Alaska Week Five

(Shelli - For this weeks blog, the boys and I wrote a little more than previously. Joey has been wanting us to contribute more and we finally gave him a little break).

(John - We went back to Denali National Park and Perserve to see the sled dogs and they were awesome! They had big dogs, small dogs and even 4 day old pups. Amazingly, they were already training the puppies by getting them use to human contact and manipulation. The Park Ranger talked about 30 minutes telling us the history of sled dogs in Alaska and how they are still used today. The Ranger then rode the sled while the dogs pulled him around the track, the dogs got so excited when they got to pull the sled. We got to stand at the back of the sled for a picture when they were done.

When we got back from Denali, mom let me drive the car. Don't worry....not by myself. Mom was in the same seat. I sat on her lap and and just let the car go to the campsite because it was downhill. Mom had her hands on the wheel and her feet on the gas and brake the first time. The second time mom let me steer all by myself and control the gas a little. The last time I got to control everything...the gas, brakes and the steering wheel. I love driving!

We found so much gold today at the El Dorado Gold Mine! I found $15.00 worth. We first saw a huge working sluice box that was at least 75 feet long. Next, we went gold panning and all together we found $92.00 worth in about 20 - 30 minuets of panning. We got cookies and hot chocolate as our gold was weighed. I even got to hold the 19 oz gold nugget. It was the size of my hand. At the end, Michael, Dad and I realized that a lot of the gold that was being weighed was spilled out on the counter tops and floors. We all three got busy collecting the spilled pieces and adding it to our own gold containers. I got five more dollars of gold from that. It was the best gold panning we have done. I really had fun!)

(Michael - At Denali National Park there was an interesting Dog Sled Demo that we went to see. We walked down a trail to where the dogs were. There were many dogs, probably about 35 in all. Almost all of them had blue eyes and were very cool looking. John started to pet one of their paws and the dog turned very quickly to let John know he didn't like it. It tried to slash John's hand with his claws....only kidding, but he didn't like it at all. The guide talked forever about the dogs and how the park only uses dog teams in the winter within the park to transport supplies, security, observation studies, etc. No motorized vehicles are allowed in the entire 6 million acres! When the guide said he was going to hook up the dogs for the sled demonstration, they all got up and barked with lots of excitement. Each one of them wanted to be the one picked. He picked 5 dogs, hooked them up and they pulled the sled all around the track really fast. The dogs looked like they loved it.

At the Cantwell RV park just outside of Denali, John and I got to drive. Mom let us take turns driving every time we had to go do the laundry. I would drive to the laundry room and John would drive back, then we would swap out the next trip. We had to sit in mom's lap, but we got to control everything...the gas, brakes and steering! Not trying to brag, but I thought I did really well. I drove smooth and my acceleration wasn't jerky, driving was really fun!

After we got back from Denali, it was raining and almost dark when someone knocked on our door. It was Colton, a 12 year boy from Arkansas that was camping next to us with his mom and older brothers, inviting us over for smores by their campfire in the rain and mud. His dad had to stay back in Arkansas to run the ranch. The four of them rented an RV for three weeks and are touring Alaska this summer. We all four, and Maui, walked over and ended up visiting with them for a while. We each told stories of our trip. They said they were going to Kenai so we told them about our favorite place, the Diamond M Ranch. The next morning they were having problems with their circuit breakers, so Dad helped them out a little. They were just getting started on their trip and learning all about RV living. They had even tried to filter out the light at night with pizza boxes in their RV windows. We told them that luckily our Aunt Kelli had given us the black-out liners and they worked like a charm.

We went to the El Dorado Gold Mine in Fairbanks and it was really fun too. When we got there, the Conductor played the guitar for us. When we got to the top of the mine we watched the owner and her workers use the huge sluice and they found a lot of gold pieces and one nugget. After that, we got to pan for gold. We took it in and had it weighed, I found $22.00 worth of gold. Once we finished we got to have free cookies and hot chocolate. We rode the train back down and the conductor played the fiddle for us.)

