Alaska Trip – Page 6 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Day 17 July 22 The Denali Highway

Once again, we are camped within feet of a lake, but this time we are not just dry camping in a primitive campground, we are actually boondocking. We are just a bit more than 8 miles east of the Parks Highway and Cantwell on the Old Denali Highway 8. This road continues east to Highway 4, the road to Valdez, and then back north to Delta Junction where we were a few days ago. I am terribly behind in writing, and it seems the only way to get going again is for me to start with the here and now, this moment.

Mo is cutting some dead wood nearby along the lakeshore and feeding our campfire while we watch the evening sky shift and change across the lake. It smells wonderful. A very occasional car or truck passes our site, but we aren’t really visible until they are almost right on top of us, so that works just fine. This morning when we drove this highway, for a very long time we were the only ones on the road.

We began our day in the Riley Creek Campground at Denali National Park, with a 5:30 am drive west on the park road to Savage Creek, the extent where private vehicles are allowed in the park. Except for the green and white shuttle buses, already taking people into the deeper recesses of the wilderness, we were the only ones on the road. We thought perhaps an early morning drive might yield some critter viewing, but it wasn’t to be. Again, we saw squirrels and snow shoe hares and nothing else. Unlike yesterday, this morning the Mountain was clouded over and if we hadn’t seen it last night we would have had no idea where it was on the horizon.

The tundra was beautiful at dawn, though, with pale shades of misty green on the high hills to timberline glowing in the morning light. Once at the parking lot at the Savage Creek trail, we were delighted to be the only ones there. Rules said that we couldn’t leave Abby untended in the car, and of course she couldn’t go on the trail, so Mo sat with her while I took off on a beautiful, silent walk along the river. The only sound breaking the silence was the river, the sounds of birds calling, and an occasional rumble as a shuttle bus crossed the bridge to the security point. When Mo was here so many years ago, she was able to drive to a campground farther into the park, but even back then the only animals she saw were a small herd of caribou in the distance. There are no guarantees that you will see any wildlife at all, even on the bus that travels the entire 85 miles to Wonder Lake.

I have a friend, Jeanne, who lived in Alaska for several years and told me we should try the Denali Highway for a true wilderness experience without the crowds of Denali. So after our morning drive, we packed up the MoHo and headed south on the Parks Highway 3 toward Cantwell and the Denali Highway junction. Mo checked in with the owner of the Tesoro station at the junction and he said it would be fine to leave the MoHo there while we took the Tracker on the gravel road leading east through the wilderness.

I owe it to Jeanne, because we might not have taken the time and trouble to travel this long gravel road. Even though unpaved, the road was in much better shape than the Top of the World Highway, and we could have driven the MoHo all the way to the eastern junction with Highway 4 without any problems, I am sure. We spent many hours on the trip, mostly because I had to keep stopping to take pictures and walk out over the hills for wider vistas. Along the way, we saw many places that would be perfect for boondocking, but this one at mile 8 was our choice because of the lake and the proximity back to our route on Highway 3 south to Talkeetna tomorrow.

We drove as far east as the Susitna River crossing where the landscape changed dramatically. This is about the half way mark of the road, and also marks a great landscape shift where the Sustina River flows south to Cook Inlet, and the Nenana River we had been following for many miles flows north into the Tanana River, the Yukon, and eventually the Bering Sea.

The reward for our many miles of gravel road highway was the expansive wild landscape of the Nenana River valley flowing at the southern base of the Alaska Range. During the morning, on our route east, the skies were clear enough that we could see Mt Deborah and Mt Hess among the rugged peaks of this beautiful range that also is the home of Denali as well. The Susitna River lodge, east of the river, was boarded up, and when we decided to turn back at mile 77 we were starting to get a bit hungry. Silly me, I was so excited about the trip that I completely ignored the possibility that we might need sustenance, so we had nothing with us. A few miles west of the river is a tiny enterprise called Gracious House Lodge B&B at historic milepost 82, with the supposedly famous Sluice Box Bar, and a café.

We stopped thanks to the handwritten sign on the road proclaiming pie and espresso, but the restaurant was closed and the only pie available was a wondrous creation that had been frozen for $30 bucks each.

