Canyonlands National Park - White Rim Trail

October 13th - 17th, 2016

Canyonlands National Park!!
Kevin has been wanting to spend more time in this beautiful park, but more significantly, he has been wanting to take the Jeep on the White Rim Trail.  It is a 99 mile rugged trail that makes a giant loop around some of the most incredibly picturesque red rock formations in southern Utah.  This trail is only accessible with a permit so there are a limited number of vehicles on it and no help if you get in trouble.  Basically, know your stuff, bring spare tires or another vehicle and have fun!

We had tried in the past to get a permit to do the trail, but as the camping along the trail is limited to 20 spots, we had failed each time we tried.  Well, as luck would have it, we kept checking and checking the back country permits and one opened up!!  And guess what!?  It was for White Crack which happens to be one of the coveted, most beautiful campsites on the trail!  We had to take it!!  Ready for a road trip!!!??!!

We left on Wednesday as soon as Jadeyn was out of school and got to stay the night at Jennifer's house in Grand Junction so Jadeyn got some quality nerf gunning in with the cousins that night!  Then, off to Utah.  I look at this trip specifically as Jadeyn's launching off point for loving reading.  He has always been a good reader and really enjoyed it, but this trip we could hardly pull him away from his books.  We found ourselves a few times having to say: Jadeyn, we are in a national park...put the book down!  It was great!
 
We arrived at the Visitor's Center to get all the information that we needed for the trail and then went to the edge.  The dirt road literally drops right down into the canyon through a series of frightening switchbacks.  Its a good thing that we have off-roaded a lot before, Or I would have been very nervous on some of the turns.  Kevin and the Jeep handled it like pros.  Seeing the river way down deep in the valley that was responsible for cutting the winding slice through the land made us realize just how powerful water and time can be.  Canyonlands seems to be in two layers.  The flat landscape at the top where you would never suspect that there is a giant crack in the earth.  Then, you see the canyon itself with all the beautiful formations, and then it cuts down more cliffs to the river bed.  Wow. 

We were rewarded with some wildlife sightings.  Big Horn Sheep, Jackrabbits, lizards and lots of birds. 

All around us some of the formations had been given names.  The one above is the washer woman, but Jadeyn thought it looked more like a lady pushing a shopping cart!

October was the perfect time to come.  The dry summers end made the road nice and navigable, and no chance of rain to make it muddy,

Okay, there are cliffs and then there are these cliffs.  Pictures simply don't do justice to just how far straight down these cliffs drop!  The middle photo above is the edge of a mighty cliff, but just across the way at the top you can see our Jeep.  Its puny!  We did keep a tight hold on Jadeyn just in case there was a big gust of wind!

We found the turn for White Crack and were rewarded with such a wide expanse of red rocks and open space and not a soul in sight.  The lone camp site was about a mile off the main trail and was right at the edge of the valley.  270 degrees of canyon!  Wow!  We set up camp and walked out to the edge of the canyon.  We hopped a few gaps and made it out onto one of the mighty hoodoos just in time to watch the amazing sunset in one direction and then turn to watch the super-moon rise behind us.  Tonight was the super moon where supposedly the moon is the closest to the earth and it did not disappoint.  Wow!  Again, pictures can't do justice to the feeling of complete solitude and awe that we felt out there!

There were some pretty scary twists and cliffs that Kevin had to navigate.  The Hogsback and Devil's Backbone were particularly well named and scary.  All you could do was pray that no one was coming towards us because there were several parts where we were at such an angle that you couldn't see the trail in front of us at all. 

We found a beautiful wash / slot canyon to hike up into with little bits of shade along the way.  What a fun two day trail successfully done!

We were able to spend the next day in the rest of Canyonlands hiking and enjoying the scenery.  We saw another majorly impressive moon rise on a night hike.  The wind up top though was incredibly strong but well worth it!

We couldn't be this close to Arches National Park and not stop!  We set up camp at an RV park we have stayed at before with the RZR and headed into Arches.  Jadeyn was so excited to do the Devil's Garden Trail and see all of the Arches.  We made sure to take every offshoot of this trail and see every bit of it and Jadeyn was happy to add 7.5 miles to his hiking log.  Up top on the fins however, the wind was so intense it literally could hold you up when leaning against it!  Crazy!! We felt like we were being sandblasted at times

Our night back at camp wasn't as pleasant as we would have liked.  The wind continued in the valley floor as well and whipped our tent around all night.  We had planned on staying two nights in Arches, instead, we hiked a bit more and then headed back home.

On all our many trips along I-70 over the years, we have always wanted to stop at Hanging Lake and finally took the opportunity since we were coming home a day early.  We got out of the car and were nearly blown over in the parking lot.  The wind was so fierce and cold.  Well, we are here, might as well hike.  Its not a long trail, only about 2.5 miles round trip, but it is very steep.  Beautiful forest helped block a lot of the wind once we started hiking.  At the top, a beautiful pristine, green lake sparkled against a granite wall.  A horsetail waterfall plunged right into it!  And the moss covering the granite oozed and dripped with water.  It was beautiful!  We even go tot witness a guy propose to his girl there!  What a beautiful hike and a perfect way to end a really fun trip!

20th ANNIVERSARY ALASKAN EXCURSION!! July 28 - August 8th, 2016

20th ANNIVERSARY ALASKAN EXCURSION!!!!

July 28th - August 8th, 2016

Four More New National Parks with a bonus of the Arctic Circle!! 

Now we have enjoyed 42 National Parks!

