Pictures

Well, my journey has come to a close. It is back to the reality of work tomorrow. My trip was intimidating, and at times frightening -- but also the most thrilling, wonderful, and rewarding as anything I have ever done.

Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, I am planning my next trip back to Alaska next year. So much yet to see and do. I intend to keep this blog going...adding info and pictures of weekend trips between now and when I get vacation time again beginning in January.

Thanks for following along...your comments were (and are) always welcome.

From Durango - Round trip to Silverton and back.

I was in the last car of this train

North Rim of Grand Canyon...road to Pt. Imperial and Cape Royal

From the lodge

From a hike I took

Friday, July 17th

I've decided to continue with traveling and will head to Durango next Friday, spend the weekend there and then head to Jacob Lake, North Rim of the Grand Canyon for a few days before descending into 110+ weather, and of course work!!

Actually, my time away from work has not flown by or dragged. It's been quite even and very, very enjoyable. The trip to Alaska will remain with me forever and to say it was exciting is just not giving it the proper verbage. I'm already saving for a return trip.

I'll add photos from my next trip next week.

Sunday, July 12th

Enjoying my time home in Colorado Springs. Rain and thunderstorms everyday...quite nice. Took my truck in and there was some damage done to the differential and I had a transfer case seal go bad. Unexpected expense, but also necessary. I spent 2 days cleaning the inside and outside of the trailer. Oh my...talk about glacier dirt.....geez, that stuff sticks like cement. I'm sure I'll be finding more for weeks to come.

I've started an album of my trip...sounds lame, but this was really something and I sure don't want to forget any of it. I'm also planning my next visit already! It is a state I want to spend more time in, for sure....

Friday, July 3rd

Been back home in Colorado Springs since late yesterday afternoon. Weather is great...thunderstorm both yesterday and today. From what I hear, the reservoirs are full. Nice for a change. Been busy cleaning everything - taking my time, in between the rain storms.

Here are a few more photos - the pipeline is quite amazing.

This one shows the pipeline going over a river.

These two are from a visitor center area in Anchorage. Has some history and lets you get up close and personal with the pipeline. Quite fascinating

Enjoy the 4th..safe travels to all who are out and about!

Wednesday, July 1

In Douglas, Wyoming and will make it to Parker, CO tomorrow where my sister lives. From there I'll head south to my house and rewind, reflect - and CLEAN. Boy, is my trailer dirty and so is the truck. You know how I'll be spending 4th of July weekend. To all my Intel co-workers, have a great long weekend. Be safe.

Tuesday, June 30th

In Billings Montana and just had a thunderstorm...very cool.

Been staying in KOA campgrounds (since crossing into the lower 48) which are very nice. Upscale in comparison to some of the places I've stayed in over the last 6/7 weeks.

More pictures from Jasper:

Wall of waterfalls.

Glaciers

Looks like this is all I can download....

Monday, June 29th

So,there's this bridge over one of the 100's of rivers I've crossed...and right in the middle of it is this bison....just taking his time and walking down the center stripe...yes, for real. The picture was taken after he got off the bridge and moved away from the line of cars, and RVs....

I know I posted an earlier photo of Muncho Lake on my way up to Alaska...but this one is much better. I camped on the lake this time and the lighting could not have been better.

In Jasper - Athabasca Falls and River

Mt Robson is the tallest of the Canadian Rockies

This one is at one of the many stops...Ann is looking thru her binoculars

Neverending beauty along the Icefields Parkway.

Made it to Great Falls, Montana. Calgary is very large sprawling city. Super clean and very green. Warmest weather I've had in months. 85 degrees when we got to the KOA in Great Falls. Heading to Billings Montana tomorrow.

Sunday, June 28th

Wow and wow (again)...Jasper is incredible. We hiked around the Athbasca Falls - thru the rain, yes, rain again. It was clearly snowing on top of most of the mountains. Just a beautiful site. Went thru the town of Lake Louise but did not see the lake - very disappointed but a large sign advised against RVs and trailers so, I did not push it. Now in Calgary - the outskirts. Real highways with crazy drivers - might just be me not used to so many on the roads. I do have lots of photos and will go thru a 100+ tonight and post tomorrow if possible. Should be in Great Falls, Montana by tomorrow afternoon. All is good...

