Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK

Our drive to Stewart/Hyder was eventful! We saw three black bears along the road and I think I saw one off on a hill. We also saw a fox running ahead of us.

Stewart is a town of about 700 people on the western edge of British Columbia that was started as a mining town. Hyder was more of an access and supply point for the miners. Today the economy is driven by forestry, mining and tourism. Both towns are at the head of Portland Canal and the US and Canadian border goes between them. During prohibition the folks in Hyder would walk over to Stewart for a drink or two and then walk home.

  

Late this afternoon we took an auto tour up to the Salmon Glacier on Glacier Highway (20 miles of very bumpy gravel). We saw evidence of several mines, Tongass National Forest, Salmon River and Salmon Glacier. Also on the tour is Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area where we saw one black bear & one eagle after stopping in there three times. We were led to believe that we would see lots of grizzly and black bears since the salmon are spawning, but it was just did not happen today. The Salmon Glacier is the fifth largest glacier in Canada and is over 7 miles long. Just above the glacier is Summit Lake. This is a self dumping lake. "In 1961 the lake drained under the glacier, raising the level of the river and filling it with ice bergs. This resulted in catastrophic flooding along the Salmon River valley. The lake then began a cycle of filling and draining, flooding the Salmon River, causing damage to the road and bridges along the river. The event now occurs almost every year." (Taken from the auto tour brochure.) We saw evidence of ice chunks on the gravel bars along the river.

Cassiar Highway

The Cassiar Highway is an alternate route to the Alaskan Highway. It is suppose to cut about 130 miles off of the Alaskan Highway route. Many people drive this one way coming or going. The scenery is pretty -- pine forests, Cassiar Mountains, rivers and lakes. Two reasons to come this way: 1. Its a different route that we haven't driven before; and 2. Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK is along here. This destination will ensure that we see bears fishing for salmon (we hope!).

If we drove straight thru to Stewart, we wouldn't arrive until after 8 PM so we stopped at Kinaskan Provincial Park on Kinaskan Lake. It is so beautiful here. I built a roaring fire after supper and we thoroughly enjoyed warming our knees by a crackling and popping fire while listening to the sounds of nature around us. One of those sounds is the family of four next to us talking and laughing as they prepare for bed in their tent.

We saw another bear along the road today as well as a group of Stone Sheep as they were preparing to cross the road. A bird was on the road but I'm not sure if it was a grouse or a ptarmigan.

Skagway, AK

I know we have been here before but I sure didn't recognize any of it! About 10 years ago we took an inside passage cruise of Alaska and one of the port-of-calls was Skagway. It has changed -- and grown -- a lot! It still has boardwalks but many, many more souvenir shops and jewelry stores. For some reason, Skagway is the center of the Alaska jade, tanzanite and gold jewelry trade. We finished up our souvenir shopping for family and friends and then started our drive to Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK.

Its a 12 hour drive and we didn't get started until after lunch so we stopped at a turnout for the night about 9 pm. Along the way we saw a small black bear and a really cool porcupine crossing the highway. We had a car on our tail so we were not able to stop to take a picture. Darn!! First time I've ever really seen a porcupine! This turnout is very big and next to a stream. It must be a popular spot for campers as there are several fire pits. It rained most of the night.

Haines, AK

I got the laundry completed and supper started before it started raining last night. It was a pleasant evening in the RV. This morning I made John get up early so we could make a run out to Chilkoot River to see bears before breakfast. It is a beautiful river with lots of salmon moving up it and we saw several eagles but no bears. We'll try again later. After breakfast we broke camp and moved the RV to a side street and explored the quaint town, lunch, nap and a nice walk. After supper at a so-so restaurant we again went out to Chilkoot River before boarding the ferry to Skagway.

