Alaska 2015 - Day 48 - Haines

Day 48 – 6-28-15 Sunday A quiet relaxing day today. A few degrees warmer than the last couple of days and sunshine. Lena did laundry because we will probably not have full hookups for several days when we leave Haines tomorrow. Mid afternoon we walked downtown to Haines again to get some exercise. The town was quiet, not much activity. There were 4 or 5 businesses open.

Haines School

New Hotel in Haines

Main Street

Main Street

We found an old cemetery on the hill above the street in front of the small boat harbor. There were only about a dozen tombstones in it dating from the late 1800's to about 1909. There were two Bald Eagles in the trees at the edge of town near the harbor. Probably the same two we saw just after we got here.

Cemetery

Totem Pole at Small Boat Harbor

Soil Drilling Rig to test for Gold

About 8PM we drove back to the Chilkoot Lake area to see if the bears were out in the water feeding. We stopped near the fish weir and watched one of the Fish and Wildlife personnel out on the weir counting salmon. We didn't see any bears but did see three Bald Eagles in the spruce trees above the water. One was down low near the water looking for fish I guess. This is a really scenic area. We took one last look and returned to the campground.

Counting Salmon

Alaska 2015 - Day 47 - Haines

Day 47 – 6-27-15 Saturday I don't think I have mentioned that the campground has mountain views looking in three directions from our camps site. Sometimes in the morning the clouds are hanging below the peaks of the mountains behind and to the left of us. The town of Haines is setting in a beautiful place. Not that we would but if we were to move to Alaska, Haines might be the place. We like it better than any place we have visited so far. We really like the area down the road by Portage Cove out to Chilkat Lake. The town is small and has lot of services.

View behind our site

Another view behind our site

View of Haines from road down by Portage Cove

This morning we went back to the city fairgrounds, that I mentioned yesterday, to the Haines Saturday Farmers Market. We bought a pint of Thistle Honey. I asked the vendor about the honey and how he kept bees in Alaska. The honey came from California. He has property in California and in the Haines area and he goes back and forth between the two areas. I told him we were not familiar with Thistle Honey. He said it was very good and if we didn't like it to bring it back and we could get our money back. It is good so we kept it. The honey we have seen in Alaska is very expensive. This was not too bad, $12 for a pint. Lena uses it every morning in our fresh juice so we go through quite a bit if it.

"Dawson City" movie set for White Fang

"Dawson City" movie set for White Fang

Then we went to Mountain Market to try their lattes and pastries. It is a popular place in town. We got a piece of blueberry sour cream coffee cake with the coffee. It was all good, not the best Latte we had ever had but still better than most we have tried in Alaska. I don't know if any of you are familiar with the TV program Gold Rush. I watch it. The young man (Parker) that is one of the gold miners on the program is from Haines and his family lives beside the Haines Highway coming into town. His father owns/runs a road building business. I recognized their home when we came by it. Anyway while we were drinking our coffee Parker's mother came in to get some coffee and join some friends. I asked her how Parker was doing.

After lunch we returned to the post office to pickup the package that was shipped from Alabama with the part I needed to fix the slide out. I had been tracking it and knew it came in this morning. The package forwarded from Valdez on Tuesday still has not arrived, yet the one we got today that came all the way from Alabama got here today and was shipped Tuesday. One lesson we have learned is to have any package shipped Priority Mail when you are traveling and need it to be at certain destination in a few days. We don't need the other item (it is a spare part) as bad as we needed this one that came today. So if it don't come by Monday morning when we leave here we will have it forwarded again to somewhere in the lower 48.

We left the post office and went to the ferry terminal and booked space for the Monday ferry to Skagway. For both of us, the motor home and the car, the cost was $225 for the one hour ferry trip. It will save us driving 200 miles over road we have already traveled and we know at least 5 miles is bumpy gravel and there are several places with frost heaves we will miss and we will travel 100 miles of road we have not traveled on. We had not planned to visit Skagway since we were there in 2007 on the Alaska cruise we took, but plans change.

