June 24th-28th

Homeward Bound

June 28th

Ah, finally home safe and sound...and the statistics go like this:
32 days on vacation

8,574 miles

1286 gallons of gas in the RV

$3942 gas money

$3.06 average cost per gallon of gas (most expensive $4.13)
RV Miles per gallon 6.67 which equals .46 per mile!
But worth every picture...did I mention we loved watching all two dozen bears!

June 27th

This morning we left the final campground at about 9:00 in the morning. We will be driving until about noon on Sunday, only stopping for gas. The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round. Thanks to everyone who followed the blog, we received some really nice emails and phone calls of people who were on the trip with us (virtually)!

June 26th

This was the relaxation day, before we would make the final drive home of 24+ hours. This evening some friendly campers came down to the fire and chatted until about 4:00am. So, thanks to Virginia, Grant and little Sullivan, we enjoyed your company.
June 25th

Today we traveled from British Columbia to Saskatchewan, about a 12 hour driving day. We arrived very late in the evening at Good Spirit Lake. We should have taken a picture at sunset. This lake community is definitely the place to be on warm summer days. We were trying to get used to warm weather again...the temperature was 84 degrees and it was the first day I wore a short sleeve shirt. June 24th
Before we left Muncho Lake and headed to the next destination, kitty and I went for a little hike, and I mean little...she didn't like being in the backpack for very long.

June 19th-23rd

Wednesday June 24th
We had Wifi for a few moments! It was a long driving day, we left Muncho Lake about 9:30am. Actually, we have many long travel days to get home by Sunday.

Tuesday June 23rd
We decided to stay another day at Muncho Lake and raft around. Lars blew up the rubber raft and attached the little trolling motor, so that we could motor around and see if there were any waterfalls and animals along the perimeter.

The birds swarmed our area…they liked the Cheetos that we dropped in the water for the fish.
The lake was used as landing strip for the lodge down the road from us! Pretty neat to watch the planes take-off and land.
Monday June 22nd
We were going to stay two nights at our current location, but since the weather was kind of cloudy and rain looked possible, we decided to pack it up and head further east, toward home. Well, we made it 20 miles, because when we got to Muncho (large in the Kaska Language) Lake it was beautiful…it’s normally known as a party place…not today, because it’s Monday. We were also discussing our driving options for getting home by Sunday.

Sunday June 21st
We continued on our next leg of the journey home. Our goal was 655 miles or 12+ hours on the road…trying to get to Summit Lake. The early morning road was rough…we could only hold 20mph, after many miles we got up to 40mph, and then finally up to our cruising speed of 60mph. By 4:00 in the afternoon we were a little more than ½ way and we started at 8:00am. We didn’t make it to Summit Lake today, but that’s ok, we’re on vacation. Our roadside camp spot was very relaxing; the Liard River provided the background sounds for the evening.

In one of the small (I mean really small) towns, we came a cross the Sign Post Forest.

Wow, between Watson Lake and Muncho Lake on the Alaskan Highway, it was like a wildlife safari from the comfort of your own RV. We saw brown, black and grizzly bears. Two of the black bear mommas had two cubs each. Oh, were they fun to watch…and so close to the edge of the road. We also saw herds of buffalo (also with babies), and a red fox too.

Dandelions taste good…

Saturday, June 20th
We are officially on our way home, the drive maybe long today (11-16 hours). Lars said it will take about a week to get home, better than the olden days when it took about 6 months. We were discussing where to stop and camp for the night, when we came across a large Grizzly bear munching away on roadside vegetation. We stopped the RV and watched for probably 20 minutes. That bear didn’t even acknowledge that cars were passing by or that there were a few spectators watching.

As much as the sun sets during this time of year.

Night picture of our roadside camping spot.

Friday, June 19th
Today we left Denali and headed for Fairbanks and North Pole (AK that is). The weather was not cooperating, rain showers off and on until evening. When we got to Fairbanks we had some decisions to make, go on the gold mine tour, ride the paddle boat on the Tanana River, or go to the Pump House Saloon (a national historical location, of course) for lunch. Due to the weather we chose the saloon…it was a good choice…the rhubarb and peach cobbler with fresh whipped cream…yummm.