This time we got to see bears! A mama grizzly bear and two cubs were ambling along the river below the bridge, sometimes fishing, sometimes rooting around for berries. They were neat to watch along with the park ranger, volunteer spotters and quite a few other people. It seemed like the bears were going to move too far away to get a good picture so we left and drove around the park but on our way back, the bears had moved back toward the bridge. Mama stopped to fish so the cubs started to rough house. The ranger told us that they were about two-years old and that the mother was only about 6 or 7 years old. He was surprised that she wasn't playing with her cubs since she was such a young mother. About that time mama wandered over to the cubs and the male cub attacked her and she began wrestling with him. The female cub wasn't interested in fighting, so she just watched them and showed off for us. When they stopped playing, they ambled up the river bank, under the bridge and into the brush on the other side. We couldn't have gotten any closer!!

We left Haines on the ferry for the 15 mile ride Skagway at 10 PM and arrived at 11 PM. We have gone far enough south and it is far enough from the summer solstice that it was pretty dark so we did not get to see much scenery. After we got off the ferry, we drove about 5 miles north of Skagway before we found a turnout to spend the night.

Travel to Haines

Our travel today took us thru Yukon Territories, British Columbia and back into Alaska. The sky was mostly cloudy but the clouds were high until we got into the mountains and onto the coast when they started dropping down and precipitating. So the supposedly spectacular scenery was hidden from us again. But until the clouds hid them, the mountains, although not really high, were very rugged with snow interspersed with all the green tundra and forests. There are lots of streams and rivers running from the glaciers down to the coastline and bogs, ponds and lakes holding some of the water inland. We saw several pairs of trumpeter swans, John saw one bear (I missed him), and an eagle flew past the front of the RV. We took a short hike to the Million Dollar Waterfall, don't ask us why that's the name.

When we reached Haines, we drove directly to the ferry terminal to check on going across the bay to Skagway. It is a 15 mile crossing that takes about an hour and costs more than the tank of gas it would take to drive back up the Haines Highway to the Alaska Highway. But we do get to see Skagway and drive a different route with different scenery, so we bought tickets for tomorrow's ferry which does not leave until 10PM. I did laundry, John washed the RV and we rented a movie to watch while it's raining!

Starting Our Last Leg of Journey

We are heading east and south, toward home, but we still have some places to go and adventures to enjoy before we cross into the lower 48.

Today was a travel day. We went north to Tok, AK on the Tok Cutoff. Boy was it bumpy and rough. Not real sure we saved any time by going this route but we did save miles. In Tok we dumped, filled up with gas and water and washed off the bugs and mud. Then we headed out on the Alaska Highway toward Haines Junction. This section is a constant drive over frost heaves, gravel sections, bumps and dips. With just a few stops we got as far as Destruction Bay, Yukon, which is on Kluane Lake and found a nice turnout to dry camp for the night. Its been a 12 hour day.

The turnout we are parked in is at Historic Milepost 1061, Soldier's Summit, where the official opening of the Alaska Canada Military Highway was held on Nov. 20, 1942. We walked on the original Alcan Highway looking at pictures and reading stories of the building of this infamous road now called The Alaskan Highway. The view from the summit of Kluane Lake is just beautiful!

Valdez

We drove down to Valdez into rain, fog and clouds. It was just cloudy at the campground but once we went over Thompson Pass, the clouds settled down on top of the mountains into the bay so we couldn't see anything. It was a disappointing day all the way around. Valdez is supposed to be really pretty surrounded by snow-capped mountains and blue ocean. We did see part of the Worthington Glacier, salmon crowded into the mouth of a stream but no bears to catch them, and a glimpse of sea otters but not the sea lions we heard barking in the bay. The town of Valdez is very small with few shops. We used the library wi-fi to catch up on email, etc. and then we drove back to the RV.

As I was sitting by the fire before supper, I got to thinking about home and summer and how it is so different here than in Missouri. Summer is supposed to be sunny, dry, humid, green burnt to brown, hot days and warm nights. But, here in Alaska, that is not what it feels like.

Summer is lush green springtime or very early summer feeling. Flowers such as petunia, iris, lilacs, lupine and fireweed abound. The forests are like a rain forest with lots of ground cover, ferns and grasses. There are mostly aspen, birch and cottonwood and at higher elevations you find spruce and other evergreens and willow.

The air has a autumn feel to me. We have warm days, not hot, and very cool nights. If the temperature rises to near 70 it is only for a short time. Most often a breeze comes up that cools the warm air.   It seems that there are more cloudy and rainy days than sunny.   