The first day we didn't even think to stop for a picture at the entrance. Good thing we had a second day.

This is one of the dogs that we got to pet at the Dog Kennels. (John) Look at those blue eyes.

This is the dog that snapped at John when he touched his paw. (Michael)

The sled was very unstable and we almost feel off. (John)

 

Panning is very fun but takes a while to get the hang of it. (John)

The Alaska Pipeline stretches for over 800 miles, running from Prudhoe Bay and stops in Valdez, Alaska.

(Shelli- We did a little shopping around, replenished our groceries and went to the book store for a while. The boys each got new books for the trip back across Canada and Joey went gold panning. He went out to a local creek all by himself so that he could stay and pan as long as he wanted. Michael, John, Maui and I played ball and fetch down at the river. Maui seemed to really like this campground. The river proved to be a fun playground for him. He has discovered water and has realized how he can just run and jump in now. He will chase anything we throw in...the ball, sticks and even rocks. He really liked to chase the ducks as they would get close to the bank, but it didn’t take long for the ducks to stop coming by him.)

I was throwing the ball for Maui to get some of his energy out. (Michael)

This is Maui running back and fourth between Michael and I trying to get the ball that we were throwing. (John)

Maui now loves fetching anything we throw in the water.

(Shelli - We packed up the RV and left Fairbanks, stopping at North Pole, AK for a quick lunch. This town had ‘Santa’ decor and street names. The street lights were candy cane stripped to resemble the North Pole. McDonalds, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, etc. even had North Pole type decor to display their  signs. However, we found it very interesting that when I asked about the closest gift shop for Christmas ornaments, three out of three of the locals said there wasn’t really anything like that, and Safeway (the grocery store chain) would have the biggest variety. I thought that to be odd. As I was walking back to the RV, I noticed a newspaper headline about the Northern Lights and the current solar activity. After telling Joey about this and him doing some research on the computer, we decided to turn around and head back to the same RV park we had just left in Fairbanks. We were too close to the possibility of seeing them to head south to Valdez without giving it a shot. Seeing the Northern Lights had been a long time desire of Joey’s, but this trip just wasn’t going to be timed right. Northern Lights are best viewed during the cold, clear and dark winter months. However, the recent solar flare activity had it in the news and there was a high likelihood of being able to see them.)

All the street lights and business signs that could be made to look like candy canes were colored this way.

(Shelli - After no luck with the ornament shopping in the North Pole, I went to the Discovery River Boat Shopping Village back in Fairbanks. I actually went and found the ornament, and then drove back to pick up the boys and Joey once I saw there was a 40 Below Room at the village. So, we donned our parkas (except for Joey who was in a short sleeved shirt because they only had three) and entered the arctic freezer! It was COLD at - 50 degrees Fahrenheit!!!! We only stayed in for a few minutes, it actually stung our throats just breathing in the air. Joey’s hair and beard quickly started developing a layer of frost and our noses began to freeze from the inside. We posed for a picture and exited. As we were leaving, the girl that was working at the village said that in January it gets to 40, 50, or even 60 below, and honestly the difference between 30 and 60 below wasn’t that different. She just stays in all winter and runs from her car to buildings. I don’t think I would enjoy living in that for very long!)

Our eyelashes began to freeze in here. (Michael)

(Shelli - Even though it was a clear, sunny day as the evening began to darken a little, the rain and clouds moved in making it impossible to view any solar activity above the clouds. Joey kept getting up every hour to check, but no luck. There were multiple layers of clouds covering the entire sky. We didn’t even really have enough darkness either, it was just too light. The thought and excitement of planning to go see them was all we got. Oh well.....I guess we will just have to come back to Alaska sometime!

Friday we left and headed down past the town of North Pole again on our way down to Valdez. As we went just past the exit where we had previously stopped and turned around the day before, Joey and I both noticed this huge (I mean about 30-40 foot tall)  Santa built alongside the freeway no less than 1/2 mile from where we had asked if there was a place to buy Christmas ornaments. It was drawing attention to the big ‘Santa House’ shopping village. I wonder if the locals just get tired of answering the same question day after day and just mess with the tourists. 

