Onward to Seward via Anchorage

Joyce, Leanne and Janet at a rest stop overlooking the Matanuska Glacier

     We left the Valdez area and drove to a state park near Eagle River which is north of Anchorage an hour or so. The lake there was a reservoir that was quite low. It provides the water for Anchorage. A few of our crew actually went for  a brief swim in the chilly water. We enjoyed a nice campfire that evening...that probably felt good to the swimmers.

      The next day we went in to Anchorage to Fred Myers and bought supplies. Gary and Janet stopped by Janet's nephew's place and spent a couple days with his family. Meanwhile we stopped by Kincade park and played some disc golf. We also stopped by Earthquake park that had displays on damages from the huge earthquake in 1964. Joyce had been there in 1970 with her parents. When they were there the rolling hills and trenches left from the quake. Now it was hard to see due to 40 years of tree growth in the area. 

     We then headed south to the Kenai peninsula down to Seward. We found a municipal campground and got sites overlooking Resurrection Bay.

Earthquake Park in Anchorage

Steve and Leanne play disc golf

View from our campsite in Seward

     We really enjoyed Seward a lot. There were hundreds of RV's camped along a mile or so of Resurrection Bay in town. King salmon were in season and several people were out in the mouth of a stream near the campground. 

Most days a cruise ship was in town until around 8pm or so

Fishing for Kings

Leanne & Steve enjoying Seward

     There were murals  on the buildings all over the town of Seward to enjoy viewing. 

     Gary and Janet arrived Saturday and that evening we all went to the Alaskan Sea Life Center. 

We saw this T shirt in a local store and thought of our friend Flame in Texas

    

     Outside of Seward a couple of miles is the road that takes you to Exit Glacier. We headed out to check it out and enjoyed a short hike of a mile or so out to the bottom of the glacier. There is a hike up to the Harding Ice Field (8.6 miles RT) that is supposed to be very scenic but challenging (gain over 3,000 ft elevation) We vowed to come back later in the summer and make the climb.

     On Sunday we all head out on the Kenai Fjords NP boat tour of various glaciers. I will write about it next time.

First Visit to Valdez

Our campsites at Bear Paw Campground in Valdez

     We drove into Valdez and found a nice, expensive, campsite on the water at Bear Paw  campground. This was a nice campground that gave us a chance to do laundry, take showers and wash the road construction off our trucks and camping units. We went to a fish market in town and bought some shrimp and cod to grill for supper that night...very tasty. 
     Valdez was relocated about 4 miles from the head of the bay to higher ground after the original town was destroyed by the tide surge caused during the 1964 earthquake.

 

Enjoying supper of cod and shrimp together

Shrimp and pineapple skewers

      The next morning we had scheduled a Columbia Glacier boat tour with Stan Stephens. (highly recommend) The day was a nice sunny one and the tour was excellent. We not only saw an amazing glacier but lots of wildlife as well. We saw several Humpback Whales but also followed a pod of Orcas. We also saw many Sea Otters along the way and an island loaded with Sea Lions. Eagles, Puffins and many other sea birds were also viewed.

Outstanding views out the back of the boat

Steve & Leanne enjoying the glacier tour

Orca whale (Killer whale)

We had up to 7 Orcas swimming along near us for awhile

Columbia Glacier - spray is from calving

More calving

Caught this Sea Lion diving off a large boulder

Boats try to avoid all the chunks of ice that was calving off the glaciers

Sea lions hanging out

Valdez scenic boat harbor

      We had a great time on the tour and tried to stay out at Blueberry Lake again but it was full so we headed further north and stayed at Squirrel Creek. 

Nebesna Road

 On the road from Tok to Nabesna Road with Mt Sanford dominating the view

     We drove from Tok down to Nebesna Road which leads east into the Wrangell St. Elias NP. It's a rustic road so Steve and Gary decided to drop off and camp at the first spot in next to a nice creek. Steve was able to do some fishing there and caught a Dolly Varden trout. Joyce and I continued on in about 16 more miles and found a nice spot with a picnic table and great views of Mt Jarvis and Sanford to the south of us. Jackson Lake was between us and the mountains so we kept an eye on the area hoping to see a moose or a bear. No such luck, but you never know! It was a pleasant night overall. We played a few card games before turning in for a good nights sleep.

Mt. Jarvis with Jackson Lake in the foreground from our campsite

Mt Sanford - 17,000 plus feet high

     In the morning we met up with the others and headed down the Richardson Hwy towards Valdez. (pronounced Val-deeze) The scenery was wonderful the whole way along.We saw several white capped mountains, including Sanford, Wrangell, Jarvis and Blackburn as we drove along. We also went by Worthington Glacier and Billy Mitchell Mountain. We made it down to the Thompson Pass area and camped at Blueberry Lake state rec campground. It was one of our favorite campsites of the whole trip. The lake is only a few acres in size in a setting surrounded by mountains. We did some hiking in the area and enjoyed looking for wildlife across the valley behind our campsite. Gary eventually spotted a black bear across on a mountain side. We all watching the bear move along. 

