“It’s not the destination. It’s the journey.”

We really enjoyed Alaska – the awesome scenery (we saw Denali!), wildlife (bears, caribou, moose, Dahl sheep, fox, wolves, eagles, musk oxen, porcupine, sea lions, otters, puffins, dolphins, and whales), fresh fish (halibut and salmon), exotic meat (elk, buffalo, reindeer, and yak), outstanding craft beers (11 breweries), and friendly people, but today we began our […]

Fairbanks – “Where the people are unusual and the beer is unusually good”

Today was a very rainy, eclectic day. We started early by going to the railroad depot where the TVMRR (Tanana Valley Model Railroad) Club has an HO scale model railroad layout that’s open to the public in the morning before the real train leaves for Denali. Then we went to The Great Alaskan Bowl Company […]

Onward to Fairbanks

Left Talkeetna and drove north again, this time passing Denali to head on up to Fairbanks. Kevin and Megan left us at Healy, to grocery shop at the only, but fortunately well stocked market there, Three Bears, before going back to work at the campground. It rained most of the way to Fairbanks, sometimes a […]

Talkeetna

Visited the unique little town of Talkeetna. It appears that the moose is their mascot, as evidenced by many colorful statues throughout the town. Had a fantastic breakfast of sourdough pancakes and reindeer sausage at the Roadhouse. Check out the “wild life” Talkeetna is a stop for the Alaskan Railroad on the way to Denali […]

DENALI

Arrived at the campground where Kevin and Megan are the campground hosts. It’s a quiet, beautiful campground and I can see why they’ve taken this job for three seasons in a row now, despite the fact that there is no cell or internet. The Alaskan range Polychrome Glaciers Denali! Only about 30% of the people […]

Wait for it

Going into Denali today to stay for 3 days without any internet or cell phone! Oh no 😱 We’re staying at Teklanika Campground where Kevin is the campground host. So my next post wouldn’t be until Sunday, August 12. Wish us luck!! We’ll run the Spot today so you can follow us there.

Denali Highway

Drove the Jeep on the Denali Highway from Cantwell to Paxson and back, a total of 268 miles. Only the first 3 miles and last 21 miles were paved. The rest was unpaved and described in the Milepost book as ranging “from good gravel to rough and rocky” with “stretches of washboard and potholes”. But […]

Mushrooms!

Continued on our way to Denali today and stopped in Denali State Park, hoping to see the mountain. But as usual, clouds covered it so we went on a short nature walk. Really glad we did, as we saw some amazing mushrooms. Then on to the Broad Pass. Spending the night in Cantwell at the […]

Rain and road work

Left Anchorage this morning to head north, and we were treated to 2 of Alaska’s specialities- rain and road work! What a mess! About 10 or so miles of the Parks Highway was being rebuilt just south of Talkeetna. Mud and gravel made traffic slow. It stopped at times and there were major drop offs […]

Whittier

Drove the jeep to Whittier today to see the Portage Glacier. Saw both a bear and a moose! The only road into Whittier goes through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It’s a single lane and both trains and cars use this tunnel, so there’s a schedule to allow both railway and highway traffic. It takes […]