Homeword bound

After the Tetons I guess both of us had felt we had seen enough for we mutually agreed it was time to head home. With an overnight in Boise with a dear old friend and another stop at McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park we arrived home late Friday 13th morning as luck would have it ;)

Colter Bay

We spent two nights in Colter Bay on Jackson Lake in the Teton Park. A friend Captain Jim is a tour boat captain and we went for the Breakfast Cruise to Elk Island. There we were served a scrumptious meal of trout and eggs with all the trimmings. Most of the rest of the time we were dodging thunderstorms, but we did manage to get in a couple of hikes around string Lake and then up to Bradley Lake.

Yellowstone/ Tetons

We woke this morning in West Yellowstone and set out early for a mini-tour of Yellowstone on our way down to the Tetons. Let's just say we hit all the "hot spots" A morning viewing of Old Faithful and stops at various areas in the caldera. At one overlooking Yellowstone Lake we found a young elk curious about some Canadian tourists.

On our way over Craig's Pass we stopped at Isa Lake. This tiny water lily choked lake in a small depression is unique because each end of the lake drains into each side of the Continental Divide.

Later on now in the Grand Tetons Park we came across our first roadsideGrizzly. He was nosing around next to the highway and as I shot this photo Mary noticed a Mountain Lion slinking off into the background. We suspected a kill that the Grizzly ended up scavenging.

Jasper/ Banff/ Glacier

We will just call it the peak and glacier tour, and we sure saw a lot of them! The last week was like being in Disneyland of the North. This was truly a completely different scene than what we had been seeing lately. The most potent thing we noticed was not the quantity of people although it was ten times as many as we had been around, but rather the quality. I guess these large National Parks (Canada or US) have visitors that never been very far in the outdoors. Not only did they stop randomly right in the middle of the highway to view anything alive alongside the road, but they opened there doors to let the kids flood out. These large groups would then practically surround the Elk/Moose/Bear and move within 10 feet of them. Enough about the people, the views were of course absolutely incredible. The first shot is of water coming out of the rocks in Maligne Canyon outside of Jasper.The second is of some glaciers south of Jasper.
Third one is from a short but steep hike we took up Parker Ridge to view the Saskatchewan Glacier. The fourth shot is of Lake Louise outside of Banff, Mary was saying her Grandmother came up here, probably it wasn't quite as crowded then ;).








Today we went into Glacier Park we got an early start so we could beat the crowds up the very popular hike to Avalanche Lake. After that we drove up to Logan Pass an already precarious drive made even more difficult because of one way traffic control for road repair. The other two pics are of the antique tour buses they use inside the park.

Yellowhead Highway

The last two days found us driving across British Columbia on the Yellowhead Highway. As so often been the case, we seem to find the most wonderful places everywhere we go. Today we came across the "Ancient Forest" apparently the oldest temperate inland rain forest in the hemisphere. These giant ceders and associated plants were truly amazing, even to jaded redwood folk like us. I want to point out here that certainly British Columbia and probably all of Canada is putting out the red carpet for tourism. Not only are the people most welcoming, but all the individual cities seem to be decked out in their best apparel. If anyone reading this has considered a road trip up here I highly recommend you come up and do it!
Tomorrow we head into Jasper and Banff National Parks to see some more incredible country, but probably won't post for a few days.
I have put a few more pics on My Galleries page

Hyder, my kinda town

A very unique town is Hyder AK. Isolated from the rest of the state by land, it does not even have a border crossing when coming in. It keeps time with British Columbia instead of the rest of Alaska except for the Post Office. It is truly an international town and fine with it. It is a ghost town that hasn't given up the ghost. Not a paved road in town. They have a boardwalk over Fish Creek so one can watch the bears feed, but the twice we went there we did not see any, even though there were plenty of Chum Salmon in the river. But what really makes this place spectacular is that it is surrounded by peaks with glaciers hanging off of most every one..

Cassiar Hwy, Boya Lake

The Cassiar Highway is the most westerly north south connector in Northern British Columbia. We decided to take it down instead of the Alaskan Highway after finding out it had now been paved for most of the way. Cassiar Highway runs west of the Skeena Mountains and east of the Coast Range. Our first stop turned out to be such a little piece of paradise we spent two nights there. Boya Lake carved out by glaciers and the bottom coated with marl, a mixture of silt and shell fragments creates an aquamarine lake. It also one of the few lakes in norther B.C. that are swimable. We immediately inflated our two person kayak and paddled in what seemed like water of the Bahamas with mountain scenery. We were surrounded by Pacific Loons and camped next door to a family of muskrats. This morning we drove down the deserted highway (a fire north of the campground cut off all traffic south) to Iskut ,tomorrow we will head back to the coast to the towns of Stewart/Hyder.

Yukon

Saturday we left Valdez to begin the trek south. I guess our "semiwaterproof" skins are showing we are in search of more sun. We crossed the Canadian border at Beaver Creek and decided to put in for the night there. The park we stayed at was not worth mentioning but the Visitor Center across the highway staffed by a friendly French Canadian "Giselle" was most helpful although planned next destination was Boya Provincial Park in British Columbia. The most important piece of information that Giselle gave us was that we were underestimating the distance to B.C. and we should think about an interim stop. What we didn't realize was that driving was going to be slower than what we were use to. We had been experiencing some frost heaveing and we were going to be seeing a lot more. The vistas for the drive from Beaver Creek were spectacular reminding us of Highway 50 across Nevada, but with small trees.

