Richardson Hiway  

Bob enjoying the hot tub on Kluane Lake.  

Haines Junction

We've stopped at a bakery that has internet service, so have decided to make a posting as we will probably be without internet service for the next week or more. We will stop in Whitehorse tonight and then continue down the Cassiar Highway to Prince George. It will probably take us 4 or 5 days to travel to Prince George. From there we will be going to Jasper and east on highway 16 through Canada to Maine.

We have really enjoyed the section of the Alcan from Tok to here. The Kluane mountains are so beautiful. The road is rough so the traveling is pretty slow. Fall is fast making an appearance with lots of orange and yellow trees.

Kluane Lake along the Alcan. A very picture perfect day. 

Bob's trout that he caught near the Russian River on the Kenai Peninsula. 

Connie and our baby, Buddy. He just turned 1 year old. Near Kenai Lake. 

Keani Lake from near our campsite at Quartz Creek. 

Kennecott Copper Mine. This is an abandoned mine that is being restored by the Park Service. We rode our bikes in 5 miles from road end. (All uphill, but the ride down was wonderful.) 

The Silver Salmon that Bob caught in Valdez fishing from the beach. He was one happy fisherman. 

Keani to Valdez

While staying at the Kenai Princess RV park, we took a hike on Saturday to the Russian River Falls. Bob caught a 15 inch rainbow trout. I kidded him that this was his $50 fish. (the cost of the fishing license for two weeks.) We then moved over to the Quartz Creek campground on Kenai Lake. We pulled in at about 11:45 just when someone was vacating a prime lakeside spot. We spent one day there. Bob went fishing and Connie took a bike ride. It was a really beautiful campground – although rather fishy smelling due to the number of spawning salmon.

It was finally time to leave the Kenai Peninsula. We headed back into Anchorage so that we could take care of some banking matters, get the oil changed on the truck, and get the RV slide fixed. We did this on Monday and Tuesday. We then headed for Palmer which is about 30 miles east of Anchorage where we spent the night in an RV park.

On Wednesday, August 24th, we spent the day driving east on the Glenn Highway. This is a really pretty area – very scenic. We stopped at a nice rest stop overlooking the Matanuska Glacier and took a 1 mile loop walk. We drove to Glennallen, and then headed south on the Richardson Highway towards Valdez. We stopped at an Alaskan State campground called Squirrel Creek. This was to be our home for the next 3 nights. On Thursday we drove 33 miles of paved road, followed by 59 miles of gravel into the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. It was quite a drive. Once at the road end, we unloaded our bikes and road 6 miles to the abandoned town of Kennicott. There is an old copper mine here that is being restored by the National Park Service. It’s a very interesting area along with a beautiful view of the Glacier. Then another 94 miles back to the fifth wheel. It was a long day.

On Friday, we drove down to Valdez. This is a stunning drive through Thompson Pass. We stopped at the Worthington Glacier on the way to Valdez. We wandered around Valdez, viewed a video about the 1964 earthquake, and then drove out to a place where I could hike and Bob could fish. I came back from my hike and Bob had only managed to snag about 6 spawning (almost dead) fish. I told him he was having chicken for dinner since he hadn’t managed to catch a fish. I went to get the truck, and as I came back, discovered that my threatening him worked. He had caught a very nice silver salmon. We leave for Tok on Saturday. More on our travels in the next blog.

A beautiful place in Alaska! 

Matanuska Glacier from the Glenn Highway. 

One more picture of granddaughter, Nichole, who is almost 16. They have now gone back to Everett. 

Homer to Seward

We traveled to Homer via Kenai-Soldotna. We left the grandkids with their grandfather, Mike, who just moved to Kenai. He arranged a flightseeing trip for them. They were able to stay there two days while we traveled down to Homer. On the way back up north, we picked up the grandkids and then headed to Seward. While in Seward we visited the SeaLife museum and went to Exit Glacier.

On our last night in Seward, we celebrated Connie's (58th) birthday. We also celebrated Nichole's 16th birthday (although hers doesn't happen until the 30th of August.) On Tuesday, August 16th we seperated from Sue and Richard, Christine and Steve, and Sandy and Dale. We had been traveling to and around Alaska with the 3 other couples since July 18th when we left Prince George, B.C. We then drove north towards Anchorage. We dropped the fifth wheel in a forest service campground about 60 miles south of Anchorage. We drove the grandkids to the airport in Anchorage for their flight back to Seattle. Now we were totally on our own.

