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.