Denali Hwy - National Park

 Alaskan Range & glacier viewed from the Denali Hwy

After leaving Wrangell-St Elias I continued west skirting the Cooper River Basin towards GlenAllen.  From there it was north up towards Paxson where I would get on the Denali Highway headed to the Denali National Park. My plan  was  to lay up for  5-7 days once in the park.  Would have to pay for camping there but wouldn't be spending much on gas. Having been to Denali twice before, I was looking forward to it again as the photo opportunities are excellent.  But first, the Denali Highway, which is little used and poorly maintained, and closed to all traffic from October to mid-May each year.  It's about 140 miles in length with about 23 of that being paved. The rest is pretty beat up dirt/gravel and is slow going but well worth the drive as it passes through some the most beautiful scenery in the state.  It would dump me out just south of the National Park.  I ended up taking two nights and three days to do it as there is just so much to see, free camping, great hiking, and the fishing wasn't bad either.

Musher working his team in preparation for the winter season

Wildlife viewing is really good along this corridor.

 Campsite.

 Drone shot of campsite.

 Campsite.  Grayling fishing here was very good!

 Glacier in the background.

 What a view from this place.

 Mr. Bear left a calling card right outside camp during the night.

 Alaskan Raven in camp one evening.

Petey surveying the situation.

Once I arrived in Denali National Park I checked in at the camp center to pay for a campsite.  I ended up spending 4 nights in one camp and then moved further into the park and stayed at Savage River for two more.  I hiked, drove into the park each evening for photo ops and generally just hung out with Petey the rest of the time.  Only touristy thing I did was attend the lecture by the park service on their sled dog operations. The park still utilizes sled dogs during the winter months to conduct back-country patrols.  I took what is one of my favorite shots from the entire trip while there.

One of my favorites.

Trying to catch up on the blog posts and will post more on Alaska soon.

Wrangell-St Elias National Park

Nabesna Road leading into Wrangell-St Elias

After doing the Top of the World Highway and crossing into Alaska, I was headed towards the town of Tok and then west towards Glennallen.  In between lies Wrangell-St. Elias National Park where I planned to set up camp for a while and spend a few days in one spot.   After almost a month on the road I needed to hole up somewhere and simply stay put.  Wrangell-St. Elias Park is our nation's largest National Park, six times the size of Yellowstone, consisting of over 13,000,000 acres.  That's correct, 13 million! Nine of the sixteen highest peaks in the United States are here and four of them soar to over sixteen thousand feet. There are more than one hundred and fifty glaciers as well with one, the Malaspina, being larger than Rhode Island.  Approximately 25% or 5000 square miles, of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is glacial ice.  This represents about 60% of the glacial ice in the entire state of Alaska. It's an impressive area to put it mildly.  Another major plus is that it receives very few visitors, especially this part of the park.  No major towns near any of the entrances and no services once in the park.  There are a few old mining towns, one being McCarthy, which I'll end up in later on this trip and a few private holdings.  It's the kind of place you can drive into, get out of your vehicle and literally walk off into true wilderness. If you like remote, this is the place.  In the picture above you could walk for hundred of miles on either side of the road before crossing another road. I ended up not having the best weather days while here and really didn't get to see much of the mountains but had a great time with some good wildlife viewing.  I was able to get a couple of peeks at the summit of Mount Sanford (Elev 16,237 ft) on the drive in as the clouds parted for me.  Due to the weather I didn't stay as long as planned and only spent two nights in this part of the park.

Beautiful red fox showed up in camp late one evening.  I suspect he'd been receiving handouts at some point due to his lack of fear approaching my camp. He really had no fear of me unless I approached him directly.  Even with Petey raising hell he didn't seem to mind.  Ended up putting Petey away as I wasn't sure what could come of that. Shame that people out there are uninformed and feed wild animals.  The animal then lose their fear of humans, which in the long run, is harmful to the animal.  He got nothing from me and I eventually ran him off but it was a great encounter and I was able to get some good pictures.

 Grey Wolf spotted on the road 

 Small black bear with a nice catch

Trumpet Swan on one of the many lakes along the Nabesna road

View of the lake I was camped on

 A private hunting camp located at the end of the Nabesna road.

