Ferry to Skagway

We loaded our RV, jeep, Moe and ourselves onto this giant ferry to head across the water from Haines to Skagway.

Very interesting view driving onboard. Realize that both sides of the ferry are open and if I drive too far, I could go right into the ocean. Don't want to miss that first turn to park.

Loading the RV. WOW it looks big from up here.

THe view of leaving Haines. What a great quaint little town this has been. Each town in Alaska has its own personality and this one was really hometown without tourist trinkets.

Dick hanging out by the flag on the ferry.

Great views coming into port. There were 4 cruise ships in this day. You can imagine the number of visitors. Skagway was once the major Kondike gateway and still has many historic Gold Rush buildings. One of our favorite activities was the town tour offered by the National Parks rangers. Learning the history of this town, makes me appreciate all the stampeders went through to get to the Gold Rush.

The town catered to tourists. No trip could be complete with out a horse and buggy ride.

The tour cars were modeled after the original trolley cars used during the goldrush days. The town is called Alaska's Garden City. Many of the Victorian homes had beautiful gardens of wild flowers and poppies.

Dick and one of his favorite totem poles.

The town remains mostly old buildings with board walks. Walking through town was entertainment in itself . The six block historic district is well preserved.

We toured the country on the White Pass and Yukon Scenic Railway, one of the last remaining narrow-gauge trains. It was completed in 1900 and provided a route to the Klondike. It was also the main supply line for the construction of the Alaska Highway, built to defend Alaska from invasion during World War II. We traveled to White Pass Summit at 2800 ft., through 2 tunnels , by cascading waterfalls, by Buchanan Rock, and passed the gold rush cemetery. Great views for the day.

The ticket office is a replica of the original one built in 1900.
Construction of the railroad began in 1898 and the first train broght back $500,000 of Klondike gold in 1899.

Interesting to see the front of the train as it rounds the corner to go through one of the tunnels.

Our views of waterfalls and glaciers made the trip go by in a hurry.

The caboose. This is where as a child I always wanted to ride.

Haines Alaska / Bear Country

Haines at sunrise:
Our travels take us into Canada and then back to Alaska to Haines, North America's longest and deepest fjord. Historic Fort William Seward is in town and was used during World War I and II as a training base for Alaska recruits. It is complete with historic homes, guard houses, barracks and fire hall and is in the process of being restored and turned into private homes and businesses.

The view from our home: Portage cove on the right and a waterfall on the left. Love hearing the ocean waves and water falling down the mountainside. Haines is home to about 200 to 400 eagles. We have seen them swooping into the water to catch their dinner. Yes, its still cool and rainey.

My poor jeep covered in sticky mud. Notice the tow plates are off. 100 miles out of Tok and again one of the plates snapped; the other was cracked. Frost heaves and damaged roads are the culprit. Dick and I are driving separate until Whitehorse where we are hopeful to get repair work complete.

We've been on bear watch and what a treat. Momma bear and her 2 cubs came out for dinner. Salmon is their specialty. Later we saw a mom and 3 cubs. Such a show. I'll try to get the video on my next blog.

Mom is intense on finding dinner.

Mom feeding her cubs.

We attended a Farmers Market held at the State fairgrounds. They have a community garden full of ripe veggies and flowers.

Its time to pick the cherries. Many trees throughout town are full of cherries ready for jam and pie.

Two girls pitting cherries in a garden in the middle of town. They dry the cherries to enjoy all year round. YUMMMM

These flower pots line the pier in downtown Haines. A beautiful site on the small boat harbor.

Our dinner. Bought crabs for $5 a piece from local fisherman. He even cleaned them for us. Just throw them in a pot for a real crab feast.

Dick enjoying crab dinner. Notice the meal is complete with newspaper table cloth.

These were delicious sweet juicy crab legs.

We enjoyed every bite.

Tomorrow we load the motorhome, jeep and ourselves onto the ferry and head to Skagway. A new adventure awaits.

Valdez, Alaska

Dick fixing one of our favorite meals. Salmon on the grill. Look no winter coat. We had a day of sunshine in Valdez...This area is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains, the tallest coastal mountains in North America, rising from seal level to an elevation of 7,000 feet.

