June 17, 2016 Bus ride into the interior of Denali NP

Friday, June 17, 2016 Bus ride into the interior of Denali NP

Today was the day we decided to go into Denali National Park and see the park by bus.  This is the only way you get to go 92 miles or less into this amazingly beautiful park.  Mike and I decided to take the 8 hour tour and Jim and Terry took the 11 hour tour.  They went 20 miles farther than us so we will compare notes when they get back.  We got up just after sunrise which was at 340am and met our bus driver at 6 am.  I was surprised to see that our bus was full. 

We didn’t even get out of the driveway when we caught sight of a female moose.  What a way to start our day.  We had paved roads for 15 miles and then we went to gravel.  Our bus driver was awesome.  He pointed out a lot of history surrounding the area and also what he saw in the way of animals.  Here’s is a list of animals that we saw today.  We have pictures of most of them.  Some were too far away for our camera to pickup.  Grizzly Bears (one a mother and 2 cubs), Caribou (more than 6), 2 Moose(one with 2 babies) Dall Sheep(5 Rams and 3 ewes and Snowshoe Hare.  This is a list of birds: 2 Golden Eagles, Willow Ptarmigan (type of grouse) this is also Alaska’s state bird, Gyrfalcon,  a Raven and her babies and a Blackbilled Magpie.  To me this was a wonderful day.  Anyone hesitating on taking the bus through the park do it!  This is the 3^rd day here and we have been very fortunate to have been able to see Denali all 3 days.  Folks here say that only 30% of the visitors to Denali see it.

Our first mammal of the day-we think that she was looking for her baby

Alaska's state bird-Willow Ptarmigan

Our mountain road

A big grizzly that was far away

This one was sunning himself on his back

Denali in all her glory

Gyrfalcon

A young raven in its nest

Dall Sheep

June 15, 2016 Travel day to Denali National Park and June 16, 2016 A quick trip into Denali National Park

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 Travel day to Denali National Park

We only had 210 miles to travel today and we are meeting up with Jim and Terry.  As we left Anchorage we could see Mt. McKinley all of the way.  It was a clear day with blue skies.  The rode for 100 miles was great but the next 100 wasn’t too bad but it had some rough spots.  We pulled into Cantwell RV Park just after Jim and Terry pretty good timing.  The campground was okay and the staff was very nice.  We have 30 amp and water.

It was nice to catch up with Jim and Terry.  We went out for a short ride to get some pictures of Mt. McKinley as we had heard that it was very seldom that you were able to get a clear picture of this massive mountain.  She is huge.  She stands over 20,000 feet tall with a lot of snow still on the top. 

We are going to scope out the park tomorrow and see what we are going to do.

Thursday, June 16, 2016 A quick trip into Denali National Park

Today we headed the 30 miles to the entrance of Denali National Park to get an idea of what we wanted to do and see. We knew that you can only drive the first 15 miles into the park, if you want to see more you have to take a bus tour. We scheduled an 8 hour tour that will take us 50 additional miles into the park and Jim and Terry are taking an 11 hour one that goes further in. We don’t like leaving Max at home for more than 10 hours at a time so we opted for the shorter tour.

After we made our reservations for tomorrow we drove to the 15 mile mark and took a short hike where we got some great shots of a couple of Caribou along a stream. On the way out of the park we stopped at the dog sled area to meet the sled dogs of Denali NP and see a short demonstration.

We were even able to get another view of Mt. McKinley (Denali) from the park.

Denali from Anchorage, thats almost 200 miles

Someone found a nice camping spot

Denali from 100 miles

More mountains and snow

Denali view from the National Park

Caribou sighting along stream

Pat says this looks like an Eagle. What do you think?

White Crowned Sparrow

Our begging Arctic Ground Squirrel

Sled Dog demonstartion

June 11-14, 2016 Anchorage, AK

Saturday, June 11, 2016 Farmers Market in downtown Anchorage, AK

After you arrive in Tok, AK you can choose to go to Fairbanks then Denali then Anchorage or the reverse since the road is kind of a loop. When most people arrive in Alaska by RV they usually leave Tok and follow the loop around but since we have to be in Anchorage for a doctor's appointment for Pat a month apart we just headed straight to Anchorage for her appointment on Monday the 13th and will head to Denali and Fairbanks and then return to Anchorage. That is why we will have two entries for Anchorage during our trip.

The market wasn’t exactly what I expected.  Yes they had local food but they had over 200 vendors selling their wares.  I wanted to buy a lot of things I saw.  It was incredible.  We picked up a few things but it still was nice to look.  There are some very talented people that do some really crafty things with wood, bone, antlers etc.

We then went to see people fishing in the river as Mike is going to try fishing on Sunday.  We never saw someone actually pull one in but did see a couple of fish already caught and getting ready to be filleted.  From what I saw you could get 4 meals out of one fish for 2 people.  I can deal with that.

Sunday, June 12, 2016 Day of fishing

Mike was up and out of the door at 5 am.  On his way to the river along a side street Mike came across a moose enjoying his breakfast.  Our campground is not in the woods it is just outside of downtown.  Just goes to show us that wildlife can be anywhere.

