The Road to Washington State

We are on our way at 9 am, 42 degrees and a blue sky. This campground in Smithers was beautiful; lots of friendly folks. We seemed to have camped in the same place as a RV Caravan many times during this trip...and here was no exception. So, familiar folks.
Heading toward Prince George, it is there that we will turn south on Canada 97 toward Washington. The scenery is rolling hills, lots of trees; logging seems to be a big industry along here.
We stopped at Wal Mart in Prince George to do some grocery shopping...but unfortunately it was not a "Super WalMart"; just a "grocery shelf", so we couldn't get any fresh produce or meat. They seem to have lots of that kind of store in Canada. When we decided to stop for the evening this is all the wildlife we could find.....
So, we warmed our chinese left-overs from last night over the campfire. It was raining outside....and after that beautiful morning we had in Smithers, too.
It was raining so hard that I'm drenched to the bone!
We decided that this was the ultimate "roughing it" since it's raining outside.

It's been two months on the road; many, many rainy days and nights. We haven't minded it...but enough is enough. We decided to pamper ourselves a little bit. BUT...this is what really happened. When we decided that we had traveled long enough today, the campground that we thought was here....wasn't. Instead, across the street was this hotel. Sure enough....not a problem and we switched gears. Why not? AND then the skies decided to open up and bless us with MORE rain...and this looks like buckets outside. Fortunate decision we made.
We traveled a bit over 300 miles today. There’s really not much more that we are interested in BC, but there are about 4 National Parks in Washington that we would like to see, besides visiting with Chris’ brother, Mike, and a cousin in Oregon. So, we'll probably drive straight through to Washington.
So, until we "connect" again....

BEAR WATCHING IN HYDER, AK: July 30

OK....here's "Mr. Frisky" cruising up and down Fish Creek looking for a tasty morsel of salmon. Only there are just a few because the "run" is late this year. He's huge!
Here he is crawling along the side of the creek. I was right above him on the boardwalk. Maybe 10 feet from him. It was exhilerating!

This should be later on down. We stopped in a Native village in Canada off of the Cassiar and took pictures of their totem poles. Chris counted the rings on the back of one of them and it was several hundred years old.
This is the sign that "Fat Albert" munched on.
These are the two sibling 3 yr. old cubs. You can see the one has cinamon tips on his coat. It's beautiful. They kind of chum around. At some point they will take off on their own.
This was one of the cubs looking for the other one. Isn't it a cool shot? They don't seem to have the nack of catching the salmon like the big one does...they look like they expect one to jump at them. I guess when the run begins....they just may!

At Fish Creek

We woke up to the pitter patter of liquid rain; taking down camp didn’t take long since we decided to go back to Hyder to see if the bears were getting any chum salmon for breakfast. When we got there the ranger asked whose fault it was that we weren’t there at 6 a.m. There had been 6 bears down at the creek and a big one giving a cuffing lesson to some cubs. Oh well, we stuck around to see what we could see and “Monica’s cubs” came back down to the creek, walking up and down, sticking together. They are 3 yr. old cubs. Mamma griz, Monica was down at the creek in the a.m. but she has kicked them out of the den already. After they left, Mr. Frisky came down. He was a huge griz with cinnamon splashes of color on his back. He was BIG! He seemed to know what he was doing. He trolled the creek, checking under the banks for where the fish hide, sat down in the middle and watched the water; them ambled over to the side and snagged himself some breakfast. He went up on the bank behind some bushes to eat the fish, but I heard him crunch it.
Upon leaving from the viewing area I spotted a sign that had been chewed on by “Fat Albert”…I love how they have named all of these bears. Loads of people were there this a.m. again.
Still raining, we headed back out for the Cassiar Hwy. and south. The sun popped through for a bit. Stopping at a Native Village, Kitseguekla, we took some pictures of their totem poles. Apparently these have nothing to do with religion, just their art and family stories.We drove to Smithers and are camped just east of town. Drove 240 miles today, but escaped from most of the rain….Yipee!

So, until we "connect" again.....

