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Alaska Road Trip Day 20

Saturday, 6 September

Alaska, BC, and Yukon…90+ miles

No electronic tickets here! Had to go in here to get a physical ticket haha

Got a window seat on the cliff side of the train so I did most of the photo and video work on the way up to the top from my seat

Somebody’s following us

Occasional glimpses of the river below

The US border control building. It’s way on this side of the actual border since it’s pretty treacherous at the top

Black cross monument… a few who died during the laying of the railroad are buried there

Tunnel!!

The old bridge is pretty creepy in the fog

From darkness to light

One of the gold Rush trails

Trailer part two

Border crossing

Turning around at White Pass Summit

Since I was now on the wrong side of the car, I went outside for some of the trip back

Time lapses are fun

Especially backwards and through tunnels

Wave to the nice people on the other train!

There’s a little Sasquatch figure here, but he goes by really fast so you might not see him

At Denver stop, they left an old caboose there so that backpackers can use it for shelter

Visited lots of Klondike Gold Rush sites

It was incredibly hard for the prospectors

Beautiful old piano kept in very nice condition

In order the fish and chips, which were awesome

And then his house when he got rich after the gold rush

Everyone involved with this project is certified insane

There is no plumbing in the building and never was. Jane was put here to scare people.

Skagway was swarming with people, here from cruise ships.

I want to go climb in the cave, but I didn’t

Soapy Smith. Conman Shot by the guy with the huge monument

The trailhead for the Chilkoot trail, one that many prospectors took and died on and you can still take. But hopefully not die on.

Went to the historic Dyea site. Boomtiwn during the rush but now mostly gone back to nature

So quiet here.

On my way back to Skagway I spotted this guy!

Truly, a ghost town at the end of the day.

Pretty waterfall on the way out of the town and the state

Bye Alaska! Taking lots of memories and insect carcasses

Stopped to sleep by a lake in Carcross

Alaska Road Trip Day 19

Alaska, BC, Yukon, BC, Alaska 😁 366 miles

Camped at an RV park in Haines… woke up with the sun

Needed to kill some time before the ferry, so I drove toward Chilkoot Lake. Bunches of people were pulled over at the side of the road, so I stopped and here’s what I saw!

Caught some bodily functions

Bye!

Chilkoot lake…I did an amazing job of keeping all of the people, canoes, dock, and fishing out of the photo

Driving back along the chilkoot river. Stopped where cars were parked and people with cameras were…

Caught a fish!

Still had a bit of time so I sat on a big rock and enjoyed…

…this view!

Went to the very terminal and it turns out they were sold out! Sad face. So I had to drive on our way through Canada to get to Skagway.

Stopped on Whitehorse to do a little shopping. Dollarama had the best prices on the candy I need to buy my nieces and nephews.

This museum is closed for the season but I got a shot of the steamboat that was used during the gold rush.

Stopped at kookatsoon lake for dinner. Beautiful

The drive into Skagway was nerve wracking. There was a marathon along the road and I had to be super careful with pedestrians and support cars. It was also dark so that didn’t help. looking forward to enjoying the scenery on the way back out 😊

Garden City RV park tent site in Skagway (taken Saturday morning). I checked in late and wasn’t given the bathroom code, so I used the men’s room since that door wasn’t locked haha

Alaska Road Trip Day 18

Thursday, 4 September

Yukon, BC, and Alaska…240 miles

Started the long drive day at Soldier’s Summit trail

Love chilling in the red Adirondack chairs that are in the Canada parks

When I drove through this area before it was just green and now it’s all fall colors just a week and a half later

Drove all the way to Haines. This is the Chilkoot river.

I sat for a while in Haines trying to figure out what to do. The flight seeing over gates of the Arctic and Kobe Valley can finally happen on Saturday, but I have to fly to Kotzebue. It would mean, taking a sea plane to Juneau, then flying to Anchorage, staying the night there, then flying to Kotzebue, doing the tour, staying there, flying out the next morning to Anchorage and then Juneau, staying there, and then taking a sea plane back out Monday morning. All of this without my car. Delaying my trip three days days and costing a couple of thousand dollars more. I really want to see those parks but that’s a lot. I texted Steve and he said he would come with me later to see those parks so that’s what I’m going to do.

