Anchorage, Alaska

Headed to Anchorage today.  It was very cloudy in the morning which masked alot of the mountains.  The sun finally came out late afternoon.  Was able to get our prescriptions filled at the Anchorage Walmart, so we are good to go.  Nothing special to report.  Found Mountain View Sporting good shop - It had everything - nice store.  Also, found the Far North Yarn Company.  Had a lot of heavier yarns and some beautiful Mountain Colors yarn.  Virginia, get ready, I have an order of Mountain Color yarn for you to order.  Far North had some Quivit, but not much.  Went to the Ulu Factory to see how the Alaskan curved cutting knives were made. These knives were used to clean the inside of the fur skins.  Today they are used on a special wooden cutting board bowl to cut veggies, etc.  It was really tan interesting place.  Tomorrow we will tour Anchorage by bus ( the bus stop is right across the street from the RV park).  There are a few museums that we want to visit.  Friday, we will probably travel down to the Kenai peninsula to hopefully do some fishing.  We have heard that the salmon are slow to arrive.  Will sign in tomorrow evening. 

Talkeetna, Alaska

Have you every wanted to go to a spot that was on Food Network?  Well, unbeknowns (new word) to us, we ate lunch at the West Rib Pub & Grill where Man vs Food was filmed.  They made the Seward Folly Burger famous.  It is 2 one lb caribou burgers, Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, 8 slices of bacon, sour dough bun, their special sauce and french fries.  It is huge.  We had to do something to make the day sunshiny, because it rained all day.  We are off to Anchorage for 2 days tomorrow to tour the Ulu factory, the Anchorage Museum and the Far North Yarn Store.  Found a real nice yarn store in Palmer today.  Her Quivit was very expensive so decided to get some Crystal Palace silk sock yarn instead.  Also, decided to wait to go to the Musk Ox farm until it stops raining.  Hugs and Kisses to everyone.  Miss ya'll.

Savage River - Denali Park

Took the day yesterday to do laundry and let Paw Paw rest.  Today we made up for it as we started early morning taking the shuttle to Savage River.  We hiked a little over 2 miles.  We saw ptarmagin moms & dads with their chicks right on the trail.  After we returned to the trail head, we walked up the road to see the 3 bull caribous in the river.  Paw Paw got a good picture, but my camera just did not have a beefy enough telephoto lens to get them.  These guys were big and beautiful.  Rode back to the visitor center to have a bite to eat (lunch & dinner), then walked to the Wilderness Center to watch a film on Denali.  Finally made it back to our modest home.  We will be leaving in the morning to Palmer and Wasilla (hopefully the musk ox farm) and taking in Takeetna to hopefully see a clearer Mt McKinley on the way.  Dad picked up a great Alaska History book for all you history lovers to read.  Love ya' all.  We are keeping our eyes open for that illusive Big Foot.  We have been very fortunate to have 4 days without rain.  It has been cloudy and windy, but no rain.  All good things must come to an end as they say

we are to have rain tonight and tomorrow.

Denali Dog Mushers

Yesterday we hiked and then went to the Dog Sled Kennels here in Denali.  They use dog sleds in the winter to move building equipment, supplies and any food to the interior winter camps.  It was really interesting to hear the Ranger talk about the necessity of these dog mushers.  Also, some of the iditerod mushers work there in the winter so they can keep their dogs trained and in shape. The dogs are Alaskan huskies breed for their stamina, long legs, and heavy coats. The dogs went wild when they started to hook them up to the dog sled.  They just could not wait to go to work.  After the dogs were attached to the sled, they did a run around the sled run.  Man, could these dogs run.  We were told that when the sleds were loaded that they loaded 50# per dog and an average of 8 dogs ran the sleds.  That is amazing.  We will be here until Tuesday morning when I think we head to the Wasilla/Palmer area before heading into Anchorage.  The salmon are late running this year because of the rains, but hope when we get to the Kenai peninsula (south of Anchorage) they will be running.  Love and miss ya'll. 

Denali Park

What an experience!!!  The only way into Denali is by bus - a 4 hour, 8 hour or 11 hour ride.  We decided on the 8 hour ride to Eielson Visitor Center.  The weather was partly cloudy and we left the visitor center at high 60's and  by the time we were at Eielson the temperature had dropped to the low 50's.  I am so glad that I layered (3 layers) and wished I had one more layer.  They tell you to make sure you take a rain jacket, hat & gloves, bug repellent, and snacks.  I sure wish I would have had a fleece jacket.  The scenery is spectacular.  The roads are very much like our mountain roads.  When you think of Alaska you think of very high mountains and high elevation.  Well, tree line here is 3000'  and the highest point on the road into Eielson was 3983'.  Yes--  the mountains around Denali are very high and Mt. McKinley is over 20,000'. Another amazing thing is that the creeks swell to over 6 feet during the ice melt and are now just a mear 12" or less, but you can see the entire large creek bed.   We were disappointed that McKinley was cloud covered, but our guide said that it only shows itself maybe once every two weeks.  We saw quite a few grizzly bears (thank goodness Paw Paw has a telephoto lens), Dall sheep, snowshoe hares, marmots, caribou (one came right up the middle of the road towards the bus) and itsy bitsy ground squirels.  We also saw a ptarmigan and here clutch of little ones crossing the road.  We are intending on hitting some of the hiking trails today, but I am going to have to visit the bookstore again (what a place, especially if you love books).  The visitor center is amazing and has some of the resident artists works displayed.  The beaded mukluks were amazing.  Chatterbox,  there was a moose puzzle that was broken down into puzzle form.  Each piece of the puzzle was magnitized and showed what that part of the moose was used for.  What a teaching tool. 

Denali

Decided to leave Fairbanks today and head to Denali.  Would you believe that yesterday I was able to reserve 4 days in Denali's Rielly Campground?!  Went in today to see if we could get another day and there were no openings.  Boy do we feel blessed!!!!!!  I may and may not get any posting done for a few days, but hopefully when I do post next, I will have some stunning pictures to share.  It was quite confusing to figure out the many bus tours they have into the park, but finally decided on one and will begin our bus journey tomorrow at 1 pm.  We have not seen too much traffic since we arrived in Alaska, but decided everyone is in Denali.  The canyon where all the hotels are is just bustling with activity.  I will say that from all we have heard that tourism is down due to the economy and gasoline prices.  The highest we have paid for diesel was in BC and it was $5.45 a gallon.  Average prices are around $4.35 per gallon. Finally got to shop at Safeway - what a grocery store.  Was low on many items so decided to stock up since we will be in the wilderness for 4 days. Was unable to stop at the yarn store in Fairbanks as it did not open until 11 am. and we were long gone down the road.  There are 2 in Ancorage that I hope to get to and then the Musk ox farm in Palmer.  There are also a few in Haines and Skagway. Love ya all.  Looking forward to sighting my first grizzley bear.

Alaska

Finally made it to Alaska!  We stopped to see Santa in the North Pole.  Oh he was a jolly ole' sole and he said he was keeping an eye on each and every one of you!   We are in Fairbanks and think we will be here one more day.  We want to take in some of the sites and also check in with a client here in Fairbanks.  Then we will head to Denalli.  Hope we can get reservations.  The road system is much better - so it was a much nicer trip.  Customs has been a breeze to go through (we heard stories about all the trouble we would have).  Looking forward to finding another yarn store here in Fairbanks.  My cell phone service is intermittent, but do have service in large cities.  My air card is another story.  Stopped to day to get the low down on all the fishing regulations, as we intend on wetting our fishing line down in the Kenai.  Miss ya'll.