After lunch we proceeded to the North Pole. Santa Land was interesting…street names like Rudolph way, Elf street, etc.

Look the mail truck really does deliver all those letters to Santa.

We drove a few more hours until we reached a quite camp spot next to the river. Lars commented that we didn’t see any animals today, and then a couple of minutes later, while we were sitting by the fire, out popped a female mouse from the woods. The moose galloped about 15-20ft away from us. That was fun…we kept looking but there were no more.

I think Thor might be finished with the RV grand tour…he has been riding under the sofa a lot.

June 16th, 17th, & 18th

June 18 - Denali National Park
Denali NP is made up of 6 million acres, and has one park road to travel. On that road you can only go by private car for the first 15 miles, then travel is restricted to park shuttle buses only. We purchased a ticket to go out to Wonder Lake, 85 miles away (the second to the last stop). It was an 11 hour trip and the bummer was it was cloudy, foggy or rainy the entire day. Fortunately, we were able to get some pictures of the animals throughout the park. We saw snowshoe hares, a red fox, caribou, moose, and bears, however, not as many as we would like. Our third attempt to see Mt. McKinley failed.


June 17 - Denali - Part I
Today we came to Denali NP in search of the elusive Mt. McKinley. Not going to happen today, so we bought a park shuttle bus pass for tomorrow and decided to take the Jeep up to the Stampede Trail. The "road" was only about 30 miles long, so we thought we should check out the animals and trail as a late afternoon activity. After about nine miles of some intense jeeping...it was time to turn around. The Stampede Trail was the original gold mining trail that Chris McCandless wound up starving to death in an abandoned bus. His story was the basis for the book and then later movie. "Into the Wild." We could see why he never made it to safety. Yikes!


June 16 - Byers Lake
When we were campground scouting yesterday, we met a retired couple and were they ever fun and full of knowledge. Bill and Carolyn came to Alaska from the East coast twenty nine years ago and never left. Bill was a military veteran and told us that we needed to stop by the Veteran's Memorial at milepost 147 on the Parks Highway. There we would find a statue that points out Mt. McKinley, otherwise known as Denali (High One).
It was sunny, but high clouds blocked the majority of the 20,320 foot mountain. Attached to the memorial was Denali State Park and a campground called Byers Lake. Perfect, we would stay there and hike in the evening, since it never gets really dark. So, about six o'clock we headed out to the 6 mile trail in hopes of better views of the mountain and to see some wild life. We figured there would be a lot of activity. Oh...there was activity...the constant battle to keep the mosquitoes off of us was nearly impossible and did I mention the rains came too. So, obviously there was no viewing of the mountain, but we did get to see beavers (see video) and a porcupine (up close)

June15th

Day Trip to Seward via the Turnagain Arm Parkway...known as a scenic byway, we agree.

On the way to Seward we saw what we thought was Palmer Glacier.

Once we reached our destination of the little, coastal town of Seward, we scouted out some camping spots! Next time we will stay right on the water front ($15 to camp, $30 if you want an electric spot). It was about 60 degrees and very breezy, I don't think electric is necessary. Once in Seward we did the tourist things...shop and eat.

You got to love beer-thirty on a Monday.

Ahhh, the all fried lunch...halibut chunks, clams, shrimp, and fries. And you might as well wash it down with some frosty beverages.

The Trail River campground in the Chugach National Forest will definitely be on the list when we return to Alaska. It was stunning, tall mountains surrounded a huge aqua blue lake (Kenai Lake). A perfect place for an evening fire.

On the return trip to the RV...the scenery was equally as beautiful.

We laughed and laughed some more when we encountered this fella. Apparently, he had way too many Red Bull and vodka. He has wings.

We landed at the RV about 10:00pm and had a snack by the fire before going to bed.

Bonus: Film Footage

We are at a campground that has wifi, so we were able to upload the videos from previous posts...

Glacier Bay NP

Mudslide in Bell II, British Columbia

Matanuska Glacier - Along the Glenn Hwy in Alaska