In the meantime, the company flying over glacier Bay called and said they had an opening that afternoon. So a day early, off I went!

And the whole trip was incredible.

Amazing sight after amazing sight

And Paul, the pilot talked about how much these glaciers have shrunk over time. It’s very sad.

I’m really glad that I got to sit in the copilot seat. Much better views than on my Katmai flight.

Smoother too. Didn’t get even a little bit sick

Landing!!

That was incredible! And all in an hour!

Alaska Road Trip Days 16 and 17

Tuesday, 2 September

113 miles

Went kayaking from Valdez out to the Columbia glacier. Had a 2-hour boat trip out there and back

Getting all geared up. I have never kayaked with that much stuff on haha

Landed. Getting kayaked up

Here’s where we are headed. It looks pretty close but it’s really not

In a kayak with August, one of the guides, so I got to take a video while he paddled hehe

So much ice on these waters

We sat in front of the face and watched for a calving event for quite a while

Calving event, zoomed way in

Lauren took a picture of me and Goofball

Taking off. Can finally take off all this gear!!

This was on the boat heading away. We explored the bit off to the left

Cutest rabbit at the food truck where I got this for dinner

This is the group I used for the kayak tour. They were awesome!

Just a teeny local creek…

Salmon everywhere!

Drove past the original town site on the recommendation of August

So cool how nature has just taken over since the earthquake in 1964

I hiked up to the trail end but it was just a viewing platform and I really wanted to touch it so I kept going

The scenery 😁

This was as close as I got before it looked too precarious and turned back

I’m sad that I didn’t get to touch it. Such a beautiful place and felt so tantilizingly close

Wednesday, 3 September

Alaska and Yukon…353 miles. Mostly a travel day.

Started at the Wrangell-St Elias visitor center and a short hike in the area

Usually these mountains are shrouded in clouds!

Driving along Highway 1

Crossed the border (took almost an hour!) while talking to my fam on our weekly Boggle call. Driving through the Yukon wasn’t as painful this time because there weren’t any work crews to worry about.

Stunning sunset for about an hour of the drive!

Alaska Road Trip Days 14 and 15

Sunday, 31 August

164 miles

Started the day off with some peaceful study by the lake…

It’s no wonder that my resting heart rate has dropped 💚

Just happened to notice this beautiful bald eagle on the side of the road, so I stopped and watched

On a whim, decided to look into hiking out onto it

Arranged to join a tour where they gave me these lovely micro spikes for my boots…

… and a decidedly attractive, orange helmet 😁

Fresh glacier water! Our guide Bren put in a tap for us!

Drove down the road a bit and saw more of the glacier from afar

And even more of it from where it originates

Found a campsite next to it and while adding a post, read about my friend Melia finding God and getting baptized. So sweet that I cried a bit!

Such a beautiful blessed day 🙏

Monday, 1 September

290 miles

Beautiful drive out to Wrangell St Elias national park

Drove the McCarthy road which was supposed to be horrible but really wasn’t. Just slow. A bit over 2 hours to go the 60 miles

And there were so many beautiful stops along the way

Got to McCarthy and took the shuttle out to Kennicott National Historic Lamdmark

Ate lunch at the historic Kennicott lodge

Took a cookie with me to tour the ghost copper mining town

Made of wood! Wouldn’t be doing that craziness anymore

Walked out on this long bridge over the river to get in and out of McCarthy

The drive to Valdez was even more stunning

I’ll take more pictures tomorrow when the light is better

Keystone hotel. The room was so bad (crepe paper walls, shower didn’t work, no soap. I got a refund and slept in my car

Alaska Road Trip Day 13

Saturday, 30 August

193 miles.

The boat trip that got cancelled on Thursday finally sailed today!

Left pretty early, so the sun was just peeking over the mountains

Resurrection Bay

Sat inside for a lot of the trip since it was quite cold

Saw a bunch of fin whales as soon as we left the bay

No Name Island complete with Stellar sea lions

Chat Island

I love all the different textures you can see when you zoom in! I wish that we could have gotten closer!

