Nabo's Adventure to Alaska 2017

[Nabo]

Thursday July 6th - Homer is a very interesting community. Founded in the 1890's, first as a coal community, then gold was found but today it's known as the Halibut Capital of the World. The population according to the census is a little over 5,000 but in the summer swells to over 10 times that. There's a large marina that the Time Bandit (Deadliest Catch) calls home port when she's in. The Spit is a hodgepodge of charter booths, shops, deli & restaurants, to a thousands campers (tents, travel trailers, 5th wheels & all kinds of motor homes). We are in Heritage RV Park on the Spit which has full hookups, 30/50 amp service, wifi, cable and a nice office. I would give it a A to A+. It's a great place to watch all kinds of boats from fishing to freighter, come and go. A point of interest is the wooden boat graveyard. For those that have been here in the past, Ocean View RV Campground has been closed and up for sale.

 

[Nabo]

Friday July 7th. Today we stayed close to the camper, doing laundry and maintenance on the Silver Bullet before heading to Seward tomorrow. We did run up to the top of the mountain ridge above Homer for some great views. Rain is forecast to come in this evening so I guess driving tomorrow will be in rain - ugh.
View from our bedroom window at 6:30 this morning.

 

[Nabo]

Saturday July 8th -Travel day to Seward AK. What a yucky day again with flood warning out from areas north of Anchorage all the way down to Homer/Seward area. Thank goodness it's not that far from Homer to Seward but it hasn't stopped raining and forecast to continue raining most of the day Sunday. We did run down to town to the visitor center to find out what to do in the area. Free parking is tight in town but thank goodness there is a shuttle that comes to the campground so we will be doing that tomorrow. Not many pictures - sorry.

 

[Nabo]

Sunday July 9th - The day started off with a hike in the Kenai Fjord National Park, Exit Glacier Nature Center. This glacier area is the only part of the park accessible by road. The first part was really nice with paved walkway which turned into gravel, then shale rocks to climbing up and down a mountain sidewalls. Finally we got to the edge of the glacier which was really cool but cold. Then it was the return climb back. By then my legs were pooped but I did it - Yeah. Here I am, a 65 year old women mountain climbing for the first time. After lunch we headed back to town. The Holland America cruise ship, The Noordam, was in port but hardly any people were around-umh The Alaska SeaLife Center is well done which is a nice arctic aquarium. They are in the process of helping a rescued baby walrus which the center is nursing back to health, except he ain't small. And on the way back to the campground, we spotted this eagle watching over her nest.

 

[Nabo]

Monday July 10th - cruising thru the Kenai Fjords National Park. We took the 6 hour cruise which ended up being 7 hours because of so much wildlife. Besides seeing the beautiful landscape and waterfalls from the boat, the animals and glaciers were amazing. We saw Bald Eagles, 3 different types of whales - humpbacks, fins and orcas, sea lions, harbor seals, penguins, and all kinds of birds. The Aialik Glacier was in rare form, giving us several calving. The boat captain was really impressed in that the last several days, it had been quiet. FYI - day light is still 18 hours, 40 minutes today.

Next 3 pictures is the glacier calving

 

[dlw930]

Amazing landscape & wildlife! Isn't this fun? I think you've convinced us to add Kenai Fjords NP to our itinerary while we're staying at Cooper Landing. We have tickets for a glacier cruise out of Whittier on Saturday.


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[jassson007]

Making me want to go back sooner rather than later. I have been twice, spent a while summer there once working


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[Nabo]

Tuesday July 11th - travel day back to Palmer AK. We left Stoney Creek RV Park in Seward which I would give a B+ on. We were lucky in that we got a 50 amp site but my feelings is that the bathroom facilities needs expanding. It's a fully gravel park which we have gotten used to but the road leading into the park needs a lot of work. The owners are real nice. Today marks our 53rd day out and we are on our 25th campground. We still have about another 6 weeks to go. We are back at Mountain View RV Park for one night before heading to Valdez.

