South from Alaska

A few last words about our two days in Hyder Alaska. We went over to the Fish Creek viewing platform several more times, but did not see any more big grizzlies.

We did catch several views of what I think was the same black bear across the pond. He/she was a bit shy and kept disappearing into the bushes. 







I found it quite interesting to see the fish spawning in the shallow water of the creek right below the viewing platform. 

They were all dark in color, except for one that was bright red. I asked the ranger why it was the only red one. His explanation was that it was a lost Sockeye Salmon. It had come up the wrong creek and was doomed to not find a mate!






The other interesting thing to see when in Hyder is the Salmon Glacier which is about 17 miles out of town, on a somewhat rough gravel road.

Because the road goes alongside and above the glacier you can get a good view of the surface texture and blueish color.

We did have a couple more wildlife sightings on the road. The first was as we left Fairbanks, a momma moose and her two babies walked right across the highway in from of us. We were not going fast and were able to stop, but it was a good reminder to stay alert.

The second was after our Hyder Alaska stop, we had just pulled back onto the Cassier highway when I saw what at first I thought were a couple of cutout bear silhouettes on the side of the road.

As we slowed to go by, we could see they were Grizzly Bears. Probably youngsters.

Craig did not put the window down, nor did I stop. This picture was not zoomed in. The bear was right on the edge of the road! 

Wow, we sure did travel back to the lower 48 quickly! We are now in the Salt Lake City area. Craig made this day by day chart.

We had two reasons to skip sightseeing and drive every day. Our destination was Salt Lake City because we have an appointment for our annual maintenance services at the Warner Freightliner Truck Center. They did a great job on our radiator a few years back. We also found a repair facility that would look at and hopefully replace one of the leveling jacks on the Alfa. It has been giving us some trouble, and finally stopped working at Dease Lake up in BC. Fingers crossed that they will be able to get the job done.

The other big motivation to keep rolling was the pernicious smoke from the Western wildfires. We encountered it from just south of Prince George, all the way to Utah. A little rain on our arrival day seems to have washed the air a bit.

So this is indeed the end of our Alaska Adventure. In the next few weeks we will get our services, return to California for the body work on the Alfa, and settle in at Jojoba Hills for the winter, plus lots of good time with the family in San Diego.

Craig has just ordered a new camera for me. (My birthday is coming.) I am excited to get to know it, join the photography group at Jojoba, and post some of my new images here. The pictures in this blog have always been a combination of those taken by Craig with his Nikon "big boy" camera, and those taken by both of us with my small, but pretty good, Sony RX100. But after five years, it is time for an upgrade. 

RV life is good! 😊 

Another COOL Week in Alaska

On a daily basis as we enjoy the cool weather and beautiful scenery of Alaska, I say to myself "Yes, this is why we came here for the summer!"

After a fun couple of days in Valdez, Deidre continued her vacation in a rented cabin 15 miles north of Seward. Considering it had no electricity, water or bathroom, it was quite nice and the four of them were quite comfortable.

We had planned on going to Seward a week or so later, so with a shift in plans we booked a few days at an RV park that I thought would quite close to where she was going to be.  It was indeed! In fact the RV park managed the rental cabins and we were virtually in the same place.

They took one day to drive there, but since the driving distance was about 350 miles, we decided to take two days, stopping at Slide Mountain RV Park on the way. We could have done the drive in one day, but I am still a little cautious since the accident, and prefer to minimize the stress.

One aspect of being retired I consider an advantage, is the time to go slowly and enjoy doing nothing other than just living. On the other hand, our daughter and family were on vacation and wanted to pack in as much as possible. On our second day of driving, they went on a fishing trip and caught lots of salmon.  

Before they arrived back, we went over to the cabin to get a fire going in the deck fire place. It overlooked the lake and was a good place to relax. 

We also built one in the cabin itself. The nights do get cool, and the little wood stove made it nice and cozy. 

Andrew grilled some fresh salmon both evenings we were there. They also gave us enough for several meals, and shipped the rest back to their home in San Diego.

same youngster, photo from web

On the second day, we again went our separate ways during the day. 

They went on a sea kayaking trip, and Craig and I went into town to explore and visit the Alaska Sealife Center. Craig liked the Giant Octopus the best. It was all scrunched up along one edge of a large tank.






I enjoyed watching the orphaned walrus cub. He was in a pool with his handler learning practicing how to get on and off a slab of floating plastic. A skill he will need to climb onto floating ice. We were able to observe through a second story window overlooking the pool.

It was raining when they got back from kayaking, but working together we got a fire going, salmon grilling, and side dishes ready to share. I think my grandsons were looking forward to sleeping up in the overhead loft.

Our last day together, Sunday July 9th, came too soon. It was our daughter's 50th birthday. 

They had reservations for their last night in Alaska at the Hotel Alyeska, and dinner plans at the restaurant at the top of the tram.

