SOME SAY MCKINLEY SOME SAY DENALI…

Denali Park Road

Continuing north from Byers Lake we stop in Cantwell at the Cantwell RV Park just off the Parks Highway on the west side of the Denali Highway.  Partial hook-ups H20, power and dump station. Good Wi-Fi when the park empties out.  This is our base camp to explore the front of Denali National Park and the surrounding area.  After setting up we take a drive on the Eastern Denali Highway.  It’s one of THOSE ROADS, the one’s they warn you about but it’s really typical of most unpaved roads with a few rough patches, but nothing Dave can’t handle.  The scenery is typical Alaska spectacular, mountains forests and tundra. We don’t see a lot of wildlife, just and abandoned beaver den, a caravan of Jeep Wranglers driven by Princess Cruise Tourists, some folks picking wild blueberries and a couple changing a flat tire… So, maybe the warnings are warranted.

There’s not a lot to Cantwell, a couple of gas stations, a trading post and a mini-mart.  Thirty miles up the Parks Highway, just north of the Denali park entrance, is an area known as Glitter Gulch. The hotels, shops and restaurants were built for the Princess Cruise tourists who arrive by train and bus.  It looks like Disneyland’s Frontier Land, so we just drive by shaking our heads. A little further north is the town of Healy with a Brewery, gas station, liquor store and mini-mart.  Between Cantwell and Healy there are Adventure Tours, Rafting, Tours, Air tours, cabins to rent and some restaurants and of course the road to Denali National Park.

Husky Pup

Mention Denali National Park and most people think of Mt. McKinley, AKA Denali or The Great One, but the mountain is actually a recent addition to the park.  The original mandate of the park was to protect wildlife, specifically the Dahl Sheep. Access by powered vehicles to most of the park is limited. During the summer months, most visitors are shuttled in busses to various spots along the ONE road in the park. Winter access is by dog sled (no snow mobiles here!) and the park maintains a kennel of Alaskan Huskies that are used to patrol the park when snow closes the roads. During the summer there are dog sled demonstrations and rangers at the kennels to answer questions about the dogs. On our first visit to the park, we visit the Kennels and later take in a ranger talk about his experiences mushing in the park with his own dogs.  It’s interesting, but this experience is pretty limited to the few folks who have access to a team of dogs and want to camp out in way too many degrees below zero weather.

Savage Cabin

The Visitor center has some diorama displays, information about the wildlife and a short film about the park.  Nearby is the Murie Science and learning center dedicated to research of the arctic and subarctic ecosystems.  There are a number of interactive displays where we spend a few hours reading about the flora, fauna and geology.  There is also one restaurant, The Morro Grill, at the visitor center campus where you can get a cold beer and a really tasty burger.

Bull Moose

The first thirteen miles of the Denali Park Road is paved and open to all vehicles.  We drive this a few times watching for wildlife and explore the Savage Creek Area.  The Savage Cabin is typical of early trapper or homestead cabins and is still used by rangers today.  It is a one-room log cabin with shuttered windows.  The shutters and areas around the windows are covered with nails, the pointy ends sticking out, to keep bears from breaking in.  There is an interpretive trail near the Savage Creek Campground with photos of the early campers from the 1920’s.  It is interesting to see how the landscape has changed.  What was formerly barren tundra is now turning to forest as the climate warms. We also hike a couple of miles around the Savage Creek.  It’s an easy loop hike along the creek bed with two bridges to cross the river.  We see some arctic ground squirrels and a beautiful caribou bull with stunning antlers. Along the road we also drive past a magnificent Bull Moose.

Arctic Ground Squirrel

For the second half of our week in Denali, we move to the Teklanika Campground.  It is located twenty-nine miles inside the park.  There is a minimum stay requirement of three days, which should be plenty of time to explore the western end of the park.  We are given a pass that allows us to cross through the gate at the Savage River Bridge and drive the unpaved road to the campground. Dave will stay parked until it’s time to leave. Since we are dependent on the bus system, we purchased a Tek Pass, which gives us unlimited travel on the park shuttle busses from the campground to the end of the road in the Kantishina distriict. 