When I look at the snow-capped mountains surrounded by clouds, I feel it must be very cold outside, possibly even snowy but it never has been that cold. A roaring fire is nice but not necessary for warmth. Just the crackle, hiss and pop is comforting, gives me a cozy feeling in the outdoors. But, again, it feels like fall.

There is water everywhere -- gurgling streams, and rushing rivers, quiet ponds and lapping lakes, exciting rapids and the cool spray of mist thrown up by the rapids. All this leads to -- mosquitoes! We haven't experienced swarms of the nasty bugs except once in Denali but they are buzzing in your ear or flying in your face almost everywhere. Now, mosquitoes remind me of home!

Kennicott Mines National Historic Landmark

The Kennicott Mine was the richest producer of copper and silver in the world. The 70% pure copper was found here in 1900 and by 1907 the Alaska Syndicate of J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim family were making plans to mine the copper, build a mill to process the copper and silver out of the 5 mines in the mountain and build a railroad to transport the ore to the coast before it was shipped to Washington. The first train load of ore left the mine in 1911. When the mine was closed in 1938, they had produced 591,000 tons of copper and 9,000,000 ounces of silver! At the height of production the mine employed over 600 men who worked 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week with two holidays -- Christmas and Independence Day. To keep employees they paid well and had lots of amenities like a recreation hall, company store, hospital, school and fresh meat and dairy. Most men were single and could only stand the hard work for about 6 month. The more important employees like managers and engineers brought their families with them and had separate housing.

The area sat idle for a while, was used for mining the rock slides and then sold so some of the building left standing are owned by private individuals. In 1986 it was designated as a historic landmark and in 1998 Wrangell-St. Elias National Park acquired the remaining town properties.

To access this site we drove 93 miles, 33 miles paved and 60 miles on a rough, gravel road. It took 2 1/2 hours to get there. Then we had to park and walk across two foot bridges that span the Chitina River and walk 1/2 mile to reach the town of McCarthy. From there we rode the shuttle van 4.5 miles to Kennicott Mill Town. We found out later that if we wanted to drive across to McCarthy, we could pay a private individual $100 each ways to cross on his bridge!

When we crossed over the Copper River we saw very active salmon fishing including over 20 fish wheels. It was a long day, we didn't get back to the RV until after 8PM.

Travel Day

Yesterday we drove from Cooper Landing to Copper Center which is on the Richardson Highway en-route to Valdez (pronounced Val-deez). As we were headed eastward we passed the Mantanusca Glacier and faced the Wrangell Mountains. The tallest peaks visible are Mt. Sanford (16,237 ft), Mt. Drum (12,010 ft), and Mt. Wrangell (14,113 ft) and they are all snow capped with glaciers on or near them. The tallest peak in this range was not visible to us as it was too far south and covered with clouds. It is Mt. Blackburn (16,690 ft).

Due to stops along the way and some sight-seeing we didn't get into the state park until after 6 pm. After supper we walked over to the resort near us to use their wi-fi. We think this place is struggling. They have an RV park (only 2 RV's were there), a 'lodge' made up of trailers (appeared empty) and a small restaurant/bar run by Russian immigrants. We had a drink and left at 9:30 pm and the place was empty on a Saturday night!

Trout Fishing

John took off on an all-day guided trout fishing trip and I took it easy driving around the area, going to the very small museum and learning some about the local Kenaitze Indian Tribe. It is very warm today -- 77°!! I may have a sun burn! It felt really good to sit in the sun while calling home to visit with family and friends.

John left at 7:30AM and did not get back from his fishing trip until almost 8PM. He, two other men and the guide fished from the bank of the Kenai River about 5 miles down the road from the campground. They fished for about 4 hours from the bank for salmon. The salmon are starting to change as they swim up this part of the river. They start turning red, develop a hump on their back and they get a hooked lip before they reach their spawning ground. These are fish you should not keep if you catch one and they are swimming with salmon who haven't changed yet, who are still silver and blend in with the river bottom. The trick is to catch a silver salmon not a red one. They kept 11 salmon and released and/or lost more than that.

