Beaver Creek to Haines Junction

Another day of driving. . . not so many miles, but lots of bad road. Never is easy. The road had frost heaves today with lots of roadway that just drops so it is always a challenge to drive it. Then there were at least two lengths of road probably about 10 miles long each that were gravel and washboard. And there are also those people who fly by you like you are standing still and throw dust all over and then you can't see where you are going. But hopefully the bad road is now behind us. We haven't heard any more reports of bad road where we are headed now. And once we board the ferry, we will be sailing south and miss the remaining bad roads.

We did have some events today. The first was a moose cow knee deep in a pond way off the road. I stopped and Terry was able to get her with the zoom lens. He got perfect shots of her. We rolled on and sometime later we saw some traffic stopped and could see two shapes along the side of the road. I guessed correctly and it was a bear momma with one cub. So cute. They were on the road at the side and the traffic, which wasn't much, was stopped so as not to antagonize her. When she was further off to the side, the cars pulled out and slowly creeped around her. We stopped a ways back because with the zoom lens we don't need to be close. But we still had to pass her. The other traffic had cleared and I was able to pull out into the other lane and creep past her. She did not get excited or anything which was good. I think they were brown bears.

We were on and off of good and bad roads and we hit one nice stretch of smooth road. I kicked up my speed a bit and Terry started to doze. I was perusing the landscape and just as I settled into my higher speed I caught sight of a huge moose cow trotting up out of the ditch on my right. She was close and she was big! I had to slam on the brakes and nearly set MinnieMee on her nose. Just as I saw that she would clear the motorhome, I saw twin babies following her. Although I had slowed greatly from my speed, I was not yet stopped so I stood on the brake and stopped. The calves trotted past me by just a couple feet. All this action had jarred Terry and he struggled to aim the camera and shoot. He didn't think he got them, but when we looked at the pictures tonight, you can see all three in the picture. It's not a well defined picture because he was shooting into the sun, but you can see them just the same! The only casualty was a bar of soap. LOL Since we have been having to brake quickly for bad roads and wildlife, we always make certain nothing is out anywhere, as we don't want to get hit by any flying objects. Well in our little motorhome, the bath is in the back and I keep a bar of soap on the tray attached to the wall. It has NEVER moved. We keep the door to the bath open and the window shade up because we can then actually see out the back from the rear-view mirror. That bar of soap ended up on the floor between us. Hah. We had a good laugh about that. So the score is Moose 3: MinnieMee 0 and that's fine with me.

We passed by Kluane Lake which is a really large lake. . . in fact it is the largest lake in the Yukon. We had planned originally to stop here for the night, but we have decided to go to Skagway first instead of Haines. So we opted to have lunch by the lake and then drove on to Haines Junction for the night.

Haines Junction has a unique little church made out of a quansot  hut left over from the Army building the Alaska Highway. There is one similar to it in Beaver Creek as well.

These are views of our camp tonight.

Till next time. . . Dale

Denali!

We spent the Wednesday on a bus in Denali. We had reservations on the 9 a.m. shuttle bus back to the Eielson Visitor Center. The round trip is only 66 miles, but it is almost 8 hours! The trip takes you 90 minutes to a scheduled break stop. . . basically a view and a potty break. Then another 90 minutes to another view and potty break. . . then 40 minutes to the Visitor Center where you get a great view of the mountain.

The road is paved for the first 13 miles, then you enter the gate into the park and you either have to have a camping permit or be on a bus to get back there. You can take your RV back to the camp at Teklanika but if you want to camp in the areas past that, you must tent camp and travel there on the special "Camper Bus." The road was bumpy, terribly dusty and looooong. We were rewarded with several wildlife sightings. We were told not to expect much because with the heat of the last week or so, animals were staying in the bush, trees, and higher areas to stay cool. But we did see animals. We started with some Dall sheep. They were up high and I had to get them with the zoom lens, but it does show them clearly. We saw several moose and one was really up close. He was almost to the road and the bus driver stopped the bus and shut it off. After a while, she started back up and the moose got mad and really agitated. But he did turn and move back into the bush. We saw a juvenile golden eagle, but I didn't get a shot of him. He was by me before I could get the camera on him. Tab said he got a shot of him though. We saw grizzlies. Several. One was a momma with cubs. We saw at least two cubs, but I couldn't get a shot of both of them, or all three together. They were quite far away, but it was still pretty cool to see them. We saw caribou. One fellow was hot and the bugs were bothering him so he was sitting in snow. I guess the bugs don't bother as bad then.

The scenery is wide and varied in the park. There are hills, valleys, glacial moraines, streams, glacial rivers which have no fish because they are glacial runoffs, dry washes, forests, snow, tundra, mountains, etc. The park is very, very large and you only get to see a small part of it. The shuttle system is pretty cool in that it allows you to get off anywhere you like and hike. Yeah, like I want to do that. But we did pick up hikers and backpackers, including some rangers, who had been out for several days. The park is largely unspoiled and conducive to the kind of wildlife preservation they hope to encourage. There are wolves, coyotes, snowshoe hares, etc., and they all have cycles of life that are responsive to the elements and the populations of the other animals and plants that fluctuate with weather and environment.

When we got back to the Eielson Center, we were treated with views of Mt. McKinley, aka Denali. Denali is the ancient Indian word for "Great One" or "High One." Years later, the mountain was named in honor of President McKinley who was assassinated. Now they intend to rename the mountain Denali and the park service already now refers to it as such, but the legal process has yet to be completed to make it official.