As luck would have it our "interim" stop turned out to be such a great spot we stayed and extra day. Just past the town of Teslin on Teslin Lake we found Dawson Peaks Resort Owned, built & operated by David Hett and Carolyn Allen this is a beautiful spot on Morley Bay. David and Carolyn appealed to our "do-it-yourself" attitude in designing and building a place that fits in well with all the comforts, built in a conscientious manner. for anyone thinking about traveling the Alaskan Highway I highly suggest a stop here.

Valdez

Valdez is a place that the drive in is worth the price of admission. We left Denali Park yesterday morning and drove across the Glenn Highway, staying last night at Little Nelchina Recreation Site, a no fee, no services,no other campers, wonderful spot on the Nelchina River. This morning as the sky finally cleared for awhile we drove down the Richardson Highway over Thompson Pass into Valdez. the views were absolutely breathtaking the whole way. Below is a sampling.

















































Valdez is a very busy fishing harbor, both sport and commercial, with boats like these going in and out every few minutes.

Denali pt.2

We went for our 8 hour bus ride into Denali Park today and though it was so overcast we saw little of the grand landscape we did make out well on the wildlife viewing. First off I have to mention that we did not take a "tour" bus, it was rather the shuttle bus to the Eielson Center 67 miles into the park. The difference is close to $100, but, if you take the early morning bus with the right driver (Craig Lewis in our case)you can see more than the "tour" buses usually do.



Many of the animals were too far from the bus to get good pics, but that is a good thing because this is truly a nature preserve with the park's strict rules of teaching the humans to respect the animals home. We were fortunate to see numerous sightings of Brown Bears, Caribou, Moose, Wolves and Dall Sheep. Especially gratifying was watching a mother wolf with 7 pups. Below is a selection of photos, with more eventually being placed in My Galleries

Denali pt. 1

We arrived in Denali National Park yesterday after the 8hour drive from Hope. We arranged for a shuttle bus ride into the park for Wed. morning. Today we visited the Visitor Center and became acclimated, the weather is still showery so not much hiking.

We did have a wonderful lunch at the Grande Denali Lodge with a most outstanding view (unfortunately the high mountains are in cloud cover but we could see the Denali Vally and the Nenana River.) The Grande Denali Lodge and The Denali Bluffs Hotel are owned by Old Harbor Native Corporation, one of 252 Native village corporations established by Congress in 1971 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

Hope

We came to Hope this morning just in time for the 23d annual Hope Wagontrail Run. The sense of community shined brightly through a rather drizzly day. The turnout was quite amazing for such a small village. All ages were represented with two runners over 80.














Likewise there was a crowd of supporters of all ages.









Yesterday we spent at Crescent Creek campground above Kenai Lake. This creek is a fly fishermans paradise primarily Dolly Vardens and Rainbows.
















In morning before leaving we caught sight of some Sand Hill Cranes in the marsh on Turnagain Arm

Homer

We have been in Homer the last couple of days. Located on the southwestern tip of the Kenai Peninsula it is another example of how though devastated by the Valdez oil spill these Alaskan coastal towns have bounced back with tourism dollars. Yesterday we had a wonderful dinner at the Mermaid Cafe after browsing the companion bookstore,Old Inlet Bookshop and picking up a copy of "Cruising Beyond Desolation Sound" by John Chappell.

Today we went for a long low tide walk and then a visit to the not to be missed Pratt Museum.

Anchorage

Yesterday we saw Kelly off at the airport here in Anchorage. First we had to collect her gear from Mountaintrip and package it to be shipped via UPS to Colorado before she flew off to Washington to spend the rest of the summer guiding on Mt. Rainer.
So we scrounged boxes and made up packaging for two sets of skis a sled and another 100lbs of various climbing gear. We still manged to get her to the airport in time for her flight. The rest of the day was spent recuperating and cleaning up. We are staying at the Ship Creek Landings RV Park, which is ideally located near the downtown but on the outskirts of town. As long as you have earplugs since you are literally feet from the Alaska Railroad and 1/2 mile from Elmendorf Air Force Base.

Today we rode the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail to the tune of 16 miles whew, now we are resting. Unfortunately like Bear Glacier (which is so named because of all the bears there)we saw nothing in the way of wildlife. Though all the guide info swore we would probably see moose down near the airport, the only thing we saw was this spoonbill.

Bear Glacier

It tough when you feel you may have hit the highpoint of a two month travel within the first week, but it is going to be hard to beat yesterday. Kelly did some guide work for Adventure 60 North a couple of years ago and the owners Rick and Michelle generously offered us the use of there equipment at Bear Glacier. Not only is this the largest glacier in the area, it has special qualities which make it spectacular to kayak around. This is a retreating glacier that has left a large bar across the bay which keeps all power boats from entering from the outside and keeps the many many icebergs from floating away.

We were dropped off in the morning and had 8 hours to paddle anywhere we wanted. Because the sun was out strong for a change, by afternoon the action (and noise that went with it) was astounding. We were flown in by Eric of Pollux Aviation giving us an outstanding flight and tour I did shoot some video from the copter and if I ever learn how to post it, I will. Following are a few pics and I will post some more in the future on my pbase gallery

The whole day spent will be one all three of us cherish forever.