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Alaska Adventure 2018
  • Bobbi and Rod Reeves
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  • Bobbi and Rod Reeves

Alaska Adventure 2018

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    Bobbi and Rod ReevesAlaska Adventure 2018Bobbi and Rod Reeves

    On our way home!

    12 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    We spent our last night in the same campground where we started our trip - Creekwood Inn & RV in Anchorage. We returned the RV to Clippership RV Rentals and they then took us to the airport just a short distance away. Our plane did not leave until the evening but we were able to check in our luggage with with airlines and spend the rest of the day in the VIP Lounge at the airport. This worked out nicely as it has comfortable seating and refreshments. We found out that one of the towns we visited a week or so ago just got 8 inches of snow! Our plane was a little late in boarding but all went well. Seeing the Alaskan mountains from the air is beautiful!

    What a trip!!    En savoir plus

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    Play Ball!

    11 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We left Talkeetna and headed south on Alaska route 1 towards Anchorage. Before we got to our campground we stopped in Chugiak, Alaska for a baseball game. The teams were the Chugiak Chanooks and the Mat-Su Miners - teams from the Alaska Baseball League. It was the home opener for the Chugiak Chanooks.

    The name "Chugiak" comes from a Dena'ina word meaning "place of many places". Chugiak was first heavily settled in the 1950s, primarily by the homesteading by former military personnel who had served in Alaska during World War II. Mat-Su is shortened for Matanuska-Susitna Valley. The Mat-Su Valley was originally inhabited by Athabaskan people and was explored by Russians in 1818.

    A lot of people came out for the home-opener. They even have their own cheering group - 'the horn section' (see photo 5). The game was won by the Chanooks 7 - 1.    En savoir plus

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    All Aboard!

    10 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Today we visited the town of Talkeetna. Talkeetna comes from the Dena'ina word K'Dalkitnu which means 'river of plenty'. The gold rush brought prospectors to the area as early as 1896 but gold was not found until 1905. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a law enabling a railroad be built from Seward to interior Alaska at Fairbanks. Talkeetna was then turned in to a railroad camp. After the railroad was completed the town was able to survive. Today it relies on tourists and climbers using Talkeetna as base camp for climbing in the Denali area. Year-round population is between 800 - 900, peaking to nearly 5000 during the summer months. Three rivers start at Talkeetna and are glacially fed: Chulitna, Susitna and Talkeetna. The rivers can be anywhere from 6 inches to 30 feet deep.

    While in Talkeetna we took the Alaska Railroad ride, the Hurricane Turn Train. It is a 120 mile round trip train ride. It is America's last flagstop trains as you can flag the train to stop anywhere along its route. The Hurricane Turn Train serves as a lifeline for Alaskans living off the road system in the backcountry wilderness north of Talkeetna. Along the way we stopped at the home of Shannon Cartwright, author of children's books. She has lived off the grid for 46 years (photo3). We also passed through towns that are no longer in existence Curry and Chase. We then passed through Sherman, named after the only family still living there, also off the grid (photo 4). The turnaround point is Hurricane Gulch. The Hurricane Gulch Bridge is a 918 ft long steel arch railroad bridge that crosses Hurricane Gulch, Alaska. It only took 2 months to erect the bridge! It is 296 ft above the Hurricane creek, and is both the longest and tallest bridge on the entire Alaska Railroad (photos 6 & 7). Another stop was at Indian River (photo 8).

    When we got back to the camp site we cooked hot dogs and s'mores over a camp fire. A great way to end a great day!    En savoir plus

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    On the road again

    9 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We left Denali and headed south on the Alaska Route 3 stopping at a campground in Trapper Creek. Along the way we did see moose - and we had 2 brown bears walk across the road in front of us! We were driving through the Denali State Park area. We also saw 2 moose near the side of the road but they moved before we could get a photo. Trapper Creek is halfway between Anchorage and Denali and is known as the southern gateway to Denali State Park. The population is a little over 400.En savoir plus

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    Hiking Denali

    8 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    The weather was great for hiking - in the mid 50's - and that's what we did today.

    We went back to Denali and hiked two trails. The first was Horseshoe Lake Trail. As the name suggests, the trail takes you down and around Horseshoe Lake. This trail has a 20% slope down (which you have to go back up!). Along the lake you can see beavers, their dams and trees that they are gnawing on or have felled. We also saw a snowshoe hare. The trail also takes you along the Nenana River. A beautiful hike!

