7/20/2024

 7/20/24: We have a few pics from today, but the story from our camp hosts from Discovery Campground, Captain Cook State Park was the special event today. Curt and Wendy stopped by. He was in the Navy and told us this humorous story about the Admiral who gave him directions. After arriving at the Norfolk Airport following boot camp, he saw a naval officer & asked for directions. The Admiral gave him a ride to his new station and made sure he was "comfortable" Because the Admiral brought him, he was allowed to sleep late each day and have special meals for the two weeks before he left for Viet Nam. His other admiral story was when an Admiral pinned his silver star on him in front of 4,000 sailors. After the ceremony, the Admiral asked, "is there anything I can do for you?" Curt said, "Well, I'd like to go home for 2 weeks and not have it count against my time". The Admiral said, "done". And within a half hour they flew him off the ship (to Boston) and 2 weeks later flew him back to the ship. When I asked what he did to earn the star, he wouldn't say. But Wendy said when his ship, the USS America, experienced a below deck explosion, he went below, turned off the boilers and saved a crew man. WOW! Such a nice couple! And she lived in Peoria and hung out in Pekin in her youth!

Taken on another gravel road while looking for a pumpout

Not sure what this peak is calle

Across the water, more mountains

Taken from the campground

Sunny and warm today

Curt and Wendy

7/19/2024

 7/19/2024

We left our site at Cabela's in Anchorage this morning, where about 75 other RVs had taken advantage of a free parking space over night.  After restocking our groceries, we headed out to the Kenai peninsula.  Since it was Friday, the roads were busy.  Ron had planned to do a first come/first served site at Porcupine National Forest near Hope.  When we arrived at noon, the campground was full.  But after talking with the host, she gave us a site that was reserved but not paid for. 

View after leaving Anchorage

Scenic passenger train

 

More beauty

Porcupine campground

Our campsite

My favorite picture of the day (from Porcupine Campground)

7/18/2024

 7/18/2024

Mountains, moose, and a Glacier today on our way to Anchorage.  

After yesterday, the roads were great!

Glacier

Same glacier

Another view

Getting a drink

Two moose, both thirsty

Loved this shot

7/17/2024

 7/17/2024

Our quest today was to see the Kennecott and Root Glaciers.  It took 3 hours on the 50 miles of rutted, washer board, potholed, gravel road to get there.  We parked and had to cross a long pedestrian bridge and then wait for a shuttle to take us 4 more miles to Kennecott.  The town was an old copper mine in the early 1900's and today has some remnants of that town.  The best view of the Kennecott Glacier was the pedestrian bridge.  The Root Glacier looks like a pile of sand because there are layers of ice/sand/ice/sand, etc.  At the end of the day, we spent 3 more hours on the road from hell to return to our Copper River Rest Area Campsite (free).

Completely snow topped mountain in the distance on the 60 mile road

One lane road through this former railroad tunnel

Lake on our route

Just a sample of road conditions

Single-lane road (for cars ) across a big river

Our view as we drove across the single-lane road

Dust, dust, dust

The result of the road

Pedestrian bridge

Kennecott Glacier

That is the Root Glacier in the background.  Looks like a sandpile

 

The old copper mine

Another view of the glacier

Different mountain range

A view from the Kennecott Mine across top of the glacier.  Rock and grit atop the ice.  In 1911, the glacier was over 700 feet higher.

 

Looking down from the one lane car bridge

7/16/2024

 7/16/2024

We altered our plans today so that we could go to the McCarthy/Kennicott area to see the Glacier. We plant to stay at McCarthy tonight.  There was a serious motorcycle accident on the road today (at least 2 hours from any town).  One police car go there and a number of bystanders were assisting.  You can see in the photo how the undulating road may have caused the 2 cyclists to go down.  Not sure if they were going to life flight them out?  Change of plans: not getting to McCarthy until tomorrow since it's late (4pm here) and it is 2 more hours of gravel road to get there.  We are staying at an RV park just outside of Chitina. 

We seldom see cell towers

Carving outside IGA in Glennallen

Lots of road repairs and LONG waits

6 mile road

Undulating road where accident occurred

One lane road.  This used to be a railroad tunnel

Just out of Chitina

7/15/2024

 7/15/2024

Alaska highway had intermittent gravel, potholes, dips and regular blacktop.  It was important to be vigilant at all times.

This class A broke down in the middle of nowhere

Colorful terrain

                                                                                                        Typical road

Back in Alaska after 2 days in Canada (BC and Yukon)

Photo 1:  Food storage building

Photo 2:  We thought all roads would be this nice in Alaska.  We were wrong.

Photo 3:  Camped at Eagle Trail just a few miles from Tok.  Only 3 campers here.

 

7/14/2024

 7/14/2024

Our plan was to attend Our Lady of the Way Church, but the service was canceled.  This is the most photographed Catholic Church in the Yukon due to its uniqueness.  We saw black bears feasting by the roadside.  For lunch, we stopped at Congdon Creek Campground.  NOT STAYING HERE!  See the photo of the sign.  Some rough areas in the pavement for a number of miles, but not too bad.  Tonight's campsite is Lakeside Campground, Yukon.

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Black bear buffet