2100 miles by car                         260 miles by bus
128 miles by train                           21 miles by foot
216 miles by bush plane              4940 miles by commercial plane

Thursday July 28th, 2016
What a way to start a trip. We thought we had everything planned perfectly, but unfortunately there are things that are out of our control. We packed everything up Wednesday night set the alarm for 3 a.m. and went to bed. At 3 a.m. we hopped out of bed and happened to notice a text on Kevin's phone announcing our flight got cancelled! What on Earth? In all our flights that we've done throughout our lives we've had flights delayed, and postponed. We have never had one flat out cancel without an explanation. What do we do now? I got on the phone with Alaska Airlines to complain and ask how they were going to fix it. They had already booked us on a new flight, but it wouldn't get in until after 9 p.m. That would mean we would have to land, get our luggage, get a rental car, go to the store and drive all night, arrive at about 3 in the morning and our boat takes off at 9 a.m.! That just isn't going to work. I was off and on hold for an hour with the airlines and somehow they managed to make it work. They got us on a United flight leaving at 8 a.m., then Alaskan Airlines, finally arriving at 2:30. That is doable. Only problem is, now that we have everything settled, we only have 40 minutes before we have to leave again for the airport. No time for sleep. Jadeyn had heard us and had gotten dressed right when we were trying to lay down for a few minutes. No sleep now! We left at 5 a.m. for the airport just in time to see the amazing Denver Sunrise all blue and orange. There was a little hassle to get us all seated together but some really nice people made it happen. Flying to Seattle was amazing we saw Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, all rising up into the air. Beautiful!

On to our next connecting flight: Seattle to Anchorage. Flying over Canada was quite the site. Huge towering snow capped peaks were on both sides of the plane. Very very beautiful! We finally made it to Anchorage! It's been quite the trip already. Our luggage came very quickly, we caught a taxi and picked up our rental car, went shopping for the essentials at Walmart and we're on the road.

 We had a 5 hour drive to Valdez to do tonight. We knew this drive was going to be beautiful, but it was incredible! Huge mountains on all sides and green green everywhere! We saw our first glacier. Right there in the middle of a valley, this big glacier with blue cracks and jagged rocks surrounding it. We had been talking about wondering what our first animal would be; Kevin guessed it would be a moose. A few minutes later there it was: a young moose trotting along the highway with us. We got to follow him for a little ways before he darted off the road! Wow, our first animal, a moose!

 Continuing our drive to Valdez, it seemed like every corner we turned we saw the snowy peaks of a distant mountain, then as we turned, more, more and more of the magnificent mountain range showed up. There really aren't any words that can fully describe these magnificent mountains. They rise from the coast to 7000 feet above our heads. We arrived at our hotel at 10:30 at night. We've been awake for 21 1/2 hours. Time to hit the hay!

Friday July 29th, 2016
Well even though it wasn't the nicest hotel on the block, the beds were hard, it felt great to get a good night's sleep! We got up, got everything ready, and decided to check out the Valdez harbor. It was amazing to see all the well worn fishing rigs resting by the docks. Our boat for the cruise was fairly large and filled with lots of retired people on a tour bus group. 



Highlights of the boat ride: mysterious snow-capped peaks looming out from behind the heavy fog and low clouds. Sea otters, like cuddly teddy bears floating on their backs and playing in the water. Some mamas even had babies on their bellies! 

We got to see puffins that, despite their heavy bodies, were somehow able to fly out of the water to roost in the cliff walls. 

The sea lions, huge and lazy, resting on the rocks and grumbling and growling like hungry tummies. As we got near to the glaciers, harbor seals rested happily on large chunks of ice floating in the water. Their quizzical eyes staring at us as we drifted by. 

We even got to see four humpback whales from a distance. And a few pods dall porpoises.

Meares Glacier at the end of the harbor was the most spectacular sight. We rounded a corner and saw a glimpse of a glacier. We moved a little farther around the corner and the glacier kept growing, and growing, and growing. We had no idea it would be that large. 

The glacier towered above us in a straight cliff about 200 feet. And was probably four football fields in length. Deep blue gouges scratched the glacier face like it had been clawed by a giant bear. And then the sound. We heard popping and cracking and then would see small pieces of the glacier crash into the water followed about four seconds later by the crash sound. We were even lucky enough to see quite a few sizable pieces crash to the water. It was amazing to see it, few seconds later hear it, and a few minutes later feel the wave rock are boat. Very, very spectacular! 

Our cruise was 9 hours all together and worth every second of it. They fed us a delightful chicken alfredo lunch and clam chowder supper. When we were trying to track down the whales, they called it ping ponging: when you see a spout, go that way, then see a spout behind you so you turn around. Great description! We met some really nice people on the boat and Jadeyn had a wonderful time playing and exploring and enjoying every bit of nature. 

After the ride we walked up and down the harbor to watch the fishermen clean the fish they had caught during the day. I've never seen fish that big. The halibut was a good three feet across and 4 feet long, and then some other fish we'd never seen before but were massive! 

We hit the road and headed to Copper Center and tonight to stay in an extremely beautiful lodge with a massive picture window looking out to the snow-capped peaks.




Jadeyn wrote a Legend of the Arctic Snow Leopard:

Many, many years ago there was a giant snow leopard who lived in the sky.  He came to earth one day because he was hungry.  He was covered in blue star dust crystals that made his stripes and his claws shine blue.  He landed next to a massive pure white glacier. The snow leopard spotted a arctic rabbit hopping around and started to chase him all over the glacier.  The rabbit burrowed down into the snow and the snow leopard started scratching at the glacier to try and get at the rabbit.  Every time he scratched, his claws left a blue gouge in the ice.  The star dust from his claws turned the ice pure blue every place that he scratched.  He pounced over and over and the weight of his pounces cracked the ice and made huge crevasses in the glacier. He ran around for days and days chasing the rabbit all over the arctic.  

