Family Adventures: Part 2

              And we're back! Unfortunately, the drive down to Homer was a wet one but as we rolled into town the clouds parted and we were able to see the amazing view of the surrounding oceans and mountains. As we drove out onto the Homer Spit we stopped for dinner at a local seafood place. There we met the brother and wife of a family friend and had a wonderful time hearing about their travels and Alaska life. They work at a Peony Farm out in Homer and have traveled extensively across the west coast with their fifth wheel camper. After a wonderful dinner we retired to our campgrounds for some much needed sleep.

The next day was a big day for us. We drove 9 and a half hours from Homer, AK all the way to Cantwell (which is just below Denali National Park). It was a long drive but a beautiful one to say the least. On the drive out of Homer we got to see a large float plane taxi and take off as well as a mother eagle with three eaglets roosting in their nest.  Shortly after we left the coastal mountains and the ocean we made our journey inland towards Denali. We managed to stop at a few quilt shops since Adam’s mom, Teresa, owns one back in Wisconsin and we got to check out the beautiful Alaska themed fabrics.  We even got to stop at The Moose’s Loose Bakery and grabbed some delicious treats. As we got closer to our destination, Denali Mountain appeared through the clouds and we were able to get pictures of its beautiful peak. We crossed Alaska's tallest bridge along the way-Hurricane Gulch with a height of 528 feet. After a looonngg day of driving we pulled into the RV park for some sleep before we had to get up early the next morning for our next adventure!

Mt. Denali peaking out of the clouds!

Looking down from the tallest bridge in AK!

The next morning we had an early start as we headed into Denali National Park. We were taking an 8 hour bus ride into the park to Eielson Visitor Center. The weather seemed to have a mind of its own as it drizzled rain the entire day. Now you may think that is bad but it worked in our favor. All the animals were more active and we got the experience of a life time! At our first stop looking over the braided streams of Toklat River we looked out and saw three wolves on the silty banks making their way across. Our bus driver said she had only seen them one other time this year so we won the lottery with that sighting. There are only 48 wolves left in Denali and out of six million acres we got a chance to see three of them in the first hour. We considered ourselves might lucky but the fun was not over. Not even 30 minutes later the bus stopped in the middle of the road to watch a grizzly bear and two cubs (both yearlings). They put on quite a show as they walked towards our bus and then began to rub all over the tree right next to us. We watched them until they disappeared and thought surely it cannot get better than that! About an hour we saw a few heards of caribou off in the distance and before we knew what was happening another mama grizzly with two baby cubs comes walking down the mountains in front of us. The bus driver could not get over the fact that we saw two sets of grizzly cubs in one day as this is a rarity. We watched them cross the road not 30 yards from us as they made their way across and up the next mountain. We seriously could not believe our luck! Soon after that we made our way to the Visitor Center where Adam and I completed our worksheets and were sworn in as Denali National Park Jr. Rangers, the crowning achievement of our lives thus far. After lunch we headed back onto the bus where we made our way back out of the park. The caribou were spotted all over the hills and about an hour into the ride back we caught another grizzly crossing the road, this one was alone and blonde as could be. After that last sighting we settled in and didn’t see anything for quite a while until we hit the moose jam on the road. There were about eight buses pulled over all looking for what we heard was a moose. So we are all looking and looking, of course there are tons of trees around and we don’t know what the other buses are looking at. As we slowly inched our way forward, the moose came into view. Now we have seen lots of moose in our time up here but nothing like these. This moose put all of our moose to shame! The rack on this bull moose was so huge that we cannot even describe it in words. The picture needs to speak for itself. We ended up seeing three more massive moose and one cow moose on the drive back out. So we saw a grand total of three wolves, seven grizzly bears, six moose and countless caribou. How we got so lucky we are unsure but we were all incredibly happy with our bus ride!

Gotta scratch the back...

If momma's back itches, then so does mine!

 

The wolves...

Hands down the biggest moose we have ever seen!