Hunting Grizzly

 After setting up we catch a shuttle to the Eielson Visitor Center.  Our driver is Wayne Iverson, apublished author (Hobo Sapien) he is informative and entertaining and stops so we can watch and photograph, Dahl sheep, Caribou, and a Grizzly sow with her two spring cubs. At the Visitor center we check out the exhibits about climbing Mt. McKinley and are treated to another pair of bears who seem to be having some sort of disagreement near the center. At one point one bear begins to lope toward the center and the rangers quickly get folks off the trails and up onto the patio.  A loping bear moves really quickly and covers a lot of ground. 

Caribou Bull

Our second shuttle experience is a little different.  This time our driver is somewhat informative, but dry and not too entertaining.  He does stop for wildlife and we see more bears, Dahl sheep and Caribou. We travel to the end of the road to Kantishina. Originally a gold mining settlement it now is home to a number of upscale resorts where folks pay a hefty price to stay in private establishments within the boundaries of the park.  The stop here is brief to view a homestead cabin and walk along the creek where we look for traces of gold.  The scenery here is pretty underwhelming when compared to the rest of the park.  On the return trip we stop at Wonder Lake. The only thing this body of water has going for it, is on a clear day it reflects Mt. McKinley.  But it’s overcast and rainy so no wonderful reflections.  However, there are an abundance of wild blueberries that are ripe for the picking so we get a couple of handfuls to munch with our lunch.  Past the Eielson center we spot another grizzly, loping up the hillside.  He stops, digs, pounces and comes up with an arctic squirrel that takes him moments to devour.  He digs around some more but the other squirrels have left the den. We joke about returning later to put some flowers on the spot where the squirrel met his demise.

Grizzly

Our third shuttle ride is completely different.  This time driver number three has no commentary, only comes to a rolling stop for photos, and sometimes stops the bus in front of shrubbery, when he could pull up a couple of feet, so the passengers could get a better view of the animals.  Ironically on this trip we see wildlife closer to the road that any other trips. (go figure.) But our fellow travelers are fun and we entertain ourselves.

Dahli Rama

So after a full week in Denali, we have a lot of photos of wildlife, but the mountain has been shrouded in clouds and it’s rained every day.  But that’s OK we saw McKinley from the road when driving around Trapper Creek and Byers Lake, but we never stopped to take a photo.  (pretty lame huh?) Well as driver number three so dryly put it, “it’s just a big rock covered in snow.” Driving out the road is muddy and by the time we exit the park Dave and Dimples are in desperate need of a spa day!

Overall Denali is good and bad.  Lots of wildlife and incredible scenery, but the shuttle busses are pretty uncomfortable and you feel like you are on s school field trip.  A month in Yellowstone is barely enough a week in Denali is more that enough… time to move on…

k

GLACIERS AT LAST… BUT MELTING FAST!

Mendenhall Glacier

Back onto the Ferry… headed to Juneau.  It’s smooth sailing, and we arrive in Juneau at the unconscionable hour of 4:45 AM.  It’s a short drive to the Mendenhall Lake Campground at the base of Mendenhall Glacier.  The gate is locked from 10:00PM until 7:00AM so we continue up the road a bit to the end where there is a large parking lot with a wonderful early morning view of the glacier.   Here we park, crawl into Dimples and sleep for a bit.  Once the gate is open we check in.  Our space is huge and private with full hook-ups.  Mosquitos are rampant but we can report that the ThermaCELLs really work so no worries. 

After setting up, we hike some of the trails around the campground.  The rain forest is lush and laced with small streams and ponds.  One pond sports a beaver den. No beavers in sight but in the surrounding area we see gnawed stumps of the trees that are now piled in the middle of the pond. Mendenhall Lake is stunning with icebergs and waterfalls. There are numerous trails in the area of the glacier and we take advantage over a few days to do a little hiking along the Steep Creek Trail, the Trail of Time and the Nugget Falls Trail.  Since Mendenhall is the most accessible glacier in the area, there are lots of tourists along these trails, and tour busses fill the parking lots. But this glacier may not be around for long, it has receded a total of 2.5 miles since the 1500’s and 1.75 of those miles since 1958.