Bear Watching in Hyder, AK; July 29

OK, once again the style of the ( day was raincoats. But after the morning of bear watching and driving to the Salmon glacier, we wanted some sea food chowder. The "bus" was the place to go; her husband is the professional fisherman...so everything is fresh. You order at the "bus" (only 5 orders at a time, please) and then eat out or in on picnic tables. Great chowder!

And here's the pictures you've been waiting for (Jeanne!). This little 3 yr. old grizzley is just finishing up the scraps left by another bear feast of salmon. The salmon run is not plentiful enough for them to just jump up and catch them. This little guy needs practice and a few more salmon under his belt.
This eagle was swooping up and down the creek, but not stopping because of the people there. I was real happy I got this picture. Now, look at those trees. Looks like something is hanging from them. It is two different lichens, both denoting clean air. One name is Witches Hair and the other name is Methusila's beard.

Here's the little guy trolling the banks looking for a salmon to hit him in the face. Not happening.

He looks hungry to me.....that's why he finally went and finished the scraps you saw above.

Bear Watching....what a hoot!

This morning we woke to rain, of course, and drove to Hyder, AK just a couple of miles from Stewart, BC. There at Fish Creek in the Tongass National Park, where they have a boardwalk set up for bear viewing, we saw a wonderful 3 yr. old grizzley. He was trolling up and down the creek for a breakfast of salmon, but most of the chum salmon were not yet running. We also saw a bald eagle wanting his share of any salmon. This viewing lasted perhaps 90 minutes.
Then we drove up to the Salmon Glacier; quite a nice, steep, winding drive for about 18 miles up the mountains, through a canyon, to a glacier field. This field crossed back into British Columbia, though there were no customs agents for either country on this road. Apparently every 10 years they come and trim out a path along the whole length of the border, which we could see going up the far mountain. I suppose folks with ill intent could get over the border there…but it is some of the most rugged terrain in the country…wouldn’t be easy.
Then we went back for two more tries to see bear; to no avail. Perhaps we’ll get up tomorrow and look again. It’s only about 10 miles from our camp. Then we’ll head out in the general direction of the state of Washington. We may stop at Prince Rupert along the west coast, too.
So….until we connect again….

July 28th; Blue Sky Country

Get a load of this!!!! a lake, snow capped mountain and blue sky....ALL IN ONE PICTURE!
I was so excited about the blue sky and mountains that I kept wanting him stop for a picture every few miles. Needless to say, I didn't get all the pictures that I really wanted....

This was a pretty lake as we drove north out of Skagway toward the Alaska Hwy. I wanted this shot because it also had my favorite fireweed in it.

This is Emerald Lake. It is a shallow lake and the decomposing clams mix with clay on the bottom and reflect only the blue and green of the light spectrum. It is positively breath taking to see in person.

July 27; Leaving Skagway and Alaska

We launched out into a drippy 45 degree morning after bidding good-bye to some traveling friends we had met on the Ferry to Juneau. One person noted that the rain would stop when we got over the mountains…and it did. We opened out into a blue sky day and thoroughly enjoyed it. We stopped at the falls just before Canadian customs and filled our bottles with cold glacial water that might have been snow hundreds of years ago. When we got to Carcross, YT, before we got back onto the Alcan Hwy, we saw the Carcross Desert…very interesting: the smallest desert in the world. A few miles down the road was Emerald Lake, a beautiful lake with blue green water that reflected that because of decomposing shell and clay on the bottom of the shallow lake.
We then turned south before Watson Lake and got on the Cassiar Hwy, generally heading to the state of Washington. Saw much beauty…shining through when it’s not enveloped in rain and clouds. We traveled about 400 miles today, more than usual, but there was nothing else that we wanted to see along this part of the road. Any day is a good day when it’s not raining, right?