After lunch they floated on down the Kenai and fished for trout. But the trout weren't biting with all the salmon running up the river. John caught 2 salmon on a fly rod and both broke the line. Then they stopped again and got out the lightweight fly rods and more conventionally fished with dry flies for trout. John had several srikes and actually hooked one. But as before the trout fishing was very slow. The Kenai empties into lake Skilak at which point the motor on the drift boat is started to run to the takeout ramp. Trouble is with a 8HP motor and 4 men in a drift boat the going is slow. It took almost an hour to get to the launch ramp, and over 30 minutes of driving to get back to the RV park. John was beat and his casting arm was limp.

Backtracking

We were on the road by mid-morning and back in Cooper Landing by 10 AM but unable to stay in the RV park we wanted. We ended up at the Kenai Riverside RV Park which was fairly empty when we arrived and filled up by supper time. Since we are right on the river John did some trout fishing, then checked in for his guided trout fishing trip for tomorrow. Other than that it was a warm 73° day and we are expecting the same again tomorrow.

Got One!

Woo Hoo!! John got a Red/Sockey Salmon! He had been fishing off and on for a day and a half and was about to give up. But at about 9PM (remember it doesn't get dark) he got one. The man from Alabama next to him helped him by using his net. He then pulled the gills and banged it on the head to subdue it. Without this man's help John is pretty sure he would never been able to land it by himself especially with no net and a lightweight bass rod.

He got it filleted and we cut it up into about 4 pieces. He figures it was about 24" long and can't even guess at the weight. But it was fun!

Morgan Landing

As we drove thru Old Town Kenai, we found a place to park on the bluff over looking the mouth of the Kenai River. We couldn't believe our eyes! Both banks were covered with hundrends of people fishing with huge dip nets. In some places a line of fishermen were walking in chest high water along with the current towards the sea, then turning onto the beach and walking back a ways and starting over - called a merry-go-round. Others were just walking out with their 10 foot long dip nets and holding them out in the current to catch the salmon as they started their journey up the river. Then over 100 boats started making their run out into the inlet to set down their nets. We were told that once they had set up a line of nets, the run at the mouth of the river would be diminished until the boats came back in. All these Alaskans are getting as many salmon as they need to last them the winter.

We pulled into the campground at Morgan Landing along the Kenai River at around 2 PM and had a choice from about 8 empty spots but by 6 that evening the campground was full with more rigs in the overflow lot. We were just plain lucky!

After we picked our camp site, we walked over to the river to check out the fishing and to figure out how it is done. The campground host was very helpful. She explained that the salmon have been out in the salty ocean for 2-3 years, so as they make their run up the fresh water river they have to clean the salt out of their gills. That is what they are doing when you see them rolling and jumping. They do not feed as they go up the river, their only intention is to get to their spawning grounds and lay their eggs. So when the fishermen are casting their line, they are not attracting the fish, they are literally snagging them by chance. However it is against the rules to keep a salmon that is snagged, you must "snag" them in the mouth. So it doesn't really matter what color fly you use. John figured out real quick his 12 pound test line was not going to work so he made a quick run into town for some heavy line. he figures if he actually catches one his line won't break but his lightweight rod might.

Captain Cook State Park

We are here at this park because I made John come here! The day dawned bright, clear and warm, for Alaska. We hitched up the Jeep for the 74 mile drive back up to the towns of Soldatna and Kenai. We stopped to take pictures of two volcanoes on the far shore. One is Illiamna and the other is the Redoubt.

We were in hopes that things had settled down a bit from the weekend's frantic dip netting on the Kenai River. NOT! We pulled into a county campground with over 170 sites and only found one empty. We both shuddered at the thought of camping with all those people, noise and commotion so we elected to move on. As we pulled out of the campground there were over 20 cars and RV's waiting in line to go in.

We found a quiet place to pull off the road, ate lunch and made a few phone calls. All the campgrounds in this area were full except this one state park which dead ends 28 miles from town. That's when I made the decision to camp here. It's right on Cook's Inlet, next to Stormy Lake and Swanson River. The inlet is not the prettiest at this point but the mountains lining the far shore are beautiful! The tide was out so we were able to walk on the rocky beach where we met a couple from Montana who had been fishing on the Kenai River. They had caught some salmon but said it was work to find a spot not filled with people. Sounds like opening day at Bennet Springs!

