Tolsona Wilderness Campground

The fishing boats have been casting their nets right in front of our rigs in Valdez. We sat in our front chairs, drinking our coffee and watching them the past two mornings. Roger got some good sequential shots with his IPhone. Our camera died - the lens won't move in and out - so we need to shop for another one in Anchorage.

We left Valdez this morning on our way to Anchorage. We got to drive through the Keystone Canyon and Thompson Pass again with all the gorgeous scenery! We stopped along the Copper River where many fisherman were trying to catch some salmon. "Trying" being the key word while we were there!

Bridal Veil Falls

We are staying at a pretty campground on the Tolsona River tonight and we all have nice campsites right on the river but....the mosquitoes are horrendous - I've had to break out my entire arsenal! We bought fresh seafood (salmon, halibut and king crab legs) to cook for dinner so we are braving the swarms!

Our seafood feast

Don't know the name of this glacier and falls

Tolsona River Campground

Columbia Glacier

We took a 7 hour scenic cruise out to Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound today. The weather was perfect and it was an awesome trip! There are waterfalls galore along the shorelines and we finally saw some wildlife - otters, sea lions, whales, eagles and puffins. It was a long ride but the captain was a good narrator, the water was smooth, the sun was shining and the glacier was stunning!

Columbia Glacier

Sea Lions

Icebergs around the glacier

They look like ice sculptures!

Up close to the glacier - we saw big chunks of ice "calf" twice!

You get an idea of the size of the ice when compared to this fishing boat

We saw a whale 3 times - hard to get a picture 

The color of the icebergs are beautiful

Sea lions getting a tan!

Salmon fishing boat - it is highly regulated by the Alaska Fish and Game

On our way back to Valdez

Awesome!

Valdez

We traveled from Tok to Valdez today. The road out of Tok was a patchwork quilt of good road, bad road, frost heave, earthquake damage and construction - with no wildlife to make up for it! We saw one moose! But the last 50 miles were absolutely gorgeous! They call this area around Valdez and the Thompson Pass (2,678 feet) the "Switzerland of Alaska." Snow capped mountains, waterfalls, glaciers and the glacial Trickel River flowing along the road. It is so hard to get pictures that capture the scenery but, I tried through the front windshield!

The Milepost Book - the bible for traveling in Alaska - says the record snowfall in the state was at Thompson Pass in 1952-53 at 974.5 inches and the record for a 24 hour period was 62 inches in 1955!

Valdez was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 1964 - the town actually sunk into the earth! - but it has been rebuilt just down the harbor. The Alaskan Pipeline is part of the scenery. The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, a consortium of oil companies, has a huge terminal here.

Worthington Glacier

We are camped at Allison's Point - a municipal campground right on the harbor - this is the view from the front window in our motorhome! Otters are swimming by!

Mosquito Fork

Not a problem - I am armed!!!

 

 

Tok, Alaska

 We met up with our friends in Tok, Alaska yesterday. Not much to do here but they have one great restaurant.  So we had dinner at "Fast Eddies!" On our way to Valdez today.

Top of the World Highway

SPECTACULAR!!

Words and pictures can’t begin to describe the views and scenery so I won’t even try!

Looks like the road will never end!

The Yukon Hwy 9 began as a pack trail during the gold rush and has gradually been upgraded to an actual road that proved nowhere near as treacherous as all the horror stories would indicate! It was a beautiful day for an adventure and I’m so glad Roger is the adventurous type because I get to go along for ride!

The road is above the tree line so visibility is great and you can easily see oncoming traffic. We saw 13 vehicles before the US Customs office and around 30 between Canada and Chicken, Alaska – not exactly congested! There were only a couple of times where we stopped and let others pass us going the other way but, there were a  few other spots we were glad of no oncoming RV’s.

We stopped at a pull-out just before customs and hiked to the top of the hill – 4,515 feet – and ate lunch on the “Top of the World.”

Roger asked the guy at the customs office “who did you piss off to get this assignment?” and he said “oh, no one sir, we volunteer to come here for 2 months every summer – we love it!”

US Customs at the Yukon-Alaska border

Home for the customs employees

Top of the World

We saw prospectors panning for gold in the river. I asked if I could take their picture and the guy said "sure, as long as you don't send it to Obama!"

The road was actually smooth, new pavement for about 10 miles past customs. But, that was just a tease for the road ahead! It turned into gravel again at the Jack Wade Junction where we got on the Taylor Highway. The worst road was the last 20 miles into Chicken – narrow and bumpy. Would you believe we saw 2 bikers with all their gear making the trip?!

We are spending the night in Chicken (population 23 in the summer and 7 in the winter!)  and heading to Tok, Alaska to meet our group tomorrow. They wanted to call the settlement "Ptarmigan" after an Alaskan bird but nobody knew how to spell it so, they called it "Chicken" instead!

Chicken, Alaska

The music stage

Downtown Chicken

 

We drove through a burn area called the "Taylor Complex Fire" of 2004 on our way to Tok. It burned 1.3 million acres! There are several fires in Alaska this summer so we are being vigilant!

We have seen several signs that say entering or leaving "extended subsistence hunting area." Many locals live off the land.




A sod roofed log cabin with a high cache for food storage