July 28th; driving the Cassiar Hwy

We woke to a cloudless sky and 54 degrees. It was beautiful. We haven’t seen this much blue sky in a month, and that was in Deadhorse, on the Arctic Ocean. I actually have a picture of a lake, snow capped mountain, and blue sky, all in the same picture. The Cassiar is beautiful but the road is horrid.
We saw a moose standing in a grassy edged lake, sticking his head down in the water grabbing big mouthfuls of vegetation to eat.
In the afteroon the sky has became overcast….and sure enough turned to rain!!! L
Saw more bear…total of 4 on the road today; 3 moose, two being a cow and calf on the road. Never saw this much in one day in Alaska….this was cool.
Drove by Bear Glacier right beside the road; very nice. And driving through the canyon toward Stewart there were many water falls; beautiful. Still raining as we camped….soooo….until we “connect” again.

On the Fjordland Ferry to Juneau; July 26

We got so excited about this blue sky! And see the beautiful mountain picture I can take when there is blue sky!!!! This was along the Lynn Canal on our way to Juneau.
Another beautiful picture....and we all soaked it in!!!!
In front of the Mendenhal Glacier....and see the huge field of fireweed. They said that these were 6 feet tall!!!
Mendenhal Glacier.
These sockeye salmon sure are read. It was very shocking red! Then after they spawn all of their eggs they go further upstream and die within several weeks. But their dead carcasses add a lot of necessary nutrients to the water for the baby salmon....how about that!!!

Saturday morning....started with liquid sunshine

We were up bright and early to the sounds of our “coastal weather” dripping on our roof. Oh well…we were ready to get on with this adventure and donned our rain suits and water-proof hiking boots. We had run out of propane last night (RATS), so we hadn’t had our coffee (DOUBLE RATS!), but we were excited about the 2.5 hour catamaran trip to Juneau; so, all was well. We walked the length of two football fields to the Fjordland’s dock. By the time we got there we could see blue sky popping through in the overcast distance.
We made a quick stop in Haines to pick up some more passengers; by that time we had quite a bit of that blue stuff that is called sky! On our trip to Juneau we saw several humpbacked whales spouting and “sounding” (when they dive deep and you can see their tails flip above the water), seals sunning on some rocks ( not harbor seals, but an endangered species), and bald eagles. Whenever we saw the whales or seals the captain would pull around so we could take pictures or listen to the seals. Had a great time.
We met 2 other couples who were retired and traveling like us and really enjoyed our time with them; very funny and ordinary folks. One couple was traveling on a motor bike from Las Vegas and the other tenting also, traveling in a truck. Both were retired military. (With all of our “coastal weather”, needless to say, they were getting pretty soggy in their tents and extra tarps over them.) We had lunch with them and enjoyed every minute.
We had a tour of Juneau, stopped at the Mendenhal Glacier and visitor center, and did a bit of shopping. The “calves” or chunks of ice that break off the glacier contain snow that fell when George Washington was president! Then we saw a creek there where sockeye salmon were spawning. They turn bright red when they get into the creeks or where they are actually spawning! They looked nothing like the salmon Chris caught the other day!
When we got back to Skagway harbor, we were again greeted with the ever present “coastal weather”. We heard that it had been raining all day. Did we luck out!
Sooo…until we “connect” again…

July 25; "Coastal Weather" continues in Skagway

Hello everyone! You see behind us almost the entire town of Skagway; it is 4 streets wide and about 15 streets long. And to my right you see a cruise ship docked. That is probably right where Teresa and Cecelia were yesterday on theier ship! And, we are camped right about where that tree is between me and the cruise ship; just walking distance from that ship. And yup...that's a rain suit you see on us for our fashions of the day.
Since I can't show you a blue sky, I can show you some beautiful waterfalls. This one is called the Lower Ried Falls, and it was right behind the Klondike goldrush cemetery that we visited. Quite beautiful. And we even saw some "fools gold" (Pyrite) int he water.
Walking back to the tour bus by the cemetery, I saw this directional sign....but it just struck me funny....
And as we drove along the road that follows the White Pass that the goldrush folks had to climb, we came on this beautiful falls right beside the road. It's called Bridal Veil falls....and we went past another falls on the way to Valdez called Bridal Veil Falls....two different falls, in two different places. People just may have thought of brides veils when they see water falls????
We were in the clouds or fog....rain, or whatever you call it, so it looked very misty. The water came right from a glacier and was good to drink. Very nice and cold, even bit lemon-y to my taste.

