Tonight, we are in Seattle. We fly to Houston in the morning.

It was another chilly day in Alaska, but we did enjoy the sun on our drive back to Anchorage along the Cook Inlet. It was much different than the grey, rainy day when we drove down to Soldatna.

 

Along the coast, we caught sight of many eagles, some along the beach but mostly in the trees like this one.

 

I hope you've enjoyed our trip. We certainly have. When another adventure comes along, we'll be back in touch. For now, travel safely.

 

 

Well, I'll bet you are expecting to see Norman and me with some beautiful fish - halibut and salmon. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate; our fishing expedition was cancelled because of wind and rain and an unusually high tide.

 

In some places, it was even hard to see where the water ended and the land at the horizon began -

But the hazy morning made it possible to take a photo of the sun in the morning sky. This shows the height of the sun at 7:00AM -

When we got back to Soldatna, we found this group of trails and hiked a few miles. The trails are used for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter.

If you've been following this blog from the beginning, you may remember my collection of hiking boots and the question of which ones would come with us to Alaska. The oldest ones won.

These trusty old boots won't be making the trip back to Houston. After today's hike, they are retired, leaving their soles in Alaska.

It is Saturday, and we are in Soldatna on the Kenai Peninsula. We turned in our RV (home for the last 3 weeks) early this morning.

 

It was a cold, grey drive along Cook Inlet on the way to Soldatna.

 

Early in the morning, we meet our fishing guide for our Halibut and King Salmon fishing expedition. The high is supposed to be 50F! I hope you'll be looking at pictures of our catch about this time Sunday.

 

It's our last night in the RV. We are in Wasilla, Alaska. If that rings a bell with you, it may be the ding-a-ling who lives here that's doing that. We are staying in the first RV park we visited when we came to Alaska a few years ago. We're surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains like the ones we've been seeing all day.

 

We didn't see much wildlife, but here is another picture of Dahl sheep as white dots -

 

 

And a pair of swans hunting for a proper nesting sight that I forgot to include yesterday

 

We saw several glaciers. This is the Nelchina -

 

 

I hope you aren't tired of the beautiful mountains -

 

Tomorrow begins the next step on our Al-Can journey.

 

 

 

Thursday, May 25^th

It is our next to last night in the RV. The drive today has been interesting with the border crossing and the frost heaves on the road. We’ve been in and out of rain most of the day after a beautiful morning.

We passed Moose Lake early this morning –

Here is our selfie at the border -

 

And here we are on either side of the border -

 

 

 We stopped for lunch at a rest area in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge-

 

 

 

This is Mentasta Lake with the Wrangle Mountains in the background-               

 

The Wrangle Mountains have some of the highest peaks in Alaska -     

          

 

Tomorrow night we will stay very near Anchorage so we can turn the RV over to Great Alaska early on Saturday.                                                                                                

Wednesday, May 24th -

We are enjoying shorter days of driving.  As usual, we got an early start to our day. The sun doesn’t set until 10:30 or so; it’s light until after 11:00pm. The sun rises above the horizon by 4:30am.

Our wildlife of the day is this snowshoe hare almost completely in his summer coat. We saw a moose beside the road. Unfortunately, the moose won the agility contest and got into the cover of the woods before I got the camera to snap a picture.

 

We took a short hike on the Spruce Beetle Trail. Here is Norman at the overlook. The trail has very good signs explaining the spruce beetle, its life cycle and its place in the ecosystem.

 

After that, we drove to the Sheep Mountain Visitor Center. They have scopes set up so visitors can get a good view of the Dahl sheep and their lambs. There are over 4,000 Dahl sheep in the Kluane National Park. The white dots in this picture are one family of sheep.

 

Next we hiked the Soldier’s Summit Trail. This trails end point is the spot of the Alaska Highway’s official opening in November of 1942.

 

The Al-Can Highway is beside Kluane Lake here (and for many miles more). The lake still has acres of ice.

 

We are near Beaver Creek this evening having driven farther than we expected to find an RV park with water. The spring has been cold enough that many campgrounds are just opening and don’t yet have water (like ours last night). We have found a lovely spot with trees, showers, a small store and water.

We've enjoyed another short driving day from Teslin to Haines Junction.

Though we didn't see much wildlife, we did spot our first grizzly bear grazing along the road.

One highlight of our day was a visit to Ian McKenzie (Bill's brother) and the Salvation Army in Whitehorse. Bill is the Executive Director of the Center for Hope, the Salvation Army's homeless shelter. We enjoyed a tour of the soon to open facility.

 

And, as usual, we had spectacular scenery as we drove through the Yukon Territory.

 

Our campsite tonight has a gorgeous view of the Kluane Mountains in the Kluane National Park.

 

Sunday, May21st – No internet tonight in the Baby Nugget RV park west of Watson Lake. We’ve had another short day with lots of beautiful scenery.

Early in today’s drive we saw our first stone sheep. Stone sheep are indigenous to the mountains of northern British Columbia. They are darker and smaller than the bighorn found in the Rocky Mountains.

 

 

 

We also saw bison and more bears along today’s drive (here a sow and her yearling cub) –

This view of the Trout River is above the north end of Muncho Lake.

 

 

 As we turned westerly at Contact Creek, we could see the Cassiar Mountains in the distance. The Al-Can Highway winds between British Columbia and the Yukon Territory along this stretch and doesn’t finally leave British Columbia until tomorrow’s drive (25 or so kilometers before Teslin).

In Watson Lake, we visited the Northern Lights Center and saw films about climate and the
Aurora Borealis.  We also saw the Signpost Forest (started in 1942, it now has more than 75,000 signs including a number of signs for Texas towns).

After following the Laird River for most of the day, we crossed it for the last time near Watson Lake.

 

Monday, May 22^nd – We are at Lake Teslin after another short driving day. The wildlife must take Monday off as we didn’t see anything but a chipmunk.

Here are a few views of the Cassiar Mountains as we drove along.

 

Here is a view of the Nisutlin River where it joins the Teslin River and Lake.

 

Just so you’ll be able to envision our “home”, we’ve made pictures for a home tour.

 

The cockpit

Overhead bunk

Dining Room

Bed before it's unfolded

And after

Kitchen

                                                               Shower

Sink and toilet

Slide-out

Front door