Fairbanks, AK

We arrived in Fairbanks on Wednesday the 23rd. Got a nice campsite in an RV park on the Chena River and our site faces the river on one side - we‘re not cramped in between two other RVs like we have been in some of the other places. We even have a small grass “yard”. Fairbanks has a population of 31,000+, so we have all the normal “city” stuff - Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Denny’s, and all the fast food places. We’re going to be here a few days.

Thursday was spent taking care of some domestic and motorhome maintenance chores. We did some grocery shopping and got the oil changed in the motorhome along with a lube job.

Friday we went “birding” at Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. This is an old dairy that was in business from 1920 through 1966. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game purchased it in 1970 and kept it up over the years. The large fields and ponds attract lots of ducks, geese, and cranes during the migration season.

Saturday we drove about 60 miles along the Chena River out to the Chena Hot Springs Resort. This is a privately owned resort at the end of the Chena Hot Springs road and in addition to the hot springs, they have a motel, restaurant, campground, and all sorts of amenities like a massage room, and indoor swimming pool, and horseback rides. The hot springs is a large outdoor pool surrounded by large rocks to give it a natural feel. We went into the pool for awhile and it was HOT!! LaVerne liked it OK, but it was too hot for me.

Here’s a picture of the hot springs.



Sunday was a rainy day. We went to church and then later out to eat at a local restaurant.

Monday was another domestic chores day - laundry, housecleaning, etc.

And today, after a week, we moved from Fairbanks to North Pole, AK. Fairbanks was as far north as we are going, so now we are (slowly) headed home.

More Denali

On Monday, July 21st we took another shuttle bus ride into the interior of Denali National Park. This one was only a 132-mile, 8-hour round trip. We again saw lots of wildlife - Caribou, Doll Sheep, Red Foxes, several Golden Eagles, three adult Grizzly Bears and one cub, and a Bull Moose. The road was just as narrow and scary as the first time, but the scenery was still spectacular. Here’s another scenery picture.



Well, it was buy two, get one free - so on Tuesday we repeated what we did on Monday. We took another 132-mile, 8-hour round trip into Denali. Ditto on all the animals - did see one sow Grizzly Bear this time with two cubs.



Also, at one point the sun came out and pushed enough of the clouds away to let is get another look at Mt. McKinley - Awesome!



Today we finally left Denali after a week and moved on to Fairbanks.

Denali National Park - AK

We got to Denali National Park around 10:15 AM on Wednesday, July 16th. Got a nice campsite and got set up for a week. The Park Road that goes into the interior of the park is 90 miles long and automobiles are only allowed to go the first 15 miles. The rest of the park is accessible only by shuttle and tour busses. We drove in the first 15 miles to the Savage River turnaround and the scenery is awesome. The road follows wide valleys and tundra with the high mountains of the Alaska Range on either side. At one stretch of a couple of miles Mt. McKinley is visible off to the southwest - weather permitting. Guess what??? The weather permitted!! They say that the mountain is only visible about 20% of the time and that most park visitors don’t get to see it. Heck, on our first day (of seven) there it was!!



At the Savage River turnaround we saw a whole flock of Willow Ptarmigans. Here’s a picture.



On Thursday we shopped a little in the town of Denali Park which is just outside the National Park entrance and rode up the highway a little just looking at the scenery. The Nenana River runs through the valley and the road crosses it several times. Here is a picture of the river taken from the bridge just out of Denali Park.



We also rode back into park the 15 miles on Park Road to the Savage River turnaround and did a little hiking. On the way back we got our first “up close and personal” look at a Bull Moose.



On Friday we took the Wonder Lake shuttle bus tour into the park - 170 miles round-trip, 11 hours. It rained and snowed about all day and the road is a combination of dirt and gravel. It was a muddy mess! The bus was a Blue Bird school bus - here’s a picture.



Not only is the road not paved, it is very narrow - scary in lots of the places, especially when we were meeting another bus going in the opposite direction. Our driver managed to keep us on the road!

Here are a couple of pictures of the road and surrounding landscape.







Muddy, narrow roads notwithstanding, it was an AWESOME trip! The scenery is indescribable - wide river bottoms and valleys with high mountains on either side. Much of the area is above the tree line and is tundra.

Here is a beautiful scene taken from the Eielson Visitor Center - 66 miles into the park!