This was back over in Haines. Chris was fishing for sockeye salmon in Chilkoot Lake. This picture just doesn't do it justice...it was so beautiful, if not wet and over-cast.
Bingo! success! These sockeyes run 3-5 pounds and this was about 5 pound...

July 25: Skagway

I forgot to tell you that Chris caught another Sockeye Salmon, which everyone here thinks is the best eating salmon of all the different types. And, me, who doesn’t really prefer fish, can attest to how good it is!
So Chris caught it yesterday in at the Chilkoot Lake State Campground near Haines, and we ate it tonight in Skagway. Yummmy.
Yesterday evening at 9 p.m. we lined our truck & camper in the “staging area” ready to drive onto the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry. Everything is transported on these ferries, like semi-truck trailers, huge motor homes and little bitty cars. It would have taken many hours and I think 350 miles to drive from Haines to Skagway. Once everybody was loaded, it took us an hour to travel down the Lynn Canal to Skagway. I asked today why it is called a “canal” and the tour driver told us that because they couldn’t spell “fjord”, which is what it really is. We wondered why the ferry runs to Skagway so late at night, and then Chris realized that it had to do with the tides…the tide was in Haines when we left. Big boat needs big water….got it?
So, late last night we docked in Skagway; we couldn’t really see the mountains on the sides of this “scenic byway” of Alaska because the clouds and rain had it so dark. We pulled off of the ferry, went round the corner and parked in our campground. Didn’t take but a few minutes to get us tucked in from our long day.
Today, in Skagway, we took a “Klondike tour”. Very interesting. The young tour guide moved here 13 years ago, and like so many other people tell, just never left. Alaska is a captivating place. We heard so much information about the gold rush, the historical city of Skagway, the biggest shoot-out since the “OK Corral”, the building of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, and many fascinating facts about the goldrush that brought Skagway to life in the late 1890’s. This blog isn’t big enough for me to tell you all that we heard…but one fact sticks in my mind. The White Pass & Yukon narrow guage Railroad was built during the gold rush and was done with such speed through some terribly rouged terrain, that it is listed as one of the architectural wonders of the world, right next to some more familiar landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
Of course, it is still raining…but our tour guide today gave a different twist to it. He called this “coastal weather”; well, OK….that’s what it is for now for me.
Tomorrow we are up early to get on the fast ferry to Juneau. We’ll be gone all day. Tommy will be staying home and a lady will be coming and taking her for a walk in the middle of the day. She’ll just sleep all day anyway.
So, as the rains continue outside, the horn from the cruise ship docked just down the way honks as it glides out of the dock, Tommy is in her “full curl” sleeping for the evening, I will just say,
…until we “connect” again…

July 24; the Eagle Capitol of Alaska, HAINES

Once again, these pictures are not in the cronological order in which they happened, nor in any kind of order. Can't seem to get it right when I'm making several different uploads. Anyway, bear with me. The above pic is of the beautiful Chilkoot Lake Park campground. Note the long, tall, big trees! Haven't seen these kind of trees since I don't know when....the interior of Alaska seems to be inundated with scrawney black pines; not pretty in my view. So we jut looooooved this campground. As a matter of fact the sockeye salmon are running now and Chris caught a beauty this am.

This is a gas station!!! Can ya believe? It's in Chitina at the entrance of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. The town is an ooooooold town that kind of grew because of the Copper mine 66 miles away. So, the town is suspended in time, it seems.
And on the mighty Copper River, not far from Chitina, they are raking in the salmon in the fish wheels and dip nets. Only Alaskans can fish in this area and in this way. If you could see one of these wheels in operation, you would see these big baskets spinning through the water (kind of like a water wheel in the old mills) and scoop up salmon and chute them into a basket. Very cool. You should see these folks....some of them are hauling freezers (!) run with generators so they can take care of all their salmon. This is a big deal here right now.
As we were leaving Chitina, we pulled onto a gravel wide spot at 3 Mile Lake and spent the night. Chris tried fishing for the trout there; no luck....but can you see how beautiful the place was? That spot off of the road is our camper....
OK....here he gets read for fishing....wearing the ever ready rain coat....always
Another view of 3 Mile Lake