Time to go! 😊

Chiswell Islands

Bear Glacier has a lake in front of it with huge icebergs! Couldn’t really see it well so I’d love to go back there

I didn’t get much from the last part of the cruise because the Dramamine I took so that I wouldn’t get seasick made me really drowsy. So I actually slept for a while on the boat. When I woke up they had fresh chocolate chip cookies. Yum

They tracked out route and animal sightings 😊

Drove to Anchorage. On the way I stopped for a bit in Chugach National Forest – Falls Creek

They are constructing a new Anchorage temple so I couldn’t get to the grounds of the current one

I thought I was going to go to Matanuska glacier tonight, but I really really needed a shower and all of the campgrounds out there didn’t have them. Plus I wanted to go to church tomorrow and the closest one is in Palmer. So I actually backtracked and I’m staying at a pretty weird place called Fox Run camp. The office is an old converted house with a lot of random stuff all over the place. The kitchen has been made over into a restaurant so I went there for dinner.

Veggie eggrolls and a veggie stirfry. Super yummy!

The shower was kind of weird, but I have not enjoyed a shower that much for a long time haha

Alaska road trip day 12

Friday, 29 August

176 miles (plus a bunch in the air!)

My first excursion to actually get off the ground! Henry took great care of us in this Cessna floatplane

Felt very official with my headset on. The sound was deafening in there so it’s a good thing we had them!

Taking off!

St Augustine, super cool volcanic island

McNeil River State Game Refuge

I wish I could have gotten a picture of this but rainbows when you’re flying are complete rings!!

Katmai National Park

Graduated from bear school. 🐻 I’m so smart 😁

Brooks Falls from a distance, complete with rainbow.

I walked out to the river viewing area, waiting to be called for my turn at the falls. Ended up walking and talking with Susan, the other single person on my flight.

Got called! Spent the next 30 minutes totally enraptured. I will now add my vast (but pared down) collection of photos and videos (I had 300 of them before I started narrowing it down!)

I really can’t even put into words how incredibly cool this whole experience was

You could only eat food inside this fenced in area or inside the building. All food and anything with smells have to be walked in a room before you went out anywhere beyond the gates and fences.

The entire beach was strewn with pumice!!

This is the lake that we would have landed on but it was just too windy to safely land. Super bummed!

Cool waterfalls! And just check out the color of that water

Abort! Abort!

My selfie with Lake Clark National park as we were flying away

Landing back in Homer

Thanks Henry! Sad that we couldn’t land, but thanks for keeping us safe

My new flying buddies… Wanda, art, Susan, and me

Alaska Road Trip Days 10 and 11

Wednesday, 27 August

Alaska…373 miles

Drove from Denali NP to Kenai Fjords NP. Stopped to catch a flavor of the beautiful misty morning

Also for a short hike through the forest in Denali State Park

I love the solitude

In Anchorage, I stopped at the Alaskan Wild Berry Products store. No actual berries but a really cool chocolate fountain!

Hiked up to Exit Glacier. Along the trail, they had marked where the edge of the glacier was in that year. It was seriously a mile hike from this point. So much glacier loss. So sad.

Views from a couple of places on the way up

There were a few waterfalls on the opposite cliff

And after the mile hike, the glacier was still so far away! This was zoomed in as far as my camera would allow.

I wanted to hike up farther but I decided to be a good girl 😊

When I got down, I drove to where I got service and got on the family Boggle call. So nice to talk to Steve, Alex, Ada, and Rory. Then I went to the KOA where I’m staying but there was no shelter for making my dinner so I opted for dinner at a restaurant.

Incredible herb panko salmon with citrus sauce and blackened sprouts at Resurrection Roadhouse

Thursday, 28 August

212 miles

My boat tour out to Kenai Fjords got cancelled. I was very disappointed. But during my scripture study, I read about gratitude and decided that I would treat the day as a bonus and think about all the things I was blessed to see. 😊

After watching this, Alex declared “Alaska isn’t real.” Haha

Went for a short hike in Lowell State Park

Drove to Homer and stopped a few places on the way

Stopped for lunch next to Kenai Lake since it had stopped raining for a bit

Made myself a delicious impossible burger on this amazing chunky Dakota bread I bought

Ate it with these yum chips I bought back in Canada

Moose River. No salmon like they posted but still a pretty place.

Right on the beach

I’m stunned by this sunset given how horrible the weather has been all day

Alaska Road Trip Days 8 and 9

Monday, 25 August

Alaska…105 miles. Slow news day.

Rained most of the night. Moved most of my burgeoning insect collection.

