Healy, Alaska to Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs (Aug 5)

We are into the 2nd half of our 7 week road trip at this point.  Thursday was day 25 of our 49 day journey, we've driven 5300 miles at this point more than half of what we are expecting to drive.  Today we drove from Healy, just north of Denali National Park to Fairbanks.  It was a short drive, relatively speaking.  But nothing here is a short drive!!

I have heard mixed reviews of Fairbanks, but so far I really like it here, much more than Anchorage.  We are in the best campground of the trip so far, that's a blessing considering 2 of the campgrounds that we were in this week in Anchorage and Wasilla that were absolutely horrid.

We went to the Chena Hot Springs, about 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks.  These were the best of the 3 hot springs we have visited so far.  Chena is a very cool place.  Not only do they have the hot springs pools, but they also harness the thermal energy to heat greenhouses to grow all of the vegetables for their resort year round.  They get so much sunlight here, much more than the southern part of the state, that the flowers and the summer crops are huge!!  They have a lodge that is over 100 years old.  It's an absolutely beautiful place.  It was a perfect day for the hot springs at 45 degrees.

Tomorrow, we are going to spend a little time in Fairbanks then head back out on the last stretch of the Alaska Highway (Fairbanks to Tok) that we skipped on the way up when we headed off to Wrangell-St Elias NP.  We are hoping to make it to the Tok area tomorrow.

Chena Hot Springs outdoor pool

 Steamy pool-open even at 40 below 0

 Cabin at the Chena Hot Spring Resort

 Amazing flowers - 20 hours of sunlight/day 

More flowers... really pretty place

Denali Day 3 – PICTURE PERFECT DAY

Denali Day 3 – PICTURE PERFECT DAY J (Aug 4)

Today we took the 6:15 Denali Park shuttle to Wonder Lake at the 85-milepost, this meant getting up at 5:00 L.  It was an 11-hour bus ride with a couple of short rest breaks built in.  What an amazing day it was!!!  The first amazing thing was that we came across a very recent kill (within a few minutes) of a bull caribou by wolves in the Teklanika River.  When we arrived, there were 2 wolves feeding on the carcass.  Kind of morbid but it is what happens in nature, but to get to see 2 wolves at once is quite amazing.  The skies were very cloudy when we left the Wilderness Access Center at 6:15 but as we drove further into the park, they began to clear.  By the time we got to the point where we could see Denali or Mt McKinley, it was absolutely clear!!

For a short history lesson on the name – Is it Mt McKinley or Denali?  The name of the park has officially been changed to Denali National Park and Preserve, but to change the name of the peak from Mt McKinley to Denali, it takes an act of congress. The Koyukon Athabaskan people who inhabit the area around the mountain referred to the peak as Dinale or Denali ("the high one" or "the great one"). In the late 1890s, a gold prospector named it "McKinley" as political support for then-president William McKinley. The Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain to Denali, which is how it is referred to locally. However, a 1975 request by the Alaska state legislature to the United States Board on Geographic Names to do the same was blocked by Ohio congressman Ralph Regula, whose district includes McKinley's hometown. Members of the Ohio congressional delegation continue to protect the McKinley name, blocking attempts by the Alaska congressional delegation to get the Board of Geographic Names to change it to Denali. Thus, "Denali" is correct according to the Alaska state Board, while "McKinley" is correct according to the national Board.  In any case, I had a very crystal clear view of THE MOUNTAIN.  Totally awesome, pictures do not do it justice.  The closest pictures that I have are from 28 miles away from the base.

More about the mountain… Mount McKinley has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest, although the summit of Everest is higher at 29,029 feet.  Everest's base sits on the Tibetan Plateau at about 17,000 feet giving it a real vertical rise of little more than 12,000 feet. The base of Mount McKinley is roughly at 2,000-foot elevation, giving it an actual rise of 18,000 feet. The mountain is also characterized by extremely cold weather. Temperatures as low as −75.5 °F and wind chills as low as −118.1 °F have been recorded by an automated weather station located at 18,700 feet.  The climbing season is April through July.  This year 1206 climbers attempted the summit and 643 reached the peak.