And now, on our way to Valdez, we stopped to see Worthington Glacier....I think that was the name but I don't have my log (thank you Yvonne) with me right now....I really love jotting things down in this little log book Yvonne made for me while we are bumping along in the truck. OK, and earlier that day, we were taking leave of the campground (King for a Day) on the Klutina River. We spent two days there. The folks there with us in the picture also stayed there for two days; they're from Minessota. Nice neighbors. While we were staying at this campground is when we visited with Chris' two sisters who were on the Princess tour. These folks had caught a lot of salmon in Valdez, so we had a pot luck; he fried the fish and we did the pasta and salad. We loved it had had a load of fun. Our camp was right where you can see in the picture, smack on the river.
A portrait of the happy campers....ready to head for Valdez. Just another picture of that glacier I showed you before....this one is studied a lot.
This is Bridal Veil Falls...you'll read about it below; totally awesome....and it's right on the road!

Sunday, July 20; to Valdez

Fifty degrees was the order of day when we left for Valdez; fresh with showers and a full tummy of Chris’ version of egg McMuffins. Occasionally blue sky popped through. First we saw the Worthington Glacier right off the road. Took a walk to it and took pictures. Very nice; they do loads of studies on the growth and recession of glaciers there.
The drive through the Thompson Pass and through the Keystone canyon (I think that was the name of it) was once again spectacular. I seem to use “spectacular” and “awesome” as adjectives a lot to describe the beautiful scenery…can’t seem to think of other words to describe the beautifulness of the surroundings. I’m trying to get across the fact that the mountains ad the rivers, falls, etc. are so unique; a view we in the Midwest don’t often have. Anyway, in the Keystone canyon, the Bridal Veil falls were really a sight to behold. Chris estimates that they might have been 500 feet high and it was right next to the road. Of course, pulled over and took a bunch of pictures. Too bad it was so overcast, because my pictures will not really show the true beauty. We could see the pipeline running along the road, but underground (there are yellow posts marking where it is underground).
Once we were through the canyon we passed “Old Valdez”, the sight of Valdez, until the Good Friday, 1964 earthquake. Totally annihilated the town. Then, once it was fattened, they decided to move town a couple of miles to the present site. There isn’t much to see in Valdez: lots of RV campgrounds, a few stores, a museum, a cannery, a gas station, a convention center, and a few other buildings; not much to see; one could walk through the entire town in an hour and hit every street while he’s doing it!
We then drove back up to Allison Point, which is on the way to the Valdez Marine Terminal, which is the end of the Alyesco Pipeline, where the oil is either loaded directly onto the super tankers or put in storage tanks. Unfortunately there were no tankers here for us to see. We have now been from the beginning of the pipeline to the end. How cool!
Our camp is right along the water. Chris went down the steep hill and navigated a few boulders so he could try his luck at salmon fishing. No success. There are loads of people here just going nuts with the fishing. Personally, I can’t see why all fuss.

Monday, July 21, 2008

It rained a bit last night; not much. Chris was up bright and early to try salmon fishing again. I stayed behind to perk the coffee. By the time I made our car-cups full of coffee and headed down the steep embankment, he had already caught one! Bingo! Two fish was the bag for the day. He cleaned them on the shore and threw the waste back into the water. The sea gulls were hovering waiting for their feast. Was fun to watch.
While we were standing at the back of our camper, looking out over this. In Valdez inlet/harbor off of Prince William Sound, we saw loads of sea gulls, sea lions with gulls pestering them for their fish, sea otters, eagles and salmon jumping out of the water. All the bears that our neighbor campers in Copper River told us were here never materialized! We were here….that’s why the bear didn’t come.
Today we’re heading back up toward the Chitina River area to the McCarthy
Road.
Later: we traveled 33 miles down the Edgerton Hwy. to Chitina (pronounced Chit’-na) at the entrance to the Wrangell St. Elias National Park (the largest of all of the national parks). The town grew with the Kennecott Copper Mine 66 miles away, where the highest grade of copper was mined for abt. 40 years and was transported on the railroad to Chitina. This National Park is the largest in North America; 6 times the size of Yellowstone; has 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America; has glaciers that equal the size of Connecticut. Due to all the recent rains, we were told that the road past Chitina to the Kennecott Copper Mine was not in the best of condition and even had stray railroad spikes work their way to the top of the road bed (which had been the rail road bed). So, we walked around the little town of Chitina and took some cool pictures. On the drive back out to the Richardson Hwy (goes from Valdez to Fairbanks) we stopped at 3 Mile Lake on the road and camped for the night. Beautiful setting. Chris tried fishing a little while for stocked trout.