    Our next trail connected with the Horseshoe Lake Trail and it was the Taiga Trail. Taiga Trail is slightly easier with only a 15% slope. This trail leads you back to the Visitors Center. While hiking this trail we came across a moose - up close and personal! It was right off the trail.

    After the hike we decided to drive in the RV as far as the Park allows private vehicles to go in the Park - 15 miles.    En savoir plus

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    Denali

    7 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    We were lucky today as we saw many animals: grizzly bears, moose, caribou, ptarmigan, and Dall sheep. Sometimes they were behind trees, down in the valley, up the side of a mountain and others were close. We were lucky in that we were able to see Mt McKinley! See photo 4 - in the middle of the photo you see two white peaks - that is Mt. McKinley. Photo six is a zoomed in view of Mt McKinley. It was about 70 miles away and the elevation is 20,310 feet.En savoir plus

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    Denali National Park and Preserve

    7 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Today was spent touring Denali National Park. We took the Wilderness Tundra bus tour which was about 8 hours long.

    Denali National Park and Preserve has just one road, called the Denali Park Road, and it is the only way in and out. The road is 92 miles long, and only the first 15 miles of it are paved. That paved portion, leading from the park entrance to Savage River, is open during the summer for public vehicles to drive, which is why we did a tour so that we could go deeper in the park. The remainder of the road is packed gravel and there are no guard rails. We traveled about 2/3 of the 92 miles. Today, 100 years ago, the 1st party to set foot on the highest part happened. At this moment, there are 500 climbers on the mountain.

    In 1917, Congress created this park for one main reason: to protect Dall sheep and was called Mt. McKinley. In 1906 gold was being mined by approximately 2000 people. Dalo sheep were in abundance in this area and were hunted to provide food. In 1980 Congress expanded the park boundaries and added other reasons for its existence, including protection of North America's tallest mountain (now called Denali) and to provide a place for wilderness recreation. The word "Denali" means "the high one" in the native Athabaskan language and refers to the mountain itself. Denali is a huge park (more than 6 million acres), but has very few trails. This is intentional - to preserve wilderness recreation.    En savoir plus

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    On to Denali

    6 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    We left Fairbanks and headed southwest on the Parks Highway, also known as Alaska 3. You can see where parts of the road have the dips and heaves showing it was built on permafrost. Also, you pass an access road that leads to Clear, a large radar site that is part of the ballistic missile early warning system. After crossing the the Tanana River we stopped in the village of Nenana. This village is used as a transfer point for fuel and other goods from the railroad to river barges headed for villages on the Tanana and Yukon Rivers. Nenana is known for their Nenana Ice Classic, an annual betting pool where hundreds of thousands of dollars are wagered by people around the world trying to guess the exact day and time in the spring when the river ice will go out. Of course we placed our wagers! When the Alaska Railroad was completed in 1923 President Harding drove a golden spike in Nenana to commemorate the railroad completion. Nenana has also been a stop for the Iditarod Race. We then continued on to Denali.En savoir plus

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    Fairbanks continued

    5 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Today was a relaxing day after yesterday's long Dalton Highway experience. We did go on a stern wheel paddle boat. This boat travels the Chena River from Fairbanks. We saw a float plane take off as we started down the river. The boat stops at the dog mushing facility of Susan Butcher. Susan Butcher is an American dog musher and is the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1986, the second four-time winner in 1990, and the first to win four out of five sequential years. Although Susan died in 2006, her husband and two daughters have kept up the dog sled training facility on the Chena River. We were able to meet her daughter Tekla who gave a demonstration on the training. In the summer months they use an ATV (without the engine) to train the dogs. The next stop was to a remake of an Athabaskan village. Our guides in the village were native Alaskans from some of the local tribes.