It was a beautiful drive down to Valdez with high mountains, the Alaskan Pipeline alongside us all the way, winding streams, glaciers, and too many waterfalls to count.)

A lot of the time we don't have a pull off available to stop and take pictures of the scenery, or I don't notice them until we have gone too far to be able to stop in time. It takes a while to stop our 56.5 foot long RV/Van combo, and we can't just turn around and go back easily. We stopped here in time to take a picture of this glacier on the way into Valdez.

When we arrived in Valdez, we saw a familiar sight. There was a rental RV with a pizza box used to darken the windows in the back. It was our neighbors from the RV park in Cantwell that had shared smores with us. We said hello and talked about what we had each done since we had last seen them. After setting up in our site, we spoke with a guy from Tampa that asked where we were from when he saw our Florida license plates. This has played out over and over during this trip. Answering "Where are you from" should be easy for pretty much everyone, but it isn't for us.  We have no home. We are from Alabama - a long time ago. The kids were born in Florida, but they have also lived in WV, VA, and CA. We left California last, but we aren't from there. We aren't from Colorado where we are heading. After the standard discussion about where we are/aren't from, the guy told us he had seen a stream thick with spawning salmon and bears feeding on them just about 5 miles from the park.

We had really wanted to see bear feeding on salmon, but decided not to pay $2,400 for a flight to go see them. No kidding, it's that expensive to fly to the famous areas to see them catching the jumping salmon. Even though it was about 9:00 pm, we quickly loaded up the car and went straight to the spot he told us about. Sure enough, as we got close, we saw several cars pulled over and people looking off to the side. Right by the road there was a culvert from the bay that led under the road up into a small stream that worked it's way up into the woods. The water was completely full of fish struggling to head upstream. Seagulls were everywhere feasting. Within just a couple of minutes, less than a 50 yards away, we saw a black bear sow and two cubs come out of the woods. The mom went down and simply plucked a fish from the water. She took it up for the cubs who had run back into the edge of the woods to hide while she fished. A bunch of seagulls went over to try to steal some of one of the cub's fish and it scared the cub so much it ran away and scampered up a tree. Another bear came out from higher up the stream and caught a fish, then stood up and backed away to eat it. After a while of watching them, we moved just a little down the road and saw a group of people on the bay side of the road.

We joined the group and saw a brown bear feeding on salmon right at the water's edge. The bear had big teeth and big claws, and it was no more than 30 feet away from us. It was busy eating and didn't give us much consideration at all. It just squished eggs out of the salmon and licked them off the rocks, then walked slowly along the edge of the water feeling with it's front paws. When it stepped on a fish, it would grab it and take it to the side where it would again eat only the eggs before heading back into the water for another fish. It walked by us, and was well within 20 feet of us as it moved along the shore. Periodically it would look up at us, and look around at the seagulls near it. It seemed to get annoyed by the seagulls splashing behind it a couple of times. A family with young children joined us and the bear's annoyance factor really went up when their seven year old starting throwing rocks at the bear! The father threatened the boy a few times, but the kid kept throwing rocks. It was getting late and this was a really good time to leave, so we went on back to the RV park.

We stopped to tell the family from Arkansas about the bears. Since they had flown into Anchorage and rented an RV, the only way they could get around was to unhook their RV and drive it. We loaned them our van and they went off to see the bears too. We had just seen some true natural wonder events firsthand. It was like National Geographic highlight reels and it didn't take anything other than our time to witness it. It was good to be able to share that opportunity with some people who had been nice to us earlier.

(Shelli- I found it very interesting that the salmon work so hard to get back to their place of birth just to lay their eggs and die. The instinct of the 'circle of life' never ceases to amaze me. Kinda like the bear thing as well....the bears just know to eat the most calorie/nutrient rich part of the fish and then move on to more. They don't even exert themselves because they 'just know' to conserve their energy for the hard winter. And who doubts the intelligent design idea?)