The store was super fun! I love Christmas any time of year!

This one reminded me of Ada. She once cursed someone saying “I hope you step on Legos!”

For Steve, since he always buys lottery tickets when he visit states where you can buy them

Laughed at this one. Sent it to Ada and Rory.

This one made me think about how people always say that they watch all of my travels by reading my posts and are envious

Awwwww. I didn’t buy him because I don’t need any more stuffed animals but man I wanted to. I did buy a replacement for my Playmobil nativity scene since it’s missing some pieces and this one was on clearance. And also a Christmas ornament of course.

Had lunch at the chowder house and it was delicious although my chowder was very slow to come out. Then I went hunting for sugar cookies because that’s all the Christmas store made me want. Never really found anything good so I might just have to make some of my own when I get home 😊

For dinner, I had some grilled salmon at the salmon bake. It was delightful.

They had a little gold rush town with stores and things, but most everything was closed Cool steamboat!

Went back to my hotel room and spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to rearrange my trip. My flight seeing trip to Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley parks got canceled due to the rain. Tomorrow which was my back up day won’t work either I don’t want to skip two parks so I’m trying to figure out how I can work it out to drive back up here later in the trip when the weather is better.

Tuesday, 26 August

Alaska…152 Miles

Drove to Denali national Park. They wouldn’t let me exchange my Wednesday bus ticket for a Tuesday one so I had to buy another one, but they weren’t very expensive so that was OK. I was able to reschedule everything else to a day early. Yay!

Started my day at Denali at the café where I had a lovely pickle…

Then I got on the shuttle bus for the long trek into and out of the park.

A fully unclouded view of Denali. Incredible!

The bus driver said 70% of the people who come here never actually see the mountain

Saw a bunch of wildlife! Several caribou including this one super close

A mama grizzly and cubs from 6.8 miles away haha

Mountain sheep from slightly closer 😊

After the bus dropped us back off, I got in my car and drove back up some of the way so that I could take better pictures and see things in the evening sun.

Turns out I’m in love with this mountain 💚

Hiked down to Riley Creek after making my dinner

Time-lapse fun

Alaska Road Trip Day 5, 6 and 7

Friday, 22 August

Alberta and British Columbia. 490 miles.

Jasper national Park

Every angle brought some new delight!

Even the calm bits at the end were interesting!

Hung out a bit in the town of Jasper. Very cool First Nations sculptures…

Had lunch at an all you can eat Indian place and then dessert at Beaver Tails!

It was hot and I was curious, so I went for a quick swim! decidedly chilly 😁

Drove for a long time. Stopped to make some food at Kawka River Provincial park

So secluded and peaceful!

Hit Dawson Creek and the start of the Alaskan Highway!

I’ll drive most of it tomorrow and Sunday. Stopped for the night an our along it in Fort St. John. My first hotel stop so I hit the pool and laundry.

Saturday, 23 August

British Columbia and Yukon. 710 miles. Lots of driving today! All along the Alaska Highway.

Started at the Fort Nelson historic museum.

But the rest of the museum was honestly creepy.

All of these mannequins with zombie faces

And creepy dolls that I just imagine coming alive at night

They kept popping up all over and startling me

Saw lots of wildlife on the drive! Bison, a caribou, big horn sheep, even a baby bear!

The bison were legit scary to drive by. Ignore the sound of my audiobook haha. Listening to Middlemarch (a great book!)

There’s a lodge at this mile marker that serves legendary cinnamon rolls but they were inexplicably closed, even though their hours said they should be open. Very disappointing.

Liard hot springs. I didn’t get in very far because I didn’t want to smell like sulfur all night and they didn’t have showers.

Walk-through very cool marshy area over a boardwalk to get there and back

Yay!! Got service just past this point for a short while 😊

Stopped for the night at a rest stop a couple of hours from Whitehorse.

Sunday, 24 August

Yukon and Alaska. 635 miles! Incredible scenery, some pretty rough roads, a quiet lovely spot for my picnic dinner. Finally made it to Alaska! 😊

Misty and beautiful. The sun just rising through the trees

Went to church in Whitehorse. Beautiful log chapel

The road through the last part of the Yukon territory was pretty sketch. So many potholes and gravel patches and construction sections. Took a really long time to get through.