Saturday July 30th, 2016
On to Wrangell National Park! 
We took a paved road to the start of McCarthy Rd and found out quickly that when a sign says "road damage" or there's a small orange flag on the side of the road it means: slow down! The frost heaves in the road are so dramatic that a few times I think our luggage in the back caught air! Jadeyn was in the middle of a mighty star wars battle and yelled out: "R2 even catched air! He was flying already and I wasn't even holding on to him!"

Along the road we were introduced to the Chitina River and its creation. It is a braided formation which means it's channels weave and meander leaving islands of gravel and sediment. It is a mile wide! It seems that every half mile of road there is a peaceful lily pad lined pond or lake. We didn't get a lot of mountain views, but a lot of history. We drove over a one lane train bridge built over 100 yrs ago and saw a tressel bridge that was mighty impressive to have been built in 8 days!  We also saw the fishermen in the river working the strange looking fishing wheels.
The destination today is McCarthy and Kennicott and it all begins with a 59 mile road of rough gravel that takes about 2 and a half hours to navigate. We made it up to the end of the road where we left the car crossed the foot bridge over the huge river and then caught a shuttle the remaining 5 miles up to the towns. Kennicott is the site of an old copper mine. 

The mine was started in 1916, 100 years ago. It is considered to be one of the best remaining examples of Copper Mining in our history. We gained a huge respect for what an amazing feat it was to accomplish what these men did so long ago. The old buildings were amazingly well preserved and incredible to explore. 
Off to the glacier. A 2 mile trail took us closer and closer to the glacier. Hiking deep into the National Park starting at the historic mining town of Kennicott.  We hiked along with the mountain on one side of us and the massive glacier moraine on the other.  The moraine itself stretched for miles.  

As we got closer to the base of the glacier, we realized that parts of the moraine were actually part of the glacier still but covered in rocks and dirt.  The glacier stretches way up the mountain clear up to where the mountain was lost in the clouds. 

 Walking on the glacier was sweet!   The ice made a light popping sound crunching under our feet!   All in all, the glacier is 27 miles long. The last half mile of the hike we had to scramble down loose rock that was pretty steep. Down and down we went, until suddenly we jumped and landed on glacier! We were still on the part that was pretty dirty, but as we walked the ice crunched under our feet sounding like popcorn! We climbed higher and higher until we were on clear white ice, riddled with little lakes and ponds of water and it got more and more slippery. We were actually walking on a glacier! It was so cool to see it up close and see areas that truly were blue ice even close up. 

The amazing thing was as we approach the glacier the temperature just dropped. The wind picked up and it was very cold. Just a few hundred feet off the glacier and it was nice and toasty again about 70 degrees. Once we were on the glacier we could look all the way up and see the head of the glacier many miles away and towering way way above us. The head of the glacier was nestled between two massive mountains that were equally impressive. There really aren't words to explain just how incredible it was.

We ate a snack on the way back down the mountain and then got to explore Kennicott. We toured through several of the old buildings and marveled at how well they were built on such a slanted hillside. We got to check out the old mine and all the ancient equipment. Jadeyn got his Junior Ranger badge at the Ranger station and we watched an amazing video about the history of the place. What a fun day, and its only our second day!
We stayed in the little village of Gakona Alaska at the historic Gakona Lodge. There was an old log restaurant and three log cabins, all ancient and rustic, but the owner was a really nice guy with four of his small kids running around the forest in bare feet! The giant Copper River was just behind the property looking like it could spill over any second!  Our cabin was delightful (Kev would cringe if he heard me call it that) with two beds with beautiful quilts, desk lamps that we didn't need, and a shower that left us guessing which way the water would spray! It was nice to settle in early. Jadeyn hit the hay shortly after 9 while Kevin and I stayed up past 11 and it was still light enough outside to read a book by!
Sunday July 31st, 2016
Ahh, nice to get some sleep! We packed up and headed to the lodge for breakfast. I had to position Jadeyn's chair so he would be seeing the fewest number of dead animals on the walls as possible. Lots of hunting here. We talked with the owner while we ate and learned that there are no deer here. It's too cold. No wonder we hadn't seen any. He said the animals at the lodge go in cycles. Last summer they had mice everywhere, then the weasels showed up, then the foxes. Their neighbor had a grizzly break into their cabin last year and it ate all their ice cream. It broke into the second floor window! They have a neighborhood fox that joined their son's birthday party last week! Way cool. We hit the road and within 5 minutes of driving, we saw two moose! And a few minutes later, there was a big snowshoe hare! All beautiful brown! In Valdez, there were bunnies everywhere, but this was an honest to goodness hare!

The Nebesna Road was quite entertaining! Paved and dirt road, damaged from frost. The result was a bouncy roller coaster of woo-hoos. Who said we couldn't find a roller coaster in Alaska!  We listened to a mile by mile narration about the road and learned about the history and geology of the area. Turns out that all the small, scrawny for trees that we have been seeing are called Black Spruce. Their stunted growth is from the perma frost that they are trying to grow in. In the perma frost areas, the growth slows down and the trees get a diseased and depleted look. The cool thing is we saw sections of the road where the trees were full and big on one side of the road and on the other side they were all scrawny just from where the sun hits and thaws the ground out. 