    The Athabascan people traditionally lived in Interior Alaska that begins south of the Brooks Mountain Range and continues down to the Kenai Peninsula. There are eleven linguistic groups of Athabascans in Alaska. Athabascan people have traditionally lived along five major river ways: the Yukon, the Tanana, the Susitna, the Kuskokwim, and the Copper river drainages. Athabascans migrated seasonally, traveling in small groups to fish, hunt and trap. They did not live in log cabins until the white people became known to them. Clothing was made of caribou and moose hide. Moose and caribou hide moccasins and boots were important parts of the wardrobe. Styles of moccasins vary depending on conditions. Both men and women are adept at sewing, although women traditionally did most of skin sewing. Canoes were made of birch bark, moose hide, and cottonwood. All Athabascans used sleds --with and without dogs to pull them – snowshoes and dogs as pack animals. Photo 4 is of a fishing wheel. This is how salmon were caught.    En savoir plus

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    Dalton Highway continued

    4 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We passed through some beautiful scenery the remainder of our trip. One community we went through, Livengood, is no longer viable. Gold was discovered on July 24,1914, on Livengood Creek by N.R. Hudson and Jay Livengood. The village was founded near the Hudson/ Livengood claim as a mining camp during the winter of 1914-15, when hundreds of people came into the district. A post office was established in 1915 and was discontinued in 1957. A construction camp was located near Livengood during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. We stopped at a general store in a community called Joy. This community was named after the mother of the founding family who had 23 children - the majority of them were adopted.

    We left Fairbanks at 1:00pm and returned to our camp site at 3:00am! It was a long day but we did get to see the sun setting (it never sets completely off the horizon) - it's called the midnight sun.    En savoir plus

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    Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline

    4 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 0 °C

    Traveling the Dalton Highway you see the pipeline. We stopped at one point to get up close to the pipeline. In building the pipeline, engineers faced a wide range of difficulties, mainly from the extreme cold and the difficult, isolated terrain. The construction of the pipeline was one of the first large-scale projects to deal with problems caused by permafrost, and special construction techniques had to be developed to cope with the frozen ground. The project attracted tens of thousands of workers to Alaska. Here are some facts on the pipeline:

    - it starts in Prudhoe Bay and ends in Valdez (800 miles). Fairbanks is about halfway.
    - it was built in 6 sections by 5 different companies costing way over the estimated cost - costing 8 billion dollars and took 2 years 3 months to build
    - the pipe is 1/2 inch thick steel; 48 inches in diameter; has 3-3/4 inch fiberglass insulation
    - the maximum grade of the pipeline is 55% and is at Thompson Pass (see our visit to Valdez)
    - the highest elevation is 4739 feet at Antiqun Pass
    - the zig-zag design in different locations helps the expansion and contraction of the pipeline
    - "fins" on top of the posts of the support structure are filled with ammonia and there to keep the permafrost ground from melting - much like how refrigerator works
    - 'pigs' go through the pipeline. One is to clean the pipes and the other is to record any erosion points and such. A helicopter flies over the pipeline and can pick up the signal from the pigs
    - the first barrel traveled in 1977 and originally it took 1 month for the oil to travel from start to finish. It now takes 2 weeks
    - the support structure has bumpers to allow for movement during earthquakes
    - there are 11 pumping stations; 4 are in use now. They are used to relieve pressure and to maintain the temperature    En savoir plus

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    The Dalton Highway

    4 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    There are only 3 roads in the world that cross the Arctic Circle and the Dalton Highway is one of them. The Dalton Highway is a 414-mile road. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay Oil Fields. Once called the North Slope Haul Road (a name by which it is still sometimes known), was built as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1974. The highway, which runs parallel with the pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. There are only three towns along the route: Coldfoot at Mile 175, Wiseman at Mile 188 and Deadhorse. Fuel is available at the Yukon River Bridge (Mile 56), as well as Coldfoot and Deadhorse. The road itself is mostly gravel or packed dirt and very primitive in places. The nearest medical facilities are in Fairbanks and Deadhorse. Anyone embarking on a journey on the Dalton is encouraged to bring survival gear - in fact our guide was trained in survival methods, carries a first aid kit, food and a satellite phone for emergencies. Our van also had a CB radio which she used to inform truckers at certain locations that we were on the road or pulling back on the road from a pullover area. The truckers travel fast and don't move for oncoming cars and there are no shoulders. Truckers that travel the highway have given their own names to its various features, including: The Taps, The Shelf, The Bluffs, Oil Spill hill, Beaver Slide, Two and a Half Mile, Oh Shit Corner and the Roller Coaster. The road reaches its highest elevation as it crosses the Brooks Range at Atigun Pass, 4,739 feet (which we saw in the plane). We traveled through Beaver Slide, Oh Shit Corner and the Roller Coaster. They are doing some 'repairs' (putting more dirt on the road and smoothing it - somewhat!). It took us nearly 10 hours (with some stops along the way) to travel the Dalton Highway.En savoir plus