The best views of the mountain came at or before the Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66, it had clouded over by the time we got to Wonder Lake, an additional 20 miles out.  For anyone planning a trip, I personally didn’t think it was worth the extra time to go out to Wonder Lake.  The was essentially no wildlife out there except for mosquitoes and Gray Jay’s.

On the trip back we saw some more bull caribou, the kill where we saw the wolves had been taken over by a grizzly who had dragged the caribou carcass out of the river and was trying to bury it on the gravel bar in the river.  By the time we left, he was sleeping next to the carcass so no other animals would bother it.  On our way out of the park, we met up with a cow moose very close to the road.

Our next stop was to Stampede Road, just a mile north of where we are staying.  Stampede Trail starts at the end of this road, that is where the book by Jon Krakaurer titled, Into the Wild about the demise of Christopher McCandless took place.  The bus that was used in the movie set is parked at the 49^th State Brew Pub right next door to our campground.  I had no idea that I was so close to the location where all of this took place, it’s been awhile since I read the book.

Today was a great day for me, I’m really tired from bouncing around on a bus for 2 days, but sure am glad that I broke down and got a new camera.  Tomorrow we are headed to Fairbanks and hopefully Chena Hot Springs.

 Denali from 30 miles away

 Denali from 38 miles out

 Yeah America!  Flag at Eielson Visitor Center

 2 wolves feasting on a caribou

 Grizzly that stole the caribou that the wolves took down

 Bull caribou

 Cow moose

 This is a quilt - most amazing!!

 Close up of the mountain

 The bus used on the movie set of Into the Wild

 Interior of the bus

The bus is located at the pub right next to our campground

Denali Day 2 - Park entrance to Eielson (mile 66)

Today we took the Denali Park shuttle from the Wilderness Access Center to the Eielson Visitor Center at milepost 66.  We were quite fortunate in that we only had 7 people on our bus (converted school bus) and could choose any seat.  The ride wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought since after mile 15 it is a dirt/gravel road!  The Polychrome Pass area although beautiful did terrify me, there were 800-900 foot drop offs on a one lane road with no guard rails, just a drop off…

Most of the animals were off at a distance so it was difficult to get good photos of them but we did see grizzly bear (nothing like the up close and personal viewing that we had at Morine Creek in Katmai though.  We also saw a moose, many caribou, dall sheep, and several golden eagles.  We also were able to see the north peak of Denali during a brief clearing from 70 miles out.  There is only a 4% chance of seeing the summit of Denali during the month of August.  There was a fresh coat of snow on the peaks today.  The weather was ever changing since we had 50 mph winds most of the day.  But essentially no rain J.

We met a lot of really cool people on the bus on the way back.  There was a hydrology professor from Oxford that was doing glacier result as it relates to global warming.  She had some very interesting stories about her hiking out to her research areas to collect her data.

Tomorrow we are heading back to the bus and will go out to Wonder Lake at the 85 mile point.  It will be 12 hours on the bus, but should give us a really good feel for the park.

Kate

 Bull Caribou

 North Peak of Denali - look carefully in the clouds

Dall Sheep

Homer-> Anchorage -> Denali

Sunday – Homer to Anchorage (July 31)

Sunday we drove from Homer up to Anchorage.  We were originally going to spend 3 days in Anchorage but have since rethought our plan.  Tom needed to get to get his oil changed and we needed to get a few things fixed on the camper as well as doing some shopping.

Monday – Anchorage (Aug 1)

We camped at a campground that was very convenient to downtown Anchorage, but we pulled up stakes 1^st thing this morning as soon as Tom was back from the Ford dealer.  In the meantime, I managed to get us locked out of the camper as we were getting it hitched up to go the dealer.  Fortunately, they were able to get it opened up for us J Still not sure how that happened since the door has never locked behind us before.   The campground was not the worst one I have ever camped at but it sure came close, very close.  The bathrooms were clean but it just gave me a creepy feeling.  And besides, who ever heard of a campground office closing at 5PM on a summer evening?? 