Tracy's King Crab Shack

Downtown Juneau near the cruise ship dock feels like Disneyland.  Every day four to six humongous floating cities bring thousands of cruisers who pour into the streets and wander about with apparent sensory overload. We avoid this area although we did brave the crowds late one afternoon to stop by Tracy’s Crab Shack.  Tracy’s is a pair of food trailers parked right next to the dock.  All seating is alfresco, tables are shared, and it’s all served on disposable dinnerware.  Although the ambiance is low key the food is anything but.  This is the place for some of the best King Crab dishes in Juneau. Now King Crab, even in Alaska is not cheap. A three pound bucket of legs will set you back over $100, but the best deal is the combo that serves 1 to 2: a generous cup of award winning hearty crab bisque, four fluffy crab cakes with a vibrant dipping sauce and two huge perfectly steamed king crab legs for $32.00 add a couple of Alaska Ambers and the tip and we have a really outstanding meal for under fifty bucks. Considering the location we are surprised that many of the diners sharing our table are locals who dine here as often as once a week. They’ll fight the crowds for Tracy’s legs but usually on a four-cruise ship day. We also learn that Tracy’s was featured on the past season of Bravo’s Top Chef, pretty impressive for food trailers on the dock!

Aquarium

The Macaulay Fish Hatchery offers tours of their facility, a basic tour and an in depth behind the scenes tour.  Since this year’s crop of King fry were released a few days before our visit and the fish ladders sit empty, there’s not a lot going on behind the scenes so we take the basic tour we get a short talk about the facility and the processes while viewing empty tanks and nets being washed and dried. There is one freshwater indoor tank with some tiny Coho fry.  This hatchery is a private non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the Juneau area fisheries. This is fish ranching not fish farming.  It is modern and clean and a much more sophisticated operation than the State and Federal hatcheries we visited last year in Oregon and Idaho.  Although they clip all of the fry and inject data pins in a large percentage much like the other hatcheries in the country, they have also developed a method using a small change in water temperature during specific times of development to create a slight difference in the thickness of the ear cartilage to identify their salmon.  They also have an aquarium with a 5,000-gallon saltwater tank multiple smaller tanks, a touch tank and a shop selling salmon products.

Totem

As the Capital of Alaska, Juneau is home to the Alaska StateMuseum.  The permanent collections boast a large assortment of Alaska Native Culture, Early Exploration, Russian America, American Political, Mining, Minerals and Maritime History artifacts. These are all interesting but it’s the special exhibits that really intrigue us especially Nicholas Galanin – Tlingit/Aleut Multi-Disciplinary Artist – State of Being Displaced.  This installation is visually exciting and intellectually stimulating.  

There is also the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.  Housed in the former Juneau Memorial Library Building are various exhibits relating to the local history arts and culture.  The main attraction is the original Montana Creek Fish Trap, a 500-700 year old basketry style fish trap and a replica based on measurements from the original.

On the recommendation of a local man that we met while having an afternoon beer at the Viking Bar, we drive across the bridge to Douglas to try out the fare at The Island Pub.  They serve a variety of pub food, but it’s their wood fired pizza that draws us.  Every year they hold a contest and folks create different combinations of fresh local toppings for their thin crust gourmet pizzas.  We order the 2013 winner: light cream garlic sauce, smoked salmon, capers, red onions and their special cheese blend. It’s like lox and bagels with a twist and goes really well with some Alaskan Ambers.

A day at the Beach

One thing we did not expect in Juneau is temperature in the high eighties.  They’re having a heat wave, so we do as they do and head for the beach.  On the way we stop at a road break and the pilot car driver is originally from So Cal close to where Chris grew up.  He invites us to meet him at the Viking Baron Saturday night for shots of tequila – lots of fun, but we have to get back to the campground by 10:00 when they lock the gate.   (Unfortunately we are late and have to park Dave outside the gate and walk in what’s up with this curfew???)