Carol was delightful, and assured me that her pies were world famous, and that if we weren’t outsiders, we would know that they were a deal at any price. I agreed with her, but still couldn’t quite opt for a 30 dollar pie. I did buy an espresso for me and a latte for Mo and enjoyed visiting with Carol who told me all about the lodge, the slow summer, the reason for closing the restaurant, and all about her kids, grandkids, and husband. They have lived here for 31 years, (her husband actually lived her for 55 years), have traveled the Highway to the south five times because they get cabin crazy, and are really wanting to sell the place and leave the wilderness.

With a good jolt of java we continued west, enjoying the views. For a day or two now, the exhaust pipe on the Tracker has been loose and rattling, and Mo tied it up with a piece of wire till we can get it welded. But the sound we suddenly heard on the gravel road was something new, and Mo pulled out immediately to a beautiful spot overlooking the Nenana River Valley and the Alaska Range to see one of her brand new tires going very flat. The spare was ready, the lug nuts were loose enough to actually remove, and we got the tire changed without a hitch. We were both amazed to see that the puncture was caused by the 1/2 inch hitch latch bolt that had run right into the tire. Who knows how it managed to get in there but it had punctured it and was all the way inside the tire.

We continued west back to Cantwell, checking that our chosen boondock site was still unoccupied, and asked the nice Tesoro guy where we could get the tire repaired. Of course, there was a tire repair shop right in Cantwell, although I say that loosely. We paid 40 for a used tire and 20 to mount it and it was worth every penny. Especially considering the old man who wandered out of the house to help us. By the time he was done, Mo knew most of his life story as well. Folks in Alaska are very friendly it seems, and like having someone listen to them.

We picked up the MoHo and drove back to our lake, which I since discovered aka the Milepost, is Joe Lake, used by a local air service, and that our boondock site south of the road can flood. I don’t think that will be a problem tonight. After our evening kayak, we are still sitting out by the fire with a glass of wine, enjoying the evening unhampered by bugs, wind, or rain. I somehow never envisioned moments like this when I imagined what this trip would be like. I was ready for mosquitoes, for rain, for dreary skies, for hordes of other RV’s on the road. Tonight at least, we have none of that. Just wilderness all around us, a sky that is many shades of blue and white and gray, a glassy lake all to ourselves, and a free campsite.

One last thing. Erin asked the other day about how I manage the Pelican Waterproof Camera case in the kayak. First of all, we have Adirondack boats from Swift Canoe in Canada, and bought them specifically for the roomy cockpits so that Mo could paddle with Abby. For me, that equates to plenty of room for the Pelican. I lock it up while launching and if the water is smooth, I’ll open it up and can even switch lenses mid stream if needed. Seems to be a great system and I no longer have to be afraid to take the good camera out on the water. Hmm, that wide angle lens does really great things for my legs. ewwwww!

Miles traveled today in the MoHo: 37

Miles traveled in the Tracker on the Denali Highway 150 or so

The rest of the photos for this day are linked here

Day 16 July 21 George Parks Highway to Denali

Our morning plans were simple. Since we weren’t hooked up, all we had to do to depart was to pull in the slide and raise the levelers, hook up the Tracker and we were off. Fairbanks is a great place to stock up on supplies, but I had loaded us up so well before leaving home that we really didn’t need much. We have Fred Meyer stores in Klamath Falls and shop there regularly to get the 10c off per gallon per $100 spent on groceries so we headed back to the big shopping center and the eastern edge of town to get our savings.

But first, it was time to try to get all that grime off the MoHo, so we pulled into the big bay car wash and did our best. The RV bay even had ramps to reach the taller parts of the rig, but it made it harder to actually maneuver in there to get the lower parts. Probably won’t do that again. On to the fuel pumps at Freddy’s, to discover that I had enough points left over from shopping at home to get a whopping 30c off on gas! Hooray! We were at a quarter tank so at 3.59 per gallon for gas, that was great. Cheapest we have paid for gas in a very long time.

