This event was so special, it gets a blog post all of its own.
On our way heading down from Byers Lake to Trapper Creek, to save our food and get heat with electric hookups, we pulled in one more time to the South View Point Lookout for Denali on the Parks Highway.
The sky was mostly clear with a few clouds here and there scattered around as we were driving on the highway. We pulled into the parking lot and there were a few more clouds over towards the lookout area platform. We held our breath as we walked closer...
YESSSSSS!!
THERE WAS DENALI
IN ALL HER
GLORY!!!!
We were delighted with the opportunity to see the complete mountain range, with Denali sticking proudly up in the middle. We are now one of the few 30% of visitors who actually get to see Denali when visiting Alaska.
It may have taken us three tries, two days of rain and this third day of blue sky before we saw it. It was quite a thrill.
We loaned our camera to someone else to take a picture of us and we took a picture of them with their camera. There it is, right over our shoulder.
When they talk about "Purple Mountain Majesty" I think this is what they mean. I know photos cannot capture the essence of what we saw. The depth and the colors only enhance the serenity and the majesty of what we were seeing.
The other people on the viewing platform were rather excited as well. They knew this was a special event and not everybody gets to see this. We helped a few others take photos, so they could capture this scene behind them with themselves in the foreground. Everyone was chattering and laughing and appreciating the moment that we were all sharing together.
At any time, the clouds could come back and cover the tip of the mountain. So we snapped a few more photos before it was time to head on back down the highway.
I panned around on the scenery below leading up to the mountain range. I don't think many take photos of the rest of the area. So I included it too.
Thank you, Denali.
We will forever remember this as being the highlight of our trip. We may have seen things like grizzlies and a baby moose, waterfalls and hot springs, big rivers and ferry boats...
We topped off our tanks, including our propane, and stocked up a few more things that we needed. Now we were set for a few days back in the woods again.
We left Trapper Creek Inn RV Park and headed north back up the Parks Highway. There was a state rec area that we wanted to go check out just north of the state park that we couldn't get into.
It was called Byers Lake State Recreation Area. Here is the link:
We were really surprised when we drove in to only see a few campers in the 73 total sites. It was rustic camping, with outhouses and a pitcher pump for water. There wasn't any dump station or other facilities. Many of the campsites were easy pull through type, each with picnic tables and fire rings.
Located so close to the busy Denali park and the state park, this area seemed to be almost unknown and not very well used.
The gravel roads within the park are very rough with many deep potholes. You got to go slow. But it was worth it because we were in an absolutely quiet rustic site with nobody else around.
We chatted with the maintenance guy who drove thru later, and he said he is the only employee around for many miles to handle everything. The road may someday get paved with asphalt. That would make it even nicer.
We got set up on our site, and Steve paid the $20 fee at the credit card kiosk near the entrance of the campground. It takes MasterCard or Visa, but not American Express.
The sun was shining, there were no mosquitoes, and only a few little tiny black flies buzzing around that look like they had just hatched.
Steve set out the lawn chairs while I got things ready to make lunch. He found some stragglers of downed wood nearby and got out his little swedish hand saw.
There's my
Mr Brawny Lumberjack Man!!
We sat back in comfort on our chairs and really enjoyed the beautiful weather around us. After 2 or 3 days of rain and just being in parking lots, this was a real treat again. Being in the woods renews our souls. It was peaceful, and we didn't hear a sound.
Time to break out a beer for Steve, and we had our bear spray and canned air horn handy, just in case. Surrounding us were many, many bushes with currant berries. We knew we were in prime bear country where there was natural food available.
I opened up my ulu knife and cutting bowl. It was time to try it out. At home I have food grade mineral oil as a wooden cutting board conditioner... But for now I would just rub this one down with some olive oil to suffice.
This knife is really sharp, and the cutting bowl is really handy. Food doesn't slide around like on a flat cutting board. It stays within the concave area until you scrape it off into your pan or bowl after cutting.
I cut up some carrots, potatoes, ham and I already had some cut up celery in the freezer. I was going to make a nice big pot of creamy potato soup. I like those bags of Bear Creek mixes, and I add all this extra stuff to it. It makes a pretty big pot.
While I did that, Steve took out our two flexible solar panels. Each one is 100 watts. They are just enough to top off our Bluetti power station that replenishes our two coach batteries. The Starlink drains about 65 watts, so we use the "Blue Eddie" power station to run the Starlink as well.
Those two cheap little solar panels bring in quite a bit of power. This is a day with intermittent clouds crossing back and forth in front of the panels. And it's still pulling in 155 Watts.
When we are normally camping pulling our cargo trailer, the roof of the cargo trailer has a 320 watt solar panel mounted on the roof. We plug into that and never worry about power. But we opted to not take the cargo trailer with us on this long trip. So these two little cheap ones are doing quite well.
