North to Alaska

		Alaska Interior VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Our most recent adventure took us to the “Interior” of Alaska, specifically Fairbanks and Denali National Park and Preserve. We have previously visited the Inland Passage, Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula with whale watching and ocean wildlife. This trip to the Interior (the largest region of Alaska, characterized by discontinuous permafrost and tundra) was to see the “Big 5”- Moose, Caribou, Grizzly Bears, Dall Sheep, and Wolves; and of course to actually see Mt. McKinley instead of the ever-present cloud cover. We also wanted to get farther north toward the Arctic Circle than we previously have been. How to fit Alaska into small photo rectangles? It is immense, massive, overwhelming, wild, indescribable, vast, and filled with wonder, so impossible to capture in a small box.

Alaska has always been one of our favorites with its Last Frontier motto and wide open spaces filled with wilderness and rural living. As most of you know, Alaska was purchased from Russia during the Abraham Lincoln days and remained a territory until the late 1950s. When it became a state, USA added 20% to its size and Texas had to step down as the largest state (Alaska is 2½ x larger than Texas.)

The Alaskan flag has the Big Dipper on it (“Ursa Major” or “Great Bear”) a symbol for Alaska, and a symbol of the far Northern location. In 1884 the Alaska territory was composed of settlements without an organized political structure. The Federal Government established one with a temporary capital in Sitka, a governor appointed by the president, and the laws of Oregon in 1884 would apply.

Some interesting facts about Alaska: it has half of the world’s active volcanoes; 19 mountains over 14,000 feet tall including the tallest in North America (Mount McKinley 20,320 feet); and over half of the world’s glaciers. It also has more than 4000 earthquakes per year, more than the other 49 states combined. We experienced one in Anchorage that rocked our breakfast table. The Alaskan coastline is longer than the entire coastline of the contiguous US, the lower 48 states.

Fairbanks is located near the N65th parallel and is called the “Land of the Midnight Sun.” It is also one of the best spots to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) during the winter months. We had 20 hours between sunrise and sunset, but were surprised it was dawn and dusk in the time in-between so it never got dark (at this time of year.) Flowers and vegetables grow to uncanny size with the amount of daylight. Fairbanks had that small town feeling and reminded us of the 50s and 60s decades. People are fairly independent and self-sufficient and claim to have a hardware store that sells a record amount of duct tape. Moose abound like deer in other states. Fairbanks began with the Gold Rush frenzy starting in 1902. Fairbanks was more recently the construction headquarters for the 800 mile Alyeska pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez (Gulf of Alaska). We took the train from Fairbanks to Denali, and later Denali to Anchorage. Sitting in the Gold Star seating, we enjoyed the stunning scenery dome viewing for 470 miles.

Denali National Park was originally named Mt. McKinley National Park, but was changed as acreage was added and the National Park became larger than the state of Massachusetts. Denali means “The Great One” in the indigenous language. The mountain name was never changed from Mt. McKinley, but locals do call it Denali as well as the Park. July has only four days on average that allow partial viewing of the top of the mountain, and with an inordinate amount of rain this year, there had been zero days. Only 30% of the visitors to Alaska get to see the top of Mt McKinley and we definitely wanted to be in that percentage. On July 30^th we awoke to the sunniest day in a month with clear pristine views. We took the free bus to Savage River, saw Mount McKinley, and hiked for hours up and up on the alpine trail as the clear day lingered. What a gift- we did it!

Only 7% of Park visitors go all the way to Kantishna at the end of the gravel road into the park (92 miles), a 6 hour ride. We not only did that, seeing an abundance of wildlife on the ride in, but also stayed in the Backcountry Lodge at the end of the road. We got a second chance to see a partial view of the mountain from Wonder Lake, reliving the famous John Muir photograph. Wildflowers abound, even if July. Denali National Park is all about its famous wildlife residents. Denali is home to 2,000 moose, 2,000 caribou, 51 wolves, 350 grizzly bears, and 2,500 Dall sheep – for whose protection the park was started. We saw all of them multiple times, except the wolves. We were surprised how few wolves there are (only 51!) for such a vast territory. On this trip we also saw sandhill cranes, golden and bald eagles, snowy owls, ground squirrels, marmots, willow ptarmigans (the State bird), and too many mosquitoes for this late in the summer. In the backcountry, we noticed that the young employees there were very laid-back. We attributed it to their isolation (cannot commute with 6 hour travel time) and no internet, mobile phones, radio or television. Their stimulus and entertainment was being in the wilderness and exploring it.

After our 6 hour bus ride out of the park, we caught the train to Anchorage. In Anchorage, we enjoyed seafood, exploring downtown, and seeing one of Ron’s high school friends who has lived in Alaska for over 35 years! We enjoyed the visit with him and he loaded us down with canned salmon (that he caught and canned) and canned moose meat (that he hunted and canned). Can’t be more Alaskan than that.

We reluctantly said good-bye to Alaska again, with the promise to return. Maybe to Fairbanks to see the northern lights? Who knows what and when our next adventure will be in this continuing gypsy lifestyle. Stay tuned!

California mountains, sea, & redwooods

 

		California National Parks VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We’ve been asked what happened to our blog and can only say that we have been having too much fun hiking, camping, spending time in nature, and being disconnected to spend any time on it. Since leaving Arizona, we have been in the California National Parks and forests and have been having a ball. We have been to Channel Islands NP accessible only by boat or air; Sequoia NP with the largest trees (mass) in the world; King’s Canyon NP with its spectacular scenery; unsurpassed Yosemite NP that John Muir loved; Tahoe NF around magnificent Lake Tahoe; Lassen NP with its volcanic rock; and Redwoods NP with its rainforests and the tallest trees in the world. So this blog entry is mostly photographs which certainly do not do justice to Mother Nature. We hope you are well and happy and enjoying your summer.