At the end of the Nabesna road, you can park and then hike in about two miles to the old Rambler Mine.  Lots of old buildings and abandoned equipment to check out.  The view from up top is good, but I was basically in the clouds up top so didn't take any pictures worth posting.  Saw lots of bear sign on the hike in but no bears. Hiked into this shaft a little ways and then thought better of it and came out.  Being in here by yourself is no place to get injured.

Funny story on the picture below.  After leaving the park after I didn't get out until late on the third day.  Since it was late I pulled off after reaching the highway and started down a gravel road and went in about 4 or 5 miles looking for a spot to camp.  Came around the corner and came upon this mess.  As I was preparing to turn around a guy comes out with a big ass machete and I guess once he sees that I wasn't a government official or even worse law enforcement, he waves and starts talking, and talking, and talking, and talking!  I so wanted to take his picture as he was one funny looking dude but he'd have none of that.  Told me he was being hunted by the CIA and he'd been back up the road for about 3 months hiding out.  I inquired as to what he'd done and he said he wasn't quite sure, but he was being hunted nonetheless.   Didn't take me long to figure out he was a simply a nut job living back in here for whatever reason. I think he was lonely and was just glad to have someone to ramble on with. Wanted to know if Petey and I wanted to come inside his tent and look around but I wasn't real comfortable with that.  He seemed nice enough, but that big ass machete dangling from his hand convinced me that shooting the shit with him from the truck would do just fine.  Was able to sneak in this one picture.  Can't imagine what he had going on inside that mess. I know the inside of his head was going in many, many directions.  Oh, the people you can run into out here.

Olympic National Park

Have now been back from my trip up north a little over a week and have already loaded back up and spent a couple more nights in the camper.  Petey and I love being out in the woods just roaming around. Tiffany and Max were on a college viewing tour to San Diego and Denver so I figured since the weather was almost perfect I'd do a little exploring over in the Olympic National Park.  I've still got lots of catching up to do on future posts from my trip up north to Alaska and plan to get to them soon.  Figured I'd go ahead and post up this little excursion while it's fresh.  I had read about a road off of Hurrican Ridge called Obstruction Point Road so I wanted to check it and do a little hiking up top.  Had been told that it's a real sketchy road and can be dangerous.  A huge exaggeration in my opinion. Funny how anything the government has control over they tend to inflate the potential danger.  Try Lippincott Road in Death Valley if you want something that can give you a little "pucker factor" depending on the conditions.  Tiffany and I did it this past spring pulling a trailer and the "pucker factor" was going strong.  Click on the following link for the trip to Death Valley.  Obstruction Point road has beautiful views but as far as being dangerous.....it's not! Perhaps if one is an idiot, vehicle has no brakes, driving drunk, blind, etc., etc., I'd say it's a road to pay attention to, nothing more. I drove in taking my time and actually survived! The road dead ends up top around 5500 feet and offers a great view of the Olympic Range. Here one has a selection of trails which access the surrounding ridgelines or drop rapidly down to a couple of valleys. I got up top around 2:00 in the afternoon and after letting Petey chase (he never catches anything) Marmots for over an hour, then decided to go for about a 4-mile hike along the ridgeline.  When I got back there were no other cars to be seen, the weather was perfect, a beautiful sunset was starting to unfold and I had beer in the cooler, sardines and crackers, so I decided to spend the night right where I was parked. Not an official campsite but didn't figure anyone would come along since it's an eight-mile drive from pavement to get here.  I knew there would be a full moon and there wasn't a cloud in the sky or a breath of wind.  Figured it would be worth it to stay put for the night even if the temps would probably drop somewhat considering I had gained a little altitude coming in.  The temps got down around 40 but we were toasty in the bag. A beautiful night and I had it all to myself.  When I finally rolled off the following morning at 9:30 I still hadn't seen anyone.

Hike along the ridgeline towards Grand Pass

Camp for the night

Full moon was really something. When I got up the following morning it was still high and easily visible.  I don't think I've seen the moon stay up this long once the sun came up.  I was up at daybreak and watched the sun come up in the east while the moon was still prominent in the west.  Got this shot about 8:00 am that morning.

Let Petey do his thing for another hour and then loaded up and headed to the Sol Duc area of the park.

 Petey on the hunt.....but capturing nothing!

The drive to Sol Duc is another nice drive which takes you along Crescent Lake.  A hike in from the Storm King Ranger Station takes you to some old growth forest and the Marymere Falls.