Our hike for today is called Caribou Creek. The beginning part of the trail was being maintained by a crew so it was pretty wide, wide enough for three of us and nice and gravely. We kept our eyes open and scanning either side of the trail for any signs of moose or bear. We're hoping to see something on this hike! Low blueberry bushes beside the trail as well and the blueberry were fully ripe. It is interesting to hike in Alaska because there is so much under growth and trees, it's hard to see on either side of the trail. We did get a few beautiful glimpses of the mountain peaks around us.  At one point there was moss growing along the river about 10 inches thick.  It was a nice cushy bed!
Jadeyn completely entertained us on the hike by staging attacks from the enemy. We each had a weapon and had our roles as commander, sniper and medic. At one point we even had Raptors chasing after us as we crossed the creeks. It was pretty entertaining and fun. We were also entertained along the way by checking out all the animals footprints. Huge moose tracks along a good portion of the trail, droppings, and then in some spots of mud we found little weasel footprints, mouse footprints and birds. 
The end of the trail led us to a rustic cabin and outhouse that you can reserve and stay overnight. It was pretty nice, and had its own resident Arctic Ground Squirrel that knew as soon as humans arrived that he could sneak food. He checked out our backpacks for a little bit as well. Because we have such a long drive tonight, we didn't stay too long and headed back and enjoyed the beautiful trail on the way back. We finished up with Nebesna road, and then hit the highway headed towards Fairbanks. We did see several moose along the road, a mama and two young. That was pretty exciting too.
We stopped for lunch at Delta Junction at a little drive in restaurant and had hamburgers and Jadeyn had halibut for the first time. He said it was absolutely excellent! and he was happy as could be.  We pulled into Fairbanks around 6 p.m. and checked into our Cottage. The River Edge Cottage and we are right on the edge of the river. We took a walk up and down the river and enjoyed seeing a bald eagle swooping low and then roosting in a tree above us. We decided to go to sleep as early as we could tonight because we have a super early start tomorrow morning. But, even as Jadeyn was supposed to be asleep around 10:30, he sat up in bed and said 'you've got to be kidding me, it looks like lunch time out there!' We still haven't gotten used to the bright night and thankfully some of the hotels had black out curtains to help us sleep. It will be really interesting tomorrow in Coldfoot where it'll be even brighter.

August 1st  20th Anniversary!!
Happy Anniversary! Today is the big day, we are hoping to make this an anniversary to remember! Today we are going above the Arctic Circle, and planning for a flight over Gates of the Arctic National Parks! We are hoping for good weather, and smooth roads! We hit the highway by 6 a.m and traveled along Highway 2 for 75 miles before we hit the Dalton Highway! This Highway is rough. It is the exact road that is on Ice Road Truckers (TV show) and goes North to the Arctic Circle and follows a long the Alaskan oil pipeline. We have seen the pipeline and several places cutting through the trees. Within a mile of entering the Dalton Highway, the cloud layer and fog were so thick we could only see about 30 feet in front of our car. Hopefully it gets better from here!

We were surrounded by the scrawny black spruce trees. Jadeyn's description of the black spruce: It's the Sequoia Natl Park for Lego guys!  The beginning of Dalton highway had such thick fog that it was difficult to see anything at all. As we traveled farther the sun broke out through the clouds and we got to see white huge expanses of trees and hills and trees and hills. Jadeyn was an excellent navigator from the back seat

warning Kevin about every pothole that he saw in the road. 'Dad, dad, hole left side, left side, stay to the right. okay you're good.' etc. Then highlight of the trip happened. We're driving along and way up in the road we see an animal. We all held are breath as we wondered could it be what we think it was? And it was a beautiful ARCTIC GREY WOLF. Jadeyn's dream has come true! The most amazing thing is he followed along the road beside us for about 7 or 8 minutes keeping himself between 20 and 50 feet off the road. We got to see him run alongside with us and when we would howl, he would stop and stare at us and then keep going.

We stopped at the Yukon River for gas and a the bathroom break. The Yukon River was massively wide. Just the bridge spanning the narrow portion of it was a half mile long. Wow. The little gas station gave us gas from a tanker truck at 5.49 a gallon. It was fun to see such a small place that is open year around and obviously goes through some hard times. Back on the road again.
About an hour farther down the road we were so excited to see a mama moose followed closely behind by two young ones. They quickly crossed the road and disappeared into the brush. And about an hour father on we reached the Arctic Circle! We pulled over to take a picture in front of the sign! This is the point at which the sun doesn't set below the horizon. At this point the landscape is really changing. There are still sections of black Spruce Forest and occasional Aspen trees, but then a lot more areas of wide open tundra.

We made it down the Dalton Highway in one piece! The mountains have been beautiful and totally different than what we expected. We expected there to be no trees, similar to Colorado above tree line. But really there are forest on all sides of the road, aspen, black spruce and large expanses of arctic tundra. We pulled into the tiny town of Coldfoot, (population 12 in the winter) and found the airport. When we arrived at Coyote Air we found a lady working on the back wheel of a plane, we hoped it wasn't ours! Unfortunately because the weather has been so iffy, our pilot was currently up with another group who were planning on their trip yesterday. She told us we have a few hours before we can go up this afternoon. Just before we left, the pilot's son brought out his remote control plane that he had built and flew it around in the wind for Jadeyn.  

Next, we went to the visitor center where Jadeyn got his Junior Ranger badge and a whole bunch of other achievements. Funniest thing: they have so few visitors (let alone children) that they were so excited to add a junior ranger sticker to their map. Then we headed father up the road to Sukakpak Mountain. It's a magnificent mountain of stone rising up in the Brooks range. We were really happy we went to see it, it was magnificent. On our way back we stopped at our cabin in Wiseman to check in and then back to the air strip. The weather this morning had been perfect, but rain was expected by 4pm. We were crossing our fingers that it would hold off, but the clouds were already rolling in and the wind was really blowing.

