Alaska Road Trip - Part Four

In this part of the trip we started to venture back north. A couple days on the Kenai Peninsula followed by a couple days full of driving. Fishing, sunsets and glaciers. I like it.

Day Eight: Soldotna, AK to Homer, AK

Today we hopped on the Kenai River with a guide to fish for Silver Salmon. A treat of an early birthday present from Mona - had a lot of fun bringing a couple into the boat. From here we took a trip to Homer, where we had decided to camp out on the spit. This was an experience of its own and not only for the location. We were lucky enough to camp next to either a grizzly bear in a tent or a man snoring on one side of us and white Whoopi Goldberg coughing so frequently you could set your watch to it. Nature.

Day Nine: Homer, AK to Palmer, AK

Waking up on the beach was easy enough. We spent some time playing fetch with Liss while the tide was out and grabbed some fresh halibut for lunch. Today, my intake of vegetables consisted of pickles in my tartar sauce. After completing my yearly sodium intake (Lissie too - seawater was a new experience for her) we made our way back towards Palmer.

Day Ten: Palmer, AK to Tok, AK

We found out the hard way that the state fair was happening in Palmer. Traffic jams do exist in Alaska. That put a delay in our timing but it was nothing we weren't used to. Along the way back to Tok, we made a stop at the Matanuska Glacier and did some wandering in the mud and ice. Back to the highway and the most extreme of sports, moose dodging. Somewhere between moose #2 and moose #3 we had pulled over for a break and saw the Aurora Borealis above. My favourite kind of light pollution.

Alaska Road Trip - Part Three

Heading south towards the coast, we leave the boreal forests and become surrounded by temperate rainforest. Southcentral Alaska is certainly the most populated area of the state. In addition to wildlife on the roads, there are now vehicles and No U-Turn signs. The coastal communities were abundant in fresh halibut, seagulls, cruise ships and grey hairs. 

Day Six: Palmer, AK to Seward, AK

From Palmer we first set off to Anchorage and spent most of the afternoon in the city. Played with Lissie in the park, wandered around downtown then stopped for a bite and a brew at Midnight Sun Brewing Company. Past Anchorage, the highway runs along Turnagain Arm, which is notable from the large bore tides which infiltrate the arm. These bores can reach nearly 2 m in height. Mona got stuck in some mud flats here. We continued into Seward and spent the night at a campsite near the water.

Day Seven: Kenai Fjords National Park to Soldotna, AK

This day was mostly spent on the water. From Seward we hopped on a boat tour that would take us to the Aialik Glacier, a tidewater glacier nestled in the boundaries of Kenai Fjords National Park. The boat got us up close to the glacier (and the cold katabatic winds coming down the glacier). Though the main aim was to see the glacier, we had no shortage of wildlife (and people jumping in front of you getting seasick...humans are beautiful creatures). Once we got back to shore, we started driving towards Soldotna. Along the way we made a pitstop at the Exit Glacier as it is located just off of the highway. There is really no reason not to make this stop if you are nearby, it's an easy little walk/"hike" up to the glacier. Got into Soldotna, had a pint at St. Elias Brewing Company and called it a night.

Make sure to follow Mona's blog and check out her photos at www.foxandfen.com.

Take a look at Napier Outdoors for more information on our tent.

Alaska Road Trip - Part Two

The majority of these photos are from within Denali National Park. We spent the bulk of the day in the park. If we had more time on our trip, it would have been great to spend more time there but on a tight schedule, you have to make some omissions. One day was still enough to nearly develop carpal tunnel and a claw hand.