After supper we explored the park, did some walking and then built a nice fire as we watched the sun starting to set into the mountains (it's just now 10:30 here).

Homer, Day 3

The weather today is cloudy and cool. A good day to do the laundry and work on the computer. We took a break at 4 PM to get out of the RV for a short while. Then back into the 'cave' just as it starts pouring down rain.

I fixed a really fine rock fish meal for us and then some TV before showers and bed.

B o r i n g!

Homer, AK Day 2

So many things to accomplish today. We want to get our hair cut, go to the Farmer's Market, grocery shop, check out the Street Faire, walk on the beach, shop on the spit and go out to dinner.

We got it all done except the shopping on the spit -- we ran out of time. Walking on the beach was really cool. We had an extra-low tide at 10:05 am this morning. I walked over 400 yards all the way out to the tide line. Not much to see except some shells, kelp and seaweed. We found that we can also drive on this beach but we didn't find the entry point until almost high tide so we will have to put that off until tomorrow.

We can see one of the glaciers of the Harding Ice Field on the opposite shore from Homer. It is one that does not break off, or calve, into the tidewater but it is an alpine glacier that forms in a mountain valley and creates its own moraine lake. The one most visible is named Grewingk. The Harding Ice Field has over 30 glaciers covering over 300 square miles.

Sunset at 11:07 PM tonight and if we were able to stay up that late, we might even be able to see it set in the bay.

Homer, AK

We broke camp around 9 AM and another family was ready to move in as we moved out! We were only going to go about 47 miles to Soldotna/Kenai City so I drove the Jeep and followed John. The traffic was horrible so we figured something was going on this weekend, we just didn't know what. When we got to the RV park we had picked out we found out why. The second salmon run had started and the next two weeks are when all Alaskans can come to this area with their dip nets and get as many salmon as they need to get them through the winter.

They didn't have any sites available and told us we probably wouldn't find any around this area for at least the next few days. So we made a phone call to an RV park in Homer and headed down here since it was only about 57 miles further down the road. It was a beautiful drive. The further west and south, the fewer trees and the better we could see Cook Inlet and the Aleutian Mountains on the far shore. The two tallest were totally snow capped! Then at Anchor Point we made the turn south into Homer and another beautiful site greeted us. There was Kachemac Bay that empties into the North Pacific and on the far shore of the bay are the Kenai Mountains, also with a lot of snow on them and glaciers dividing the peaks.

What a view from our RV! We hurriedly set up the RV and then got on our bikes to ride out to the Homer Spit -- a narrow spit of land that runs 4 miles out into the bay. At the end is all sorts of shops, fishing expeditions, bear watching tours, fishing boats and restaurants. It was an invigorating ride as the wind, which always blows out there, was at our backs going down and in our face coming back up. 14 miles round trip.

Hikin' 'n' Fishin'

We are so lucky to have this campsite. Several people have stopped by to ask us when we are leaving so they can move in! Yesterday, John got the kayak ready and went out on the lake to fish. I had all intentions of going hiking but never made it out of the park. I really enjoyed not doing anything but read, write postcards and nap! We also spent part of the afternoon checking out fishing guides, getting a couple of items at the store and then John took me out to eat. Very lazy day!

So today we made up for being lazy! John was out in the kayak for over 5 hours trying to catch those wily trout and traveled about 3 miles down the lake in his efforts. Unfortunately the wind came up as the day wore on. The good thing is that it was at his back which made getting back up the lake a whole lot easier. After all that time he never got a bite.

I made two hikes. I walked down a trail to the Kenai River which was about 2 miles round trip. The unsettling part of this hike was all the bear scat along the path! I talked to myself, sang Girl Scout songs and did a lot of praying out loud! Must have worked because I didn't see any bears. But the river was beautiful. It actually split into 3 streams where I was and all of them had rapids. That is one fast moving river!