Once again, this shows how mother and daughter sometimes think alike. A stop at the Alyeska was also in my plans. It is quite a beautiful place, and the ride up the tram is fun.

The Alyeska allows  overnight RV parking in their day-use lot 51 weeks of the year. Unfortunately this was the one weekend they did not, because there was a big festival going on in the town of Girdwood, which includes the resort.

I am glad I had double-checked the RV information the week before. It would have been unfortunate for us to arrive, expecting to dry camp there and be turned away. Instead we left the Alfa at the RV park near Seward and followed them in the Jeep. This made for a late drive home again, but with the all-night dusk it was not a problem.


Until we almost hit a moose!

This is not the moose we almost hit. We saw this one up close at the 
Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, before we went to the Alyeska.

We do take the moose warnings seriously, especially since when driving the Alfa out of Valdez last week, when a full size moose just walked casually across the road in front of us. We were far enough away that just braking slowed us enough to miss her. But the adrenaline did flow.


At one in the morning it is as dark as it gets, especially when both sides of the road are densely wooded. I was driving a little under the speed limit, with my brights on, when suddenly there was a moose on the pavement, ahead of us. Fortunately he or she was going in the same direction as we were, ran alongside for a few paces, then ran off the road.  If the moose had gone across the road, we would have hit it. 


Hundreds of moose are killed on the roads of Alaska each year, and the vehicles that hit them do not fare well.

Speaking of moose, we saw several at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which we visited with Deidre and family.

They have a large moose barn where five young male moose live. They were all rescued as calves when their mothers were either killed or abandoned them. 

We all enjoyed seeing this porcupine.  He was really fat. He was rescued after his mom was killed on a road. He had lived as a house pet for a couple of years, actually sleeping with the family children. It was interesting to see one, alive, after having only seen road kills in the past.

This young black bear also lost his mom at a young age. The mother had grown to be a problem bear in the Valdez area, constantly raiding garbage cans and staying in town. She was put down, and he was brought here.

Their grizzly bears have a large enclosure.

There is a large, sturdy deck that overlooks the area so people can watch the bears in a somewhat natural setting.

The bears also seem to enjoy watching the people. The public cannot feed them, but the bear hope for handouts anyway.

So ... where are we now?

On Monday we drove up and around the Kenai Peninsula to a park just north of Homer. (See the map above)

But this post is already way too long!  I'll catch up some more in the next post.  

Valdez Day 2 & 3

We chuckled when we saw this painted on the side of a van.

Valdez isn't exactly a busy metropolis on an overcast day when the fish are not running.  On Thursday and Friday we just poked around the town, going down to the harbor and to three small museums. One was the Valdez Museum, one was its annex and warehouse, and one was a very fine free museum at the Prince Williams Sound College that included the collections of Maxine and Jesse Whitney.

These are some of the things we saw:

A fully restored steam fire wagon. (Valdez Museum)

Wooden washing machines (Valdez Museum)

(Valdez Museum)

More old stuff (Museum Annex)

Thursday at the Small Boat Harbor

Friday near the Museum Warehouse

A happy mask (Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum)

Lynx (Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum)

Wolf (Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum)

At the end of the day we were told by the young man minding the Whitney Museum gift shop that

"Even the bears are waiting for the fish!"

On the Road to Alaska

Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson: 283 miles

A quick camp review from a one-night stay.

I know some of you just drive and find a place to stay at the end of the day, but I am most comfortable if I have a reservation, even if it's called-in the same day.  There have been plenty of open spaces at the parks we have stayed in since leaving the Vancouver area, and I know we could have just driven in, but try as I might, I feel uncomfortable for the last few hours before arriving without one. 

Monday we were at the Bluebell Motel and RV park in Fort Nelson. I called on Saturday. It was easy to find, right on the highway where our Rand McNally said it was. We have full hook-ups, and because we were in the pull-through spot that is closest to the building, we had excellent WiFi. The space was super level, there is a gas station out front for our morning fueling, and because the motel is between us and the road, it was very quiet.  Good place!

Note: I should have posted the above while I had good internet. It was hopeless for the next few days! 

Fort Nelson to Liard Hot Springs: 190 miles

It was very nice to be able to leave the Jeep hooked up overnight and to be able to just pull out in the morning.

We are now well into the "land of the midnight sun". I have read that in Fort Nelson, on mid-summer’s eve it never gets truly dark in the night. Well, on the 6^th of June, morning comes very early. I woke up to morning light and was ready to start the day. But then I looked at the clock and saw that it was just past 4 AM! Back to sleep I went.

We had two destinations today. The first, Testa River Services and Campground, was only 70 km up the road.

I had read that they had wonderful cinnamon buns and were a “do not miss” delight. 

Well, if you like cinnamon they really are great. Note: that is a full size paper plate it is sitting on.   Yummy.  Craig passed, choosing only to have some coffee because he doesn’t like cinnamon very much.