Caribou

 

Before leaving Denali National Park we got to see a sled dog demonstration, the visitor center and the gift shop (the best place of all). Then we made our way onto dinner at a favorite of ours, the Salmon Bake. After visiting the “Denali Dells” or “Glitter Gulch” as the locals like to call it we made our way north to Fairbanks for the night.

The next morning we had a surprise for our guests. We did not tell them where we were going but we directed them where to go until we reached our destination; Gold Dredge 8. Upon arriving we got on a train that took us around as they talked about the gold mining history of Fairbanks, showing various places and equipment used along the ride. Soon the train came upon the Gold Dredge 8, a gold mining machine used for many years. There they talked about how the machine worked and how they had to make and assemble in San Francisco, disassemble, ship to Alaska to then be loaded onto 114 train cars to be brought to Fairbanks and re-assembled. Soon after we were shown how to pan for golf and we then handed our very own bags of pay dirt and we all got a chance to practice panning. We all struck it rich with our gold and afterwards they weighed it to tell you how much it was worth. Out of our group Dennis discovered $32 worth of gold and Ashley had a meager $7 with everyone else in between. It was a fun experience and they rounded out the tour with a talk on the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System which happens to run over the Gold Dredge 8 property. Afterwards we made our way northeast to Chena Hot Springs Resort. There we were taken on an Ice Museum tour. Now you may remember this from one of our earlier blog posts, we had gone here back in the end of April and thought it was so cool that we would bring a few of our visitors back. We all donned our parkas and headed into the 27 degrees Fahrenheit museum. It was just as amazing as we remembered it. We toured the hotel rooms and got ourselves the apple martini made in an ice glass. It was a great time and afterwards we took a soak in the hot springs to warm up! The hot springs felt amazing but you could only spend about 20 minutes in them before it got too hot and you needed to get out and cool off. We then explored the area some more, checking out all the neat old machinery that they had turned into flowerbeds.

Gold Dredge 8

Panning for gold!

 

Ice Museum!

 



Afterwards we made our way back to the campground we had stayed at the night before and we had some issues…The past few days the smoke alarm had been acting up and going off a lot when we were cooking breakfast, we took the battery out but it didn’t stop blaring so we thought it must be hard-wired in. Well that night the alarm went off three times at random and we were about ready to rip it right off the ceiling. Dennis and Larry took the battery out and then unscrewed the fire alarm and planned to cut the wires if it would not stop but as they loosened it from the ceiling they soon realized to our shock that it was not hard wired in. So somehow the fire alarm was going off without a battery in it…we thought it might be a ghost alarm, trying to drive us from the camper and make us the most hated rv in all the park. Then we figured out it was the CO2 detector the was placed near the floor. In such a small space it was hard to tell where the alarm was coming from so we always assumed it was the fire alarm. We soon realized we must have a leak in the LP somewhere so we turned it off and slept with the windows open. Mystery solved. The Scooby Doo team would have been proud.

The next day we spent driving down from Fairbanks and explored along the way. We got the chance to explore the rustic/eclectic town of Talkeetna and try some delicious food. While having a late breakfast at the Roadhouse the power went out which was a fun/unique surprise. Luckily, they got the generator going so we could have our sourdough pancakes and pecan rolls. From there we headed to Hatcher Pass to explore Independence Mine and see if we could find some gold ourselves...alas all we found was Fool's Gold. We made it with some time to spare at the campground and were able to catch some of the Olympics. The next day Adam and Ashley were dropped off for work while the family went to explore Anchorage. They returned the RV, explored the farmers market & festival, toured the Ulu factory and when we were able to join them we got a chance to see multiple neat films on Alaska at the Visitor Center. We had a goodbye dinner at Spenard Roadhouse-home of the Bacon Jam Burger...you heard us right! They make a bacon jam and man was that delicious! We will definitely be going back for more! Unfortunately the time came to say goodbye and after many hugs we wished them well on their flight home.

We spent the next two days recovering and now it's time to get ready for Ashley's parents to visit! Round #3 of visitors begins tomorrow! Let the games begin!

-The A-Team