Denali Park Road Lottery

This trip was down the Denali National Park and Preserve Park Road. (This is different from the trip we took earlier in the summer down the Denali Highway.) We were lucky enough to win the Road Lottery this year. You can normally only experience this part of the park by bus, bicycle or foot so we were excited to be able to go in the comfort of our own vehicle. Here is a little bit of info on the Road Lottery from the National Park Service website:

"The Denali Park Road is open to private vehicles for 14.8 miles to the Savage River Bridge. Public travel to destinations farther into the park requires shuttle and tour bus services. Bicycles are permitted to travel on the Park Road. Each September the park hosts a four-day event called "Road Lottery." During these four days, winners of a lottery drawing are given a chance to purchase a single, day-long permit, allowing them to drive as much of the Denali Park Road as weather allows. In years with early snow, the Park Road might open no farther than Savage River (mile 15); in milder years, lottery winners are able to enjoy a trip out to Wonder Lake (mile 85). The dates of Road Lottery vary each year -- the four-day event always begins the second Friday after Labor Day."

For the night before our journey began, we drove up from Anchorage and tent camped at a nearby campground. This was Lucy's first tent experience and boy was it a cold one. We heard from someone in the morning that said it got down to 28 degrees. Brrrr! One neat thing was when we all gotten woken up at 4am to the sound of wolves howling. It was a little spooky, but still very cool to hear.

On the road at 6:30a.m. to witness the sun rise over the foggy valley.

A pit stop to stretch our legs and get a little of that fresh mountain air.

At mile 66 is the Eielson Visitor Center. It boasts the best view of Mt. McKinley in the whole park. It also allowed us to add some educational information to our trip. Lucy like learning about the different routes that climbers have taken to the summit. What two year old wouldn't be entertained by pressing buttons that light up the routes on a giant model of the mountain range? It was also the site of our picnic lunch.

The view of Mt. McKinley from the far side of Wonder Lake.

We saw lots of wildlife along the way. Here's Lucy taking a turn at the binoculars. We didn't have the heart to tell her that she was looking through them backwards.

Two brown a.k.a grizzly bears cooling off in pond. It really was a warm day!

Plenty of sheep to be seen on the mountain sides.

These three guys were very close. We were one of several cars pulled to the side of the road when they came galloping down the hillside. They ran in between a couple of parked cars before ambling on down the road.

Alaska State Fair 2010

We had a beautiful sunny and unseasonably warm day at the Fair this year. Here are Lucy and her Gramps at the entrance. We later wished that we had dressed Lucy in short sleeves and anything but black.

We saw lots of animals at the fair. I think Lucy liked the baby chickens the best. She got to watch some of them hatch and she got to pet some others. We also made a stop at the reptile house where the giant tortoises and the crocodiles were most entertaining for her.

Next up were the pony rides! She just could not stop smiling.

The last thing we did were the carnival rides. We were kinda tired by this time and it was pretty crowded so we didn't get to ride to many. But here are some pictures of the car ride.

Pampering or potty training?

Will you go while eating lunch?

While you watch some Sesame Street?

With a friend?

No luck on the potty training front yet, but as you can see, we are working on it!

Hope in August

We took a short weekend trip to Hope, AK. It's just across the Turnagain Arm and takes about an hour and a half to drive there by car. It was beautiful when we first arrived so we headed down to the Resurrection Creek to watch the fishermen and check out the downtown area.

Cousin Jack sent Lucy his old train set just in time for this overnight trip. It provided hours of entertainment while it rained outside.

Is it morning already?

Family BBQ

We finally got to fill up our new house with lots of people at this family BBQ we threw in honor of Aunt Suzanne's last day in Anchorage. Here are cousins Casey and Lucy enjoying some yogurt popsicles.

Our swing set full of kids of all ages.

And a little fun in the sandbox.

... and down the Denali Highway

Now for the second half of our camping adventure. After a few long days we were ready to take it a little easier. From Copper Center we drove north to Paxson at the head of the Denali Highway and stopped for the day at Tangle Lakes. Arriving just in time for lunch, we enjoyed the quiet while we ate. A little bit of exploring and we turned in early. We awoke to more cloudy skies so our beautiful mountain vistas were nowhere to be seen.