 

[Nabo]

Wednesday July 12th - what a day traveling to Valdez. The day started off going down the Glenn Highway to Glennallen to see a friend that we haven't seen in 40 years. The highway was not pleasant being very narrow, lots of switchbacks, and having a lot of dips not to mentioned dodging bicyclist who were in the road because there was no shoulders. WOW!! After lunch with our friends, off we went down the Richardson Hwy to Valdez. Talk about frost heaves, there were mucho lots, plus the state was doing major construction replacing drain pipes. Needless to say it was a long day. But the Silver Bullet got a bath once we got to the campground.

 

[Nabo]

Thursday July 13th - sorry being late in posting. We took another glacier cruise out of Valdez to Columbia Glacier which is located in Prince William Sound. It's a huge glacier being over 32 miles in length and having thickness up to 1800 ft. She was pretty quiet while we were there, only calving twice but the icebergs coming up the sound were pretty amazing. Yesterday was one day that fisherman had 12 hours to fish for salmon so a lot of the whales and other sea life were pretty scarce. The F/V Kodiak was also at the docks. For those who like Deadliest Catch, the Kodiak was captained by Wild Bill in season 6, 7 and 8.

 

[Nabo]

Friday July 14th - last day in Valdez. Today we learned about the 2 different towns of Valdez, the old one before the 1964 earthquake and the current town of Valdez, located about 4 miles down the road. The old town was built on the Valdez glacier drain field which liquefied during the earthquake but more importantly, the tsunami that followed causing so much destruction and death. We also went down to the marina to check out a friend's sailboat. The 41' boat named KuKara has sailed around the world twice and thru the Panama Canal 3 times as well as the Suez Canal. Tomorrow will be another travel day. Also the fair was in town.

 

[Nabo]

Saturday July 15th - travel day. We left Valdez,heading to TOK, on a cloudy, misty day to the point that you couldn't see much of the mountains, just clouds. The drive to the TOK Cut-off was rough (didn't remember it being that bad coming down into Valdez) but the Cut-Off was unreal. If you drove 35, you were speeding. I thought the Top of the World dirt road was bad but it was a piece of cake compared to the Cut-off. Evaluation of the campground - Eagles Rest RV Park, I would give it an A- only because of the gravel throughout the grounds. It had plenty of bathrooms, nice laundry set-up, full 50 amp up-hooks and a restaurant, gas station and grocery store right next door. We probably won't be able to post for the next couple of days because of going down thru British Columbia. Sorry but I couldn't load pictures.

 

[Nabo]

Sunday and Monday, July 16th and 17th. Both of these days were travel days. When we left TOK on Sunday, again it was slow going due to construction along the Alaska Hwy. Our major hick-up was that we lost the residential refrigerator for good sometime Saturday night so at 6 am before heading down the road, Nathan ran to the local sporting goods store and bought a couple of cooler so we could try to salvage what we could. Our destination Sunday night was Destruction Bay Yukon at a little campground named Cottonwood. When we pulled in, our new Heartland friends, Sally and Dan Sullivan had already gotten there. They were excited because they had gotten word that their new Bighorn had arrived at the dealership. On Monday, our travels took us back thru Whitehorse which has the only Walmart for hundreds of miles. We stopped, bought a 3.3 cu ft refrigerator, got an extension cord and wired up the little refrig to the inverter. Ah - to keep foods cold again. We are now in Skagway - cruise ships and jewelry store capital of the world. Today there were 4 boats in with over 2,000 people from each boat - grrrr. We did take the train up to White Pass and back. PS - road construction pictures.

 

[Nabo]

Tuesday July 18th - Skagway AK. Today we explored this little town and caught the train up to White Pass on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway. The trip we took was 40 miles going between Skagway and the White Pass, elevation right at 3,000 feet. Nice ride with some pretty good scenery.
On Wednesday, July 19th, we started getting ready to move again. We did go back into town to see a musical, The Days of '98. It's Alaska's longest running musical with ragtime music and can-can girls but also has the story line about one of Skagway's early settler, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith. It was fun with lots of laughs. The campground we are staying at is Pullen Creek RV Park. It has both 30 or 50 amp sites with water but no sewer and short sites. They also charge to use the showers - bummer. The plus of this campground is it's right next to town but not having sewer, I wasn't a happy camper. I would give it a C+ to B-.