There is so much to do and see in and around Juneau.  Our biggest outing is an all day cruise of the Tracy Arm Fiord with Adventure Bound Alaska’s 65 foot “Captain Cook”. We cruise over the jade green inland sea dodging blue icebergs, our necks craning to see the tops of snow capped granite walls with waterfalls spilling into the ocean, and our lungs filled with the crisp iced air.  At the end of the fiord we park at the base of the Sawyer Glacier.  The captain turns off the motors and we sit in silence.  Suddenly, loud pops and cracks like fireworks, a few small splashes and BOOM a large block of ice violently crashes into the sea.  It is powerful and awe inspiring.  But there is a softer side here.  The icebergs at the base of the glacier serve as a nursery for Harbor Seals and everywhere we look are mother seals and their pups some a few days old.  On the return trip we see more icebergs, various sea birds, bald eagles and a good-sized black bear. 

Sawyer Glacier

Mom & Pup

Captain of the Berg

Black Bear

Well that about sums it up for Juneau… one more ferry ride on this leg of our journey will bring us to Haines… and then…

k

BACK TO THE FISH HOUSE AND BEYOND…

After Bend we continue north onto Dayville, OR.  We stay in our favorite (so far) RV Park in America - The Fish House Inn & RV Park.  We stayed here last summer when we were newbies and loved the place; but now after a year under our belt, we can really appreciate how really special this place is.  There are only seven spots here in a park-like setting.  Everything is low-key down to the hand made sign that states: “if no one’s around, pick a spot and we’ll find you.”  (Which is exactly what we do.)  

Dayville Cafe
Open for business!

After we get setup we walk over to the Dayville Café and grab some lunch.  Last summer the place was closed and for sale. We are happy to report that the new owner is young, talented and committed to providing locals and visitors with local sourced, fresh, tasty, and affordable meals. This is a family affair, while he’s in back creating down home culinary delights; like hand cut fries and home made pies, his wife and his mother are out front taking orders, delivering food and filling water glasses.  The food here is really good and they make a killer root beer float!  

After lunch we head back “home” and are greeted with hugs by Mike Smith (the owner) and wags and licks from Zoe and Zander (his golden retrievers.)

We originally plan to stay only a few days, but it’s rainy and hailing and the Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and Mike has one opening over the weekend so we stay put for a week. Between thunderstorms, we get in a short hike and a visit to the Fossil beds visitor center. It’s a nice relaxing week. (As if there were any other kind for us LOL.)

Yakama Nation
RV Park, stay in your rig
or a teepee

Next we continue north up the back roads to Toppenish, WA just south of Yakima.  We stay at the Yakama Nation RV Park. Although not the lush garden landscape of Fish House, it’s clean and comfortable with good Wi-Fi. Within walking distance is the Yakama Nations Cultural Center with an interesting Native American museum, gift shop, restaurant and theatre. Close by is the Legends Casino that gets a big thumbs up since we left with more green than when we arrived ;-) and we received half off coupons for their Thursday seafood buffet with lots-o-tasty Dungeness crab!

The city of Toppenish is famous for it’s murals.  There are over seventy murals on buildings and walls throughout the two square mile city depicting the history of the area.  Some of the murals were privately commissioned, but many were produced at the Toppenish Mural Society’s annual “Mural in a Day” that occurs on the first Saturday of June. It just so happens that we’re there for the event, so we head into town and watch paint dry…  We also take in the Northern Pacific Railroad Museum and The American Hop Museum.  Although we love beer we never really considered where the hops come from or how they are produced…well now we know and recommend a stop at this little interesting museum.

2013 Mural in a Day

Watching Paint Dry...

Toppenish Mural

even the police have one!

After learning about railroad history and hop production we stop at the Taqueria Mexicana and have a great meal and some cold beers. Their salsa (one spicy and one mild are really tasty.  The side order of Guacamole is outstanding. It is so fresh that we suspect that it is made to order.  The Chimichanga is delicious, the meat tender and tortilla crispy but not greasy.  The Chile Verde: tasty, spicy and the portions generous. (Enough to take some home and create some breakfast burritos the next morning.) 

Now, with one week until our ferry departs for Alaska we head for Bellingham…

k