First of all, I know that many of you will think I am absolutely nuts to agree to live out of (or actually in ) a mini van for two weeks. Some of you have voiced your shock and horror the thought of going on vacation without room service, a spa, heated pool, and gym at your immediate disposal. Let me assure you that none of that was missed. There were days when I was tired of cold, damp weather and wished for it to be about 10 degrees warmer, but I was never uncomfortable, miserable, or sorry. I did not feel that I was missing out on anything by not being on a luxury cruise. When I go to a new place, I am more interested in exploring the area, learning about the local culture and seeing the sights than I am about staying in a swanky hotel that could be in just about any city in the world. I want to be immersed in the locale. All I need is a clean environment with a comfortable bed. If I am at a conference that is being paid for by someone else I am more than happy to stay in high class digs. A special anniversary trip may warrant more upscale accommodations than usual too.Those who travel in the same style as we do will understand this. Others never will. Just know that staying in a van allowed us to be on our own time schedule, eliminated the need for making reservations, and gave us the opportunity to spend more time in Alaska than we could have afforded if we had gone on a fancier trip. We saw far more wildlife than we would have seen if we had to spend time looking for a hotel every night. They are not abundant in the smaller villages. Alaska is very accommodating to campers. They realize that civilization can be many miles apart and it is safer to let people camp at pull offs, gravel pits, etc than to have people driving tired. More about our HOW (home on wheels) later.
Alaska was my dream destination. It was at the top of my bucket list. Eagle Eye had invited us to visit him, and we had been talking about it for a while. We considered taking a trip there for our 30th wedding anniversary. My husband decided to shock the heck out of me by planning the trip as a surprise for our 29th anniversary instead. He made the plans with Eagle Eye, purchased the plane tickets, arranged for our daughter to dog sit, and presented me with a card that revealed the date and location.
Prior to the trip, we had a meeting or two with our friend Eagle Eye to discuss our packing list, plans, etc. He has a home near us as well as a home in Wasilla and spends part of the year in each place. His schedule basically is dictated by hunting seasons. It was Eagle Eye's idea to rent the mini van. He had traveled Alaska this way before he had his house and told us that it worked out great for him. Now he sleeps in the back of his huge pick up truck. He offered to let us use his camping gear so we wouldn't have to bring all that on the plane with us. All we needed was our clothes and personal items.
If you have been reading this blog from the beginning, you will recognize the names of all of the places that I have already described. I won't go back over them again. I wouldn't want you to start snoring! Hopefully you will pull up a map of Alaska and trace our route as I list it.
In the beginning of June, 2010, my husband and I flew from RDU Airport and eventually landed in Anchorage, Alaska. We picked up our rented Toyota Sienna mini van at the airport and drove to Eagle Eye's (Mike) house in Wasilla. By the time we got there is was 10:00pm Alaska time, but way past bedtime in the east, where we are from. It was still daylight though. After some visiting, we retired to the room that Mike had set up for us in his house.
The next morning was spent checking out the neighborhood, gawking at the 2 mountain ranges visible from his house, studying maps, and getting the van ready.
The middle row of seats was removed and stored in Mike's garage. The third row folded down. This left us with 2 seats in the front and a long flat area behind. We took a ride to a few stores and stocked up on food, water, etc. We carried a case of one gallon water jugs with us. Each of us borrowed two of those hard, foam camping pads and a sleeping bag. We each had a camping pillow case to stuff our jackets into so we would have a makeshift pillow. It would also keep our jackets warm and toasty for the chilly mornings. Mike loaned us a double wide folding chair. We used large Rubbermaid containers to store our cooking supplies and non perishable foods. A large cooler held our other food. The van had mesh sunshades on the side windows. Front curtains were made by hanging towels in the visors.
Once we got the car packed, we ate some ribs that Mike heated up in the oven for us, and the three of us set out for our journey. We didn't realize that Mike was going to be with us for the first night, but we were glad he was there to take us "bear hunting" and teach us how to use a firearm to ward off wild animals in case we needed it. He was excited for us to discover Alaska and we were so grateful for the opportunity.
We headed north on Parks Hwy to Denali State Park (not NP). This was the night we did our "bear hunting" and spent the night in the gravel pit.( Temps were in the 60's.) The next day Mike took off on a hunting trip and left us with a list of suggested places to visit. We continued north, stopping for ice and stamps in a little store in Cantwell. We drove a short way down Denali Hwy and back to Parks Hwy, continuing north. (rainy, foggy, 45 degrees). We stopped to camp at Denali National Park for 2 nights.