July 22, 2008

It rained all night; we were up and out of there by 8 am; it was 45 degrees. Heading toward Tok (the gateway to Alaska because to go in or out of Alaska by road, you HAVE TO go through Tok), we again decided against going to Chicken, Eagle and the Top of the World road to Dawson City because of the rain and bad roads. Later today some folks came from there in a little car and said it was dicey. Good decision. On the “Tok Cutoff” road we almost got wiped out by a cow moose charging across the road! Sadly, the beautiful view of the Wrangell Mountains and the 16,000 ft. peaks was dampened by the rain and clouds and I couldn’t take pictures. It is supposed to be in the 70 degrees here now…and we’ve been in the 40-50’s.
Revisiting a favorite campground on Deadman’s Lake about 20 miles from the Canadian border, we were lucky enough to get our same spot right on the lake. Chris tried fishing for a bit. Beautiful evening….and some blue sky.

July 23, 2008 Deadman’s Lake, AK; through Canada, to Haines, Alaska

Today was definitely a two-country tour to get to Haines. The only land route to Haines, Alaska, is OUT of Alaska through Tok, Alaska, through Yukon and British Columbia and THEN back into Alaska at ”Daltons Cache” port of entry. Took us 2 minutes at customs; not even out of the car. He liked Tommy, too. We were up and early on the road because we were going to travel half of our trip today over country we had already seen coming on the Alaska Highway. But, once again, everything looked new going from the other way! It has been rainy and cool, and I bemoan the thought of all the beautiful, stupendous, and awe inspiring photographs I have missed because of the rain….moan…but the mountains are still beautiful in their majesty. We drove all day with mountains on both sides of us. The road to Haines is a “scenic byway” in Alaska, and for good reason.
Today we had a cow moose dart across the road in front of us; that could be why the semi’s have the most huge “cow catchers” or grill guards on their rigs that you have ever seen. We also saw a black bear along the side of the road. One thing Chris noticed was the absence of wild flowers in the part of Canada we transversed today. I had been enjoying the wildflowers in Alaska immensely.
Once in Haines, we got our information for taking the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry to Skagway, and then booked a day ferry for Saturday to Juneau. It’s the capitol of Alaska, and yet not able to reach it overland; only by air or sea. And I’m certainly not going by sea.
I walked around a few shops, then we decided to go find a campground for the evening; it had been a long day. We went about 10 mi. out of Haines to the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Area campground. It is so nice to be in big tall trees, conifers, but not the stubby, skinny black pine that the mail part of Alaska has so much of. These are sturdy, big trees. Love ‘em.
Chris plans on going salmon fishing tomorrow morning. Tonight we ate the last of the salmon that he caught in Valdez. Chris fried it; yes, artery clogging fried. Love it that way.

July 24; Haines

We have been doing a bit of sight seeing and tonight we are taking the Ferry to Scagway. That's the only way to get there; it's about an hour by Ferry across the Lynn Canal; but if we drove it, it would be about 300 miles! That's a no-brainer. Tomorrow we see Skagway, then on Saturday we take a fast ferry for a day trip to Juneau...the capitol of Alaska that is not accessable by land; only air and water. Strange, but this is a strange, beautiful, different world here....and it's still raining.... :-)

So, until we "connect" again...