We arrived back at the airstrip 45 min earlier than they asked us to and we were so glad. Dirk, our pilot had just arrived back...ready to go. Our plane is Elsie, a 1975 four seat bush plane. Here comes another adventure! We squeezed into our seats, put on our headsets, and we were off! It's the first time for all of us on such a small plane. We bumped along in the wind and then we were up sailing above the magnificent mountains of the Arctic.

The hundreds of rivers and creeks meandered like a patchwork below us. Some were the perfect glacier blue, others deep green, Arctic white, one was a florescent orange! Some of the rivers meandered so deeply that they had begun to seal themselves off and shorten their routs by creating oxbow's. Our pilot made the comment that the river must not be in such a hurry to get downstream because it travels three times farther than it needs to. This mountains are so green, covered with the black spruce and Aspen's. Wow!

Then we arrived at the crowing glory: the Argitech Peaks! Craggy towering granite peaks shooting to the sky.  It felt otherworldly, soaring above jagged peaks with clouds nestled around them. We flew just below the main cloud level. A few places had glaciers clinging to the steep rock face. Wow. There are sections of the green tundra that had a scalloped look from where the permafrost had melted, started to slide down the mountain and then re-froze, only to do it again next year. We couldn't get over how green everything was a result of the increased/constant daylight hours during the summer.  

Our pilot circled around and cut right through the narrow canyon with the peaks towering above us on both sides! Closer to the mountains, the air currents really bounced us around. A few times we dropped so quickly we were lifted out of our seats! Jadeyn loved being buffeted around and exaggerated it as much as he could!

We were planning a touch down, but with the wind, we weren't certain we would be able to. Sure enough, our pilot circled over a river, found a nice gravel bed in the middle and settled right in. We stepped out and saw the gravel was actually pretty nice football sized rocks! We had no idea you could land on such uneven surfaces! We climbed out and got our land legs for a bit while skipping rocks on the choppy river.  The clouds really began to roll in, but the sun came through beautifully for some great pictures with the plane. Before taking off, Dirk let Jadeyn sit in the cockpit and walked him through all controls and gauges. He spent over five minutes explaining everything. Now, can we make it off the rocky beach? Easy as pie!

The last 30 minutes we flew over the 'regular' magnificent mountains as the skies darkened and the rain really started coming down. It got more choppy and we just enjoyed it. Back to the tiny airstrip and a big thank you to our pilot for an awesome flight and getting us down safely! Wow! What an experience!
Now on to our Polar Cabin at the Boreal Lodge. Dirk had told us that they make a pretty nice sour dough pizza at the lodge, so we asked the owner to make is one. Our cabin was awesome! Way cooler than we could have imagined! Log cabin details that just left you smiling! A loft for Jadeyn with caribou antlers as the railing, log beams with mushroom growths on them, bear decorations, not to mention a full kitchen. There was even hot chocolate! We all wished that we had another day at this park! The yummy pizza arrived and we picked out the movie Tron from the selection and kicked back! We tried to hit the hay by 11, and it was still broad daylight outside! When I woke at 4am, it was still just as bright! Our pilot's son had made the comment that it is just now starting to get 'dim' at night!

Tuesday August 2nd, 2016
Wonderful night's rest. We got up at 5:40, got dressed, cooked up some hot chocolate and said goodbye to Gates of the Arctic. I got to start out the drive back on the Dalton highway and I did about 120 miles of it before turning the wheel over to Kevin for the really rough parts! We passed the time reading up on the area and learning all about the Trans Alaskan Pipeline and the ingenuity of the people behind the Dalton Highway and the Yukon Bridge. Amazing what was accomplished. We also reminisced about our 20 years together and what an adventure it has been! We also talked about being above the Arctic Circle and how different it was than we expected. We had thought there wouldn't be any trees, like being above treeline. Nope tons of aspen, scrawny black spruce and beautiful unique arctic tundra. We also thought there would be snow on all the peaks. Besides a few glaciers, all the peaks were bare. We also thought it would be really cold. Nope. It felt like a average camping day in Colorado except it just never got dark!

We drove through Fairbanks and headed to Denali. We actually arrived sooner than we had thought and were happy to have a few hours in the park tonight. Jadeyn got hid Junior Ranger badge and we gathered info on the park.  On Sunday a massive mudslide covered part of the one road in the park. We read about it Sunday morning in the paper and were hoping that it would be cleared out by now. Nope. Denali has received 17 inches if rain in July which is almost all of the annual precipitation in one month! The soil is so saturated that it couldn't hold any more! Apparently, the slide had even trapped a few buses overnight and the visitors had to be taken out by helicopter. But at least we will be able to get 64 miles in to the Eielison Visitors Center tomorrow.

We took a drive 13 miles into the park to see what we could see. Holy Moose! Wow! We saw 5 massive moose within the first few miles! I forget just how tall they can be! Awesome. We decided to do a short two mile loop hike: Savage River Loop. Just as we were getting out of the car, we all thought we saw something across the river, but it wasn't moving so we started hiking. We were entertained by the Arctic ground squirrels too. Then we looked over again, and the something got up. It was the biggest caribou I could ever imagine. His rack was massive and he held it so elegantly. Wow. We hurried on our hike because the loop would take us around closer to the animal. This valley is beautiful! We made it around the loop and found our mighty caribou and as we watched him, three more of his friends got up from where they had been bedded down. Each one had a 4 foot wide rack at least! We watched them until we realized we had better be good parents and get our boy to bed: it was almost 9:30pm, but still bright as could be! Excellent introduction to Denali!