Once again we headed north, stopping for gas in Healy. 59 degrees at 11:30 am. Stopped at Visitor Center in Nenana and continued on to Fairbanks. Fairbanks was a big enough city to have big box stores. By then we needed to make our little bed on wheels a bit more cushy, so we bought $5 pillows and an eggcrate mattress cover. They made a world of difference. We turned onto Chena Hot Springs Rd, which was where the tourist trap was. Back down the same road to Fairbanks. Next, we turned onto Rt. 2 toward Fox. This is where we encountered the Howling Dog Saloon that I wrote about in my first entry. It is at the intersection of Elliott Hwy (rt 2) and Steese Hwy (rt 6).
Driving up the Elliott Hwy about 30 miles, we stopped at the Wickersham Dome Trailhead and set up camp. Some guy that was obviously high as a kite decided to camp there as well. After being awakened by him dancing around and singing to his dogs, we packed up and drove back 5 or 10 miles to a pull off and camped the rest of the night. I can still hear him saying to his dog, "Oh, Molly Olly, I love you".
The next morning we drove back down toward Fox and turned onto the Steese Hwy. We drove just passed where the pavement ends. Spectacular views. This is where we found the FE Gold Mine camp. We drove back past Fox and Fairbanks to North Pole. If it seems like we did a bit of backtracking, you are correct. Sometimes the roads didn't really lead to anywhere that we wanted to go, or they weren't paved, so we would just drive on them for a while and see what was there.
From North Pole, we dove down the Richardson Hwy (rt 2) toward Delta Junction. Not much to see there. We did finally get a long distance glimpse of Mt McKinley (Denali) at and overlook there though. We headed south toward Paxson. The mountains were getting bigger and more jagged as we drove. The Richardson Hwy follows the Tanana and Delta Rivers. Along here, we saw many, many views of the famous Alaska pipeline. We also finally saw some caribou.
We turned off the Richarson Hwy at Denali Hwy (the other end of the road that we went on the first day). We drove to the end of the paved portion and camped at Tangle Lakes Campground. That's where it snowed overnight. After our trek down the snowy road, we turned around and drove back to the Richardson Hwy. That was when we stopped at the place for a hot breakfast. We drove south along the Richardson toward Glen Allen, stopping along the way to look at old road houses and campgrounds (yes, dreaming of our next visit!). We stopped at a roadhouse in Sourdough for a soda and a break. Gotta love that name!
We drove down the Glen Hwy, in and out of rain (temps in the 40's and 50's). We camped at Caribou Creek State Rec site campground at milepost 106 that was empty except for us and whatever big hairy beasts were in the woods. This is where we saw a moose print as big as our hands.
The next day, cold and drizzly with temps in the 50's, we drove to Matanuska Glacier. Weather cleared. We checked out Matanuska Glacier State Rec campground and ate lunch at an overlook. Continuing down Glen Hwy, we came to Weiner and Long Lakes and that weird little place with the llamas.
We drove through Palmer and turned back north toward Wasilla.
We had been gone about a week. The trek up to this point was basically a big loop with some side trips. Our mid trip break was to spend the night at Mike's house in Wasilla. We showered, restocked our supplies, did laundry, and went out for Mexican food at Jalepenos. It was fine, but very expensive as far as Mexican food goes. At least twice what we would pay at home. Mike was out salmon fishing when we arrived, and he came home around midnight with a great big fish.
The next day we all left for Cooper Landing, where we went salmon fishing and had the campsite visit from the grizzly. From there we drove to Seward and camped in a city campground on the shore of Resurrection Bay. After that we drove to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords NP. We hiked some easy trails to the glacier and then headed back north to Cooper Landing. Chris had one more try at salmon fishing. Still no luck. We drove back down Sterling Hwy to Seward Hwy and turned off onto Hope Hwy. That's where we visited the town of Hope and camped at Coeur d'Alene in the Chugach National Forest. You may remember that as the place where we grilled our fresh caught salmon over the wood fire and ate our dinner sitting in the back of our home on wheels.
We left there and drove back to the Seward Hwy and onto Whittier via the Portage Glacier Access Rd/Whittier Access Rd. Whittier is where we went on the boat ride and saw all those whales. After Whittier we went back to Wasilla for our last night.Once again, we did a deformed loop. We visited, packed up, and left for Anchorage the next night.
The way we packed the van allowed us to set up camp in about 10 minutes. While driving, we had the bedding folded up, and the cooler, water jugs, Rubbermaid containers, chair and our duffel bags behind the seats. Upon arrival, the chair and water jugs were placed outside. When we were ready to call it a night, we stacked the containers on top of each other up against the back of the seats. We placed our bags on the front seats and kept personal items in the back with us. We had book lights for night reading. Our clothing was laid out for the next day so we could dress in the warmth of our sleeping bags when we woke up. Very simple.
This is the last of the Alaska entries. It was the trip of a lifetime. Mike has graciously invited us back and we intend to go. There is still so much more to see. I hope you have enjoyed following our journey and maybe have become interested in a trip of your own. My next entry will be much less glamorous, but I have had a request to cover someplace closer to home. Stay tuned for Cafe Duo, Greenville, NC