After purchasing a few necessities, we were on the road west in the early morning brilliant sunlight, sans GPS. My trusty Garmin Nuvi has been working great, but the cord that connects it to power seems to have bitten the dust. So now we are again traveling as in the olden days, paper maps and no GPS. Should be interesting as we attempt to navigate Anchorage, but there I would imagine that the cell phone will work and I can use google maps. My streets and trips keeps glitching on me as well, saying the file name is incorrect and it won’t save any edits I try to make to our route. Stupid technology glitches that irritate me more than Mo except that my irritation sort of irritates her~ ~

Once we were traveling west out of town on Highway 3, the Parks Highway, once called the Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway, then the George Parks Highway, but now referred to just as the Parks Highway. It was a bit confusing since we were traveling to the “park” at Denali National Park, and then planned to drive the Denali Highway. We had less than 200 miles to Denali, and again according to plan, had made no reservations. We thought we might try to boondock somewhere along Highway 3 if possible and then take the short 15 mile drive into the park after checking out the Visitor Center. Neither of us had any desire to compete with tour buses at the commercial area outside the park to buy Denali trinkets.

Our greatest thrill came very early on our route as we climbed the first hill west of Fairbanks on a sunny morning. Stretched out below us, across the broad expanse of the Tenana Valley, was the massive white Mountain, Denali, Mt McKinley her legal name, but still called “Denali”, “The High One”. The skies were brilliant blue without a cloud to be seen, and the Mountain was revealed in her full, magnificent glory, even though still more than 100 miles away. We stopped and took many photos, amazed at our luck. Mo never once saw the mountain through it’s shroud of clouds when she visited Denali in 74.

We wanted more overlook opportunities, but were surprised to find that most of the turnouts were treed in, or the view was to the north. We never got another view as great as that one on the entire route. While at the first stop, a rig from Pennsylvania stopped in and said, “You are from Oregon, what’s the big deal, you have lots of mountains”. Mo answered, “Yes, but we don’t have Denali”. They seemed unimpressed with what they were seeing. Maybe they didn’t have a clue how lucky they were in that moment. I don’t think they even took a photo!

Continuing south we crossed the Nenana River and passed the historic town of Nenana. I was obviously not doing my navigating job very well, because it was only after we passed that I read about the town and we both wished we had stopped there to visit. I think we were intent on trying to get to the Denali Park Road and try to see the mountain up close before the clouds forming in the southwestern skies beat us there.

Once down the canyon and beyond Denali Village, we turned into the main Visitor Center to get information and maps. I bought my standard National Park “The Rest of the Story” book, ( I do have a big collection of these), and we parked the MoHo and decided to drive the Tracker in to the mile 15 driving limit at Savage River. Still, once more, not an animal in sight, but we did get to see the mountain shrouded in clouds, but showing off the north summit quite well. I was surprised to see that our view was much less dramatic from the park itself than it had been so many miles north.

North summit is visible in the clouds

Denali has the most dramatic rise of any mountain on earth, even those in the Himalayas. From Wonder Lake, at 2,000 feet , you see the full rise of the mountain to over 20,000 feet, the highest in North America. I hope that as we drive south in the next few days we will again have the opportunity to see it, but we definitely aren’t going to spend a whole day on a bus with a bunch of people to get to Wonder Lake, especially when the chances are it will be clouded up anyway.

I read something at the visitor center that struck me. Denali Park isn’t just about the mountain or the animals, either of which you may not see. It is also about the taiga and tundra landscapes, the habitat of the north, and that you will see no matter how cloudy or busy the road may be with traffic. When we got to the Savage River, it was completely full, so we just turned around and took our time returning.

On the way back, Mo wondered if it would be possible to camp at Riley Creek rather than continuing down the road searching for a boondock site. I stopped in at the Riley Creek Mercantile around 4 pm and snagged the last available B length site in the campground. It seems the park has reservations, but you can’t reserve a specific site, just a site size. B is for rigs up to 31 feet. We chose a spot in the Wolf Loop and settled in to a lovely warm evening, again not a bug in site. We are in Alaska, we are in Denali, there are no mosquitoes? do you suppose they were taken up in the rapture?

