We've survived our 10 day trip through Alaska and everyone is still in one piece. It rained for many days and most nights which put a small damper on our wildlife and scenic vista viewing, however we got to really appreciate our camper investment! (note the summery outfits in the photos... NOT)
We started the trip on Friday the 4th heading out from home to Dawson City. We had many scenic stops along the way to run around, check out the views and of course... geocache! I think we hit 6 cache's on the 6 hour drive and that definitely helped to break up the distance. Hunter can now say "geocache" and understands all of the fun involved with treasure hunting. He was especially pleased with the toy car and helicopter that he traded for. We stopped in Braeburn for a cinnamon bun (our first time and a must for everyone) and followed that up with a hike at 5 finger rapids and another at Mile 0 of the Dempster Highway. A final viewing of the area from the "dome" atop Dawson capped off our night (around 10:30pm) and we headed across the river to the government campground.
Both Hunter and Mom managed to come down with a sinus cold (of course, since this was our annual fall vacation) and it continued throughout the 10 days. This meant for some questionable sleeping arrangements some nights, with drugs actively being promoted by Dad.
Saturday we headed back over to Dawson City to take in the sights. We were surprised with how quiet it was and enjoyed walking the streets. We were back on the road by noon and headed off on the Top of the World Highway. It has scenery similar to the Dempster and you really do drive atop the mountain ridges and have great views.
It was a 3 hour drive that also included crossing the border (no problems) and landed us in Chicken, Alaska... We had yet another geocache to search for, but were somewhat challenged by this one until we paid more attention to the detailed instructions and hints. In the mean time, we headed out for a quick hike in the woods to stretch our legs and burn off some 3 year old energy. Chicken is an old Gold Mining area (still some mining in the area today) and they have a number of large dredges similar to Dawson City. A dose of Ice Cream from the Chicken General Store and we were on the road again headed to Tok.
The proverbial rain started in Tok and so we decided to press on and drove until just past Delta Junction before pulling over into a rest area to
crash. This extra driving allowed us to spend more time in North Pole (the home of SANTA and his REINDEER)
and also head out to Chena Hot Springs for the night. Santa was a huge hit and Hunter was definitely in awe of the man and his shop. It should make for an interesting Christmas this year.Chena Hot Springs is an hour east of Fairbanks and well worth the drive. It is incredibly scenic and the Hot Springs was a great camping experience, however it took us a number of days to explain to Hunter that not every camp ground has a swimming pool!
Monday morning we got up, had a quick stop in the pool (wow, clean 2 days in a row!) and headed into Fairbanks to check out the museum at the University of Fairbanks and, of course, do some geocaching... We managed to get all of that in before the sky opened up and the rain came down... We then continued our driving and made it to Denali National Park by supper time. Luckily the sun had broken through and we were able to see some of the great scenery on the drive down. Evening excitement was the making of a campfire and roasting of hotdogs (Hunter's favourite camping activity) and we managed to get tucked into bed before more rain...
Tuesday morning we awoke to rain and very low lying fog - definitely
no magestic views that day. We ventured off for our free tour of the National park Kennels and had fun snuggling with the dogs and learning about their back- country winter tours (they go out for 2-4 weeks on patrol to areas where there are no "engines" allows). Funnily enough there was a posting for an assistant kennel manager sitting in our computer when we got home (no, we aren't moving further west).It was a long dayof driving to get to Anchorage so we headed south around noon. Mid afternoon we were all desperate for a break so we pulled over at the Willow Float Plane dock and thought it might provide some space for Hunter to run around. The great staff saw how enthralled he was and next thing you know, Hunter and Tim are out on the docks watching
the planes take off, land and taxi right in... Nothing but huge grins for an hour!We pulled into Anchorage around 4:30 pm and made another well needed stop at a great kids park in town where Hunter could run up and down all the various structures. We then spent the evening at our friends Bob & Nikki's house amidst all of their malamutes.
Weds was up fairly early as Lee had a meeting with AT&T Alascom to knock off before we could head out on the road. We managed to find our way there and it turned out the offices were right next to one of many US Airforce bases, so Hunter got to enjoy all the planes and other machinery.
We pulled out of town just before lunch and got in a great stop at the Alaska Wildlife Refuge on our way to the Kenai Penninsula. We had been there about 4 years ago and enjoyed the close proximity of the animals. It did not disappoint and we had some fabulous view of Bears, Moose, Caribou, Muskox, Eagles etc.
The Kenai Peninsula is renowned for it's fishing (salmon and halibut) as well as it's wildlife. Consistent with the rest of our trip, our wildlife sightings were low however the scenery was magnificent. www.kenaipeninsula.org
Wednesday and Thursday night were spent at the very bottom of the Peninsula in Homer www.homeralaska.org . This is fishing central and we stayed on "the spit" which was about 2km long and ran right out into the Pacific Ocean. Homer has the 3rd highest tide fluctations in the world (many reasons) and the 2 days that we were there were some of their largest of the year (25 foot swings from high tide to low tide). Our campsite was right on the beach so twice a day we went for some fabulous beach exploration walks. Hunter got to see jellyfish (which Tim mistakenly started out throwing into the ocean off the beach and then had to continue with everyone Hunter saw ~ oh, about 50 per walk...), starfish, clams, mussells etc.
On Thursday afternoon Hunter and Lee participated in the "creatures under the dock" education session in the Homer small boat harbour. Teacher Jane was fabulous and taught the kids (and parents) all about the marine animals in the area, especially those found in a boat harbour. We all got to handle a starfish, sea anenome's, mussells etc. Hunter thought the best part was getting to lay on the side of the dock and reach way way way out to see all the animals in the water!Friday we headed back up the coast with many stops along the way for Tim to check out various carvers (chainsaw, antler etc.). It rained the entire way so we didn't spend much time outside the truck. By the time we made it to Whittier it had been raining for 8 hours so we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel stay, hot showers, real bed, room service and movies. It worked out quite well and we all had fun. The hotel was right on the harbour so Hunter enjoyed watching the boats (including Cruise Ships) come and go.
Saturday we took the ferry across Prince William Sound from Whittier to Valdez. This is world class scenery and was the sight of the Exxon Valdez spill many years ago. Unfortunately the rain continued and scenery was limited to about 3 feet beyond the ferry. It was a small but nice ferry and had good interpretive programs for both adults and kids so we managed to pass the time well. We headed out of Valdez to start our push home, however we needed to hit one more Alaskan Geocache and it turned out to be quite a challenge - we came at it from 3 different ways and finally found it after at least an hours search... At least it got us outside!
www.valdezalaska.comA quick stop at Worthington Glacier State park (amazing blue ice) for some hiking and climbing and then we settled in for the long, long, long, long, long drive home...
Alaska is an amazing place with such diverse sights - it should be a MUST DO for everyone at some point in their lives. We will head back a number of times - still lots to see, such as the wildlife of the Kodiak region (Katmai national park), the carvings and wildlife in southeastern Alaska (south of Juneau) etc.
