from another Newmar Dutch Star!

Our filthy home!

 The next day we rode the park shuttle bus up to the Eielsen Visitor Center, 66 miles into the park, with stops at several viewpoints. Our driver, Tracy, provided a running commentary that made the trip quite enjoyable. Our only disappointment was that, as expected, Denali was shrouded in clouds, and we could not see any of the really high mountains. That said, the photos tell the story better than words:

Teklanika River just south of the campground

The first bear we saw along the way - he was quite far away up on a hillside

Polychrome Glacier viewed from the Polychrome Overlook. We stopped here on the way into the park, but not on the way back due to bear activity.

Another view from the Polychrome Overlook; if you click to enlarge the photo, you can see why it's called polychrome.

A moose in the shrubs; he was also quite far from the road.

View up the valley toward Denali. If the mountain had been out, it would have filled the entire space above the farthest mountains in this picture.

Looking south toward Muldrow Glacier (not visible) from the Eielson Visitor Center. Mt. Eielson on the right, with all of the larger mountains hidden in clouds.

At Eielson Visitor Center

A sick-looking caribou standing on a gravel bar in the Toklat River at the Toklat River Ranger Station

Looking up the Toklat River

Rain approaching over the Toklat River

The 3rd bear we saw, on a ridge right by the road. He had been wandering through the Polychrome Overlook area, and had come down to the road to knock over the orange cones marking a small repair site.

The same bear browsing his way down the roadside.

View to the south back near our campground.

 In retrospect, we wished that we had planned to stay a few days at the Riley Creek Campground at the park entrance, in order to hike some of the trails in that area - no marked trails are around Teklanika Campground, and walking along the rocky river bank was hard work.

19-22 July, 2016 – Fairbanks, AK

The Chena River flows right through downtown Fairbanks, and the Tanana is the large braided river on the south side of town.

The Elks Lodge in Fairbanks sits right on the Chena River as it flows through the historic downtown area. The sites are very narrow, with 30-amp posts obviously installed before the days of slideouts, but by parking in every other spot we had plenty of room. We pulled in facing the river, and were entertained by all the large logs, trees even, that were being rapidly washed downstream due to all the rain that had been falling here and in the mountains. The Lodge is open daily for lunch and two nights for dinner, and has showers and a washer and dryer available to campers.

Elks Lodge in Fairbanks - at the end of the building is an indoor driving range, so golfers can keep up their skills during the winter! Motorhomes are parked beyond the lodge.

The view from our front window of rafters on the Chena River (and the coal-burning power plant across the river). We saw rafters only on our first day in Fairbanks - after that there was so much large debris floating rapidly down river that people would have been in danger.

 The lodge is walking distance to the very nice Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor’s Center and to the restaurants of downtown Fairbanks. When we asked about the Discovery III paddlewheel boat cruise, the visitor center host called for us and made our reservation for that afternoon. As in so many places we’ve been in Canada and Alaska, bright flowers are cheerfully abundant in beds and containers around the downtown area.

Barbara and Shelby at the antler arch outside the Visitor's Center - the arch is made up of moose and caribou antlers.

The Discovery III cruise down the Chena River to its junction with the Tanana River was informative and interesting. We were amazed at the number of very large, sumptuous homes along the river. We were lucky that the rain held off during the 3 hour cruise/tour, as it rained most of the time that we were in Fairbanks.

The Discovery III  - we sat in the front row on the bow (out of sight to the right) - chilly, but good vantage point

Susan Butcher's daughter shows off the family's sled dog training center as the boat held  its place in the river.

"Wild caribou" on the banks of the Chena near the junction with the Tanana - that turned out to be domesticated reindeer kept in the Chena Native American demonstration village. 

The reindeer returned to their pen. It's hard to imagine that they grow those huge antlers every year.

One of the Butcher center's employees answered questions about the sled dogs, which are actually mongrels with the genes of many different dog breeds.

One of our young native interpreters at the Chena village, modeling a fur coat worth >$25,000. The hood is lined with wolverine fur, which does not accumulate snow and ice, so keeps the wearer's face from freezing.

One of the many large homes along the banks of the Chena. We wondered how much it costs to keep them warm during the winter - or maybe they move into the little house on the left (or go to Arizona)?

The Fountainhead Antique Car and Costume Museum was a great place to visit on a rainy day. They very graciously welcomed Shelby to tour with us - we're always happy when she is allowed to accompany us. The museum has more than 50 perfectly restored and operational antique vehicles that are displayed along with representative clothing from each time period. Large wall posters give the history of automobiles and roads in Alaska. I've only included a few photos here - if anyone wants to see more antique car photos, just let us know and we'll send them!

The oldest car in the collection, an 1898 Hay

1919 McFarlane 4-passenger Sport Touring car, originally owned by Wallace Reid, the "American Valentino of silent movies." The McFarlane was considered the American Rolls Royce - Al Capone owned two!

1936 Packard, the newest car in the collection

Poster on the museum wall: September 28, 1911 - Enroute on a  100,000 mile durability run in an Abbot-Detroit (Bulldog) car, taken in Skagway, AK in front of an Elks Lodge.

The Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus had interesting displays about the history of Alaska and the natural history of the area. We did think that the $12 admission price was a bit steep for what the museum presents - maybe we've just been to too many museums in the past month!

The Pioneer Park in Fairbanks houses a number of older building that have been relocated here and are now either museum displays or retail establishments. A small train takes visitors on a narrated loop around the park, and there is a large children's playground. We did not partake in the Alaska Salmon Bake, as the weather wasn't conducive to outdoor eating, and we're not really fans of big buffets.

Lulu the Great Dane greets visitors from atop this table outside one of the Pioneer Park buildings. She apparently spends all day hoping someone will give her a few pats as she stands on her table.

 We ate out twice in Fairbanks, and were happy once. We had high hopes for Gambardella's Pasta Bella after seeing a parchment baked salmon with white wine and capers on their on-line menu. It was not on the menu at the restaurant, but our waitress said they still make it, so we ordered it. They must bake them in their pizza oven, and we think they forgot about them, as the parchment paper was charred, and the salmon grossly overdone. We probably should have sent them back, but didn't. Our last night in Fairbanks, we walked over to Big Daddy's Barbeque. Tom's ribs were excellent, and Barbara's pulled pork sandwich had so much meat on it that we made two more sandwiches for lunch the next day. It was very tender, nicely smoked, and as good as anything from North Carolina, although not quite so succulent as the ribs in Whitehorse!

Next edition will be Denali National Park.