The spawning pink salmon were so thick, we probably could have walked across them if we tried. (Shelli)

This was the first set of bears that came out of the woods. (Michael)

This bear made it look so easy to get the salmon. (Michael)

This bear stood up with his fish right after he caught it. I think he was just showing off.

He looks scary, check out his teeth! (Michael)

This brown bear (grizzly) moved very slow and methodical in his salmon catching approach. (Shelli)

Look at the claws on this bear.

The grizzly would press on the salmon to get the eggs out. (Shelli)

Savoring the most calorie/nutrient rich part of the fish, the eggs. Then he would go get another- (Shelli)

We scheduled a nine hour glacier tour by boat and went on a large catamaran through the very calm waters of Prince William Sound.  We took sea sickness medicine just in case, because we didn't want to feel as bad as we did on the halibut charter before. This was a very different experience with calm waters and nobody felt bad on this trip. They served two meals and we all were able to eat, where last time food was pretty far from our minds.

The scenery was really breathtaking as we looked at mountain after mountain with waterfalls spilling into the sound. There were rocky edges with caves and small beach areas along the shore. We could see fish in the water, fish jumping out of the water, jelly fish, sea lions, seals, bald eagles, puffins, otters, and a small deer. The captain did a very good job slowing the boat for the different sights and he provided narration about the history of the sound. We learned about the history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, gold mining, fur trapping, copper mining, and wildlife in area. We went right up to the Mears Glacier and stopped for about 30 minutes at it's base. We could hear the ice cracking and see small pieces falling into the water. There was something very powerful about the sound as it resonated through the air. We heard one very loud pop and saw a big crack develop off to the left at the bottom, but unfortunately no huge chunks calved off while we were there. The crew grabbed some pieces that were floating by and we were able to hold it, and even eat small pieces of the crystal clear ice. It was really very impressive.

We left the glacier, and went back past the epicenter of the 9.2 magnitude earthquake of 1964 that completely decimated homesteads and gold mines in the area. We went back along the opposite side of the sound and saw humpback whales and Dall porpoise.  The porpoise headed straight towards our boat and displayed their tremendous speed as they cut through the top of the water. They turned around on a dime and played in the bow wave of water from our boat. We were right on the front and were looking straight down at them. We finished the trip by going by the very end of the oil pipeline and hearing about how oil is loaded into the ships for transport. We had come to Valdez for the boat tour and it was well worth it. We didn't know to expect it, but the scenery overall driving into and at Valdez was truly outstanding and was among the more picturesque areas we went through in Alaska.

There were waterfalls everywhere. I didn't expect Alaska to give Hawaii a run for it's money with waterfalls.

This bald eagle swooped down and caught this salmon, but was unable to fly back with it. It had to swim to the shore and then hop up farther in to eat it.

A commercial fishing boat retrieving it's net.

The pink salmon haul coming in.

The gooey stuff on the left of the net is jellyfish. It just squished out as the net was pulled higher.

This is a mother sea otter with her baby on her belly as she floated on her back past us.

There were several large groups, called rafts, of otters as we cruised along. Some of them rolled over and rested again on their backs, then just looked at us as we went by.

Otter row.

Seals on icebergs.

This was their cool hang-out.

Look at the black dots at the bottom. They are all seals lying around on the icebergs that have fallen off the glacier. This provides some sense of scale to show how huge this glacier is.

This is a piece of ice from the glacier and it was freezing my hands! (Michael)

The back drop seems a little odd with most of our extended family currently having such record high heat waves. (Shelli)

The end of the Trans-Alaska pipeline and the loading point for oil headed out.

(Shelli - Alaska has been so very memorable. The place has amazing scenery, unbelievable abundant wildlife, and overall the people have been very friendly. We have even had several occasions of strangers going above and beyond with simple actions that put smiles on our faces. We have experienced really nice times together as a family and made memories in Alaska that I will cherish forever. We still have MANY miles to go to make even more (approximately only 3,600 miles to Colorado Springs)!