Saturday, June 27th

Long time without wifi. Have not had any wifi for several days. Had a rough trip from Whitehorse, Yukon. The road construction that I went thru a few weeks ago is much larger and the roads much rougher. Plus lots of rain. A lodge and campground that I stayed at on the way up was out of gas and no vacancies. So, we headed down to another lodge per Milepost and it was open - 2 spots left and gas at 1.58 a liter...but no choice, I was down to 65 miles left on the tank I had. From there to Fort St. John on Thursday, no wifi, and Friday at Prince George where I had the truck fixed. Wifi but could not get it to work. $248 for the light assy and they put it in for me no charge.
In Jasper, Alberta National Park today/tonight. Unbelievable. Canadian Rockies are incredible. Completely different than Denali and much more dynamic than Rocky Mountain Natl Park. Tomorrow, Sunday we drive down Highway 93, Icefields Parkway thru Jasper and Banff Natl Parks into Calgary. Hope to stop often, hike and see all the sites and there are many.

I should be in Montana on Monday, and back to Colorado by Wednesday.

Sorry, no new pictures...won't download. All ok...later

Tuesday, June 23

Been out of wifi range. Place I stayed in Beaver Creek, Yukon (same one as trip west 2 weeks ago), did not have the wifi working.

Well, my first problem finally occured. Between Burwash Landing and Haines Junction (thru Destruction Bay - beautiful area along Kluane Lake), the Alaska Hiway is the worst. I thought it was bad going West 2 weeks ago, but going East is much worse. The gravel I can deal with - the miles of washboard is horrible. Even going at 10 miles an hour, somehow the passenger side taillight assembly came loose from the truck; dangled for miles and was melted by the exhaust. Completely ruined. I am back in Whitehorse, Yukon tonight and they have a Chevy dealer which I went right to, but they do not stock them. If they ordered it would come from Vancouver and maybe get here Thursday...not. So, I called a Chevy dealership in Prince George - the next major town I'll come to on Friday - and they have ordered it and I will go right there on Friday.

Weather has been crazy...may get down to 32 degrees tonight. Rain off and on all day. Tomorrow I will make the turn south on the Cassair Hiway at Upper Laird, British Columbia. That 500 mile highway will save me 200 miles in back-tracking. Wifi here is not strong enough to download photos...may have to wait until I'm in Prince George Friday. I don't plan on having hookups tomorrow night - plan on staying at a Provencial Park along the Cassair Hiway. Hang tight... I'll be back. All is good!

Well, I Lied....

Soltice, today/tonight is 21 hours and 50 minutes of daylight, I gave you incorrect info earlier. It is now 10:28 pm and the sun is still bright and shining. Rain stopped and our Riverboat ride, sternwheeler, was great. Learned a lot about the native people, Athabaskans - still many in the Fairbanks area with most still in villages in Fort Yukon about 130 miles north of Fairbanks (toward the Arctic Circle). Very interesting. We also met Susan Butcher's husband who still raises sled dogs with his 2 daughters. She passed in 2006 of leukemia. They gave a great demonstration using the actual dogs up close and personal. The dogs are quite amazing.

More pictures from Denali National Park:

Now, this one is definitely dorky..however, w/o the nets we would have been eaten alive by huge mosquitos.

Heading South and East tomorrow - will update with more photos when I can.

Sunday, June 21st...Soltice

Fairbanks: Population is pretty small 31,000 in the City (compared to Anchorage at 283,000), and 96,000 in the borough. Boroughs are counties. Eielson Air Force Base is here. Elmendorf was in Anchorage. Fairbanks is flat in comparison to Anchorage, and of course Denali. But still very green. Two major rivers converge here, the Tanana and the Chena. I am camped along the Chena River. Large RV Park, first one with trees in a while. Full hook ups including TV which is a treat. Going to take a 3 1/2 hour stern wheel boat tour up the rivers this afternoon. It's been raining since late yesterday afternoon. Not a downpour, but a steady rain.

All kinds of Soltice celebrations - midnight run, festivals, etc. Longest day of the year with over 20 hours of daylight in Fairbanks. Still strange, but actually getting used to daylight at 11:30 pm.

Some photos from Denali:

I'll post more later today...have to get to the Sternwheeler Boat trip down the Tanana and Chena Rivers.

Miss Me? Saturday, June 20th

Hi...no wifi in Denali. Arrived there on Wednesday afternoon. Pretty nice drive up from Anchorage on the George Parks Highway. There are so few highways in Alaska, that everyone of them is named for the "first" somebody.

Denali was absolutely fantastic, amazing and downright fabulous. (see, I'm running out of adjectives). I have tons of photos but need to get them from the camera to you.