Mike unfortunately didn’t catch a salmon after being out in the water all day maybe next time.   The fish were not jumping out of the water.  It seemed to be a slower day for the fish and there were so many people out there trying to catch dinner.   They have a salmon derby this week every year to support the local soup kitchen so the number of people fishing was more than usual. There must have been more than 500 people along both banks and in the water.

Monday, June 13, and Tuesday, June 14, 2016

After Pat's doctor's appointment on Monday we just chilled the rest rest of that day and all day Tuesday so no posts.

Peaka Boo at the Downtown Market

Stewie

A King Salmon (not Mike's)

Fishermen on Saturday

Moose having breakfast a few blocks from campground

Fishermen on Sunday at the same creek

Our campsite at Golden Nugget RV Park

June 9, 2016 Day at campground and June 10, 2016 Trip to Anchorage

Thursday, June 9, 2016 Day at campground

Today was chore day.  The RV was in much need of a wash so Mike did this as I cleaned house and caught up on all of the laundry.  We never know what will be in store for us at our next stop.  So after lunch Mike and I decided that we would leave and travel a hundred miles or so to get a head start on the 300 mile drive again not really knowing what conditions the roads are going to be in or what construction we will run into. We left at 430 and stopped at 8.  We stopped for fuel and had something quick for dinner.  We found a nice pull off and had a very quiet night.

Friday, June 10, 2016 Trip to Anchorage

As we got within 50-60 miles of Anchorage the mountains were getting closer and bigger.  As we got upon them we started to notice more than one glacier.  No matter how many times I see a glacier it still thrills me.   I am going to have to do some research to find out the glaciers name.  The roads also were getting better thank goodness.

We started to see the roads widen and the traffic picked up.  Woohoo we were back in a big city.  We arrived at Golden Nugget Campground around noon after filling up with fuel and propane.  Nice campground.  The staff was extremely nice and welcoming.  Our site was a pull thru with full hookups.  We are still finding that 50 amp service is very rare.  So it is a learning curve for us we can’t run the coffee pot and the microwave and stove at the same time.  I have to be creative when it is time to cook dinner.

Mike and I went down town to check in with the visitors center and get a feel for this city which is the biggest in Alaska.   The visitors center was a log cabin that was built in 1957 and survived Alaska's 8.5 earthquake in 1964 without a scratch. It is kind of nice to see big buildings and blocks of stores.  Tomorrow we are going to start the day at the Farmers Market and do some much needed groceries.  Mike is also going to check out the fishing.  Today was the first day that you can fish for King Salmon.  He is just a little excited as am I.  We heard on the news that over a hundred salmon were caught in this one creek yesterday. 

Someone has a nice cabin.  Look closely right in the middle of the tree across the water.

Our road today


SOME MOUNTAINS AND GLACIERS

Tazlina Glacier

Nelchina Glacier

Another section of our road today not bad

Matanuska Glacier

AUBREY THIS REMINDED ME OF YOU

City traffic

Visitors Center

Pretty flower baskets everywhere

Nice image of Northern Lights at Hard Rock

June 08, 2016 Boat ride to Columbia Glacier, Valdez, AK

Wednesday, June 08, 2016 Boat ride to Columbia Glacier, Valdez, AK

Today turned out to be a glorious day weather wise.  Temperature was going to be in the 60’s and sunny all day.  The water was very calm as we ventured out from Port Valdez to Prince William Sound to Columbia Bay.  This was a hundred mile boat ride.  We weren’t even out of the Port when we spotted a humpback whale and then some sea otters.  We hoped that this was how the whole trip was going to be.  As we made our turn into Columbia Bay we started to see some pieces of ice.  As we went further into the bay the icebergs got bigger and more plentiful.  We saw an eagle sitting on top of a good sized iceberg completely calm as we went by.  As we got closer to the glacier the air got colder.  The glacier was massive.  Columbia Glacier is the last of the tidewater glaciers to retreat.  Since 1980 it has retreated back by 12 miles.  We got within 3 miles of the glacier which was pretty close.  Alaska has 30,000 square miles of glacier ice.  We were also told that an iceberg has only 10% of its ice and snow on top of the water.  The rest is below.  On the way back we saw 2 more humpback whales, had a couple of Dall’s porpoises swimming in front of us.  We also saw harbor seals and Stellar Sea Lions.  Here is the rest of the wildlife that we saw Cormorants, Horned Puffins, Black Legged Kittiwakes and Marbled Murrelets.  This was indeed a fantastic day.  We saw more than we thought we would.

As I stated yesterday we would probably start running into people we met over and ever this trip and sure enough we ran into George and Nancy Finlayson on waiting for the cruise. They are from Connecticut and have been fulltiming for a couple of years. Nice couple and we enjoyed their companionship during the cruise.

Our boat for the day

SOME SIGHTS OF THE DAY

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SOME ICEBERGS

THIS ONE LOOKS LIKE A LADY SMELLING THE FLOWERS

AN EAGLE JUST WATCHING US

ICE FLOATING EVERYWHERE

SEA OTTERS TAKING IN THE SUN

HARBOR SEAL DOING THE SAME

STELLER SEA LIONS

DALL'S PORPOISE OFF TO THE LEFT OF BOAT-SEE THE WHITE STRIPES

RETURNING TO THE SMALL BOAT HARBOR