After returning to the campground I installed the new slide control board and tested it. It works, so no more jumping the board to make the slide go in/out. I examined the bad board and I think I found the problem with it. It appears the solder joint to the power connection had come loose. So I may be able to fix it when we get home and have a spare control board if ever needed.

About 6:30PM we walked into town and down to the small boat harbor. Not much happening in Haines this evening, very quiet. The sky was clear today with a high of about 63 degrees. When the sun goes past the tree tops in the evening you need a jacket to set outside. I know family and friends in Eastern North Carolina would like to get some of these cooler temperatures since it has been in the upper 90's there this month.

One thing we have noticed on this trip is that Robins are a common bird everywhere apparently. There has not been many places we have stayed that we did not see robins. The sites in this campground are covered in nice plush grass and the robins are constantly hopping around catching worms in the grass.

Alaska 2015 - Day 46 - Haines

Day 46 – 6-26-15 Friday It was drizzling rain when we went to bed and when we got up this morning. The wind is rather gusty and the temperature is 58 degrees. I hope the areas where they are having wildfires here in Alaska are getting some of this rain.

We were sadden to hear about the sightseeing plane crashing in the mountains near Ketchikan Alaska yesterday killing the 8 passengers from a Holland America cruise ship and the pilot. The weather is causing problems with the recover of the bodies.

The light rain soon stopped but the winds blew all day. We were kind of lazy today. We stayed at the campground until after lunch, then went to the post office to check on the two packages we are expecting. I knew the part to fix the slide had not come in since I have a tracking # for it. It was shipped Monday from Alabama, priority mail 1-3 day delivery and it just left Kent Washington early this morning. The postal worker said if the package that I had forwarded from Valdez was not shipped priority it might take two weeks to get here from Valdez. Huh! I don't understand how the postal system works. I had a piece of mail sent from Greensboro NC Monday of last week and I picked it up in Valdez on the following Thursday morning about 9AM and it was sent just regular first class mail.

There was a Norwegian Cruise ship in dock today. The same one (The Sun) that we saw in Seward last week.

We went to the bank and exchanged some US dollars for Canadian dollars then picked up a few items we had forgot to get yesterday at the grocery store. We went to the fairgrounds where the Disney Movie 'White Fang' was filmed in 1991. The buildings used on the movie set are still there. It looks like an old Alaska village. Most of the buildings are being used for small businesses now. There was also a Haines community garden off to the side with some vegetables growing.

We walked up to the campground office to ask about booking a tour and they had just got the word from the town that the problem with the town water was just a misreading and there never was a problem with the water. I would guess that the businesses in town lost money today with a cruise ship in dock. We walked by two businesses that had signs up that they were not serving specialty coffee due to the problem with the water.

About 7:00PM we walked into town to stretch our legs and noticed that most businesses had closed for the day, even the cafe's and coffee shops. There was very few people out on the streets. We returned to the campground and ate supper. Someone near the Haines schoolhouse was playing a trumpet so we got a free concert while we ate. The temperature never got above 61 degrees today.

Alaska 2015 - Day 45 - Haines

Day 45 – 6-25-15 Thursday After breakfast we drove about 19 miles back up the Haines Highway to the Bald Eagle Preserve to hike the trail along the river and look for Bald Eagles. This is the area where between 3 and 4 thousand Bald Eagles come to in the Winter to feed because the river in this area does not freeze and the eagles can still feed on salmon on the river. Our info sheet stated that usually 350 or so of the eagles stay in the area all year. We walked the trail along the river for over a mile and only saw one young eagle. They don't get the white feathers on their head until after they are 4 years old and this eagle was still brown. It was a good 2 mile hike with just a few mosquitoes. There were lots of wildflowers along the walk and some of the tallest clover we have ever seen. It came up to our knees. The wildflowers included fireweed, daises, clover, dandelions and others that we did not know the name of. I called one of them mouse whiskers because that is what it looked like.

