Please remember that this blog entry recalls our trip in 2023, but I am posting in 2024, slightly less than one year later. With that in mind:
We made it to Denali National Park and took the spot the Chens saved for us. However, they were nowhere around when we got there. We disconnected the trailer, went to the visitors center, and then headed into ‘town’ for a bite. The ‘town’ is a collection of hotels, restaurants, etc, just up the road from the park. Very tourist-oriented. When we returned to the trailers the Chens still were not there. We found out later that they had taken a much longer than expected hike and were pretty tired.
We all got up the next day and headed south to our next destination, Palmer. We stayed at Paradise RV (now called The Springer RV). We got to know the owners pretty well when we stayed there in 2019 since we were there for over 3 weeks! This time we were only planning on staying a week as the Chen’s had to send their daughter back home at this time.
On our trip to Palmer, however, we got 2 more chances to view Mt McKinley.
and
We filled our week in the Anchorage area with mundane things like laundry and groceries but we also got to visit some sights around there.
We went to Earthquake Park, where you can see where the ground shifted in 1964. You can also just make out Mt McKinley again to the north (it’s the white blob, really).
We drove out the see the Matanuska glacier.
It was a bit too far to walk to and you had to hire a local company to get you there. But on the way back we did see some wildlife. A moose with two babies.
We continued down to Eklutna Lake. This is where we met the RVing to Alaska group in 2019. We took our chairs and sat by the lake while the Chens took a little hike. We all stopped for a hike to see Thunderbird Falls. It was a bit tasking on my old knee but the mosquitos were worse. So bad that George ran back to the car!
Another stop we took was a road trip up to Independence Mine, we continued down the loop road around through Wasilla. I think we went pretty close to the homestead that the Raney’s have from Homestead Rescue, but I didn’t see it. It always amazes me how much man did in Alaska to mine the minerals based upon what years they did it! Some tough people back then.
Our time in the Anchorage area, for now, was done. We had to come back through on the way out though. Now we were heading to Homer, one of our favorite places. We decided not to push a whole day to get down there and stayed the night in Soldotna in the Fred Meyer parking lot, with about 15 other RVs!
We made it to Homer in good time. We went to the overlook and down to the spit before starting off the next day to do some things here. We drove to Anchor Point, the westernmost point in the American Highway system. We noticed there is a boat ramp here into the bay but it was unlike any boat ramp I have ever seen. The water is so shallow that they use a tractor to drive out into the water with the boat trailer and then retrieve the boat and trailer back to dry land.
There is a Russian influence in the area. You see many Russian Orthodox people and we drove to their towns for a small excursion. We visited Razdolna and Voznesenka. We drove by the Kilcher’s ranch, they were on the TV show Alaska: The Last Frontier. It was very scenic.
On our last day in Homer we took a ferry ride across the Kachemak bay to the town of Seldovia. Another Russian town with no road access. We were a little unsure about Roxie on a boat but it worked out just great. We saw some wildlife on the ‘cruise’ and toured the town for as long as we could before catching the ferry back.
That evening, Roxie made sure she had one last meal of halibut fish and chips as we were departing the next morning.
We headed to Tenderfoot campground, our 2-night base for our next drive. The night we got there, we headed to Hope AK. This is a quaint town that had people fishing in the stream that goes through town and a good view of the mud flats.
Our main reason for staying where we did was a day trip to Whittier AK. Marcia went to high school in Whittier CA so it only made sense. The odd thing about Whittier is access to the town is through a multi-mile tunnel which is a vehicle and train tunnel. Only one way at a time though. We passed by the Portage Glacier on the way.
The majority of Whittier’s population lives in one building but there always seems to be the ubiquitous cruise ship at the dock.
We went to a park to see some salmon running and people trying to catch them. These two photos are at different tide levels, it changed while we were there.
The next stop on our whirlwind tour was Seward. We stayed at the KOA there, like we did 4 years prior. George and Marcia had set up a boat tour to the Kenai Fjords NP. We tried that last time we were here and Roxie got deathly seasick on it, so we were skeptical of doing it again. However, she did well on the ferry to Seldovia so we thought we would roll the dice and we got tickets.
Our first day there was very rainy and we could not do much but the second day was the boat tour. It turned out to be overcast with occasional rain. Roxie loaded up on Dramamine and she did well the entire trip. We took the longest trip that they had and saw numerous glaciers.
We were also witness to an ice waterfall, and George was able to capture it.
We also got up close to a regular waterfall.
We did see a lot of wildlife on the boat excursion and the crew was quick to spot them and slow down. Here is a killer whale.
We all made it off the ship after about 130 miles on the water.
We made a quick stop at Mile 0 of the Iditarod race.
The next day was our last day there and finally saw the Exit Glacier near town. George and Marcia did another strenuous hike up to the glacier.
This leg marked a turning point of sorts as we had pretty much gone as far south on the Kenai Peninsula and we were starting our return trip. However, we still had a few places to go on that route.