We didn’t see as much wildlife as we thought we would, but we did see some caribou, several Golden Eagles, Willow Ptarmigans, Doll Sheep, and three Grizzly Bears.

Here is a picture of a mother Grizzly with her cub.




Today we took it a little easier. Walked a couple of trails and LaVerne finally got to see the bird she’s been searching for - the Boreal Chickadee!! We also went to the sled dog kennels and watched the dog sled demonstration.

Cantwell, AK

We only stayed one night in Anchorage - the RV park wasn’t too good. It was mostly a gravel parking lot with the sites all jammed up against each other. The park could have been the AT&T Park - “Reach out and Touch Someone”.

On Saturday (July 12th) we moved about 40 miles north to Wasilla. Got a much nicer park for two nights - even had a small grass yard. Saturday afternoon we took care of domestic chores and went to Wal-Mart. The Wasilla Wal-Mart is the only SuperCenter in Alaska. LaVerne read somewhere that this store sells more duct tape than any other Wal-Mart in the world. It was a regular store until last year when they upgraded it to a Super Center - probably because of all that duct tape.

We went to church Sunday morning then went to Eagle River Nature Center a few miles south back toward Anchorage. Nice place - several trails to walk. The original Ididarod Trail comes through and we walked on it for about a mile. At one place a mother Common Merganser and some youngsters was on an abandoned beaver pond. Here’s a picture.



Yesterday (Monday, July 14th) we left Wasilla and moved north on AK Hwy 1 (the Parks Highway) about 175 miles to Cantwell. The scenery still remains awesome. We stopped at a couple of pull-outs where we were supposed to be able to see Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,320 ft, but the clouds were blocking the view.

Here is a picture taken from one of the many scenic pull-outs - you can see how cloudy it was.



Today we went sightseeing - rode about 30 miles on the Denali Highway and back. This is a gravel road that runs 135 miles across “Wild Alaska” from Cantwell to Paxson. It’s mostly uninhabited and transverses wide open tundra through the Alaska Range. There are many rivers and lakes and the scenery is spectacular! We were hoping to see lots of birds and wildlife, but only saw a few rabbits and a squirrel, plus a few birds.

Here are some pictures of the landscape along the Denali Highway.







Tomorrow it’s on to Denali National Park for a week.

Anchorage, AK

We left Kenai early Monday (July 7th) and moved about eighty miles south to the town of Homer at the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula. The drive on AK Hwy 1 took us through Kasilof, Clam Gulch, and Ninilchik. We checked into an RV park that is right on the Cook Inlet and got a site with a great view.

Here’s a picture of our view - Cook Inlet and the snow covered mountains on the other side.



On Tuesday we took another boat tour - this one was a “whale watching” tour. We were not disappointed. All the ones we saw were Humpback Whales and we don’t know what the total for the day was, but there were several times when we had 4 or 5 in sight - some close. In fact, one time we were so close that when the whale “blew” the wind carried it right to us - LaVerne got whale snot on her glasses and it got all over my camera lens. And talk about bad breath!!! Whew! Here are a few whale pictures.

The patterns on their flukes are distinctive and are used for identification. These two were named “Hootie” and “Hot Wings”.





We were lucky to see a couple of the whales “breach” - which is come up out of the water head first and then splash back down. I was not quick enough with the camera to get those shots. I did get a few shots of them slapping the water with their pectoral fins.

Here is a picture of one of them slapping the water.



One of the female whales (they’re called cows) had a calf. This particular youngster was a yearling and probably already weighed 12-15 tons.

Here’s a picture of the cow and calf swimming along.



Not only did we see lots of whales, but we also saw 6 different new “life” birds to add to our list - 2 different Shearwaters, 2 different Jaegars, a couple of Black Turnstones, and a Surfbird. Got a few pictures, but they weren’t that good.

On Wednesday (July 9th) we left Homer and headed back north toward Anchorage. We stopped for a couple of nights at Bird Creek State Park about 25 miles south of Anchorage. On Thursday we drove into Anchorage and did a little birding along the way. At Potter Marsh we saw another “life” bird - a Red-necked Grebe. When the chicks are small, they ride on their mother’s back - for protection and warmth. When they get too big to ride, they have to swim alongside.

Here’s a couple of pictures of two different mother Red-necked Grebes with their chicks.





On the way back to camp from Anchorage we saw Doll Sheep high on the rocks above the road.