We have grocery shopped, made an REI run, gone to the one and only camera shop in Alaska where I got the definitive word that my camera was toast, and have since bought a new one.  Ate lunch at the Moose's Tooth, a local brewpub serving Hungarian food.  It was a good day for goulash since it is so cold, grey and rainy outside.  We’re all finished with everything that we have to do in Anchorage and are hanging out at a coffee shop just waiting to pick up the camper so we can heard north to Denali.  I’ve decided that Anchorage is just another mid sized American city with every known chain store as we have in the lower 48.

As soon as we picked up the camper we headed out of town after a brief stop at a reindeer sausage place.  I actually was able to find the worst campground ever tonight near Wasilla.  It had an awesome website, very professionally done, but wow the campground was horrid.  Well, it wasn’t so much the campground itself as it was the rusted out school bus camper, the multiple dog kennels, the couple that look remarkably like meth addicts as well as a few other scary things.  The good thing about having a camper is that once it’s set up, you don’t have to leave.  We couldn’t actually see the campground until after we had paid, but we were out of there lickity-split this morning in a total downpour before most of the "permanent" residents were awake.

Tuesday – DENALI!!!! (Aug 2)

We arrived at Denali and got all set up in our campground (nice one) and headed to the park.  We picked up our shuttle bus passes for Wednesday to go out to Wonder Lake, at mile 85 on the park road.  The end of the park is mile 92 at Kantishna, an old gold mine that I believe is actually private property.  There are no private vehicles past the 15 mile mark on the road unless you are at one particular campground, then you can drive out, but you can't take your vehicle out of the campground until you leave the campsite for good.  The shuttle is supposed to take 10 hours round trip on a park bus that looks surprisingly like a school bus painted green.  We are supposed to be able to get off anywhere we want and flag down the next bus as long as there is room available on it.  170 miles on a school bus on a dirt road sounds kind of torturous, but I’ll report back on that one.

We did go on a really nice hike, only a couple of miles but it was along the Savage River, and I was able to get some nice shots using my new camera J.  

Tomorrow, depending on the weather we hope to get in a couple of nice day hikes.  It was in the 50s all day today and is very cold, windy and dreary now.  Hopefully the wind is bringing in good weather.

Kate

 My favorite - Fire Weed

 Alp Lily - (I think)

Savage River along the tundra (must be savage in the springtime)

Bears Bears and more Bears!!! Katmai National Park

Day 19… Katmai National Park bear viewing trip J

Today we took a puddle jumper, and this was a serious puddle jumper to Katmai National Park.  It took very little water to take off and land.  After our orientation to where we were going in Katmai NP; the far northern region of the park/preserve, we geared up in hip boots and rain pants as well as layers of clothing for a day on the tundra.

Our flight over lasted about an hour and a half with Bald Mountain Air and was totally smooth sailing across Cook Inlet, past St Augustine Volcano and over Katmai.  We could see Kodiak Island off in the distance.  Very cool flight!  The area in the park where we were headed was primarily tundra and permafrost.  If you’ve never walked on permafrost, it’s like walking on spongy peat moss with a thick layer of moss on top.  It is very springy but also very uneven.  From a distance it is very bland looking but when looked at up close it is actually very pretty. 

We hiked a bit to get down to Moraine Creek and once there we hiked around a bit more but for the most part we sat on the riverbank and just watched the bears.  We stayed as a group and the bears pretty much ignored us and went about their business of getting fattened up for winter.  Once in awhile when one of them was bringing a salmon out of the stream, they would look at us and think… no way this is my fish and I’m going back in the bush to eat it, but others would walk right in front of us and eat it. When a bear would walk within 10-20 feet of us, Gary our guide called them Alaskan drive-bys. The bears pretty much only eat the eyeballs, the brain, and a fat pad near the tail, then they would strip the skin and eat the fat under the skin and leave the meat of the fish for the sea gulls.  The bears were predictable just like our guide said they would be.  We were in a remote area, unlike Brooks River Falls that has viewing platforms, etc.  We hiked and just parked ourselves on the riverbank and waited for the bears to come to us.  They walk and swim up and down the river all day looking for salmon.  It’s interesting that all of the bear have different techniques for catching fish, some swim under water and come up with one, others jump at them and still others paw at them.