Fireweed

Cheap Hotel on the Haines Highway

Fish Wheel used to monitor salmon population

We drove up the road a few more miles and turned off to the Thlinkit Indian village of Klukwan. They had a nice looking medical building and another large new structure which is probably a community activities center. But the homes and yards were another story all together. A series of junk vehicles, “stuff” sitting around everywhere and very un-kept looking houses and yards. We left there and headed back to Haines.

We have noticed two places on either side of town where there is a waterfall coming down the mountain and a metal pipe stuck in the rocks at the bottom with water flowing through the pipe. We have noticed people stopped at these two places filling up 5 gallon containers so when we were headed back to town we pulled over at the one on the Haines Highway and asked a man there that was filling up his containers about the water. He said it was the best water around. We asked him if it was safe to drink and he said yes and he had been drinking it for 40 years. That was good enough for us. We got our water cups from the Jeep and tasted the water. Good and very cold.

Good Cold Water

You might can guess where this is heading based on the problem with the water in Haines having E. Coli in it and the need to boil the water before consuming it. We carry a collapse-able 5 gallon water jug in the motor home. So we returned to the campground, got the jug, a large cooler, and 4 other water containers and returned to the waterfall and filled them all up. I have a way to pump water from a container into the holding tank. So we made two water runs and now we have the fresh water holding tank 35% full and will not have to boil water and we have good water to shower with. If they don't resolve the town water problem before we leave we may make another water run.

Lena walked back into town to check out Olerud's Market, the other grocery store in town. Yes, she came back with another bag full of groceries and said she liked Olerud's better than the IGA. 

Haines Airport

Our campsite with a nice view

Alaska 2015 - Day 44 - Haines

Day 44 – 6-24-15 Wednesday After breakfast we began exploring the Haines area. The diesel fuel at the local Tesoro is $4.049 which is $.50 more than what we paid in Tok but this is a very remote town. We drove through town past the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry Terminal and along side a huge body of water named Portage Cove all the way to the end of the road where the Chilkoot Lake and Campground is. A very nice scenic drive with mountains all around. Near the end of the road near Chilkoot Lake the water was rushing over huge rocks. There were several houses resting on the side of the mountain that had great views out over the water and the mountains on the other side. We stood and watched a kayaking guide show some customers how to get in a kayak and how to paddle, etc. The lake looked like it would be a perfect place to kayak. Lots of open calm water protected on all sides by mountains. And no Lena is still not ready to get in a kayak even though I told her how much fun it would be. We rode through the campground and headed back up the road and stopped to watch two men fly fishing in the cove. One caught a small fish while we watched. We stopped at the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry to get a price and availability of taking the motor home and Jeep on the ferry from Haines to Skagway, rather than backtracking up the Haines Highway to the Alaska Highway. We were surprised it was only $225 for both vehicles. The trip is only 1 hour and it would save us over 200 miles of driving on roads we have already traveled and we know about 5 miles of it will be bumpy gravel. We could board either Monday or Thursday of next week. We are paid up here at the campground until Monday and we are expecting two packages of parts for the motor home to be delivered here to the post office. One package is the part to fix the slide so I won't need to use my manual jumper wires to run it in and out. We will wait a couple of days before we decide if we will take the ferry or not.