Today, Friday the 11th, we moved to an RV park in Anchorage for one night. There were several birding spots around town that we visited during the afternoon. Saw nothing new.

Kenai, AK

We left Seward early Thursday (July 3rd) and moved about a hundred miles over to the town of Kenai on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. The drive on AK Hwy 1 took us through the community of Cooper Landing and the towns of Sterling and Soldotna. We checked into an RV park that is right where the Kenai River empties into the Cook Inlet. All the waterfront sites were taken, so we don’t have any view of the water from our campsite.

Here’s a picture of the mouth of the Kenai River and also one of the historic sites in Kenai - the Russian Orthodox Church.





On Friday we spent most of the day riding in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. There is a 19 mile gravel road that follows along the north side of Skilak Lake with access roads to the water and campgrounds all along the way. There were also plenty of side roads off to other lakes and campgrounds. We checked them all out. The scenery is awesome as usual.



There wasn’t a great abundance of birds and wildlife to see, but we did see two “life” birds, a Surf Scoter and some Pacific Loons. Here is a picture of the Pacific Loons.



We also saw our first Snowshoe Hare and another moose. Check out the size of the feet on this rabbit.





Saturday was a rainy day for the most part and we rode some more of the back roads, but it was mostly unproductive. Did see our first Caribou, but he was lying down and really too far away to get any good pictures. Here is one of the better ones.



Today (Sunday July 6th) after church we rode north on the Kenai Peninsula to the end of the road at Captain Cook State Recreation Area - about 25 miles from the town of Kenai. On one of the side roads down to Stormy Lake we saw another “life” bird - a Spruce Grouse with a bunch of chicks. The chicks were all hiding in the grass except for one ambitious little guy that flew up into a Spruce Tree (well, what kind do you think he would fly into?)

Here’s a picture of Momma Spruce Grouse and also one of the little guy in the tree.





Tomorrow is moving day again - further south on the Kenai Peninsula to Homer.

Seward, AK

We arrived in Seward on Friday, June 27th. Another really interesting coastal town situated on Resurrection Bay. One of the Royal Caribbean cruise ships was in port and it was HUGE! It was the “Radiance of the Seas” - I looked it up on the Internet and it is 88,000 tons and has 13 decks. Not even a guess as to how long it is.



After two days of rain, Saturday turned out to be a nice day. A mix of sun and clouds with a high around 60. We went to Kenai Fjords National Park and hiked a little over a mile to the foot of Exit Glacier. This is just one of many glaciers that are off the Harding Ice Fields which cover something like 300,000 acres.



On Sunday afternoon we had a Bald Eagle show over the creek right behind our campsite. The man who lives across the creek came out and threw a 5-gallon bucket of fish and Alaskan King Crab scraps down the bank on his side of the creek. The gulls had a frenzy and then here came the eagles. We counted at least five adults and 3 juveniles. When they would swoop down and grab a chunk of scraps in their talons the gulls would scatter. What a treat!





We had been camping in an RV park about 5 miles out of town, but Monday morning we moved to the City of Seward Waterfront Park downtown. We got a campsite right on the water. Here is a picture of the campground and out campsite taken from across Resurrection Bay.



Seward is a little bigger that Valdez. Here’s another picture from across the bay of the town. The backdrop of the mountains really make for pretty scenery.



Both Monday and Tuesday were beautiful days - lots of blue skies and sunshine with temperatures in the low 60’s. Nice!

Yesterday, Wednesday, we went to Bear Creek and to the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association Salmon Resource Station. This is a non-profit organization that does a lot of work to provide for and protect the salmon in the area. At this particular station they have a huge salmon trap (which they call a weir) built into the stream and they record all kinds of data about the fish they catch - numbers trapped, species, sex, etc.



In the creek outside, the salmon are lined up below the culvert in the road. The weir is just above the road and the salmon have to jump to get in - which they do.





We spent a couple of hours watching the operation and the lady running the place even let us help net some of the salmon from the trap. Most of the salmon coming up the creek right now are Sockeye, with a few Coho mixed in. Needless to say, all this was a very interesting.






We also saw some ‘good’ birds at the house next door. There were Pine Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins, and a beautiful Varied Thrush. Here is a picture of the Varied Thrush with a female Pine Grosbeak off to the side.



Today we left Seward and drove about 100 miles over to the west side of the Kenai Peninsula - to the town of Kenai. Will be in this area a few days.