The little black flies were buzzing around, and Nick was having fun chasing them. If you watch the video below you can see him chomping at them in the air while sitting on my lap. What a silly little dog.
But then I had an idea... I took out our Thermacell which we usually use for mosquitoes. We lit it up and sure enough, it chased away all of the little black flies.
It was so comfortable sitting outside, I poured some tea into my mug, and we enjoyed the evening relaxing in our lawn chairs.
It was so relaxing and peacefully quiet there, we had a restful night without any interruptions at all.
The next morning, we took a little walk around the campground. These are the currant berries that we are seeing all around our campsite. I am sure the bears see them too!!
Everything was so lush and green, and I think after the rainfall from the last few days, things brightened up even more. Steve even pointed out the beautiful arrangement of moss and little plants around this stump. He told me I had to take a picture of it... See? He is becoming an artistic photographer in his own right. He just tells me to take the picture with my camera...
I saw this pretty stump with all these little tiny fungi growing on it. It looked so pretty, almost like lace.
Near our campsite was this funny looking bud ready to unfold. It had little spiky thorns all over it so we didn't dare touch it. It was quite tall, a couple feet at least. We weren't exactly sure what it was.
I took a far away photo and an up close photo and sent them off to my friend Linda in Tennessee. She has an app on her phone that helps identify plants.
ACK!!!!
THIS IS WHAT SHE FOUND OUT:
I guess we will just leave it alone now, won't we?
The second evening, we were starting some chicken on the grill. That's when Steve noticed we were having some trouble with our propane valve on the motorhome. It's not a normal propane valve, Winnebago has installed this crazy electronic valve system with switches both outside and inside. It's all electronic, and of course that's always subject to fail? It has a solenoid and a sensor and an electronic method of opening and closing the propane valve.
On our last motorhome, all we had to do was get out and physically turn a knob on the tank with our hand. Done.
But this motorhome has fancy switches both inside and out to automatically turn it on and off with each use--- which of course can go to heck.
And that is exactly what happened...
Without propane, we would lose all of our cooling ability in the refrigerator and frozen food in the freezer. On top of that, without propane, we would have no heat at night. What were we going to do?
It was about 7:30 in the evening. We decided that we needed to have heat and to save the large amount of food that is stashed in our freezer and refrigerator.
Remember, we are far out in the boonies and there's no place available to buy a bag of ice or to put food in a cooler.
Athough we had paid for a second night here at Byer's Lake, we would forfeit the night and head back down to Trapper Creek where we knew we could plug in electrically. Our refrigerator can run on either propane, or electric. We needed to get someplace to plug in. Our need for heat overnight, as the temps were dipping down in the low 40s, would be solved by running the rooftop heat pump system in our air conditioner.
We packed up, and hit the road back down to Trapper Creek. It was only 34 miles back down the highway. At least until we could solve our problem, we would have electricity for overnight.
The cost us an additional $35 to stay at Trapper Creek, but it also saved us a lot more in the way of food in our freezer and refrigerator.
Here is the link to the YouTube post that goes along with today's blog:
After our windshield was fixed at Safelite in Wasilla, we headed north on the Parks Highway. We decided we were going to try to get up and see Denali.
Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America, reaching a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 meters). It is located in the Alaska Range.
We were aiming for the smaller state park across from the big National Park. We decided that the national park is quite complicated to stay at, and you cannot see Denali from the actual campsites. You have to take a shuttle bus or a tour bus to get anywhere close to seeing the mountain.
Also, dogs are forbidden in any of the areas of the park other than directly at your own campsite.
You need to take shuttle buses to view things within the park, you cannot drive around and look at things yourself. Of course, dogs are not allowed on the shuttle buses either.
So we decided it wasn't dog friendly at the National Park. We didn't want to leave Nick for hours on end alone in the motorhome either. Looking at some of the scheduled bus routes, we could be gone for a long time to make a complete loop.
So the state park called K'seugi Ken seemed more to our liking.
We headed north on the Parks Highway and it was absolutely beautiful!
As we got closer, we could see the mountain range in the distance where Denali should be. But it wasn't.
It was clouding over and raining right where Denali should be.
The closer we got, the darker it got. You can very faintly see the outline of mountains among the black clouds up ahead.
We drove through the K'seugi Ken State Campground. There were many empty sites but they all had signs on them saying they were reserved. We looped through twice just to make sure we didn't miss any. It's sad, because a lot of these sites never get filled up anyhow. We actually talked to a person (a few days later) that said he had reservations for two nights but they were driving on to Fairbanks because the weather was bad. He just shrugged it off as a loss. Many do that. If we had known, we would have taken his two nights!