 

[Nabo]

Thursday July 20th - travel day from Skagway to Watson Lake Yukon. Either we are getting used to the road system or somehow, the roads were much better today - YEAH. And the 11% grade for 11.5 miles going into and out of Skagway - WOW. Tomorrow we continue to head south, stopping in Stewart BC for a couple of days, but our major concern is the wildfires that are covering the southern half of British Columbia. Our plans were to travel down Cassier Hwy to Hwy 16 to Prince George, then down Hwy 97 to Vancouver but 97 has been closed. We just heard on the news tonight that now there are fires around Jasper Alberta so now what??? This is going to be fun trying to figure out how to get down to the 48's.
- How would ya like to drive this down the road???

 

[Nabo]

Friday, July 21st - travel day from Watson Lake Yukon to Iskut British Columbia. We are in a little campground called Tatogga Lake Resort. Again the drive on the Cassiar Hwy was interesting, starting out good to fair to narrow one lane road, sometimes gravel, sometimes paved if that what ya can call it. The landscaped also changed from a lush forest to miles of burned forest back to a lush forest. One part of the road had a 4 miles downhill grade of 7% to an uphill 6 mile grade of 8% which was all gravel. The motorhome beside us is a lady who was born in East Tennessee. This World keeps getting smaller and smaller. Tomorrow is again another 200 plus bumpy-miles travel day.

 

[brianlajoie]

Has anyone looked at when the caravans go through certain cities? We are planning a trip for next year and want to avoid certain dates when large caravans pull through certain cities. I have found 4 different caravan companies so far on the net. Is there a list some where?

 

[Nabo]

Has anyone looked at when the caravans go through certain cities? We are planning a trip for next year and want to avoid certain dates when large caravans pull through certain cities. I have found 4 different caravan companies so far on the net. Is there a list some where?

There are so many caravans, ya just can't avoid them. We tried to book no more than 10 days out and really haven't had any problems except around the wildfire areas.

Saturday July 22nd - another travel day from Iskut to (now) Houston BC. We were supposed to be in Stewart BC but as usual, plans got changed. We have decided to head more south and east but the wildfires still have the road from Prince George to Vancouver closed so I guess we will head to Jasper AB. We found a wonderful little campground in Houston called Shady Rest RV Park which I would highly recommend. It has nice level sites, up to 70' pull-thrus, nice clean bathroom/showers set-up and free wifi. Only drawback is 30 amp but in temps less than 70 degrees, who needs the second a/c. I would give this cg a solid A.

 

[travelin2]

Has anyone looked at when the caravans go through certain cities? We are planning a trip for next year and want to avoid certain dates when large caravans pull through certain cities. I have found 4 different caravan companies so far on the net. Is there a list some where?

There are so many caravans, ya just can't avoid them. We tried to book no more than 10 days out and really haven't had any problems except around the wildfire areas.
]

Travel up earlier in the season. We were in BC, YT, and AK from 5/22 to about 7/20 or so and had no competition from any caravans. We only had early secured reservations in Denali and at Talkeetna and a short notice call for a spot in Seward. All other nightly stops where by the seat of our pants. The caravans had yet to reach their zenith at that time. Mini Winnie rentals were seen everywhere but only a couple organized caravans. Prince Cruise lines however was in full swing with their land cruises by bus and railway and at the popular sea ports.
I'd say the most popular nature sightseeing attraction we missed out on was seeing the huge salmon runs with the feeding bears and bald eagles that are starting to occur. Next time!!!



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[Nabo]

Sunday July 23rd - another travel day. Tonight we are in Prince George BC. Finally got to some descent roads and could make some good time. The drive was thru mainly cattle country and farm land. We are staying in a campground called Northern Experience RV Park which is it's new name (old name is South Park RV Park). It's an older park but the new owners are trying to upgrade it, working to get cable tv (next week), wifi and converting some 30 amp to 50 amp sites. Hopefully by this time next year they will have an all new look. Today I would give it C+ to B-. Not many pictures today cuz the picture taker, me-Byrd, was doing the driving.