Chilkat Lake

Fireweed

Water run from Chilkat Lake to Portage Cove

We drove back to Haines and stopped at Chilkat Restaurant and Bakery to try their pastries and Latte. Let's just say we are still looking for a good Latte in Alaska and a good bakery in Haines. Then we walked around the main business district in town, walked by the Hammer Museum where they have almost 2000 hammers on display, We watched a couple of artist work on painting a Totem Pole and then walked down to the small boat harbor and watched two Bald Eagles up in a tall Spruce tree. There was Holland America cruise ship in town and several passengers and some of the crew was walking around town. We talked to three of them about the ship. The lady from Hawaii said it was a nice ship, crew and good food but there just were not many activities on board. From there we drove out past the historic Fort Seward area. There was an US Army installation here many years ago. Now the buildings are mostly private residences. We drove on to Chilkat State Park but did not go into the park because the road was a series of large gravel potholes. There was a sign at the entrance that the road was not maintained. Why have a state park and not maintain the road to get to it. On the way back to town we stopped at the Haines Packing Company. This is a seafood processing facility that was built in 1917 and has been purchased and revitalized and is back in business. They were processing crabs today. We could watch through the windows as the young men were processing the crabs. One had a large meat cleaver and was cutting the crabs in half and the other men were cleaning the “stuff” out and throwing them in a large container. If the guy with the cleaver was to make a bad swing with the cleaver he would be loosing some fingers because he had to slam the clever down to cut through the crab shell and all the meat.

Crabs

We drove back into town and went to the Bear-Rittos Eatery & Bakery for a late lunch. Then it was time to stop at the IGA for some groceries. It was not a large IGA but it was well stocked. From there we returned to the campground to relax for awhile.

Bear-Rittos Eatery & Bear Den Gift Shop

100 year old Apple Tree

One of the people from the campground came around with a 6 pack of bottled water and a notice from the city water department that the last water sample taken had a problem and that any water consumed should be boiled for 2 minutes. We hope this don't last long. I normally keep the on board water tank about a third to half full but we had used most of it before we got here during the 3 nights we camped without hookups and I had not replaced it.

About 8PM we drove down the road by Portage Cove and stopped near the fish weir to see if any bears were out but didn't see any.

Alaska 2015 - Day 43 - Congdon Campground Yukon - Haines Alaska

Day 43 – 6-23-15 Tuesday We departed the campground about 8:30AM drove through Haines Junction and turned onto the Haines Highway. The part of the road through the Yukon was probably the best we have been on in several days but that changed when we crossed into British Columbia. The surface was rougher but not bad until we come upon a section about 5 kilometer long of road construction. We had to wait for a pilot car.

There was very little traffic on the road this morning and we were the first vehicle in line. As we were talking to the flag lady we noticed she was holding a bug zapper (the kind that is battery operated and will zap a bug if you hit it) in her hand. I asked her about it and she said yes it was a bug a zapper and she really needed it with all the bugs bothering her, especially the horse flies. There were a lot of horse flies buzzing around.

When the pilot car began leading us through, the driver didn't drive on the one side that had not been ripped up yet, she took us on the bumpy gravel side for the 3 kilometers. Near the end of the 3 kilometers they were beginning to rip up the remaining side. We didn't understand why not take us on the smooth side until we got close to the area where they were ripping it up and then switch to the gravel side. Oh Well! They don't use a pavement grinder like the road crews in the USA. They had two road graders with rippers on them followed by another machine pulling a heavy disc that was chopping up the chucks of pavement and also tearing up the road bed. Oh Well!

When we finally got past all the construction the landscape in the area didn't have any trees, just mountains on both sides and bushes but no trees for a long ways. The area did have plenty of gophers as they were scurrying all over the road. The area through Chilkat Pass was really pretty.

About 45 miles from Haines we passed through US Customs. He asked us a few questions, wanted to know about our egg and wanted to see the carton they were in. Lena told him she had them in a container and we did not have the carton. He wanted to know where we got them, she told him Valdez. Then he wanted to know where we were going. I told him Haines, like where else could we go on this road. There is only one town and the road stops in Haines. He waved us on.

We checked in to Hitch Up RV Park in Haines, got our site #68 and unhooked the Jeep and went across the street to the car/RV wash. It was a coin operated hand wash with a high pressure wand that was supposed to have soap in the spray but it didn't. And there was a sign saying no bucket washing. Well we got our bucket and brush out and washed the Jeep since there was no soap in the spray I knew just the water was not going to get the Jeep very clean. It cost $2.50 for 3 ½ minutes of water. We finished with the Jeep and drove up the street and got some lunch before coming back to get the motor home and take it to the wash place. We had to wash one side drive out turn around and drive back in to wash the other side since the wash wand would not go over the roof to the other side. We used our bucket and brush again.