So we did the next best thing, right across from the state campground is Denali South View Point parking lot. When the conditions are right, you can see Denali the best from here instead of being in the national park itself.
What is wonderful, is that you can pay a fee at the kiosk and stay overnight right there in the viewing point area. Each site is also furnished with a picnic table and a fire ring. They have outhouses and a water source. But of course no dump station or electric services. We didn't care, we just wanted to see Denali and didn't mind parking there overnight for a $20 fee.
The sun was shining when we got there, but the clouds were all over blocking out Denali and you couldn't see very far at all.
You can see the lower mountains in the front. But behind all those clouds should be Denali....
There! I fixed it. Lol
The storyboards on site at the viewing platform explained how the weather is affected by the height of Denali. It essentially creates its own weather around it in a dome.
It really explained a lot of why only 30% of the visitors ever see Denali.
I cannot imagine being brave enough to climb up there, people who have done it, are exhilarated by the experience. Or disappointed by their failure of not making it the whole way?
It is interesting that something as natural as a mountain down on the ground can affect the weather above in the sky.
They also have a large diorama display which shows all of the mountain peaks and their heights. It displays why Denali is so much larger than all the rest of them, and easily seen if the sky is cooperating.
We just didn't get any cooperation....
We hung out in the viewing area for 2 days and nights. It was cloudy and rainy all the while. So we really didn't get to see Denali at all. We finally gave up and having south back down the Parks Highway towards Trapper Creek. We could use a freshwater refill, dump our tanks, and spend a night with electrical hookups. Right behind the Three Bears Store at Trapper Creek there is a small RV park attached to the Trapper Creek Inn.
Here is their website, and they do take reservations for the RV park:
We caught up our laundry and did a little shopping within the store. We opted to park along the fence near the front so we would have an open clear sky for Starlink. They do have Wi-Fi, but it's kind of slow.
They are a clean well kept part, definitely big rig friendly. There's about seven or eight pull through sites on one side and other wooded back in sites on the other. They also have some tenting sites.
In the center they have a big pavilion, perfect for large gatherings or if you are traveling with a tour group or convoy.
Someone took a lot of time to build this heavy duty pavilion. They found big logs with burls on them which are odd growths during the lifetime of the tree. They took the time to scrape off all the bark and implement the chunks of log into the supports for the pavilion. It's a real "Alaska Thing" to do this on your log cabin too.
These are the wooded sites down the other side that I think are rustic camping for tents. I don't think there's electric over here except for the very end one. But they are nice shaded sites.
Their little store had a little bit of everything. There were grocery items and a small array of hardware items and sporting items. There was a bit of giftware here and there and tourist knick knacks. I found something I didn't know I really wanted. Lol. But I bought it and I really really like it!!
It's called an "ulu knife"... And the wooden chopping block that goes with it with a concaved area called the bowl.
"An ulu (Inuktitut: ᐅᓗ; plural: uluit) is a traditional multi-purpose knife traditionally used by Inuit, Iñupiat, Yupik, and Aleut women. It features a semi-circular blade and a handle, and is known for its versatility in various tasks such as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting food, and even trimming snow and ice. Ulu knives are often sold as souvenirs in Alaska."
Here's the YouTube video that goes along with today's blog:
It was dreary and damp when we woke up at Glacier View Campground at Matenuska.
We could see the glacier right from the parking lot but we weren't about to go hiking in this damp icky weather to go to walk on it. But it was really interesting to see it right from the rec area. I had always thought we would have to hike miles and miles to go see a glacier, our go on an airplane excursion to see one!
This time of year, I'm never sure if I'm just seeing a lot of snow that hasn't melted yet, or if I'm seeing an actual glacier. Lol
So I started reading some of the storyboards that were surrounding the parking area. It was very interesting, but then it started raining some more so I had to hop back in the motorhome, enjoying the warmth with Steve and Nick and the rest of my coffee.
We started heading further west on the Glenn Highway. The mountains were unfolding in front of us even though the hills were misty and full of wispy clouds.
There's a beauty even to a rainy day when you are in the mountains...
Now this next thing was crazy ---- remember, we had driven all the way out to McCarthy and back. 120 miles on rough rugged gravel roads. We have driven through a lot of really rough gravel patches all the way up here through Canada and into Alaska. Not a single problem!
So here we are, cruising along on smooth black-topped pavement. And what happens? A car coming the other way was pulling a trailer. Somehow it kicked up a rock and hit us right in the windshield!
Yep, a rock chip!!! Aarrrggghhh! (Pleated window shade unfolded behind so you can see it)
It's important to get a rock chip repaired right away so it doesn't spread any further. We do have two rock chip repair kits with us. But with the damp icky weather we really didn't want to do a repair that would trap the moisture within the windshield.