Wednesday August 3rd, 2016
Denali National Park.  Up at 5:30 for another early morning. Kevin said that he woke up at 1am and it was actually almost dark outside! Today is our day to see if Denali is 'out.' One look outside and we knew the answer: the sky was one solid cloud all the way to the ground and there was a continuous drizzle falling. Well, it is what it is, right? We packed up our food for the day, put on our layers and rain gear and boarded the shuttle.   Denali is a very different park than all the other Natl parks we have been to. There is only one road in and a private car can only go 13 miles, beyond that, it is all shuttles. Also, since it is considered wilderness, there are very few designated hikes, you are encouraged to venture off into the wilderness on your own. Kinda cool. We were first in line for the 6:45am shuttle so we got prime seats right behind the driver. Off we go!

We didn't have to go very far before we were rewarded with a young moose right on the side of the road! Wow. Every sighting was exciting. Leaning out the windows of the bus trying to get the best view and picture of the animals. Moose and more moose all throughout the spruce trees. We got to the point where we had done our hike last night and saw a few of our massive caribou hanging out. I still can't believe how big they are! Massive heavy racks balanced on their heads like a candelabra and they go along grazing as if they don't even notice the weight!

It's a good thing that the clouds and fog allowed us at least 30 feet or so of distance and we could see the animals. A little farther, the fog lifted enough that we could see across the valley and just in time: a huge blonde grizzly bear with two cubs foraged for berries just across the way! Wow! The cubs were a dark brown and ran right alongside their mama as they grazed. Spectacular!  We say a male grizzly by himself down on the wide river bed as well.

By the time we made it up to 3600 feet elevation the fog and mist were so thick, you could barely see the visitor center from the parking lot! Apparently, Denali is only visible 30% of the time (and that includes partially visible too). Not gunna happen today. Bummer. There is even a window at the visitor center that has an outline of the mountain etched into it, so you can imagine seeing it! We had lunch and signed up for a ranger hike at noon. We have enjoyed every ranger led hike that we have been on and this one was great as well. It was only two miles up, but it sure went up! We climbed up through the tundra and learned about the plant life and adaptation of the animals to the cold harsh weather. We even learned about the wood frog, the only amphibian in the park and how it can freeze solid in the winter and thaw out for spring! Wild!   It continued to drizzle constantly and we were grateful to have our rain gear on!  But tadahh, as soon as we started hiking back down, the fog lifted and we could actually see a mountain! Still completely overcast and raining, but we could actually see most of the mountains across the valley!

We caught a shuttle to head back down the road and were blown away by the beauty of the park. Polychrome Valley was incredible with the array of color in the rocks balanced by deep greens! We got off the shuttle and stayed behind to take pictures and enjoy the beauty. We caught the next bus.  Caribou caught our eyes every few miles and we searched for dall sheep but didn't find any. But, we did get to see another mama grizzly and two more cubs! That's seven grizzly bears, 28 moose, too many caribou to count and one wolf!!  By the time we made it home, we were pretty wiped out and really enjoyed relaxing and getting the chill out of our bones! Hopefully tomorrow there is a break in the clouds for our flight!

Thursday August 4th, 2016
Talkeetna.  So, our first disappointment of the trip. We have another flight today to see Denali and land on a glacier and when we woke up, we couldn't even see the parking lot! It's going to be a pretty slim chance that we will be able to see anything. We were kind of nervous about calling to cancel because we have already paid. We decided to head toward Talkeetna and see if the weather had any chance of improving. Nope. We called and they were actually really good about it and took care of everything. So, now we have a completely free day of rain, what do we do.

We arrived at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge and were blown away by how beautiful this hotel was. There was a 45 foot fireplace warming the lobby. And then there was a full window on the entire wall looking out to nothing but white clouds. Apparently when Denali is out, it is the most beautiful picture window. Kind of a bummer. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we explored the hotel, and had lunch at the cafe. Jadeyn had fish and chips and was ecstatic about that. I had a delicious salad and fried ravioli. Kevin had a French dip.  Nice and warm food. We drove into town of Talkeetna and explored the little village going in and out of all the novelty stores, and galleries.

We saw a sign for Kahiltna Birchworks Birch Syrup along the side of the road and on a whim, decided to stop.  So glad we did.  It was a small building with a massive property of White Birch trees.  So, as we are driving fast down the roads, we had assumed that all the white barked trees we passed were aspen.  Actually a good amount of them are birch.  We had heard about the process involved to make maple syrup, it seems that birch is even more involved.  There is a 2-3 week harvesting period when the sap runs.  They hook up a tubing system between the trees attached to a vacuum system and drip buckets.  With all the reducing that has to happen: 100 gallons of sap converts to 1 gallon of syrup!  Wow.  We tasted the syrup spanned across the 2 week harvest and the flavor gets more intense and darker as the season progressed.  It was really amazing to learn about and delicious.  It tasted kind of like molasses.

Friday August 5th, 2016
First morning we actually got wake up without an alarm.  We woke about 6:45. It was actually quite nice to take it easy and get everything packed up. We checked outside and nope, no mountain still. It's rainy and the clouds are nice and low. We drove into the quaint little town of Talkeetna to the Talkeetna Roadhouse, the famous place for breakfast and wow, awesome pastries. It is in a little old house that went back into a restaurant and then kept going back and back for more tables, then a really long hallway for the bunkhouses and finally showers and bathrooms. Jadeyn and I had massive cinnamon rolls and Kevin had a yummy bread pudding. And off we went through the rain and the beautiful green mountains to Anchorage. 