There is definitely an open market for some good car washes in Alaska because we sure have not found one.

We returned to the campground, set up and started some laundry. This is a nice campground, really clean, everything neat and well laid out with full hookups, 50 AMP service, WiFi that works and cable TV. The only one we have been to that has green grass for the sites, gravel for the roads through the campground and the hookups are where they are supposed to be. The lady that checked me in was from the Cary/Apex area of North Carolina. Her and her son are here working for 3 weeks. I think they might be related to the owners.

Alaska 2015 - Day 42 - Congdon Creek Yukon Canada

Day 42 – 6-22-15 Monday I guess we were really tired last night. We went to bed at 10PM and got up this morning at 9AM. We had a little bit of light rain last night but not enough to wash the dust off the Jeep. After breakfast we walked down to the lake. The sky was kind of hazy/smokey looking. I don't know if any of the smoke from the forest fires in Alaska have made it here but it kind of looks like it. We could not see the mountains on the other side of the lake very good for the haze.

There was a trail along the lake shore so we walked it. There were some interpretive signs on the trail so we learned the name of the flower that is growing all over the campground roads and along the highway. It is Bear Root. The bears feed on the roots and the Indians called it Sweet Potatoes. They ate the roots raw or roasted them. The trail lead back through a section of the campground that is closed and the sites are growing up. The campground has 81 sites but only 39 are available to use. The other loop is blocked off with a gate. Not sure why unless they don't get enough people to stay here to maintain all the sites. Such a waste as this is one of the prettiest campground we have stayed in. A lot of the government campgrounds don't have sites large enough for larger RVs. Every site in this campground can easily handle a 40' or larger RV and are level except site 1 is a little shorter and not as level as the others. All the sites on the right side of the loop we are in are pull thru sites so anyone pulling a “toad” can pull in and not have to unhook.

Bear Root

After lunch we relaxed and read, then I built a campfire and grilled hamburgers for supper over the coals. Later the man in the site down from us came to ask if I had an ax he could borrow to split some firewood. I detected a German accent so I asked if he was German and he said he was. I told him the ax I loaned him was one I found while we lived in Germany. He said this was his 10^th trip visiting the States and the first time to the Yukon territory of Canada and the first time to Alaska. He flies over and rents a RV or car.

There are lots of Red Squirrels and chipmunks around the campground. The squirrels are about half the size of the gray squirrels at home and don't seem very afraid of people. One ran under my chair today and they will set on a stump eating spruce cones just a few feet from us.

Red Squirrel

We had a low temperature this morning of 53 and got to a high of 68 degrees.

We depart here tomorrow leaving the Yukon Territory and pass through the edge of British Columbia Territory of Canada before crossing the USA border back into Alaska before getting to Haines, 202 miles from here. Then when we leave Haines we will have to reverse directions because to get to and leave Haines by road you have to drive through part of Canada. The Alaska Marine Highway Ferry System serves Haines so you can get there on a ferry from Skagway Alaska or other ports of the ferry system. The ferry ride from Haines to Skagway is about 1 hour but by road it is about 400 miles.

Alaska 2015 - Day 41 - Tok Alaska - Congdon Creek CG Yukon Canada

Day 41 – 6-21-15 Sunday We got up to a light drizzly rain. Lena fixed blueberry pancakes for breakfast, then we departed about 9AM. The drizzle stopped before we got to Tok. We stopped in Tok to fuel up the motor home and the Jeep at the Tesoro fuel stop where the fuel was about $.25 a gallon cheaper than the busy station at Glennallen that we were going to fill up at yesterday. We notice a lot of smoke from a forest fire as we drove into town and asked a man at the fuel pumps about it. He said it was just outside of town but the roads were all open.