Our American Family Insurance has partnered with Safelite windshield repair and has a program all set up in place. All we needed to do was make one phone call and it was all taken care of. All chips are repaired for free. We can have a service vehicle come out to meet us or we can stop at any Safelite facility. There happened to be one just 30 miles down the road in Wasilla. They made an appointment for us for the next morning at 11:00 a.m. How nice is that?
Also, if we opted to have the entire windshield replaced, it would only cost us a $500 deductible. They would take care of the rest. But since it was just a chip, we chose to get it repaired quickly and hope it doesn't spread any further.
We drove on the next 30 miles to Wasilla. It happened that the Safelite location was conveniently situated across the street from the Walmart! So we could overnight in the Walmart lot and just buzz over in the morning for our Safelite appointment. How nice is that?
We got settled in our parking spot along one edge, with a couple other RVs. We were able to extend our slide out into the trees.
We went inside to ask permission, and purchase a few things. We noticed this was a very clean, well-stocked Walmart.
We had a nice grassy area beyond the trees to bring Nicholas to run around and burn off some of his energy.
Yes, he sure does have a lot of energy. Being cooped up in a small motorhome on a rainy icky day, he really needed to get rid of some of his "zoomies".
I made a very delicious scrumptious roasted chicken!
Actually it came right out of the deli in Walmart. So we enjoyed an easy meal and had leftovers to pick off the carcass to save for a future chicken stir fry. So we get two meals out of one of their rotisserie chickens for $6.99. quite the bargain.
This location was pretty quiet, it wasn't near any major interstates, so we were on the quiet side of the parking lot.
We got a good sleep and the next morning we stocked up what we needed inside of the motorhome. It was nice to grab some of our familiar favorite items. The prices were just about the same as in the lower 48s.
About 10:00 a.m. we headed over to the parking lot at Safelite. We thought we would see, just in case, if they could take us early. Yes they could!
They said to pull right up into their handicapped parking spot and a technician will be out in a moment.
He wheeled out his cart of supplies. It was going to be very easy for him to do the repair right out in front of their building, and not have to make a service call.
He used a special piece of equipment to extract any moisture out of the crack. Then he filled it with a special resin while he had a dome over the windshield taped into place. That was to prevent any UV rays from affecting the resin while it cured.
Once he had a good seal, he set it on a timer and was able to completely finish up the job in about 10 minutes. Then he cleaned the surface and scraped away any excess.
Steve enjoyed chatting with him, and found out he's a young father with small children. He talked about doing camping and enjoying the outdoors.
Even though American Family paid for our repair in full, Steve left him a nice little tip. Every little bit helps and when you have friendly customer service, it's always appreciated.
From there, we had looked up a Great Clips location in Wasilla. Steve has been looking increasingly shaggy and needed to clean up his act.
Here is the "before":
And here is the "after". He sure cleans up pretty good with a little lick, spit, and polish. Ya think?
Okay, by now we've had enough of the big city... Traffic and noise and people all over. After spending so many weeks in such remote quiet wilderness areas, it was a barrage to our senses to be in the middle of chain stores and traffic lights and noise, noise, noise.
On our way north out of Wasilla, we literally saw children swimming. Yes, the ice probably just went off this pond last week. And these hardy Alaskan children were swimming!
We headed straight north on the Parks Highway. We were heading out to go see Denali!
There's a state campground called K'esugi Ken, but we weren't able to find a campsite there. There were a lot of empty campsites, and they all had reserved signs on them. But people just never show up. That's a shame, because people like us would gladly take them. I would say approximately half the campground was empty and it was pretty late in the day. Other people have said the same thing. It gets reserved up and then people never come and change their plans. Instead of canceling, they just let it run out and forfeit their money.
In Wisconsin State Parks, if you don't come on the first night, your forfeit your money. But the park is allowed to rent out your campsite for the rest of your reservation period. Not so in Alaska.
So we did the next best thing. Along the Parks Highway there are two viewpoints for Denali. They are paved pull out areas with large parking lots and restrooms. You are allowed to park there in your RV overnight by paying a $20 fee at the solar powered kiosk provided. Actually, you can stay up to 15 days!
I know it's just a parking lot, with access to restrooms and dumpsters. They furnish picnic tables and a fire ring. There are no hookups and no dump station etc. But it was a spot to park for the night, and get relaxed and unwind after our busy day in the city.
They say only 30% of visitors to Denali ever get to see the top of the mountain. We were part of the unlucky 70%. We walked over to the viewpoint and we could not see Denali. Although it was somewhat sunny and partly cloudy on the way up with beautiful blue skies and puffy white clouds, Denali was shrouded in darkness. It is said that Denali makes its own weather because it's so high. So we could not see it at this point. But that was okay, we would try again.
Here's the YouTube that goes along with today's blog post:
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