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    Along the Dalton Highway

    4 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We made several stops along the Dalton Highway:

    Grayling Lake - two to three thousand years ago Native people stopped here to camp and hunt for caribou and moose. Many of their tools used for hunting were found during the building of the road (Photos 1 & 2)

    Finger Mountain - is not really a mountain but hills. The rocks on the hills were formed over 100 million years ago from magma seeping through the surface and then cooling. The Anthapaskan Indians lived and hunted in this area. (Photos 3 & 4)

    Yukon River Camp - one of the stops where truckers can get a meal, room and fuel. We stopped here for dinner. The bridge crosses the Yukon River and is 2,295 feet long and 30 feet wide. The driving surface of the bridge is wooden planks supported by a steel deck attached to a pair of steel box girders. The wooden deck has been replaced in 1981, 1992, 1999 and 2007. (Photos 5 & 6)

    Arctic Circle - The Arctic Circle is the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. It marks the northernmost point at which the noon sun is just visible on the December solstice and the southernmost point at which the midnight sun is just visible on the June solstice. The region north of this circle is known as the Arctic, and the zone just to the south is called the Northern Temperate Zone. As seen from the Arctic, the Sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year (and therefore visible at midnight) and below the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year (and therefore not visible at noon). The position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed; as of 23 May 2018, it runs 66°33′47.2″ north of the Equator. Its latitude depends on the Earth's axial tilt, which fluctuates within a margin of 2° over a 40,000-year period, due to tidal forces resulting from the orbit of the moon. Therefore, the Arctic Circle is currently drifting northwards at a speed of about 49 feet per year.

    Permafrost- permafrost is ground, including rock or soil, at or below the freezing point of water 32 °F for two or more years. Our guide stopped and dug up a small area only a few inches deep and we got to put our hand in the hole and feel the ice! Plants in this area have a root system that doesn't go deep in the ground. (Photo 9)

    Joy, Alaska - is a trading post. This place was originally set up as a lemon aid stand along the highway. The owners children set up the stand to serve to truckers along the highway. They dug down several feet to keep the lemon aid cold to serve at the stand. Soon, they began to sell other items such as cold drinks and candy bars. The trading post then followed, as a stop for the truckers to come in.    En savoir plus

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    Arctic Circle

    4 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    It was a busy day as we spent the day traveling to and from the Arctic Circle! We started at the tour company's office which is located at the Fairbanks airport for a briefing. Our original tour was to drive up and back but there was not enough signed up for that tour so they upgraded us to a fly and drive tour which worked out even better!

    Our plane was a 10 passenger Navajo Chieftain piloted by Tod. We were asked our weight and our camera bag and backpack were weighed. Rod was able to sit next to the pilot. Our one hour flight took us to Coldfoot, Alaska which is an oil pipeline camp and about 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Coldfoot Airport, on the west side of the Dalton Highway, is a 4,000-foot gravel strip. There, we were met with our guide, Sabrina, for the remainder of the trip.The rest of our trip back to Fairbanks was in a passenger van on the Dawson Highway. Our first stop was to the Coldfoot camp which is right outside of the airstrip and then to the Visitors Center. This Center is unique as it has 3 federal agencies under one roof - the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife. There was no cell service for the next 10 or so hours.

    Along the way, Sabrina gave us the history of the area, pipeline and the area in general. The town of Coldfoot is said to have gotten its name when between 1899 and 1908 gold miners had been mining for gold in the Slate Creek area and not finding much got 'cold feet' and left. Coldfoot primarily serves as a truck stop on the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. North of Coldfoot, there are no services for 240 miles until Deadhorse. It has a restaurant and a small number of overnight accommodations that are converted pipeline construction camp quarters. The stop actually started as a summer mobile food truck. Eventually the truckers wanted something year-round and asked the person running the food truck if they helped build a building would he become year-round. Of course, the answer was yes. The truckers provide everything for the approximately 8000 people working in some capacity at Prudhoe Bay.    En savoir plus

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    What do you do when at the North Pole?!