On our way from Fort Nelson to Liard we saw two bears and our first moose. All that time in the far Northeast last year, and I never did see a moose. Well there it was just standing by the side of the road, watching us drive by.

We also saw several groups of stone sheep, and several groups of buffalo.

They like to lick the salt on the edges of the road. They don’t seem to mind the cars at all.

The scenery was beautiful and quite varied. This was one of the many mountains we saw.

We did go through one awful patch of highway. It was being regraded and was dirt and gravel. I’m not sure if they were getting it ready for repaving or not.  But it was very dusty and all the vehicles, including ours, got terribly dirty.

Ok, so the Alfa doesn't show the dust very much, but it was like fine cement.
You can see it behind the wheels and on the Jeep. Dark cars and RVs looked terrible.

Our second stop was at the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park, where we dry-camped for one night. The campground has a very easy entry, off the Alaska Highway. The system is to drive in, pick out a site, unhook and back in, and then go and pay for it at the entrance. We arrived at about 1:30 PM and there were still many empty sites, but several rigs had to wait for us to get out of their way. Thereafter we watched numerous RVers drive past our site looking for a place.

Soaking in natural hot springs pools is another “everybody does it” experience.  After getting settled we donned our swimsuits, grabbed our towels and went over to the springs.

There is a good size day-use parking area that many RVers use, who do not want to overnight. We drove the Jeep there, after washing the mud-like grime off the windows.

There is a quarter-mile boardwalk through a boggy area to the springs.

There is a changing house and a deck along the natural pool. This is the hot side, and at the far end, under the bridge is the spring itself. The farther from the spring, the cooler the water gets. We tried going in this side first but it was, as Goldilocks said, “too hot”!

We were happy to hear that the other pool was much cooler, so went there first. 

After awhile we were prepared and went back to the hot side. 
It is nice and in the center of the water there are several benches, which we took advantage of. 

Another tip is that if you go, wear water shoes or flip flops in the water. The bottom is covered with rather sharp stones.

After a nice soak we were happy we had decided to camp there for the night.  We were both very relaxed, and driving was the last thing we wanted to do at that point.

We were well rested the next morning, and got an early start.

Check back soon for more about our trip. 

A visit to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center

On Wednesday we went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.

It is a not-for-profit nature center.

There are ten grizzly bears, all of which are "rescue bears" that cannot be returned to the wild, because before they came to the center they 

1. had become problem bears who had discovered the easy life raiding garbage cans and finding pet food at people's houses, or 
2. were cubs of mother bears who had been shot by hunters.

The center has a large bear viewing enclosure that is about an acre with a wild grassy knoll, a pool, a dirt pit, trees, and many large and small rocky areas. There is a deep moat between the enclosure and the people so there is no need for a fence on that side.

The bears have locked dens behind the viewing enclosure, and only a few are out at a time. Every half-hour or so, whatever bears are out go back to their den, and a keeper spends some time hiding food such as fruit under the rocks, and in places the bears will have to work to get at it. They also put live fish in the pond, and bones, or pieces of hide. Sometimes they will put out rotting wood full of bugs, or honey. They call this enrichment and the bears do seem to enjoy looking for these treasures and tidbits. 

All of the bears looked very relaxed and healthy. They, and the wolves are all neutered. This is a rescue and education center, not a breeding and entertainment facility. We really enjoyed the slow pace of just watching bears doing bear things, much as they would in the wild.

This guy entertained with what looked like a playful roll in the grass. Maybe his back itched!

We watched this bear twirl this stick like a parade rifle. The keeper on duty said it was just a stick and didn't have any bugs or honey in it.

A half dozen rescued birds of prey also live at the center. Like the bears, they had been injured and would not survive in the wild. Housed in reasonably large enclosures, they live better than most caged birds do. 

At the entrance is a small museum with some very nice taxidermy specimens, information and several good movies. In another building on the grounds is this excellent bronze wolf.  

Seven wolves live in three large enclosures. They also have dens, but spend most of the day sleeping or relaxing outside in nice weather.

At different posted times, each "pack" goes into their den area away from view and is fed. While they are eating a keeper distributes wolf goodies for them to find when they come back out.  

Raw bones and bit of hide are hidden.

This guy found some elk, and took it to a back corner of the enclosure, out of sight to chew on.













The keeper rubs different scents are on rocks and in the grass. This days scent was mink oil, which was pungent even to Craig outside. They also put out Elk pee.

Ahh! The joy of rolling in something stinky! 

The two wolves we watched are brothers. They were bred for show business and after they were used in a movie they were given a home at the Center. They are neither pets nor wild, and would be killed by other wolves if released.

Although the day started a bit overcast, once again it turned our to be pleasantly warm and sunny. Our day at the Center was very low key. The senior admission price was only $10.25. We highly recommend this "Not For Profit" facility as a supplement to the Yellowstone experience and as a way to see bears and wolves up close.

We will keep our eyes open, who knows, we might get lucky and see something besides elk, bison, and people in the park.