We drove the 90 miles to the border and crossed into Canada and went through the checkpoint without any problems. The agent asked 4-5 questions and told us to have a safe trip. We stopped at Buckshot Betty's in Beaver Creek and ordered the same thing we got when we stopped there in May, except we didn't buy their cinnamon buns this time. Their buns were too dry. Before we departed three couples came in that had just pulled up in three motor homes. We talked to them for a few minutes. They were from the San Antonio Texas area. I have a brother that lives near San Antonio.

We knew when we left Beaver Creek we were in for some rough roads for about 100 miles between Beaver Creek and Burwash Landing. If you have read all the blog entries you have read about the drive over this part of the road in May coming to Alaska. Well it was worse going back, if you can believe that. It was not muddy this time but it was dusty in the areas where they had ripped up the pavement and were prepping the road for paving. But this time there was a section about 20 miles long that had been ripped up since we passed through in May and that section was TERRIBLE. It felt like riding on a huge washboard. I only drove about 20 miles an hour and still the motor home rattled like it was coming apart. I will be getting new shocks when we get back to North Carolina. We had to wait for the pilot car at two of the work areas for over 30 minutes and then we had to follow the pilot cars for a long ways through the work areas. When we came through in May there was no one working so we did not have to wait. We saw one area where they were putting down new pavement. They do what is called Chip Seal. They prepare the road bed ( I have been told a year ahead of the paving) and then pour tar out, then pour rocks in the tar and press it into the tar. They do not use asphalt like what we in the USA are accustomed to. I was told by a truck driver at the place where we ate the Rav Von burgers that asphalt will not hold up as well as chip seal in the permafrost areas.

We did get one treat along the way. We got to see a big brown grizzly bear and get two good photos of it grazing right beside the edge of the road.

We stopped for the night at Congdon Creek Yukon Government Campground, a few kilometers from Destruction Bay Yukon. It sits on the banks of the Kluane Lake. We picked site 16 and set up and paid for two nights. We were too tired to walk down to the lake so we'll do that tomorrow. No hookups but the sites are large and there are large spruce trees and wildflowers all around and it is very quiet. The sites have fire pits and they provide free firewood. Not bad for $12 Canadian.

Alaska 2015 - Day 40 - Valdez - Tok

Day 40 – 6-20-15 Saturday We got everything ready to leave Valdez then I went to the Post Office to see if a package for us had arrived only to find out they don't open on Saturday until 10AM. I did not want to leave that late so we departed and headed toward Tok but not sure where we would decide to stop for the night. I will have to call when we get to Haines and have them forward it there.

The drive back through Thompson's Pass was very beautiful. The climb up to the approximately 2700' feet elevation was kind of slow. It takes a lot of muscle to pull 36,000 pounds up a hill.

After driving for about 3 hours we stopped in Glennallen and was going to fuel up but there were at least a dozen cars, trucks and RVs in line to do the same thing. Glennallen is just a crossroads but it has the only fuel station for many miles so it is a popular place to fuel up. We decided to not wait inline since we had a half tank which was plenty to make it to Tok. We checked out the food wagon that was parked in the parking lot doing a good business. The prices didn't appeal to us so we went to the motor home and fixed our lunch.

After lunch we departed and turned on the Tok Cutoff Road that would take us to Tok, the first and last town going to and leaving from Alaska by vehicle. The first 38 miles was good road, then 10 miles of bad road followed by 12 miles of fresh new pavement but had to wait about 20 minutes for a pilot truck to take us through since they were still working on the road. Then several more miles of fairly bad road. About 50 miles from Tok it began to rain lightly, just enough to wash off the bugs on the windshield and wet down the dust on the road. The first rain we have had in several days. I hope it is raining over in the Willow area where they are fighting a large forest fire that has burned several homes and caused many people to be evacuated. We came through that area on the way from Fairbanks to Homer.