    3 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    You visit the Santa Claus House! In 1949 Con and Nellie Miller arrive in the community, North Pole. In 1952, the Millers had decided to build a trading post. The story goes that one day, while hard at work on the new store, a young Alaskan boy thought Con was Santa Claus and asked, "Hello, Santa Claus! Are you building a new house?" Inspiration clicked, the new store would be called "Santa Claus House!" In those days the Santa Claus House offered more basic necessities than it did Christmas treasures. Situated between two military installations and right in the middle of developing North Pole, Santa Claus House became an impromptu gathering place for area residents. In addition to purchasing their groceries, locals could mingle at the soda fountain or pick up their daily mail, as Santa Claus House, under the direction of Postmistress Nellie Miller, was a mail contract station and served as North Pole's first Post Office for almost 20 years. In 1972 the state rerouted the Richardson Highway, bypassing the store's location. The Millers built a new storefront just off of the new four-lane highway, where it still is today. Inside, the store's emphasis on Christmas items have replaced the aisles of well-stocked canned goods. Santa even makes a daily visit (when not busy in the toy shop!). The Santa outside the store is 42 feet high and weighs 900 pounds (photo 1).

    We then stopped at the Golden Heart Plaza. This plaza was created to celebrate the silver anniversary of Alaska’s statehood in 1984. Our next stop was the Ice Museum. The museum is located in an old movie theater. You start with a 25 minute film about the ice sculpture contests held annually in March here in Fairbanks. After seeing the film you enter into the "freezer" where it's kept at a cool 20 degrees. You can slide down an ice track and take your picture sitting on or next to numerous ice sculptures. There then is a demonstration on Ice sculpting.

    It was then on to something a little warmer. Rod was able to play a round of golf at the North Star Golf Club. It is located in Fairbanks and it is not only the Northernmost golf course in America, but also one of the most unique. This is not just because of the unusual and ever-changing lay of the land but also due to the likelihood that you will share the golf course with any of a host of wildlife species. We, unfortunately, did not see the wildlife. The golf course has a visitors special where they rent you clubs, balls, tees and you also get a logo hat. The cart path is dirt/mud - you need an ATV instead of a golf cart. Rod played a good round of golf.    En savoir plus

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    Made it to the North Pole!!

    2 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Before I tell you about today's travel I wanted to show you what it looks like at 3:00 in the morning - see photo 1. The length of day is 20 hours and 36 minutes and the length of visible light is 24 hours meaning it really never gets dark like we know it. We also met a couple from Delaware at the Tok Campground. We spoke with them and found out that they live in Lewis - a town about 30 minutes away!! Also, I wanted to tell you something else about Chicken. At Chicken they have no electric or running water! All electric to run the cash register, lights etc. are with provided by a generator. Water is brought in - no flushing toilets - just out buildings. And, no cell phone coverage.

    We left Tok and headed north-northwest to Fairbanks, our most north location we will be staying at. We are actually staying at a campground just outside of Fairbanks proper in a town called North Pole. About halfway in to our trip, outside of Delta Junction, we stopped at Rika's Roadhouse. The roadhouse is named after Rika Wallen, who acquired it from a man called John Hajdukovich and operated it for many years. It became a hub of activity in that area of the interior. With the construction of the ALCAN (now Alaska) Highway and the replacement of the ferry with a bridge downstream, traffic moved away and patronage declined. The roadhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The roadhouse was built on the banks of the Tanana River. The Tanana River was one of the major rivers to be crossed by travelers along the Valdez-Eagle trail. A ferry was established just upriver of the Tanana's confluence with the Delta River. Several log cabins housed the telegraph office, a dispatcher, two repairmen and their supplies. Rika eventually became the postmaster and served in that position for many years. Last year, he Alaskan government wanted to end its support of the Roadhouse so a family from Delta Junction (a city just down the road) purchased it and now runs it. The Alaska oil pipeline crosses the Tanana River not far from this location also.

    The campground is located on the Chena River. The Chena River is a 100-mile tributary of the Tanana River. It flows generally west from the White Mountains to the Tanana River near the city of Fairbanks. We took our camp chairs to the river bank and enjoyed the view. We were surprised at how fast it flows.    En savoir plus

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    Another day in Tok

    1 juin 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Even though we are in Tok we did a day trip to a town about one and one-half hours away. On the way there we stopped at the Tok airport - 40 Mile Air. The pilot we spoke to originally came from Maine but has been here for at least 30 years. The airport is open year round and flies supplies to villages that have no access by roads.