Tomorrow: The Denali Highway East

Miles traveled today: 135

Road conditions: Excellent smooth major highway

The rest of the photos are here

Day 15 July 20 The Discovery

Sometimes popular tourist attractions are popular for a reason. The Riverboat Discovery is just such an attraction. I’m glad we chose it to be one of the extra excursions we would do while in Alaska. I’m going to quote from the Milepost here:

“Owned and operated by the Binkley Family, whose riverboating experience spans four generations and more than 100 years, the Riverboat Discovery tour has been rated on of the top boating attractions in North America. Captain Jim Binkley and his crew of children, grandchildren and native Alaskans take you back to the heyday of sternwheelers, to an era when prospectors, fur traders, and Native people of the Interior relied on rivers as their only link to the outside world”

We drove to the parking lot on the western edge of town along the Chena River, once again inundated with row after row of buses from the cruise lines, mainly Holland America and Princess. I’m not sure how many people could be on the boat, but there were hundreds of people lining up to board and filling the huge gift shop at the entrance. I am glad that I purchased my tickets online last night from the comfort of my motorhome. This is definitely a very big very much tourist attraction. There were very few cars parked in the lot, and most of the passengers were from the cruise buses. We took the 2PM cruise because the 8:45 was booked solid, so I’m just glad we were able to at least get a sailing.

The boat trip was great. We followed blogger advice and took a left side seat on the third deck out in the open. I didn’t have a sweater and the sun was warm even on the river. Even though there are excellent video screens conveniently placed all around the boat, we were on the side of the bush plane take-off and a special highlight, on the side of the visit to Susan Butcher’s kennels where her husband and his daughters brought out the dogs for a sled dog demonstration. It was wonderful to see how happy those sled dogs are and how excited they get when it’s time to pull the sled. He hitched a team up to a non motorized 4 wheeler, and they raced around the roadways and burst back out onto the lawn going full speed before his shouted “Whoa” stopped them instantly. Amazing. I read all the stories about Susan, her strength and love of the dogs, and about her death to cancer. Her name always brought up something inside about what women can do, powerful women. It was a special treat to see her kennels and her husband. Her famous dog, Granite, passed on not long before Susan, but we saw a memorial to him as well in the village later.

After the dogs, the boat went downriver to the confluence with the broad, braided, wide path of the Tanana River, the largest glacially fed river in North America, in fact, I think they said in the world. It was filled with silt and debris and the current looked rough and tricky. I wouldn’t want to put a boat in that river! The boat turned and we pulled alongside the Chena Village, a replica of course, but still a place that felt very special with the young women from the Athabascan tribe telling the stories of what their life was like before the coming of the white man.

It was a lovely place, with a fish camp, and sod roofed cabins, smokehouse, and a cache, in addition to the Susan Butcher cabin and memorial to Granite, who won the Iditarod for her four times. We learned a bit about how the people caught and processed salmon, how they made their clothing, and saw some beautiful examples of parkas, dresses, and even the girls wearing what they referred to as “summer parkas”.

Once back on the boat we continued back toward the landing, passing the home of the Binkleys, where the matriarch of the family came out to wave at the boat which she does every day as it passes. In front of her home is the original Discovery. It was her vision that kept the sternwheeler tradition alive in Fairbanks as this tourist excursion.

Miles driven today in the MoHo: 0

The rest of the photos from this trip are linked here.

Day 15 July 20 Playing in Fairbanks

We woke this morning to gorgeous sunny skies and warm temperatures. I had reserved our tickets for the Discovery the night before online. One nice thing about the paved parking lot at Pioneer Park was free, fast WiFi! I uploaded lots of photos and caught up on previous blog posts with abandon, and for a minute was even ahead of the game. Of course, that wouldn’t last for long and I am actually writing this final catch-up post from our rainy camp in Talkeetna.

Our plans for the morning were to drive the Chena Springs Road and then return to go as far north on the Steese Highway toward the Dalton Highway as we could manage and still make our 2PM boat cruise. The drive was beautiful, and paid off with a leisurely visit with a young bull moose munching away at a river crossing.

We traveled as far as the Chena Hot Springs resort, checked it out a bit and then returned the same way to the Teese Highway. Along the way we stopped along the river Abby play time.

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Once back on the Teese Highway, we marveled at the wonderful views from the ski area north of town and stopped for photos of the Alaska Pipeline.