We enjoyed a lunch stop in a rest area on the way towards Valdez 

View at Blueberry Lake behind our campsite

Joyce and Janet hiking

View from campsite at Blueberry Lake

Morning view behind site

Billy Mitchell Mountain

Worthington Glaciers

       Next post will cover our time in the Valdez area.

     

Haines AK to Tok AK

 Haines Alaska in the background as viewed from our ferry

     We arrived at Haines on the ferry early afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day so the views of the surrounding snow capped mountains against the blue water was amazing. We drove out of town to a state park hoping for a campsite but were not happy to see that it was quite run down with sites that were not level. So we came back to town and found a private campground that was fairly priced and located within walking distance to town. We did a walking tour around old Fort Seward. The paraded grounds, some old foundations as well as many restored buildings. Most of the old officer quarters are now restored homes or bed and breakfast type rentals. Haines was a nice quiet small town.

 The view from town is outstanding!

Many canoes were being restored or built at many of the Fort Seward remaining buildings

View across the parade grounds

     We left Haines after one night and headed out the Haines Hwy. to the Yukon. A short distance out of town we passed by the house and road building business where Parker Schanbel's (Gold Rush show) parents reside. 

     The customs agent who came out to clear us could at the Yukon border station could hardly stand still due to the swarms of mosquitos bothering him. We only were there a short time but had to kill quite a few mosquitos in the truck over the next few miles. 

     Later on in the day we noticed 3 RV's in front of us and joked over the CB radios that it was probably the crew from Cedarville, MI that were supposed to be going to Alaska for the summer. Well a short time later one of them pulled over after they spotted a couple of Grizzly bears eating near the road. We stopped too and took some pics of the bears and sure enough it was the Cedarville crew. Small world!!!

The 3 RV's in front also were from the UP of Michigan...Small World?

 One of the Grizzly bears

 Nice scenic spot to take a break in the Yukon

I was happy to be in the truck

     We ended up spotting 4 or 5 bears that day all together. After spending the night at a Yukon Park we continued on to Tok Alaska and beyond the next day. I will cover the Nebesna Road area in the next installment.

Visiting Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier

    While riding the ferry to Juneau we were blessed to meet a family that live in Juneau. They were on their way home from Phoenix AZ after having spent 7 months there for medical treatments. Greg and Jenny and their 2 daughters were enjoyable and gave us lots of insights and tips that related to Juneau. We continue to pray for healing for Jenny and know that they are a family of strong faith. 

Jenny and one of her daughters (center of pic)

      When we docked at Juneau it was around 11pm when we drove off the ferry. We found a small NF campground about 2 miles from the dock to camp at for the night. The next morning went shopping at Fred Myers for supplies and gas before heading out to Mendenhall Lake NF campground to get our campsites that we had reserved for the next 3 nights. It was a nice campground that had nice views of the glacier right across the lake. There were around 80 sites and only about a dozen or so occupied. We headed over to the Mendenhall visitor center that afternoon. The weather was rather gray and misty but we hiked out the mile to see Nugget Falls while there.

Janet, Steve, Leanne and Gary at Mendenhall Glacier visitor center

Nugget Falls

     Tuesday morning while Steve & Leanne and Gary & Janet went to do a Zip-line adventure Joyce and I went across to Douglas Island to hike a trail up in the  high country. The trail was actually quite swampy even though it was high in the mountains and we were on a boardwalk for probably 2 miles of the 3 we hiked.

We enjoyed beautiful mountain views as we hiked along.

Boardwalk on trail 

View along trail on Douglas Island

There were usually 4 or 5 cruise ships docked in Juneau most days

     We were amazed at the number of cruise ships that visit Juneau each day. One might think that the thousands of cruise ship visitors would be a big deal to the local economy. We found out from the locals that most of the shopping areas that the tourists frequent are owned by the cruise ship companies and the workers are brought in from outside, often foreign countries. Even many of the tour / activity companies are not locally owned.

     The weather was still nice on Tuesday afternoon so we all decided to ride the Roberts Tram up a the mountainside above Juneau. It was a worthwhile activity due to the great views. We hiked a 1.3 mile loop trail that offered great views of the Lynn Canal below, mountain goats on the mountainsides, blooming wildflowers, etc.

 We went out for supper on our last night in Juneau...very good!

Black bears were abundant 

    We sailed to Haines on the ferry next and I will cover more on that on the next post.