    We then headed to Chicken - yes, that's the 'town's' name. It is about 65 miles from here but the road (Route 5 and also called the Taylor Highway) in some areas, is not in the best of shape due to frost heave - some areas were only gravel. It is a beautiful drive through the Sitz Mountains. It was built in 1953 to provide access to Eagle, Chicken, and the historic Fortymile Mining District. After Chicken the road is all gravel and goes to Eagle, Alaska and the Canadian border.

    Chicken was settled by gold miners in the late 19th-century and in 1902 the local post office was established requiring a community name. Mail is flown in twice a week. Due to the abundance of ptarmigan in the area that name was suggested as the official name for the new community. However, the spelling could not be agreed on and Chicken was used to avoid embarrassment. The ptarmigan is like a chicken. A portion of Chicken, with buildings from the early 1900s and the F.E. Company Dredge No. 4 (Pedro Dredge) are listed on the National Register of Historical Places as the Chicken Historic District. Chicken is the outpost for the 40 Mile mining district. There are still active gold mines in this area. Enough gold was mined here to make it worthwhile to haul the huge gold dredges to this remote location. There are still several inactive gold dredges in the Chicken area. There are 17 inhabitants and due to mining, Chicken's population peaks during the summer. They also have an airport which we visited. The last photo is of a piece of gold that was mined from this are.    En savoir plus

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    Tok, Alaska

    31 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    We left Gakona and headed northeast on the Tok Cut-off road (Route 2). This route saves us about 100 miles and two hours of travel to Tok. We weren't sure about this route as we heard good and bad but overall it was a good route. There was a portion of it that wasn't in the best of shape due to an earthquake 5years ago and they haven't fixed it. There's sections of it like a washboard - the first picture doesn't quite show it very well but hopefully the video will. The locals keep saying 'maybe next year' it will be fixed! The road follows a beautiful route through winding high valleys of the Alaska Range, crossing a low divide near Mentasta Lake and the Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve on one side. When we arrived in Tok, it was raining with thunder and lightning and even had a short spell of hail! It then changed to a clear blue sky. Our dinner tonight was Alaskan king crab legs that we bought in Valdez - yummy!En savoir plus

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    On to another place

    30 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    We left Valdez this morning heading north but before leaving we chatted with a local and asked him about the tide in Valdez. We noticed that it was quite a big tide and seemed to occur often. He said the tides occur every 6 hours and there is generally a 12 foot tide. It was 37 degrees when we left. We headed north back on the same road as we came in (there is only one road in and one road out!). We stopped at the old railroad tunnel outside of Valdez. This tunnel was being dug out by hand in 1906. Unfortunately there were nine companies that wanted ownership of it and a big feud and gun battle took place and the tunnel never was finished.

    We continued north until just passed Glennallen, where we stayed a few days ago, and then took the Tok Cut-off to head north-northeast. We are spnding the night in a town called Gakona. The temperature was in the high 40's. Gakona served as a wood and fish camp, and later became a permanent village. A federally recognised tribe, Ahtna Athabascans is the Native Village of Gakona and is located here. In talking with the campground owner the weather can get very cold - as low as minus 60 degrees but last year it got 'to only minus 40'! They only got about 60 inches of snow this past winter. Summers are mild. Once camp was set up we hiked to the Copper River where we saw caribou and bear tracks.    En savoir plus

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    More on Valdez

    29 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Today we visited two of the museums in town to learn some of the history of Valdez.

    In 1897 gold seekers came to Alaska to follow the "All American Route" (instead of going through Canada) over the Valdez Glacier into the interior of Alaska. A tent city sprang up at the head of the bay, thus forming the city of Valdez. Prior to that the territory belonged to the Chugach, an Alaskan Native people in the region of the Prince William Sound. Prince William Sound was originally named Sandwich Sound, after the Earl of Sandwich by Captain Cook in 1779. Editors of Cook's maps renamed the Sound to Prince William Sound after Prince William IV. IN 1790 Spanish explorer Salvador Fidalgo was sent to Alaska to investigate Russian involvement and to establish claim in the area. There is a street named after Fidalgo. The port of Valdez was named after Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán a Spanish Navy Minister in 1790.