It really felt as if we were at the end of our journey since it has been a full week, we are turning in our car, etc. But nope, we have a couple more days! We stopped at the store to return the fix-a-flat and slime that we thankfully never had to use and then spent some time organizing our stuff, getting all our food into the suitcases and cleaning out the car. We turned the car in to Midnight Sun and they gave us a ride to the bus depot. We stored our suitcases, put on our raincoats and walked the 10 blocks to the coastal greenway and hiked a mile up and down the OceanWalk. Strange and beautiful coastline. Huge low flat areas of glacial black silt with rivulets of water ways carved in by the tide. They say that if you step into that silt it can be worse than quicksand! We stopped and ate our sandwiches by a lagoon and hoofed it back. The bus to Seward is a three hour ride through lush green massive mountains and coastal waters. It feels like Hawaii or Washington, just misty and low clouds and green!

Kenai Fjords National Park. Seward.  We pulled into to quaint town of Seward and were greeted by a huge bald eagle nest and two bald eagles. Nice! We got to see one of the massive cruise ships and Jadeyn was blown away by the size. He said: that's got to be bigger than the Titanic! We checked into the Harbor 360 and then contemplated what to do with the evening since it was already 7pm. Well, we called up a taxi and caught a ride to the Exit Glacier. 

There is only one road into Kenai Fjords national park, and it is an 8 mile road to a visitors center and a trail head. That's it. The only other way to access the park is boat or plane. We were so happy to see that the VC was still open and we bought our mug and stamped our passport.

Hiking through deep green undergrowth and low lying branches and moss and lichen, it just felt otherworldly. We felt like we were in a jungle and if we closed our eyes and opened them again, we would never have guessed that we were in Alaska! Oh, until we turned a bend in the path and saw a mighty glacier and the clouds broke up enough to see the green mountains towering above us! Wow! This glacier, nestled in-between two huge mountains has carved its way through the rock and left deep gouges marking its path. Signs had been placed along in front of the glacier to show where the glacier had reached in past years. 2004, 1998, 1950 etc. Some of the earlier years were even way up the walking path. Wow.  Hiking up to a glacier is always exhilarating when you feel the temperature in the air drop and you feel the glacier's breath on your face. We made it back down the path reading all the information along the way and met our taxi shortly after 9pm.

No need to go to bed yet, so we walked the fisherman docks seeing where the fishermen clean the fish and the huge container where they drop the carcasses to take back out to sea. The seagulls and sea otters were sure enjoying dinner! The sea otters were close enough that we could hear them munching on the fish! Back to the hotel, a hot chocolate and a few minutes of the Olympics opening ceremonies.

Saturday August 6th, 2016
Beautiful Seward. (At least we have heard it is beautiful, we have only been able to get glimpses of it when the fog, clouds and rain have momentarily lifted.  But we are so excited for today's adventure. An excursion out into Kenai Fjords National Park. We started out the morning with a nice breakfast at our hotel looking out over the harbor and then a stroll down the boardwalk to check in. It seems that everyone on our boat arrived early and were already lined up by 9:15. It made for some chaos while boarding and as a result, we got a center table at the front, not near a window, but at least facing forward.

And we are off! Out into a solid wall of white! Wow. We could barely see the outline of the boats leaving the harbor ahead of us, but we were able to see a sweet sea otter lolling about in the water! We are wearing lots of layers and it is pretty chilly out on the deck with the rain and drizzle coming down. Our captain kept us pretty close to the shore a lot of the time and seeing the trees and cliffs peaking out of the mist was really quite otherworldly. Yesterday we kept saying how it felt like we were hiking through Washington. Today it felt we were sailing around the coast of Kauai. The misty rock cliffs rising out of the water covered in green. So beautiful. It was tough to take pictures out in the rain,trying to keep the lens from getting spotted and try to keeping the whole camera dry.

Our captain had really good eyes and pointed out any wildlife that came near the boat even with the choppy water. Way off in the distance we saw spouts blasting into the air. Humpback Whales! Three of the whales were feeding near the shore and displayed their spouts for us all to see! So cool! We got to see a lot of puffins, both tufted and horned. I love watching the puffins flap so hard to try and make it off the surface of the water with their bright orange feet spread out like boat rudders! They are so agile and fast under the water but sure are awkward fliers! The bald eagles were out and looking regal as ever! We found a mated pair eyeing us from high up on the cliffs. It was amazing that they are pretty easy to spot: a small bright white spot against the green of the trees. Jadeyn was happy to be able to see jellyfish again and was certain that he saw a huge man-o-war jelly because of the size and color.

The sea was really quite rough and kept us on our toes, or at least holding on to something whenever we moved. It was a little rough on Kevin but he was a champ and was determined to not let it bother him.  We spotted another whale, but this one was doing a behavior that we had never seen before. He was raising his tail fin out of the water and slapping the water over and over. Wow.

Ready for the glaciers? Our first glacier was Aialik Glacier, and it was another beauty. It is amazing to me every time when we feel the air change as we approach. The rain let up to a drizzle so we were able to get some nice pictures. There was a mighty waterfall rushing out from underneath the glacier causing quite the splashes and mist. Then, all of the sudden, the glacier started calving. Boom! Crash! Then it seemed that the whole thing was alive as it started crashing down at three different points. Wow. What an impressive display. 