Denali National Park and Preserve: much different from any other Natl Park I've been in. First, there is no "gate" as such, to pay your entry fee. You must go to the Wilderness Access Center and pick a plan. You can only drive in the first 15 miles of the park - total mileage on the road is 93. Everything else is by bus. You have a choice of about 4 different bus tours. Road is dirt and gravel and very, very narrow in many places. We decided on the full tour...13 hours all the way to the end. The end is an old mining town from the early 1900's called Kantishna. Wonderful history to this place. Denali NP is now over 6 million acres. The Alaska Range, 600 miles long, goes right thru it. This includes Mt. McKinley - which we could not see. In the summer the warm air from the Pacific hits the ice fields (the upper 10,000 feet are ice) and clouds are formed preventing anyone from seeing it. December is the best month. The town of Denali is about a 1/2 mile long. Not on roads, just dirt and gravel off the George Parks Highway with buildings that are only open from mid May to mid September. The road that goes thru Denali Natl Park takes 10 weeks to get ready for the tourist season. We saw, moose, grizzlies, beavers, golden eagles, dahl sheep and wolves. The park is a preserve. No human intervention at all with the land or wildlife...what a concept, huh? It is studied by the best and many discoveries have come from there. They literally let nature do it's thing - and only those who will sit on a bus can be a part of this fantastic environment.



Our driver and guide is a resident of Kodiak and was a commercial fisher person for 25 years and also participated in a couple of the Ididarod sled races. She now works the summers in Denali and raises and trains sled dogs. She's 50 - what a life!

I am in Fairbanks now. Left Denali this morning. Easy drive, 110 miles. Will stay here until Monday morning and then start the trek east and south. I'll tell you more about Denali when I add pictures later tonight/tomorrow. Wifi here seems to be working well.

More Photos From the Kenai Fjords Boat Trip

These are the endangered Stellar Sea Lions

Yes, I look dorky, but heck - it was very cold....

We are back in Anchorage after a great one day trip from Seward to Homer...what a place. Homer sits on the Cook Inlet with huge mountains off to the west. One of which is Mt Redoubt--the one that erupted in March of this year. Cold and windy and a much different town than Seward. Fishing is huge, but halibut is their fish right now. There is a piece of land that literally deadends in the water called the Spit. Some very funky, yet neat places there...Salty Dog is one of them. Homer is about twice the population of Seward - 3000 vs 6000. Both are on the Kenai Peninsula.

This may help:

We are leaving for Denali tomorrow and will stay until Sat. Then Fairbanks for 2 days and then the journey back....stay tuned...

A Few Photos from the Boat Trip

The boat tour was needlesstosay fabulous. We were out for 6 1/2 hours and saw glaciers, puffins, Orcas, porpoise and many other birds in their natural habitat. Absolutely amazing.

Ok, here ya go...a few of the 100 pictures I took

Holgate Glacier....about 1/4 mile wide and in some places 5000 feet deep. We were lucky enough to see huge chunks falling off

Monday, June 15th Exit Glacier

No words at all for today....here are a few pictures from Exit Glacier. Short drive from Anchorage and then a mile hike....

Lots more pictures, over 100 from the Kenai Fjords Boat Tour - absolutely breath-taking. I'll need time to get all these downloaded...

Monday, June 15th

Beautiful drive from Anchorage to Seward. Once settled in our motel, we met Nate (nephew). They had just come in from Resurrection Bay with 20,000 lbs of salmon. We went aboard and watched the process of removing the fish from the boat. It is then taken immediately to the processing plant less than a football field away. Salmon is processed, packaged and frozen within a couple of hours of being caught. Quite amazing...

Today, Monday - we have visited the Exit Glacier and will be leaving at 3:00 for a 6 hour dinner cruise - from Seward thru Resurrection Bay to Aialik Peninsula and Harris Peninsula. We will be seeing the Holgate and Aialik Glacier. I'll have a bunch more pictures to post later tonight or tomorrow.

From the Lucky Star - 20,000 pound catch

My sister and her son

A few pictures of our trip with the crew. They did not find any salmon - or in their lingo...did not run a set.

Saturday, June 13th

Got sister, Ann, all situated in the 19 foot trailer. Went over the do's and don'ts and spent the day playing tourist in Anchorage. They have a Market Festival every Sat and Sun until mid Sept. Most of the vendors are selling Alaska made products. Was wonderful. Visited a few more places and ended up at Moose's Tooth (the brewery). Had a great time. People here are pretty friendly. Seem to enjoy talking to us "sourdoughs" (folks from the lower 48).

Heading to Seward tomorrow for 3 days. Leaving the RV in Anchorage and staying in a motel. Will be a treat for me. Salmon fishing is down, so not sure if my nephew, Nate, will still be in Seward or have moved over to Homer.

Ann and I will be taking a boat tour of the Kenai Peninsula. I'm sure it will be cold and wet, but gotta do it.....should be some great photos. Motel has wifi so you will be hearing from me......later.

Friday, June 12th...Pictures

Taking forever to download...these will have to do for now. More tomorrow...have to get to
airport.