    In October 1980 the luxury cruise ship MS Prisendam was enroute to Japan, having cruised the inside passage way from Vancouver, put out a distress call as they had a fire that started in the engine room and was spreading. It was determined to abandon ship. The US Coast Guard and a tanker near by came to rescue and bring the passengers and crew to Valdez. One life boat was lost for 12 hours but was found. It is on display at the museum. There was a pilot, Bob Reeve, who became a famous Alaskan bush pilot. He his supposed to be the first to but skies on the wheels of is plane to be able to land in the snow (photo 2 & 3). The other museum was all about the damage done to the town by the earthquake and tsunami. Photo 4 shows what the intersection looks like today - photo 5 show what the intersection looked like before the damage (see where the red VW bus is). Photo 6 is part of a house that was an actual home in the original town.

    Photo 9 is the Valdez Marine Highway Terminal. Alaska is over 650,000 square miles and much of that has no road access. The primary forms of transportation in areas without roads are by air or sea, so the Alaska Marine Highway is a big part of the 'highway system.' It is such a unique set of routes that is has been designated as a National Scenic Byway and an All American Road, the only marine route with this distinction.
    With its southernmost port in Bellingham, WA, the Alaska Marine Highway extends more than 3,500 miles to Dutch Harbor, with over 30 stops along the way.    En savoir plus

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  • Bobbi and Rod ReevesAlaska Adventure 2018Bobbi and Rod Reeves

    Touring Valdez

    28 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Today was spent touring around the town of Valdez. We visited the Solomon Gulch Hatchery located across the bay. Not much was going on as the time for spawning of salmon is not right. The best time is July through September. During this time, bears, sea gulls and sea otters can be seen feeding on the fish. It was built to make sure sufficient numbers of salmon return each year. The facility incubates, rear and release 230 pink salmon and 2 million coho. (Photo 1)

    The 1964 earthquake also hit Valdez. In fact, the tsunamis that occurred after the earthquake demolished the town. The original town of Valdez was actually four miles west of the current town location. The original townsite was condemned because of the ground being unstable so in 1967 the entire town was relocated to its current location - 52 buildings were moved and the rest were razed. You can still see where the streets were and they have markers where buildings were. Photo 2 was where the hotel was and photo 4 is where the post office was. The population now is around 4500 who work for the city, the oil industry, tourism, fishing or the transportation and shipping industry.

    Our next stop was to Glacier View Park and lake. As you can see the lake is still slightly frozen so you could not get to the Valdez Glacier. (Photo 5 and note in photo 6 how you see the reflection of the mountain surrounding the lake). On the way to Glacier View Park you pass the Valdez Municipal Airport. We stopped in and other than private planes there is only one airlines, Ravn Airlines, that service this area.

    We did a short hike on the Dock Point Trail. Parts of the trail give you a view of Harbor Cove and the Port of Valdez. The pink flowers are called Dwarf Fireweed and are also called River Beauty. The yellow flowers are called American Skunk Cabbage as they give off a skunky-odor when blooming although we didn't notice a smell.

    We stopped off at the local grocery store to replenish- it was a Safeway. That seems to be one store that is found in almost every town. Food tends to be a little expensive - a half gallon of milk: $5.29; lettuce: $2.99; radishes: $2.99; onion: $1.74    En savoir plus

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    Valdez, Alaska

    27 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    We decided to go to Valdez today instead of staying in Glenallen another day. Before I describe our trip I wanted to show a picture of what sunset looks like. The first picture was taken at 11:15pm. Sunset was 10:55pm and sunrise was 4:32am. We talked with a local who said it only gets 'somewhat dark' between midnight and 2:00am. In the winter it is only light out between 10:00am and 1:00pm!

    From Glenallen we headed south on the Richardson Highway, Alaska's oldest major Highway. This road runs from Valdez to Fairbanks in the interior. We picked it up about halfway. You can see the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline along the way but I'll talked about it more later. The Richardson Highway began as a gold rush trail. In 1910 the road was upgraded to allow cars. There is also a glacier that you can go to off of this road but unfortunately due to the visitor's parking lot still covered in snow, we could not stop to visit. Yes, snow! We were so surprised to see snow on this route. In fact, when going through Thompson Pass we had snow flurries and low visibility. The elevation is only 2720 feet. Once through the pass, the snow was gone. Valdez has a long-standing reputation for great snow - up to 900 - 1000 inches of snow! After Thompson Pass you drive through Keystone Canyon, about 10 miles north of Valdez. This Canyon has waterfalls which are created from melting snow run-off. We passed two popular waterfalls - Bridal Veil Falls (photo 9) and Horsetail Fall (photo10).    En savoir plus

