Day 31--Saturday, July 24--home

Anchorage--7a--want to go? No--back in two years!

Flight home was wonderful--smooth and some great vistas.

Into Seattle--

Home--majestic in its own right. This is Monday after we got home at midnight on Saturday--on my way to meet Jaci in Sheridan to get Zane for the week. Saturday night, Wyoming greated us with the most beautiful full moon shining on the Big Horns--and stars . . . I didn't realize I missed stars until I saw them right out of Billings. Perhaps we'll miss the midnight sun; we'll not miss only four hours of daylight in the long, long winter in Alaska.

Beautiful--

And back to the beauty of it all --

Day 30--Friday, July 23--Anchorage

Awoke to a beautiful, sunshiny day! The weatherman said to enjoy it because the rain was returning this evening. Our hotel has a shuttle to take us anywhere in the city--it's great!

This is city visitor center downtown. The downtown area is really fun--the Army band was playing in a park and there were lots of people out and about--in the sun!

We took the trolley to the Ulu Factory where they serve free reindeer dogs at 11a--we didn't try one. Sent a couple ulus home--it's a native knife that is used for skinning, cutting, and chopping up foods--doubtful that I'll use it for skinning.

This is the fishing bridge where if the salmon are running, you can jump off the plane, get a license, rent a pole, and go fishing for a couple hours. The tide was out and we didn't see anyone catching anything.

Downtown Anchorage--

Lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse--recommended by Carleen and Darleen--fish/chips for me (one more time) and S had blackened halibut--it was great! Do we look tired? Back to the hotel for a nap and ordering in pizza tonight--airport at 7:30a in the morning, SeaTac, Billings, home by 11p. Ready to leave? No, but real life is calling.

Day 29--Thursday, July 22--back to Anchorage

Not--here is Steve enjoying his morning coffee and paper--in the rain. So, our hope of driving back north today is not going to happen. If he looks grumpy--no fishing today either!

Steve left his "blog" at Montana Creek that he carved on a piece of driftwood he got at the Captain Cook camp on Cook Inlet--10 camping spots from Homer to North Pole and back--Lake Testumena on the Kasilof River, The Spit in Homer, Discovery Bay Camp at Captain Cook Park, Grand View on the Glenn Hwy., Talkeenta Camp on the Susitna River, Riverview in North Pole, Grizzly Bear Camp in Denali, and Montana Creek north of Wasilla.

Definitely not our nicest camp, but our last one. RV has to be returned by 9a, and it was just easiest to be here. Great Alaskan Holidays was a great place to rent, and we'll do this again--already planning our next trip in two years! It was clean, efficient, and friendly with new RV's--we turned in our RV with 1,682 miles.

Happy hour and dinner at the Peanut Farm recommended by the staff at GAH.

Land of the midnight sun--this was about 11p when we got back to camp--first sun we've seen for over a week!

Day 28--Wednesday, July 21--Montana Creek

Visited the Denali visitor's center before heading south--got the last spot in RV parking.

It's a very cool, interactive visitor's site. This was built into a steamer trunk like dad's trunk when he came from Sweden--how would like to carry that through airports?

This may be our best view of McKinley this trip--the topo map at the visitor's center.

Here's the summit--above the tree line. The fireweed are all the way to the top--6 weeks till the start of winter.

Steve likened riding in the RV to being at home watching the Discovery Channel in his chair--ya think?

Here we are at the south view--may be the only view we get--"L" on the forehead--the 70%!

Finally, to our campground at Montana Creek. Best thing about this campground is that it is not a weekend, there are two RV's in camp, and there is high-speed wifi--and the fishing, of course.

Checking out the fishing spots--huge trees!

We are camping in the ACOA member campgrounds--next time--there are so many state parks that are absolutely wonderful--there is one right across the road from our campground.

Feeshin--step off the highway to see the beauty!

Ended the day with another campfire--hoping for sun tomorrow and maybe driving back north to see "the great one"--or not.

 

There is one other camper in the campground--S gave them our gold pans as we won't use them. The camp manager and his wife are from Wisconsin for the summer--they drove up and and working for gas money for the way home--cost them $1,650 coming up.

Day 27--Tuesday, July 20--Denali

Here's the reindeer farm leaving Fairbanks--must be Santa's farm. Left Fairbanks driving to Grizzly Bear Resort in Denali stopping along the way to take pictures--hopefully of McKinley but with rain all night and morning, it's doubtful.