 Some old growth

 Selfie at Marymere Falls

Spent the rest of the day just kinda doing nothing.  Couple of short hikes and some pull overs next to the Sol Duc River for some shots.  There is a hot springs on the Sol Duc road but it's pretty commercialized and expensive.  Rather than make the springs somewhat natural they've put in a swimming pool.  Shame because it's a beautiful setting.  I've been in it once many years ago but haven't been back since.  Probably never go again.

Fall colors along the Sol Duc River

Stayed up in the Sol Duc area until dark and decided to drive back to Port Angeles for the night where I got another free campsite.  Wal-Mart parking lot!  Was just trying to shave some time off the drive home and Wal-Mart was calling.  I'll bet there were another 30 rigs in the lot.  Some I talked with were waiting to catch the ferry over to Vancouver Island the following day.  I wonder what Wal-Mart makes in sales off of RV'ers since they allow them to stay over for free.  I know they ended up with some of my money.

Will be continuing with the Alaska/British Colombia posts soon.  Stay tuned!

Crossing into Alaska

Homemade houseboat on the Yukon River

Now that I'm back in the real world I'll try and get caught up on the trip.  My last post had Petey and I spending our last week on the Dempster in the Yukon.  I could have easily spent another week or two in this area alone but needed to keep heading west and south towards Alaska.  Having been up north of the Arctic Circle we'd had some snow and cold temps so were anxious to get a little further south.  Petey does not do cold well and I'm not a big fan either.  After getting off the Dempster, I headed back into Dawson City to wash the rig and gas up before catching the free ferry across the Yukon River to access the Top of the World Highway.  Another dirt/gravel road that offers some great scenery.  I also wanted to take the side road which takes you up to the village of Eagle, Ak.  Upon arriving in Dawson City, they were having the annual Outhouse Races so of course I had to stop and see that. I had met a girl on the Dempster that had been travelling and living on the road solo for the past year. I'm taking some pictures and noted she was in the race.  Talked with her later and she said she was just walking down the street and one of the teams needed a member and asked her to race. Heard from her via email later that she ended up making some new friends and stayed in Dawson City longer than planned.  Since I had been in Dawson City the previous summer there wasn't really much I wanted to see so after taking care of some business I caught the ferry and camped just across the river.

Outhouse race in Dawson City

Cheering section for one of the teams

Dawson City is a unique spot in the Yukon.  Once the center of the Klondike Gold Rush back in the late 1890's.  It has now parlayed that history and its unique character into a tourist spot during the summer months.  Town has no paved streets, wooden sidewalks, no stop lights, its fair share of tourist shops and a thriving community feel to it.  Without the tourist trade during the summer months though I'm not sure how it would fare.  You have to come through it to get to the Top of the World and to cross back over into Alaska so you'll visit it whether you want to or not if coming this way.

Dawson City along the Yukon River

Downtown Dawson City

An area worth exploring from the campground is the old steam wheeler graveyard which is an easy hike downstream along the shore of the Yukon River. It's a spot where some of the old steam wheelers were scuttled after they'd reached their end of service.  Fun spot to crawl around and view some history.

Current "tourist" paddle boat which hauls passengers out on the Yukon from Dawson City

Following morning it was over the top with a side trip into Eagle, Alaska.  Born out of the Klondike Gold Rush it was a stopover spot for the steam wheelers. Eagle became a supply and trading center for miners working the upper Yukon River and its tributaries back in the late 1800's.  It is also a checkpoint for the Iditarod Dogsled Race held annually up here.  Another spot that is worth making the effort to get to. Nice BLM campground just outside of town.  Road coming in here was fairly beat up when I came in due to some recent rain which turned it into a mud bath but could be done in just about any vehicle when dry.

Backtracked the following morning back to the Top of the World and headed to Chicken, Alaska.  Another old mining town with a year-round population of about 20.  No power to the town so the two businesses run diesel generators for power.  Susan, who owns the bar and cafe offers free camping next to her place.  Only problem is the camping spots are located near the generators and they run until the bar closes down at night.  Night I camped, the revelers were out in full force and the generator didn't get shut off till 3:00 am.  You take your chances! Short video of Chicken pilfered from YouTube. Video of Chicken, Alaska

Border crossing back into Alaska

Downtown Chicken, Alaska

 Sweet rolls as big as your head!  Yes, they're good.

 Bar in Chicken

Some art work in Chicken

Headed to Denali National Park from here!