We took numerous pictures of the mountains. It wasn't a perfect day to photograph. We were excited because there were no clouds and we knew we would have a rare opportunity. . . and we did. However, that view was tempered a bit by smoke from wildfires that are burning to the south. So there was a haze, but the peaks of the mountain were out and that is the part that is normally obscured. So we did get to see it. Later on our way back we could see the mountain extremely clearly as the smoke had moved out of the area. But by the time we were back at the very first viewpoint near the entrance to the park, clouds had moved it and she was gone! But our day of viewing was extremely successful!

We got back to the motorhome at about 6 p.m. and had to move our rig. These sites are postage stamp size and the lady next to us, who is actually an employee, asked us to move our rig over as she was having a party and needed more room! LOL We moved, but when she started building a fire within 6 feet of our coach, Terry asked her to move the fire ring. She said she would, then sent a young boy out who started the fire where it was. So we asked to be moved and the office complied even giving us a refund on the full hookup site. So we are snug in another site and just across the road from Tab and Deanna.

Today we are doing some shopping this morning and this afternoon headed back to the park to see a sled dog demonstration.

Still having fun. . .

Till next time. . .

Dale

The High One. . .aka Mt. McKinley. . . aka Denali

We left Fairbanks this morning but not before paying a visit to the Large Animal Research Center at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. I had read that they had a herd of reindeer and also some musk ox. The musk ox is an arctic dweller, so the only hope of seeing any would require a trip up past the Arctic Circle. . . and then it would be iffy. So when I read that there was a group of them nearby, I checked it out. They give tours and we decided to go before we left town.

We weren't disappointed. It was a nice talk about what they do at the research farm and a lot about the animals. The musk ox are shy animals. . . obviously in their native habitat, they don't see people or green grass. It was hard to coax them from their shade. And even though the narrator was waving branches of fresh leaves at them and putting grain in the trough, they wouldn't have anything to do with it. . . that is, until we moved over to the reindeer pen and ignored them. LOL It was hot for them today. They are really beautiful animals. They were once hunted to extinction in Alaska and a group of 30+ were brought over from Greenland. They managed to survive the trip and the animals here today are descendents of those animals. In addition to the musk ox, we saw a reindeer family. The dad with his big horns and the mother and calf born in April. They were friendlier and got right up next to the fence.

Once we finished our tour, we started out for Denali. There is a parks highway which takes you down to Denali, but it is about 100 miles. So it was a long trip really. One area of the road was being totally rebuilt. Looks like they may have had a section collapse or washout. At one point we sited Mt. McKinley. It was pretty awesome even from that far away.

We managed to see a couple moose on the highway, but one went into hiding in the trees and the other was not in good view to take pictures.

Once we arrived at our campground, we got parked and hooked up. We looked around the camp a little and decided we needed to drive far enough into the park to see Mt. McKinley. The mountain is shrouded in clouds 70% of the time and today was clear, so we thought it might be our only time to see it clearly. It is supposed to be clear tomorrow as well, but some wildfires have started burning. . . none in Denali, but one never knows. So we got into our motorhome and we all went to the park. On the Park Road we saw a moose feeding on leaves near the road. She was actually down an embankment and some of my pictures looked very close, but I was using the zoom. Much of the time I was behind the motorhome taking the pictures. We drove on to where we had good views of the mountain. It was clear, but we were disappointed in the view itself as it looks small from the vantage point we had. But tomorrow we have bus reservations for in the park. Our trip goes 66 miles into the park and promises great views of the mountain and since it is supposed to be clear, that should be spectacular.

On our way out, we stopped off and got our bus tickets for tomorrow. We had made reservations earlier. While we were walking out, there was a moose in the parking lot. That was a bit of commotion. It was eating leaves off the trees in the wooded area around which the drive circles. Cars coming around were wanting to stop and gawk, but the park attendant made them move on. She said the moose can be very dangerous. They don't look it, but looks can be deceiving.

There are some neat little shops here in front of the RV park. We walked through some of them tonight. I may go back and pick up a few things.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Mile "0" on the Alaska Highway!

We left Grande Cache this morning and fueled and started rolling. It was raining again. . . we have been in rain most of the two weeks since we left. But we are supposed to have a nice day tomorrow and it actually did clear up late in the afternoon today.

We drove with hills on both sides of us today, much like going through a valley. We also had periods of time where we were traveling through what looked mostly like forest. Very few houses, except in the two towns we went through, but there is a lot of gas and oil production up here. Probably more gas than anything else. . . and wood. There was an OSB plant we passed outside of Grande Prairie. It was huge and I wondered where the people lived who worked there. When we drove into the town, there were new subdivisions being built with large houses, so there are people who live here and industries to support.

At one point while driving Terry spotted a moose down in the river. I looked quickly enough to get a glance. The picture is blurry, but I had to post it to prove we saw the moose. We were moving at speed and I had traffic behind me so I couldn't slow down.

We arrived at Dawson Creek, which is Mile "0" on the Alaska Highway. It is where the mile markers start. We are still almost 1,000 from Alaska, but we are closer than we were! We are staying here for two nights at the Northern Lights RV Park to rest up and then on Wednesday we have a 300 mile trip to Fort Nelson.

 



Till next time. . .

Dale

Moose Riding