We got to watch the bears for almost 5 hours then hiked back to the plane for the flight back to Homer.  I’m exhausted, very wind-burned but what an adventure!!!

The photos are all taken with my little instamatic camera since my good camera bit the dust last week.

 Our plane

 Big boy eating his salmon

 OK, so I always thought a bear $h!t in the woods!!!

 Sow and her cubbies

 I call these guys Cinnamon and Sugar

 Mt St Augustine

The Homer Spit snaking out into Cook Inlet

Day 18 - Homer & Hiking in Kachemak Bay State Park (July 29)

Hiking in Kachemak Bay State Park 

Today I wasn’t sure what I was going to do…  Tom was going Halibut fishing since Homer is the Halibut capital of the world.  I thought he could definitely catch enough for both of us (2 is the daily limit, usually at least 30 lbs of fish) and I wasn’t sure what we would do with an extra 30 lbs of it if I also went fishing.  It was a gorgeous morning so I tried to book a kayak trip but just couldn’t get anything that fit, so I ended up going hiking.  Kachemak State Park is stunning; there are many glaciers and many peaks above the tree line.  It backs up to Lake Clark National Park but is only accessible by air or water.

The lady that helped me book my water taxi and suggested the hike said that the trails were used by a lot of people.  Well, I did meet a lot of people on the water taxi that were with a hiking group called counrtywalkers.com.  I need to look it up, but they were all very nice, mostly women and several were from Michigan.  I really couldn’t tag along with them since they were paying for a guide, but I figured if I got eaten by a bear they would find me along the trail.  I’ve never felt comfortable hiking alone and have only done it once before in Northern California in the Redwood National Park last summer but there were no bears there.  I started hiking and was doing ok until I entered a densely forested area and had to walk over a couple of huge piles of bear scat, definitely bear scat – it was totally full of half digested berries!  I figured if I started to sing I would probably attract the bears, they would want to attack to get me to stop, so I started hitting my hiking poles together.  I felt like Christopher Robin in the hundred acre wood with his marching sticks.  I counted 30 some piles of bear scat, mostly black bear judging by the size of it, but there was this one pizza sized pile that I’m guessing must have been from a grizzly, a big grizzly!  I never thought in a million years that I’d become a bear scat aficionado!

The hike led to a glacial lake that was beautiful, the temperature dropped like 30 degrees once I approached it.  There were ice floes all over the lake and I could hear the glacier calving.  Some of the ice floes came near shore and I was able to grab them.  The glacial ice was the most pure thing I have ever witnessed, well except for a newborn baby.  It was the clearest, hardest ice… and it tasted so good!!  It was absolutely crystal clear, and who knows when it was frozen???

The rest of my hike was unremarkable.  I ended up on a beach and had to wait for nearly 2 hours for my water taxi back to Homer.  It was too long, but not long enough to hike an additional trail so I hung out on this beautiful beach.  A group of guys that had been backpacking were also waiting and one of them found out that I was a nurse.  One of the guys in their group had sat on a thorn so guess what I was asked to do???  The question is, did I remove the thorn or didn’t I??

The water taxi was 35 minutes late and I was beginning to think that I was going to be forgotten on the beach but there was actually a park ranger also waiting for a ride back. so i figured I 'd be ok.  It was a long day for both Tom and me.  He caught his halibut so now half our freezer is full of fish :-)

Stay tuned for my next blog all about watching bears in Katmai National Park tomorrow!!

Kate

 Hiking to Grewingk Glacier in Kachemak Bay State Park

 The Grewingk Glacier and ice floes

 Ice floes

 Glacial ice, it tastes amazing

 More glacial ice, how pretty and crystal clear

 More ice floes

 The hike out to the beach on the other side of the inlet

 The beach where the water taxi picks up

Beautiful beach... called Hawaii Beach and there were 2 people that actually went swimming!!