The Denali Highway is a 134 mile long stretch of gravel highway. Completed in 1957 to provide motorists with access to Denali National Park, the Denali Highway found itself virtually abounded in 1972 when the paved George Parks Highway opened, linking Anchorage and Fairbanks directly with the park. Since then the Denali Highway has served mainly as a passage into the back country for hunters and fishermen and as a byway for those seeking a peek at the way all of Alaska used to look, with wilderness in every direction.

We soon discovered that the 50 mph signs posted must have been a joke. After hitting an RV shaking series of potholes we quickly slowed to a mere 25 mph. I don't know how she did it, but Lucy managed to fall fast asleep.

Even though most of the mountains remained shrouded in clouds we did get a glimpse of the Maclaren Glacier just after we reached the Maclaren Summit. There were many interesting glacial features in this area. My favorite was the esker that we drove on top of. It's a winding ridge of glacier debris left behind long ago.

We stopped at Clearwater Creek for lunch. It was a beautiful spot with an abundance of rocks for Lucy to throw. The sun was shining down on us so I stripped off my shoes and socks to wade into the river. Boy was that some cold water! I don't think I even made it in past my ankles before I scampered back to shore. Brian tried his hand at gold panning, but didn't see anything of interest. We debated staying here for the night, but ultimately decided to move on. We had a lot of miles to cover and it was slow going so we packed it in and hit the road.

About 15 miles after lunch we heard a loud pop and then loud slapping as we slowed to a halt. Brian jumped out to investigate and came back with bad news - a blown tire. We had no spare tire and no cell service. We had recently passed a lodge and were debating whether or not we should attempt to turn around on the narrow road, when a guy on a 4-wheeler appeared. He informed us that the lodge would be of no help, but that there was a place 12 miles up the road called the Gracious House. It was another lodge, but with a tire shop. We decided to truck ahead at a demoralizing 5 miles an hour. After the first hour, Brian spent the better part of the next hour (in the pouring rain) trying to cut off the remaining tread so that we could go a bit faster, but had no luck. After another hour and half, we finally arrived at the Gracious House. Unbelievably, they were able to get us outfitted with a new used tire in no time.

Finally back on the road, our 25 mph seemed super fast. Up in the distance I spotted something on the road. At first, I thought it was a large dog, but as we got closer I realized it was a bear. My first wild brown bear sighting ever. He ran off into the brush as we approached in the RV. Brian told me to stop because he was sure he would stop to check us out. When he reached a safe distance in a clearing, he did indeed turn back to see what we were.

By this point, it was after 10pm and we were wiped out and very done with the gravel road. We pulled over a few miles from the end along side this beautiful lake.

The mosquitos are thick in the middle of nowhere and they some how made it inside. At first we thought they were coming in through the vents, but later decided they must have gotten in when Brian had the side hatches open while working on the tire and had been hiding until we stopped for the night. Try as we might to kill them all, they attacked us while we slept. I think Lucy got the worst of it. We call it the Mosquito Massacre of 2010.

After five fitful hours of sleep with mosquitos buzzing by my ears, I gave up. I woke up the rest of the crew and we headed for pavement and civilization. When we hit paved highway we all let out a cheer. I gave it a little gas and then we all groaned as another tire blew. We limped into Cantwell on another flat tire and had to wait for the town to wake up. Brian discovered a leak in the pipe from our gray water tank so we killed some time finding a dump station and emptying the tank. And then we found an elderly man who "sometimes" changes tires and takes cash only. Small towns in rural Alaska are in no hurry to do anything. He had to retrieve his help from his makeshift home in the flatbed of an old pickup truck and have their coffee before they could be bothered with us. We had used all our cash on the last tire guy so we used the time to track down the only ATM in town. It was at the gas station and it was empty. Apparently, someone from another town only fills it once in awhile. Luckily we were able to work something out with the gas station proprietor to the mechanic's satisfaction. He replaced the flat tire and one other that looked questionable. We weren't taking any chances.

Needless to say, this brought our trip to an end. We had one more night planned, but we were exhausted and covered in mosquito bites. Thankfully, Lucy was pretty oblivious to our troubles, but Brian and I couldn't get home fast enough. Even though the last 24 hours of our trip were a little rough, overall it was a fantastic time. We can't wait for our next adventure!

To Valdez...

We once again borrowed the RV from Neema and Granpi and headed out for a week long adventure. We got a bit of a late start when we realized that Lucy's beloved Rosalie the Pig was left behind. Gramma was nice enough to get her and meet us in Palmer so that we wouldn't have to go all the way back home. Boy, was Lucy happy to have her, so a big thank you to Gramma! Our first stop was a pull out on the way to our campsite. We had a gorgeous sunny day to start us off and we were just itching to get outside.