The second hike was a lot longer and much more strenuous. I figure it was about 3 1/2 miles round trip but it had a 1400 feet elevation change and that was all in the first mile! And on top of that the sun came out and it got warm! The trail was a woodland trail -- dirt with leaf and pine coverings, a lot of exposed roots to step over or to use as steps up. When in the woods it was quiet except for the song birds, nicely shaded and smelled so wonderfully earthy with hints of wildflowers and pine. Between the stretches of woods were meadows with the tallest grass and flowers I have ever seen. They threatened to obscure the path and the Queen Anne's Lace towered overhead, some of it over 7 feet tall! I could also hear water running down the mountain. At one point I knew there was a waterfall but had a really hard time seeing it through the canopy of lush green leaves and grass. Periodically beautiful wildflowers like purple Monk's Hood and red Columbine and blue forget-me-nots would nod as I walked by. Lower Fuller Lake greeted me with its blue mountain coolness. It was a small lake that was a welcomed site after all the woods and grass.

I spent about 3 hours hiking and was dog tired when I got back. John and I enjoyed the evening around a roaring fire.

Russian River

Today dawned cloudy and threatening rain but it never precipitated. We moved the RV 15 miles down the road to Hidden Lake Campground and have fallen in love with the place. As we drove down the 3.5 mile gravel road to the campground we saw a mother grizzly and her cub cross the road, a cow moose on the side of the road and then about a mile further on a black bear crossed right in front of us! The most wildlife we've seen at one time. We are parked on the lake and it is so peacefully and calm here. This evening we alternately bask in the setting sun on the lake shore and sit by a roaring fire at 9 o'clock at night! John is planning to get the kayak out and do some trout fishing on the lake tomorrow. Now this is what Alaska is supposed to be like.

After lunch we took a 5 mile round trip hike up to Russian River Falls where we are supposed to see bears and jumping salmon. I say suppose to, but we don't see either one. It is too early in the week for the salmon who are supposed to arrive later this week and too late in the day to see bears who are most likely napping. We do enjoy watching the trout fishermen who are hooking and/or catching fish. We'll be back her in another 10 days so hopefully we'll see the animals and fish then.

Six Mile River Rafting

We had a really exciting afternoon! But first we woke to sunshine and evidence that a bear had visited our site this morning -- bear poo on the driveway! Maybe it's a good thing we didn't know one was that close!

We broke camp and drove on down the road about 50 miles to Cooper Landing which is the gateway to Kenai fishing. But along the way we decided to take our friend's advice and signed up for white-water rafting on Six Mile Creek and Canyon Creek. John also made a few calls concerning guided trout fishing in this area.

But one of the most exciting things we have done on this trip was the white-water rafting. We had the option of paying for two canyons of class 3 and 4 rapids and then getting off the river or if Pam decided she wanted to experience the class 5 rapids we could continue on thru the third canyon and pay for it at the end. Everyone wore dry suits over layers of warm clothes and wool socks. The outfitters also provided river shoes, life jackets and helmets. We were prepared for cold water! After receiving river safety instructions, all participants had to walk into the river and swim down about 300 yards to the rafts so we could experience the cold, swift water and practice self rescue so if we fell out of the raft we wouldn't panic and could get ourselves out of the water.

Each raft held 4-5 rafters and one guide. Our guide looked a lot like Patrick Swazy, had been rafting for 7 years in Alaskan summers and heads back to the lower 48 to be a ski bum in the winter. And we were off down the river, the fastest river I've ever been on. But it was so pretty. We saw a bald eagle right off the bat then later a few King salmon. Then we didn't really have time to look around, we had to concentrate on paddling and staying in the boat. The first canyon was relatively easy but gave us a feel for what was coming. The second canyon was a little more exciting, some big dips, some technical turns and one or two falls -- one which threw John into the boat. By the time we got to the third canyon, I was having so much fun I didn't want to get off, so on we went to the class 5 rapids. Each one had a name like Merry-Go-Round, Sharks Teeth, and Let's Make A Deal where we went thru doors number 1, 2, and 3! We were hit with a lot of water, made several 4-5 foot drops, had to paddle really hard and fast, and there was no letting up, it was one rapid on top of another! I fell into the boat a couple of times, but you just jump back up and start paddling again. It was so exciting and fun that, of course, I laughed all the way thru it and whooped it up at the end!