Later in the evening, after our boat ride on the Discovery (a separate post) we visited the Aurora Ice Museum in downtown Fairbanks for the digital wide screen photo symphony of the northern lights, produced by LeRoy Zimmerman. Before the show we saw amazing ice sculptures lit by colorful lights and had a few moments to watch an ice sculptor in action. It was definitely a bit of touristy action but the photos were beautiful and even though they were still images, the transitions gave the feeling of movement and the lights looked very much like what I have seen in the night skies above Edmonton, and even from my hot tub in Rocky Point. The photos were presented accompanied by lovely classical music. Try staying awake after a day like ours in a dark theater listening to Leibestraum!

The rest of the photos of our explorations around Fairbanks are linked here

Miles traveled in the MoHo today: 0

Miles traveled in the Tracker: 102

Road condition: Another great two lane paved highway with joints and an occasional frost heave

Day 14 July 19 Delta Junction to Fairbanks

When we left Delta Junction this morning, it was raining hard, but within minutes of getting on the road, we were treated to our first moose of the trip. She was running along the road, but then conveniently stopped for me to take her photo. Along this part of the highway, moose are a constant problem, or I should says cars are the problem, with hundreds of moose killed every year by motorists.

Our drive to Fairbanks was short, and we arrived in time to spend the afternoon visiting two places on our list of must-see sights. The Fairbanks Visitor Center is at the Morris Thompson Cultural Center in downtown Fairbanks along the Chena River. The display gardens are wonderful, filled with the huge flowers and vegetables that thrive in the long daylight. The center itself is filled with interesting and lovely displays, including painted dioramas and artifacts from the area. We really enjoyed it.

We then traveled across town to the northwestern hill above the river to the dramatic Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This university is in the perfect place for studying polar climates, and for materials testing in climatic extremes. The Museum itself is fantastic, with a controversial architecture that represents the landscapes of the north, tremendous displays from all the regions of Alaska, and a gallery dedicated to Alaskan art. There are hourly movies scheduled, one that we are sorry we missed was called “Dynamic Aurora”. These cost an extra $5, but it was more the time than the money that kept us from attending. We also knew that we were going to see another aurora presentation at the Ice Museum in town, so thought we could skip this one.

We spent enough time there to get “museum fatigue”, with our eyes and brains overloaded with tons of information and our legs and feet tired from all the standing around reading rather than actually moving. I loved seeing “Blue Babe”, the steppe bison killed by something with teeth that may have been a lion and then preserved in the cold climate with skin and hair that could be studied by scientists for clues about his existence.

We had already decided to stay at Pioneer Park in their pavement parking lot for $12 no hookups, but with a nice row of shade trees behind us. It seems we managed to arrive in Fairbanks during their Gold Rush Days and the parking lot was full. I still laugh at the fact that we never managed to actually go inside the park to see all the stuff there that was drawing the crowds. It was a noisy place, and for the first time on the trip, I used my ear plugs to sleep. Once the shades were drawn and the ear plugs were in, we could have been anywhere!

After a bit more exploration of Fairbanks we found out that we could have joined the many RV’s at the east side WalMart for free and had access to shopping and probably less noise. Also, just up the block from where we were parked was a lovely, quiet state park, with access to the river and hookups for a bit more money. Still, it was kinda fun being in the parking lot directly across from the famous Salmon Bake.

This is supposedly another great thing to do in Fairbanks, and I had my heart set on doing it. Mo agreed to the spendy $32 per person, but she wasn’t in the mood to do the ‘all you can eat’ thing and was going just for the ambience since I didn’t want to do it alone. After our museum visits, we came back home and I decided to go read the blogs and then checked in with TripAdvisor about the bake. I am sooo glad that I did. Even though some folks may have enjoyed it, the reviews were less than stellar, and we decided to skip it. Lots of money saved on that one, I think, and we won’t have to try to walk off all the unneeded calories.

While we watched the cruise buses and Salmon Bake blue bus shuttles started rolling in, one after the other, unloading people by the dozens. The bake is offered from 5 to 8 and there must have been hundreds of people in that place. No wonder the food is reputed to be cold and the service non-existent. Remember, this observation is rumor only and not my personal experience.

I also can’t believe that I never took a single photo of our parking lot campsite or the mine entrance to the Salmon Bake. I guess that may have been because it was actually pretty warm out there, and there were so many people that we would quickly retreat to the safety of the MoHo when we arrived.

Miles traveled today: 95

Road condition: excellent paved highway

The rest of the photos for this day are linked here