Beautiful vistas abound--we're happy that we expected and planned for rain every day--we're not disappointed. Everyone has said that the amount of rain has been extraordinary this year. This is the day we bought tickets on the Alaskan Railroad for a 12-hour trip from Fairbanks to Denali--something I wanted to do after seeing the dome-covered trains traveling through Denali. We didn't know at the time that the train parallels the highway and that the trip takes you to the visitor's center and back to Fairbanks and not through the park as I expected. So, a lesson learned at a cost of $440.

Stopped in Denali for some shopping before driving to our campground for the night. Stopped at the Harley store for more shirts! The burl (sp?) wood is interesting--there is a lot used for deck railings and supports.

This is the Nenana River cut coming into Denali. Lots of float trips and plane flights into Denali. This is a "learning" trip for us and we know what we want to do next time--float trips are one thing along with a flight over Denali.

Here's our campground at Grizzly bear--this campground has nice showers, cabins, firepits--not exactly Boy Scout approved--S has never built a campfire on the edge of a forrest before.

Before building our campfire, we went across the road to McKinley Village--a really nice place--loved it! Nice after a few nights nights wearing Deets where no one else was--they may not have appreciated our new "fragrance". We inquired about the price of a room and the clerk had no idea--maybe $2-300/night?  95% of their bookings are tours.

We visited with Judi from FL who had flown into Fairbanks and was spending 3 nights here then touring to Whittier to debark on a 90-person cruise through Prince William Sound before flying out of Anchorage. It was very nice!

Back to our world of campfires and Deets--here's our camper--can you imagine a firepit that close to the forrest? We were surrounded by Sitka spruse--the state tree. The state flower is the forget-me-not.

After a night about the fire, we went to bed--were we really the youngest people in the campground? Alaska has so much to offer but the general population of tourists are older than we are--by a bunch! We have done the "touristy" things this time and have plans of what we will do next time--it's going to be more time on the pennisula fishing!

Steve updating his blog--we may have to ship it home!

Day 26--Monday, July 19--Fairbanks

Raining--S's coffee spot. Forecast for clouds and rain all week. Spent the day seeing the sites in Fairbanks.

We're in Santa's hometown--the North Pole--incorporated January 16, 1953. Interesting how "new" the cities are here. Soldotna was incorporated in 1947.

There are several mining locations--the two surviving for tours are the Eldorado and the #8 dredge. S was trying to find a place to pan to no avail so we toured neither of these.

The University of Alaska at Fairbanks has a premier museum which had displays featuring the main geographic areas in Alaska and several interesting stories about the individuals homesteading in Alaska.

This is the Alaska Range and the city of Fairbanks from the UAF campus. The clouds make it hard to see--they are pretty!

The university also had a wonderful botanical garden.

Back at camp, S tried fishing again with no luck.

This is the Chena River right at our campground.

Kirly updating his "blog"--a piece of driftwood from Captain Cook where he has recorded our travels since then. The Good Sam club trek up the AlCan Hwy pulled in tonight and the campground filled up.

Lots of bikers--visited with one guy headed to Purdue Bay on his bike. Another camper had just returned from there in a camper and said "don't go!" It is 500 miles north at 25 mph, and I can't imagine doing it on a bike. Off to Denali in the morning!

Day 25--Sunday, July 18--Fairbanks

Made our way to Fairbanks through Trapper Creek, Denali, Cantwell, Healy, Nenana, and Ester. This is the McKinley vista--as you can see, it's socked in and the forecast is for it to be the same all week.

Stopped for gas in Cantwell--really not much between Trapper Creek and Fairbanks. Road was pretty rough in spot and a few miles of road construction. Stops are not marked much and there are no billboards. We usually pass the turnoffs to places we want to stop.

Vista from our lunch stop along the road--fireweed update! Almost bloomed all the way to the top--winter in six weeks!

Beautiful vistas on the way into Fairbanks.

Finally, made it to Fairbanks. Nice campground right on the river--actually in North Pole a little north of Fairbanks! Fishing for greyling but not much else so Steve is now changing his focus to gold panning. WE'LL BE RICH!

Had some fresh canned salmon that Karla gave us for happy hour snacks--for their subsistence fishing, they can it, smoke it, or freeze it--got their recipes for smoking and some other salmon dishes.