Sad to say, we have no pictures just the memories and stories to tell.

Whittier, Hope, Moose

We read somewhere that this area gets 197 inches of rain a year! I guess we should stop complaining about cloudy days and be grateful they are not rain clouds!

Right now I am sitting outside next to a warm fire, enjoying a moment of sunshine and the roar of a glacial waterfall. We had a wonderful day of hiking and exploring. First we hiked an easy trail 1 mile up to Ryan Glacier. Its a very small glacier as compared to others in the area but we could walk on it and see where it was melting into a roaring stream.

  

We then drove over to Whittier, going thru the 2.5 mile one-lane tunnel. Portage Pass trail is 1 mile up a 750 foot incline for a view of Portage Glacier and Prince William Sound. It is really impressive. The blue color is caused by the compression of ice crystals to a point that only the color blue will reflect light -- all other light is blocked out. We explored the top of the ridge hoping to find a large lake but all we saw was a very deep ravine obviously cut out by a long ago glacier and one bear paw print.

After lunch at a delightful cafe in Whittier, we took a 10 minute cat nap while waiting for our turn to go back thru the tunnel and then drove to Hope. We wanted to check our white-water raft trips as well as to see this historic village. Most of the homes and businesses are restored log cabins. There was a parking lot where we could view Cook Inlet and watch fishermen on the 6-Mile Creek. Just as we were about to leave, we noticed people getting excited about something. And there she was -- a female moose and her TWO calves. She was uninterested in all the people so we were able to get pretty close for a picture. Those calves are cute!

Portage Valley

Last evening we were reviewing our trip thus far and sharing what we wanted to see and do over the next few weeks. We also checked our calendar to see how much time we have to spend in Alaska. We still don't feel that we have experienced our vision of Alaska. We keep looking for the wild, untamed parts, the exciting fishing or the wild animal encounters. Up to this point, and excluding Denali, we feel like we just keep going into the cities. With that in mind, we decided that we needed to skip our tour of Anchorage for now.

  

So we drove a whole 50 miles from Wasilla and thru Anchorage to the south end of Cook Inlet on the Turnagain Arm to an area called Portage Valley. The drive along Turnagain Arm is beautiful! Across the arm we can see the Kenai Mountains, some still have snow caps, and catch a glimpse of glaciers. The inlet itself is a mud flat as we go by but when the tide turns it will fill with 33 feet of water. We looked, but did not see, beluga whales who call this home in the summer. The whales follow the fish and salmon into the inlet then in the winter, when the fish leave, the whales move to a different part of Cook Inlet.

Portage Valley is only about 10 miles long and is the isthmus one crosses to get to the Kenai Peninsula. Across the isthmus from Turnagain Arm is the little harbor town of Whittier on the Prince William Sound which is the gateway to all the glaciers in Prince William Sound. The road to Whittier shares the longest highway tunnel in North America with the Alaskan Railroad and it in one lane! So eastbound traffic goes on the half hour, westbound traffic goes on the hour, and the train goes whenever it wants to. We'll try it out tomorrow.

We are staying in the nicest National Forest campground I have ever seen! All paved roads, huge picnic tables and big sites. We rode our bikes on the Trail of Blue Ice which follows Portage Creek. All the water comes mostly from the Portage Glacier but there are other smaller glaciers that feed into it as well. We stopped at the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center situated on Portage Lake across from Portage Glacier but also looking at Burns and Shakespeare Glaciers. Out in the middle of the lake was a large iceberg that was as big as the tour boat!

The clouds finally moved aside and let the sun shine for awhile this afternoon -- love it!

Movin' On Down the Parks Highway

I haven't posted for a couple of days mostly because we haven't done much. When we left Talkeetna, we only drove about 70 miles down the road to an area called Big Lake where we found a park on Rocky Lake with only 12 sites right on this pretty, but small lake. Our site was on the lake, the sun was shining and there was only a light breeze -- heaven! John got out the kayak and went fishing while I read and basked in the sun. But then the wind kicked up, the sun went behind a cloud and it got cool in a hurry! Even the fire wouldn't keep us very warm. On top of that, some young adults across the lake were having a great time water skiing and tubing -- at 11 at night! Remember the sun is still shining as sunset is a little after 11:30! The nights are getting a little longer but it still never gets dark.