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    Glennallen

    26 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Leaving Palmer (which we found out was started in the thirties as a government farming project during the Great Depression) we took the Glenn Highway to our next overnight destination, Glennallen. The scenery along this drive is beautiful! You are driving with the Talkeetna Mountains on one side and the Chugach Mountains on the other side and follow the Matanuska River to its headwaters. There we stopped at the Matanuska Glacier (photos 4 & 5). This glacier is the largest road accessible glacier in America and you can view it from the road. We stopped and took a short hike to get a closer look at it. The glacier is 4 miles wide at it's terminus and extends for about 26 miles back into the Chugach Mountains. It is classified as a valley glacier; a body of solid ice that flows like a river under its own weight through an existing valley. About 10,000 years ago it began its retreat to its present day location, and it has not seen any significant change in mass for almost two decades. Just after the glacier we passed Sheep Mountain (see photo 9) which is part of the Talkeetna Mountain Range. Our highest elevation we traveled was 3350 feet. Although the indigenous Ahtna people have lived in the region for countless years, the town of Glennallen was established in the mid-1940s as a highway construction camp for the Glenn Highway.En savoir plus

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    Still moving on

    25 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We left Cooper Landing to head to our next stop - Palmer, Alaska. We headed north on Route 1 continuing through the Chugach National Forest into the Chugach State Park until we reached Anchorage. Outside of Anchorage we then headed east to Palmer. We saw fishermen dip-netting. (See photo #3, man with blue hat). Each year salmon navigate back to the rivers that they were born in to swim upstream and spawn. The Kenai River is famous for large runs of sockeye (red) salmon. They swim up in such large numbers that Alaskan residents can legally harvest them via dip net with a personal use fishery permit. The head of household is allowed 25 salmon each year and 10 additional salmon per additional household member under their dip-netting permit. There are also regulations for the size of the net used. The fish is usually so plentiful that fishermen put on their waders and walk along the water with their dip-nets.

    The scenery along the way was great especially Turnagain Arm which is south of Anchorage. Turnagain Arm is a waterway into the northwestern part of the Gulf of Alaska. It is one of two narrow branches at the north end of Cook Inlet, the other being Knik Arm. Turnagain extends in an east-west direction, and is between 40–45 miles long. It forms part of the northern boundary of Kenai Peninsula, and reaches on the east to within 12 miles of Portage Bay, a western branch of Prince William Sound. Turnagain is characterized by large tides of up to 40 feet which are the largest tides in the United States. The flood tide often begins with a tidal bore especially on large tides with a strong east wind, which has a height of 6 feet at times, and runs in from the west at a speed of 5–6 miles an hour. At low tide, the arm becomes a broad mud flat, cut by the stream channels. The area around Turnagain Arm is very rugged. South Suicide Peak is the tallest mountain rising from the north side of Turnagain. Mountains rise on both sides of the arm and reach altitudes of 5,000–6,000 feet. Their tops are ragged and bare. The timber rarely reaches higher than 1,500–2,000 feet. The smaller valleys are narrow and steep.    En savoir plus

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    On to the next locale!

    24 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ 🌫 11 °C

    We left Homer and headed north - back on the same road we came in to Homer. There are only a handful of major highways in Alaska and to reach some places you have to fly to or go by boat. We are staying in Cooper Landing. To get here we traveled Alaska route 1 through towns with names of Anchor Point, Ninilchik, Clam Gulch and Soldotna. We are back in the Chugach National Forest. This is the first campground that is not on the water but in the woods. It's a very beautiful place within hiking distance to the Kenai River. Cooper Landing was named for Joseph Cooper, a miner who discovered gold there in 1884. However, Peter Doroshin, a Russian engineer, had found gold prospects as far back as 1848 when the territory was still part of Russian America. Besides the town being named after Joseph Cooper, there is also Cooper Lake and Cooper Creek. The first school was started in 1929. Cooper Landing is about 70 square miles with the majority being land. We talked with one of the locals who said their snow varies from just a foot to as much as 6 feet. After setting up camp we hiked down to the river.

    We are a little over a week in to our travels and have gone about 450 miles. It doesn't seem like a lot but we have seen a lot of the Kenai Peninsula and are heading north to go east then back south.    En savoir plus

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