About 16 miles from Tok we decided to stop for the night at Eagle Trail State Recreation Area Campground. It had 35 sites in 4 small loops. No hook ups but that is not a problem. We got pull through site 15 and set up and paid the $18 fee. I cooked my “almost famous” Dutch Oven Ribs for supper. It takes two hours in the Dutch Oven using charcoal for the heat. I was hoping the bears didn't smell it and come to check it out. We have not had much chance to cook outside on this trip. Lena fixed butter beans and sweet potatoes, so we ate good tonight.

While I was cooking the ribs a helicopter landed a few hundred yards behind the campground, stayed for awhile and then took off.

After supper we walked around all the loops in the campground and passed by one campsite where the man forgot to put his clothes on before he came outside and another loop where a man was standing outside his camper “wissing”. Lena wanted to go around again but I thought it was time to go back to our motor home. 

Alaska 2015 - Day 39 - Valdez

Day 39 – 6-19-15 Friday Well, we did not leave Valdez today as planned. We were preparing to leave and had two of the three slides in and the living room slide would not come in. We had problems with it in Talkeetna going out but was able to get it working. I began checking everything and could not find the problem, so I called Tiffin Motor Homes Service Department. With the technician's help and a borrowed tool from the campground maintenance department we determined it was a bad slide controller board. I have ordered one from Tiffin and they are mailing it to Haines Alaska. We hope to be there in 3 days and plan to stay about 4 days so maybe it will be there in time. I have made a set of jumper wires that I can use to manual jump around the bad board to move the slide in/out. 

We are glad it happened where we were and not in an area with no cell phone service. And the campground had the tool I needed to help diagnose the problem. We discovered the problem about 9 AM and it was almost 1PM before I determined the problem and had the part ordered and the jumper made so we had to extend our stay here one more night.

Alaska 2015 - Day 38 - Valdez

Day 38 – 6-18-15 Thursday Today was a slow day for us. I decided to run the Jeep through a car wash it looked so bad. For a basic car wash it cost $12 and got less of a wash job than it cost in Wallace for $6 but we can see out the windows again and it will look a lot better for a short while. The town has a water truck going through town watering down the paved streets to keep the dust down, therefore when you ride the streets after they have watered down the streets your car get dirty again. Like most Alaskan and Canadian towns we have been to most of the parking lots are gravel so there is a lot of dust.

We went to the town post office to pick up three packages we had sent here to General Delivery. Two had come in. Then we went to visit the museum for Old Valdez. On March 27, 1964 the town was hit with the largest earthquake recorded in North America. It measured 8.4-8.6 on the Richter Scale and 30 people died and most of the town was destroyed. After the earthquake the ground was determined to be unstable and the new town of Valdez was rebuilt 4 miles up the road on ground determined to be stable. The museum had a nice film about the history of Valdez and several nice displays, lots of photos of the old town, several pieces of equipment used in old Valdez.

From there we drove out to an area called Blueberry Hill where bears are known to hang out along the river bank. We weren't expecting to see any this time of day but wanted to find the area and may go back later in the evening. We got a good Latte and stopped at the small boat harbor and watched a man and his son fillet some Sockeye Salmon they had caught. The young boy, about 12, explained to us about how they were going to use the different parts of the fish after they were cleaned. The father told Lena how he seasoned and cooked the fish. The boat harbor has a nice setup for cleaning fish and the sea gulls love it because they get the scraps after the fish are filleted.

Sockeye Salmon Fillet

Happy Sea Gulls

Then we drove out of town and briefly stopped at the site of Old Valdez before going to Salmon Gulch, another area where bears frequent in the evenings to feed on the fish in the river. The same road went past a fish hatchery and on to the Alaska Oil Terminal where the pipeline ends but the public is not allowed to enter the area so we returned to town, stopped at the Safeway (only grocery store in town) and got a few groceries since we plan to leave Valdez tomorrow.

About 8PM we went back to the Salmon Gulch area again to see if any bears where out but did not see any. We did see one Bald Eagle in a tree near the water.