Thursday morning we pulled out and drove about 30 miles to Wasilla, Sarah Palin's home town, and the 4th largest city in Alaska with a population of 7,900. We stocked up on groceries and I did 5 loads of laundry (we were really getting short on clothes to wear!).

As the weather today was rather gloomy, John got caught up on computer work and, in the hopes that the clouds would lift in the afternoon, I planned our day trip over Hatcher Pass. We had to backtrack up the Parks Hwy. about 25 miles before we got on the pass road. The first 12 miles were paved, then it was gravel but not too rough. Unfortunately the weather was still very cloudy so we didn't get to see any of the mountain tops we were driving thru. The road followed Willow Creek to its source at Summit Lake then went down the other side of the pass. We are told that the views are wonderful, but not today. On the other side of the pass was the Independence Gold Mine Historic Site.

This was the richest gold nugget mine in Alaska from 1937-1949. They mined rock gold here as compared to flakes of gold found at Dawson Creek, Yukon. The parks system is working really hard to restore as many of the buildings as possible and to keep the site from deteriorating further so as to preserve our history. Bunkhouses, the mess hall, commissary, warehouses and a few other buildings have been restored although not for public entry. The signage told the story of the mine and the many men who worked there. Because it was such a rich mine, they were able to provide many amenities for the people. They used 1,000 gallons of fuel a day to generate the power to run the mine; they employed a water way to move the ore, used an electric train to get the rocks out of the mines and even had an aerial tramway to move the rocks from high up on the mountain. We really enjoyed this piece of history.

Awesome, Fantastic, Unbelievable!!

Hey, guess what? Its not raining! It is a totally clear day! Yeah!

John got us up at 5 AM today so that he could be ready to go on a guided fishing trip for King salmon. There was only one other guy plus the guide, they took a jet boat up the Talkeetna River to Clear Creek. John actually caught a 26" salmon but it was too small to keep. He saw several people hook huge king salmon (35+ pounds) but no such luck for him. While he was fishing I rode my bike into town to see if I could see Mt. McKinley but it is still concealed in clouds. So I ride 4 miles the other direction to a neat bakery to have a latte, a roll and got to read the Sunday paper. Then I rode back and now the Mt. McKinley peak is visible. Awesome!

What makes it even better is that at 7 PM this evening we climbed into a Cessna 185 with just the pilot and John and I and flew right up next to Mt. McKinley -- all 20,320 feet of her!! Two other peaks near there are Mt. Hunter at 14,573 feet and Mt. Foraker at 17,395 feet! There are glaciers coming out of these mountains that are 35 and 45 miles long and 3-5 miles wide. Ruth Glacier is the biggest. There are actually 3 arms that flow together to make one glacier. At that point the glacier is over 4,000 feet deep and runs between two peeks that are over 7,000 feet tall. This gorge could be deeper than the Grand Canyon. This glacier is moving at the incredible speed of 3 feet per day! At the bottom it is covered with dirt, grass, bushes and trees.

We are flying below the tops of the mountains, next to tall cliffs and over more glaciers. We see 'ice falls' and avalanche areas, glacial pools and crevices. Then we land on one arm of the Ruth Glacier! As we were preparing to land another plane took off and even though it was even with us, it was so far away that it looked like just a speck against the cliff wall and we were both flying between two peaks! From the air the landing area doesn't look that wide but once we are down, we see another airplane already there and room for a dozen or more. It is huge! And there were people camped on the glacier so they could go climbing and skiing in the mountain. Crazy! As we were standing on the glacier and looking northward toward some ridges, the pilot told us that those ridges were over 7 miles away!

This whole experience is so incredible that I cannot even begin to find words to describe it. And I'm not sure our pictures will do it justice, but just know that it was awesome, fantastic and unbelievable!!!