The plan was for the captain to choose one of two inlet glaciers depending on which promised the smoother boat ride. Maybe because we hadn't seen as many animals as expected, or we were ahead of schedule, but he took us in to the second glacier as well! This one was called Surprise Glacier. This one was actually two glaciers (or one that had split in two) and there was a waterfall in the middle. You couldn't see both glaciers at once, but saw the first one, then as we started passing, the other came into view. Wow.

The cliffs and mountains were so erie and mysterious with all the fog and the rock formations ghosted in the mist were so beautiful. And then waterfall after waterfall! We came in a little too close for comfort to one waterfall. I think the captain might have been showing off his navigation skills. He approached a rock face and waterfall so close, we literally could have touched it if our arms were three feet longer! It was a little scary! 

We got up close to some ornery sea lions basking in the...wait, no sun, just basking. And we got to spend some more time watching the sea birds.

On shore to Fox Island for dinner! Oh, I forgot, they served us some chicken wraps for lunch too. As we approached the island, we could see a lovely lodge and several small cabins that the kayakers can rent for their outings. Inside there was an all you can eat buffet with prime rib and salmon. Yummy! We listened to a park ranger talk while we ate. Jadeyn earned his Junior Ranger badge as well! We only has an hour on the island, so we spent the last few minutes skipping the perfectly shaped beach stones into the water.

Time to head back to port. Just as we entered the harbor, a huge bald eagle swooped in and landed on a buoy just ahead of us. We have seen so many bald eagles all over Alaska and have enjoyed seeing every one of them. It was a fitting end to the boat excursion.  Rather than head to our room, we walked up and down the harbor to check out the day's catches. Oh wow. Each boat hung there catch up in a row for a photo and I still can't believe how big these fish are! One we saw being weighed was a halibut at 89.5 pounds!   We headed to our room with hot chocolates in hand to warm ourselves up and enjoyed a bit of the Olympics.

Sunday August 7th, 2016
 Today on the agenda is the Alaska Sea Aquarium. As we expected it was pouring down rain again.  We packed up our bags, checked them into the hotel to be transferred to the train tonight and stepped outside into the rain. We waited outside for the free Seward Shuttle that took us all through the town of Seward to the aquarium. We decided that though we have enjoyed Seward, we really like Valdez better. It had more of a quaint and less touristy feel to it. Since Seward is the harbor for most of the cruise ships, there are a ton of tourists.

The aquarium was really educational and taught us all about the salmon life cycle. I loved the aviary the best. Full of puffins, gulls, Harlequin ducks, common mure and all kinds of other birds, the place was a buzz of activity.  There was one puffin in particular that was going crazy chasing all the other birds around in his funny fast flap but never leaving the water. He was like a mini motor boat! Finally, he stopped bothering the others and just messed around by himself flapping and splashing and scratching. Crazy little guy!  We started talking with one of the caretakers about all the birds and this wild little one came right over to her and started snipping at her boots and pants. She said he is 2 years old and is always mischievous. His name is Nemo and the other troublemaker is Olive.  

It was awesome seeing the sweet harbor seals up close with their bright black eyes. And the massive sea lions chasing each other and barking were a riot too. We watched a special program on the sea lions about how they handle them when it is time for a medical exam.

By the time we finished at the aquarium, guess what? It was still raining. Just drizzling actually, so we decided to walk along the beach and harbor rather than taking the bus since it was only two miles. So beautiful and magical especially with the mist hanging low. We were happy to be following along with a sea otter while we walked. We actually found a mermaid purse on the beach, probably the egg sack for a skate or ray. Cool.
Since we still had a little while before our train, we stopped back at our hotel for some hot chocolate. Jadeyn filled out four postcards to send to family and we watched a bit of the Olympics. Then...all aboard!

Our final hoorah of the trip: the Gold Dome of the Alaskan Railroad! Our train will take us through the amazing scenery of the mountains back to Anchorage. It really felt like first class service as we boarded the 'A' car and were guided up a tight spiral staircase and it opened up to a high glass ceiling and full windows on all sides.  Wow. There is even a balcony where we can step out into the open air and enjoy the scenery. While all our fellow passengers were boarding, Jadeyn looked out the window and down at the small two foot wide stream running beside the train.  Down there among the grasses were huge deep red salmon fighting to keep their spot in the stream. No way! We didn't think we were going to get to see salmon spawning and here we see them at practically the last chance we had!  We were completely entertained watching them until the train started moving.

 In the Gold Dome it was unlimited drinks and all included deluxe dinner and dessert too! When dinner was ready, we went down to the dining area and sat at our table again next to a huge window. Jadeyn ordered the Potato Crusted Alaskan Cod (not off the kids menu!) Kevin had the incredible pot roast and I had the mozzarella chicken and potatoes. The food was excellent! Back upstairs, the clouds finally lifted just enough for us to see the magnificent mountains, waterfalls and glaciers. We are going to miss this mighty country. We truly have fallen in love with it!

Jadeyn fell asleep with about 30 minutes left on the journey and we both looked down at him and thought about how lucky we are to have such a great little traveler and such a perfect little boy. He has been such a trooper with all the extreme late nights and really long drives. What a good boy.

Upon de-boarding, we gathered our bags and ended up sharing a cab with a couple who are flying to Colorado as well. Small world! Anchorage airport was insanely busy. Apparently, this is their rush hour: 11:30pm to 1am.  Our flight is at 1:15am. Oh boy, hope we can sleep on the plane!

As soon as we got in the car in Denver, Jadeyn decided to list off his favorite vacations but made sure we understood that they are not in a specific order. He listed: Alaska, Washington with my cousins, Virginia, Glacier, Universal, DisneyWorld and SeaWorld. He then said:  I could go on for ages, but those are the ones I would definitely do again!