After our first night we headed out toward Valdez. The drive has some of the best scenery that Alaska has to offer. It helped that day two gave us another dose of sunshine of course. About a half an hour outside of Valdez is the Worthington Glacier. After just a short hike (more like a walk) you get right up to it. Lucy was in toddler heaven with all the rocks and the water. Brian actually went back to the camper to get our galoshes so that we could splash around.

Brian has become quite savvy with our camera. He set it up on a rock with a mini tripod and used the timer for this family photo. Don't we all look cool in our shades?

The mountains and open valleys soon disappeared as we headed into Keystone Canyon. A winding road led us past big cliff faces and beautiful waterfalls. This one is called Wedding Veil Falls and looks even taller in person.

After a long day of driving and seeing the sights we arrived in Valdez, made famous after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Prince William Sound in 1989. We made our way down to the boat docks and were pleasantly surprised to find this little guy playing in the water.

He soon folded up his otter arms and dozed off. I overheard one of the locals saying that he frequents the docks and has been nicknamed Oscar. He was our first official wildlife sighting of the trip, but not the last.

After a good night's sleep we headed out to explore Valdez. Our first stop was the Valdez Glacier. After watching a tour operation launch some kayaks into the lake we decided to get out Granpa's pack rafts and do some paddling of our own. It was a cold and rainy morning so we suited up and headed out among the icebergs. If only we had thought to bring some gloves for ourselves like we did for Lucy. She quickly dozed off and after about 45 minutes we headed back to warm up. Some nice folks from Spokane, WA took our picture as we headed in. They agreed to email it to us in exchange for a restaurant recommendation in Anchorage.

More rain as we stopped to watch some harbor seals checking us out on Allison Point.

Further along we came to the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery. They release more than 200 million salmon each year and then they return to the hatchery in mid-summer. There were tons of salmon fighting their way in and a handful of sea lions there for the easy catch. It was really neat to see them in action.

We continued on in hopes of seeing the pipeline terminus, but were halted by warning signs of "authorized personnel only beyond this point". We did get to see the pipeline along the highway at some point though. So off to Copper Center for a night along the Klutina River. More rock throwing for Lucy and steak dinner cooked over the campfire for us. See my next post in a few days for the rest of the adventure.

Helping Mommy take care of the flowers

Now that summer is here, we have been spending a lot of time outside. Of course, Mommy and Daddy spend a lot of that time working in the yard. So we've decided that the best way to have more time to relax outside this year is to put our two year old to work. I guess it's a good thing she likes her new spray bottle so much!

Finding frogs

We headed out to Westchester Lagoon to catch a temporary pet. Brian had always caught and kept frogs when he was a kid so we went on a hunt of our own. We had to walk down the bike path a little ways to get to the reeds where the frogs live. Along the way we saw a train,

and picked some wild flowers for our hair

and finally Brian headed into the swamp. He caught a nice fat frog for us to take home. We got him a terrarium, some dirt, a log, a water bowl and bunch of crickets for him to munch. I figure we have about a week until the novelty wears off and then we can return him to the wild.

After Tadpole (Lucy picked his name) was all settled into his vacation home, Lucy and I baked some brownies for fun. She was happy to help me clean up!

Camping at Kenai Lake

Thank you to Neema and Granpi for letting us borrow their RV for another fantastic camping trip. This time we drove south and stayed at Trail River Campground on Kenai Lake. Our campsite was just a few paces from the lake front. Lucy had no chance of running out of rocks to throw into the lake here.

We made s'mores on the campfire. Lucy liked all the components by themselves, but not so much all together. She wasn't too sure what to think of all marshmallow goop on her hands.

We had one rainy day so we spent it in Seward. We had lunch and visited the SeaLife Center. It was fun to see all the animals there. They had a really neat bird room where I actually ducked because one of the birds swooped so close to my head. On our final day we got out on the water. Larry lent us his pack rafts. They are these really neat one person boats. There's just enough room for me to have my legs fully extended. Though they are not intended to be used this way, Lucy sat on my feet, facing me, with her legs on top of mine. We were even able to get the skirt over our legs so that we didn't get wet. We paddled all up and down the shoreline. After a while, Lucy got out and stayed ashore with Brian so I could do some exploring on my own. There's nothing that I can think of that's more peaceful than that.