We cruise in the 55 foot LuLuBelle for a 7 hour trip through Prince William Sound, one of the most spectacular and unspoiled wildernesses in the world. Through the many fjords of the Chugach National Forest, we observed fishermen at work, the terminal of the TransAlaska Oil Pipe Line, glaciers, ice fields and many sea animals.

Valdez has 5 accessible glaciers: the Columbia, Meares, Worthington, Shoup and Valdez. This is the Columbia glacier, the second largest tidewater glacier in North America and largest in Prince William Sound. It is close to a mile wide and rises 300 ft from the waterline.

You get the picture. We're having a great time.

Average summer temp in Valdez is 53 degrees. Today, its much colder with the wind off the glacier.

Our fascination with sea otters is rewarded with this group of 23

little guys swimming together.

Can't resist one more pic.

Our boat in the middle of the icefields as as we go around Glacier Island. Glad that Captain Fred Rudolf has over 30 years of exploring these waters. He got us home safe.

These huge chunks of very blue ice surround us.

The ice fields were so thick with floating masses. Amazing trip through these waters.

Our hike to Worthington Glacier was well rewarded with beautiful views.

A researcher fires up a water drill to bore a hole into the Worthington glacier . A camera is placed in the bedrock to discover the effect of temperatures on ice slides.

Mount Drum is part of the Wrangell Mountain Range and is located between Valdez and Copper Center.

We're in Tok, Alaska. We're fortunate they have a RV repair with a welder. The plate holding our RV tow bar to our jeep broke through. Thank goodness Dick is so observant and recognized the jeep swaying and got us to a stop. Otherwise, the jeep could have beat us down the hill. All repaired and on the road again headed to Haines. Life is good.

Valdez

Beautiful views on our trip to Valdez.

Wrangell Mountain Range. Mt Sanford is the tallest at 16,237 feet. Mt Wrangell is the largest active volcano. Since the 9.2 earthquake in 1964, Mt Wrangell has been warming up the ice and snow that was 160 feet deep.

Dick's view as we travel. Visibility at about 50 feet. Seemed like even less to me. This through the curvy mountain roads with many frost heaves to add a little more excitement. .

Horsetail falls. Great area with lots of falls. Many ribbon falls.

Valdez is often called a little Switzerland . One of Alaska's prettiest spots with glaciers galore, wildlife, and lots of snow covered mts.

The view from our campsite in Valdez. We haven't been in a commercial campground since Salmon Arm in Canada. Great views, again. Valdez is a large fishing village with many commercial boats at the harbor. It is also an oil town with the Alaska Pipeline terminal. We have followed this pipeline from Coldfoot above the Arctic Circle to Valdez.

More flowers..Lots of begonias in every color of the rainbow. Some as big around as a dinner plate.

Bear fun. A trip to Allison point was quite interesting. Momma bear and her 3 cubs put on a show: fishing for their dinner.

Two of the cubs playing. They must think this is great fun reaching into the stream for those swimming fish.

The next photo is a video. Press the arrow to play

Seward/Alyeska

Alyeska resort. 900 + inches of snow each year. This is Alaska's largest ski area. We rode the 60 passenger tram to the top. No skis this time of year.

Horse and rider statue that reflects the history of the native Alaskan sits in front of this elegant hotel.

Beautiful flowers surround the statue and are everywhere on the grounds of the resort. Amazing colors and the size WOW. These peonies were huge.

Great views from the ridge over the ski area. Amazing amount of snow.

Lots of snow still on the ground. Enough that Dick and I could have one more snowball fight. No contest here. Dick knows my aim even at 10 feet, he was safe.

Seward/ Kenai Fjords National Park

Exit glacier. We hiked to the area but could not climb it unless we wanted to risk falling into a crevice as the glacier is considered unstable and unpredictable. .

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Exit glacier is about 3 miles long. It is believed that this glacier once extended all the way to Seward

Scenic waterfall just outside of Seward. A great hike from our campsite.

All of the trash containers are painted with great artwork and memorable remarks. "Do the right thing every dog gone day"