Day Four: Tok, AK to Mile Post 231 - George Parks Highway, AK

Our campsite in Tok was named the Golden Bear and the guy working there clearly named it after himself. Really reinforced that stereotype of beards in Alaska. Got back on the highway and drove to Fairbanks. Along the way was the community of North Pole. The most notable thing here was the giant, gaudy Santa Claus statue (as if kids didn't have enough fears of a fat man rummaging through their homes late at night) and a tourist trap of a store selling Christmas junk. They also had some depressed reindeer available to gawk at. The "excitement" continued in Fairbanks. Being as uninteresting as it was, we didn't spend much time here aside from fuelling up our vehicle and bodies. Once we found our escape route out of the city, we made our way towards Denali National Park. We snagged a campsite near the park entrance where we set up camp in the rain. The campsite was right on the Nenana River and despite the rain we whipped together a meal and made good use of the tarp. Good way to get a shower in, like it or not.

Day Five: Denali National Park, AK to Palmer, AK

Before we got to the park, we had dropped Lissie off at a kennel nearby. They played music for the dogs in the kennel. I'm not sure that she can really appreciate music, but it's a nice gesture. There is only one road into the park and they offer shuttles than run roughly every 30 minutes. Somehow we lucked out and got a clear enough day to see Denali's peak. We didn't have our hopes up considering it was cloudy before and apparently you can see the peaks only about 30% of the time (though I'm not sure how accurate that statistic is...). The entire day was full of some of the most amazing sights I have seen. Plenty of wildlife was visible from the road (and some crossing it). Grizzlies, Dall Sheep, Red Fox, Caribou, Unicorn, Moose, and the Arctic Ground Squirrel. Eventually we returned to the park entrance so we could continue south. Along the highway there was an old abandoned hotel made to look like an igloo (pictured below). There was a lot of weird structures seen from the road up here, but this probably tops them all. Further down the road, we drove through Wasilla (no Palin sightings) and found a spot near Palmer to spend the night.

Check out Mona's great set of photos from Denali here.

Alaska Road Trip - Part One

Two weeks in a scenic area is going to give you a lot of reasons take your camera out. My memory cards are a testament to that. Here is a collection of photos taken from the drive from Calgary up through British Columbia and the Yukon before getting to the Alaskan border. These pictures begin at Dawson Creek - Mile One of the Alaska Highway.

Day One: Calgary, AB to Pink Mountain, BC

Spent the majority of the day in the car. Got to Grande Prairie, AB around dinner time. We wanted to get as far as we could this day. We reached Mile One of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC and made a quick stop at the Kiskatinaw Bridge located at Mile 21. The bridge was the first curved timber bridge built in Canada in 1942-1943. It has a nine degree curve along its 162.5 m length. We got to Fort St. John after the sun had set. Our next stop would be in Pink Mountain where we knew there was a campsite. A few hours of driving in the dark is enough to wear on a guy. It was relieving to reach the campsite but seeing as it was after midnight, no one was working there. There was enough empty spots so we set up in one and left a note on the dash (a note which would be used quite often on this trip). 

Day Two: Pink Mountain, BC to Teslin, YT

Unzipped the tent to see our surroundings as we had no idea what they were. It was a common theme to have a surprise in the morning (fortunately they were generally favourable surprises). Along this drive, we made a stop a Laird Hot Springs. A good way to break up the monotony of driving. After this stopover we headed toward Yukon. Neither Mona or I had been to the Yukon before. We got stuck in some road construction which set us back at least an hour. Thankfully we had more than enough music, audiobooks and podcasts to keep us from the insane asylum. Once we made it to Teslin, we found a campsite near the lake and called it a day.

Day Three: Teslin, YT to Tok, AK

Got up at a reasonable time and scarfed down some caribou sausage and a few gulps of some watered down coffee. Today was one of my favourite days on the highway. This is because of the surrounding views, not the condition of the roads. The frost heaves had left the highway in a state akin to a roller coaster. Passing through Kluane National Park left both of us in awe. Eventually we came into another construction zone. At least it gave us time to look at the scenery, albeit on our earthquake simulator of a highway. Made it to the AlCan border and were graced with highways paved with freedom to take us to Tok where we stayed the night.

Check out Mona's amazing photos over on her blog: www.foxandfen.com

Special thanks to Napier Outdoors. Check out their line of tents over at www.napieroutdoors.com