With Cecelia and Teresa in God's Country

We connected with Chris' two sisters who are on a Princess tour of this beautiful state. They arrived at the Lodge about an hour before we did, so we had lots to catch up on before dinner.
Of course, we had to pull out the tripod for a family portrait. We were camping on the Klutina River only about a mile from their lodge.
Dinner was delightful. Chris and I had bab y back ribs....definitely finger-lickin' good. They gave us finger towels that were so hot they were steaming....I guess they didn't want me to lick my fingers....fooled them!
This is so not a good picture. It was taken through my windshield on the way back from our visit with Teresa & Cecilia. They were right on the drive to our campground....and I had no time to open the window and get the picture that way.
Heading toward Valdez in a couple of minutes....so, until we "connect" again.

July 19; There is Blue Sky Somewhere!

We ran out of the rain almost to Glenallen on the Richardson Hwy at the end of the Glenn Hwy (Richardson Hwy goes from Fairbanks to Valdez). The blue sky looked so beautiful!
On the Glenn Hwy we traveled for a long time along the Matanuska River. It was at points a raging river because of all the rains. These pictures are from the Alaskan Wildlife Museum in Glenallen. Not a big museum, but an
awesome & lifelike display of animals.
Wolves attacking a moose. These pictures are from the Alaskan Wildlife Museum in Glenallen.

Isn't this a rough way to start the day?????
Having dinner with "neighbors" in the campground last night. They cooked their salmon and we brought the pasta, salad, tartar sauce. Ate way too much salmon. I loooooooved the deep fried and artery clogging Salmon. In case you haven't figured out yet from the blogs, the salmon are running....people are going crazy about it here.
Using the grill, that Christopher gave us for Christmas, to cook the salmon; worked like a charm
more pics from the Wildlife museum. Didn't the guy do great taxidermy and display????
These pictures are from the Alaskan Wildlife Museum in Glenallen

Friday 7-18; leaving Wasilla and driving to Copper River area

When we left Karen’s house at 7:30 a.m. it was raining and 48 degrees. We traveled along the Glen Highway to Glenallen. It’s the road we traveled to Karen’s house in Wasilla several weeks ago, but, like coming down the “Haul Road” from Prudho Bay, it’s a whole new view from the other direction. Just as beautiful and seeing sights that I hadn’t seen the first time through. We traveled along the Matanuska river and it was still raining. The river was really loud and had white water on it; wouldn’t have wanted to be on it today.
We’ve been here in Alaska over a month now: a week at Karen’s home in Wasilla, a week on the Kenai Peninsula, 5 days on the Dalton Hwy…and various other places hither, thither & yon. It’s been a month of fun. AND, today the sun returned at noon when we got to Glenallen and it was 58 degrees; just beautiful. We went in an Alaskan Wildlife Museum. One person hunted and got all of the animals in the museum; then he “taxidermied” them himself and mounted them in realistic displays of predators and their prey. You could just see the action. I took loads of pictures, several of which I’m sharing with you in this blog
We drove through historic Copper Center on the Copper River. We then looked for the lodge where Therese and Cecelia will be arriving at tomorrow evening. We’ll have dinner with them there.
We are staying at the King for a Day Campground; and our spot is right on the Klutina River. Positively spectacular. People are fishing just feet from us for red salmon.
We are having dinner tonight with our camping neighbors; they are cooking their salmon, and we are providing the fix’ins, my home made tartar sauce, salad & dressing and an alfredo noodles. Was fun sitting right on the banks of the river and eating….a bit of a stormy looking cloud sat in the distance, and we asked God for our blessing to not let it rain. And sure enough, the dark cloud stalled there for several hours and later broke up. Had a wonderful evening of salmon (some deep fried and some grilled on the fire) and polished off some wine w/ the neighbors. We kind of turned into pumpkins at 11. It’s weird with it staying light for so long at night. You don’t think about going to bed because it stays light until midnight or so.
Today, Saturday the 19th, we’re going to kick around in this “horrible” place on the bank of the Klutina River, read, take Tommy for walks, etc…and then later go and meat Ceil and Theresa at the Princess Lodge, close to here. We’ll have dinner with them there.
So, until we “connect” again…