Happy Trails! Pat & Ron

A Winter of Sunshine

		Desert Winter 2013-2014 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We’ve received several queries as to what happened to our blog postings and when are we going to start travelling again, so this blog is to describe our winter on the desert.

We continued our recent snowbird pattern of renting a condo for those short winter days. When it is dark so early in the afternoon, our camper is a very small space to spend so many hours! We chose Gilbert Arizona, outside of Phoenix, for Nov, Dec & Jan. We were blessed with dry, sunny, and warm weather for all three months, fully appreciating that this was a brutal winter in much of the country. Since we have visited most places in Arizona, we decided to concentrate on getting more fit. We needed to lose the weight that we had gained on our Europe jaunts (and more) and to push ourselves to do something active every single day. That consisted of swimming, hiking, biking, tennis, long walks, yoga, lifting weights, jogging, or the elliptical machine, usually followed by a soak in the hot tub. These activities took dedication and time, became addictive, and were thoroughly enjoyed, but it doesn’t make for very interesting blog material.

We enjoyed visits with friends & family during this time. We took advantage of Farmer’s markets, Christmas concerts, the Fiesta Bowl parade and game, scenic drives up the Salt River Canyon and the Apache Trail, hikes up Camelback and in the Superstition Mountains, and the beauty of the desert with its wide open skies and beautiful sunsets.

We left the Sonoran Desert and the Saguaros behind and drove up to Las Vegas through the Mojave Desert with all of the Joshua Trees. We went to Lake Mead and crossed the Colorado River over the new bridge next to Hoover Dam. We stayed for 2 weeks in a condo off the Strip and enjoyed hiking in Red Rocks Canyon & exploring the area. We visited the infamous Pawn Shop of the Pawn Stars TV show. Of course we did visit the Strip and Fremont Street downtown. We stopped by the Paris (one of our favorites) for a crepe and a glass of wine and, in fact, we ran into long-time friends there. We had to stop in on our favorite stops; the LED-lit Fremont Street with all of the neon, the Bellagio for the fountains and the Chihully glass ceiling, the changing sky in the Forum in Caesar’s Palace, Margaritaville and the live flamingos in the Flamingo…well, you get the idea. There is so much to do in this town besides gamble. For Valentine’s Day we stayed at the Mirage, watched the volcano go off from our room, and took in a show.

Heading south back into Arizona, the town of Kingman is the “Heart of Route 66” and the longest continuous ribbon (158 miles) of “America's Mother Road.” Nearby we drove over Sitgreaves Pass on Historic Route 66. The 52 miles between Kingman and the Colorado River (near Topock) is the original Mother Road. It is laughable compared to today’s highway standards as it is narrow, has no shoulders, has dips and bumps and curves that explain Pat’s childhood motion sickness. Predating the declaration of Route 66 in 1926, it was cut to pour in a stream of prospectors looking to stake a claim in the Oatman Gold Rush of 1902. It is representative of the Mother Road mentioned in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and best symbolizes the Route 66 of the American Great Depression of the1930s and Midwest drought when thousands of families loaded up all of their possessions and headed to California. [92% of them eventually returned.] This is the longest stretch that remains of original Route 66. Wild burros, descendants of those let loose in the mining days, still roam the nearby hills and sometimes the streets.

Next destination on our desert route was to follow the Colorado River south to Lake Havasu City in Arizona. Lake Havasu City is a town that grew in 1971 after the re-installation of the London Bridge as a tourist attraction in this desert location. Everybody thought the guy was crazy but, crazy like a fox as he laughed all the way to the bank. It is now a tourist destination and a town of 52,000, including a popular Spring Break destination. Thank goodness we will be gone by the time the crowds arrive.

Travelling further south along the Colorado River we noticed that the river diminishes quickly. The water is siphoned off for population areas (e.g. The Central Arizona Project) as well as agriculture (The Imperial Valley which grows 90% of vegetables grown in US). The Colorado River is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas in the southwestern desert lands, as well as a water supply for almost 40 million people. Recent intensive water consumption has dried the lower 100 miles of the river such that it no longer reaches the sea (Gulf of California) except in years of heavy runoff (not recently with this severe drought in the West.) The Colorado River is now considered among the most controlled (Glen Canyon, Hoover, and Parker dams) and most litigated in the world, with every drop of its water fully allocated. That doesn’t leave much for Mexico. It was noticed that the bird migratory path following the Colorado River had been destroyed. Thanks to an effort to restore the bird wetland habitat, several national wildlife refuges have been established near where the Colorado River used to be and the birds returned.

We arrived at Yuma, Arizona, just a few miles from the Mexican border. Is this the same mighty Colorado River that we saw the headwaters in the Rockies, on which we white-water rafted on in Colorado, on which we canoed in Utah, which cuts its way through the Grand Canyon, which forms Lake Powell and Lake Meade. It is hard to believe as there is not much water left. We can walk across it to get from Arizona to California. Yuma is known as the “Gateway to the West” and was the only [previously] major river crossing in the desert. Major travelling routes of Gila River, De Anza, and Butterfield Stage all passed through Yuma to California. Native Americans, the ‘49ers looking for gold, immigrants, conquistadors, padres, adventurers, and armies all found this route advantageous to use. The “Ocean to Ocean” bridge across the Colorado River completed the highway and the ability to travel coast to coast as it is the only place to cross the Colorado River for over one thousand miles. Yuma, with its 4000 hours of sunshine a year holds the Guinness Book record for the sunniest spot on earth.

California and the Pacific Ocean here we come! It has been a fabulous winter for us with the weather being the most ideal for outdoor activities. We look forward to Spring Equinox, longer days, and having adventures in California. So, until next time, Happy Trails.