Bald Eagle

Crooked Creek

We depart Valdez tomorrow and work our way to Haines, which means we go through Tok again and back into Canada over the bad part of the Alaska Highway before we cross back into Alaska before getting to Haines. We may not be able to update the blog for a few days depending on where we stay each night before getting to Haines. Some areas of the Alaska Highway don't even have cell phone coverage, so when we are in those areas we are cutoff from any communication. 

Alaska 2015 - Day 37 - Matanuska Glacier - Valdez

Day 37 – 6-17-15 Wednesday Today was a 3 Moose Day. We departed the campground about 9AM headed to Valdez. As we drove the Glenn Highway from the campground we could see the Matanuska Glacier off to the right for a few miles. The scenery in this area was somewhat different than what we have seen thus far. The road was somewhat higher than the area along it so we could see for miles out over the terrain. There were lots of lakes and somewhat small slender spruce trees. The houses were few and far between and most were set way back in the trees so could not be seen from the road.

We turned right at Glennallen onto the Richardson Highway toward Valdez. We stopped about noon at an overlook above Willow Lake. This is a barren lake (no fish) but we did see several swans in the lake. About 8o miles from Valdez a mama moose and twin babies crossed the road just before we got to them and went off to the left side of the road.

There was snow almost down to the road when we got to Thompson's Pass. This area gets about 75' of snow a year. The views through the area are quite spectacular. About 12 miles from Valdez we pulled off to take photos at Bridal Veil Falls. We drove on into Valdez and checked into Eagles Rest RV Park site 427. As we were setting up we noticed another Tiffin Motor Home two sites over that was getting some windshield repairs. We went over to talk to them and they were also from North Carolina. We compared travel experiences for awhile then finished setting up and did some laundry before driving around town for awhile. We stopped at Old Town Burgers to try their burgers that we had heard were very good. They were good and very big.

Glenn Highway

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Richardson Highway at Bridal Veil Falls

Valdez sits down in a valley between mountains and is the end of the Alaska Pipeline. This is the location of the 1989 Valdez Oil Spill. We came here on a bus just briefly in 2007 while on a cruise with Princess Cruise Lines. We got off the bus and boarded a high speed catamaran and was transported to Whittier to board the ship. Valdez is a small town of just over 4000 people and has an average snow fall of 27'.

Alaska 2015 - Day 36 - Seward - Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Area CG

Day 36 – 6-16-15 Tuesday I didn't hear them but Lena said a motor home pulled into the site beside us (the one the loud campers were in) at 1:15AM last night. So between them and some people in the site across the driveway from us talking loud until late she didn't get much sleep. So we were glad when we pulled out of this campground about 9AM. The sites are just too close together for our liking.

We drove back through Anchorage and stopped outside of Palmer to fuel up the motor home. There was some road construction between Seward and Anchorage and some outside of Palmer where we had to wait our turn to get through the one lane open. Some people say there is two seasons in Alaska – Winter and Road Construction. They get so much damage to the roads in Winter they have to work all Summer to fix them.

The Glenn Highway from Palmer went up and down and around mountains. If a vehicle was to go off the side of the road in some places along this road it is unlikely anyone would survive. From the roadway down the cliff to the river was quite a drop off and no guard rails.

We had driven 220 miles so about 3PM we stopped for the night at Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Area Campground just off the Glenn Highway. It only has 9 campsites so we weren't sure we would get one but there was no campers there when we got there. Only site #8 was large enough for us so we took it. They also have 9 pull through areas in the parking lot that can be used to overnight in. There are no hookups so we are boondocking. After getting a snack we hiked the 1 mile trail to the overlook where we could see Matanuska Glacier below.

Matanuska Glacier

Wild Rose

Site 8

Moose Nuggets

We returned to the campground and got our lounge chairs out and read for awhile. It was nice and quiet. The campground is covered in several different type of trees and vegetation with lots of space between sites just like we like it. I grilled some brats for supper. By 9PM only 4 of the nine sites were occupied.