We spent one night at the forest service campground at Glacier Creek, and then drove to Hope. We spent the next night at the Porcupine campground just outside of Hope. Bob tried his hand at fishiing for a little while. The town of Hope has some really interesting old buildings.

We've now travelled south on the Sterling Highway to Cooper Landing, Alaska. We're staying at the Kenai Princess RV park. It's attached to a beautiful lodge facility and we can use the hot tub. We're headed back to Anchorage on either Saturday or Sunday. We need to get the RV fixed and the truck serviced. We will then be headed to Valdez. More on that visit in our next post.

Exit Glacier. Nice little walk to view this Glacier. 

Connie, Cody, Sue, Nichole, and Richard ready to view Exit Glacier. This is near Seward, Alaska. 

Nichole, Richard, and Cody. We're at the SeaLife Center in Seward.  

Celebrating Connie and Nichole's birthday. In the picture also are Steve, Cody, and Sandy. Cody and Nichole are the grandkids. Also (Max) , Sue and Richard's puppy. 

The inside of birthday card from Nichole and Cody.  

Near Portage Glacier. We had taken a hike to Byron Glacier and this was looking back up the valley, so we're not sure which Glacier this is. But, it's sure beautiful!! 

Buddy, our cat, decided to ride on the dash for a few minutes. You can see the beautiful view of the Kenai Peninsula in the background. 

The grizzly we saw really close to our bus when we toured into Denali Park. Probably the highlight of the trip into the park. This bear was only about 20 feet from the bus. 

Alaska - Denali and Whittier

We spent three nights near Denali National Park. On Sunday, August 7,2005 we took a bus into the park. It left at 5:30 a.m. So, we were up really early that day. The bus traveled into the park for approximately 60 miles. It was a beautiful ride that included seeing several cariboo, moose and kid, showshoe rabbit, ptarmigan, ground squirrels, and 6 grizzly bear (but not much of the mountain). The last grizzly that we saw was very close to the bus. After leaving Denali we drove south to Anchorage. We had some very beautiful sights on Mt. McKinley that day.

We spent two nights in Anchorage. We went downtown to Anchorage one day and went shopping with the grandkids. We were also able to load up on supplies at Elmendorf Air Force base.

We then proceeded south to near Portage Glacier. We spent two nights at Willawaw campground about 1 mile north of the Portage Glacier visitor center. This was an wonderful Forest Service campground with outstanding views of several glaciers. From there we drove through the tunnel to Whittier and took a boat cruise. It was a 5 hour trip that included a nice prime rib/salmon all you can you eat meal. The grandkids enjoyed the trip and captured several great pictures.

The next day we spent the day near Portage and did a short hike and rode our bikes around a 3 mile trail several times. The coho salmon were spawning in the creek near the campground.

On Friday, August 12th we drove to Kenai and handed off the grandkids to their grandfather, Mike, so that they could spend a couple of days with him and their two brothers. We then headed south to Homer. More on Homer in the next blog.

Mt. McKinley at it's finest.  

Cody and Nichole (our grandkids) on boat tour from Whittier, Alaska. 

We took a trip from Whittier, Alaska to Blackstone Bay. It was a really georgous day. Pictured here are Nichole, Cody, Sue, Connie, and Bob in the first row. Then Richard Christine and Steve. 

Flowers on trip to Artic Circle 

Bob made it to the Artic Circle 

Fairbanks & Artic Circle - August 1,2005

On August 1st Bob, Sue, Sandy, and Christine drove to the Artic Circle from Fairbanks. It's about 200 miles one way from Fairbanks. They had an awesome trip. The flowers were georgous. They also saw a forest fire.

After their one day trip to the Artic Circle (leaving from Fairbanks), we drove south towards Anchorage. We spent one night in Denali State park. Then the next day drove about 50 miles south where we put the fifth wheel in an RV park. We then drove into Anchorage to retrieve our two grandchildren, Nichole (15) and Cody (14). That same evening we drove back to the fifth wheel.

The next day Nichole and Cody went fishing. Nichole was rewarded with her first ever fish. She named him 'Phil'. That didn't stop Bob from cooking and eating the fish. On the morning of August 5th we headed back north to Denali. We had some beauitful views of the mountain before it clouded back in. More on Denali in our next blog!!

Nichole with her first ever fish.