NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAYS 45 & 46 - EKLUTNA STATE PARK

After the highlight of seeing the adorable baby moose, it was pretty hard to top that. We decided to leave that campground and head on further south. It's been rather cold at night and we were hoping for some warmer weather.

We decided to tackle going through Wasilla as quick as we could. We really don't like driving in cities, but the highway goes right through the middle of town. There are no bypasses, so you have no choice.

We scooted our butts through as fast as we could. Then we headed out to the Eklutna State Park about 25 mi south of Wasilla.

We drove through, looking for a site. It was pretty full. A lot of the campsites here are double sites. You can rent one side singly, but you have to share with somebody else the parking area. We found one that was empty on both sides and pulled in and got set up. Not long afterwards a nice couple from California came to join us on the other side. It was great because they were quiet and courteous thoughtful neighbors.

https://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/aspunits/chugach/eklutnalkcamp.htm

We set up our solar panels out near the front, and they set up their lawn chairs to sit in the sunshine in front of their rig.

A little while later, we saw a parade of three shelties walking past. Of course we had to go meet with them! Nick got to sniff noses and make friends with three other little boy shelties. 

One is an elderly gentleman Sheltie (sitting), and the other two were going to be celebrating their 7th birthday together as they were brothers from the same litter. It was very nice talking to their engaging owners with spending time letting the dogs sniff each other and become buddies. They are local people and gave us a lot of ideas of places to go

We decided to cook up our hunk of halibut that we had bought from the fresh seafood market in Valdez. We had it stored in our freezer, but it was time to take it out and get it cooked up.

Man oh man, was that ever good! It was flaky and light like salmon. It was not fishy or oily at all. It actually almost tasted like Alaskan snow crab leg meat. Squeezed a little butter over the top and some of our Harvest Blend seasoning. We cooked up some potatoes and had a garden salad alongside of it. 

When dinner was done, we were so full. Next time we would take a hunk like that and split it in half and save the rest. It was really enough for two servings from each half.  We kicked back into our chairs for the evening. It was so nice to relax.

Of course, Nick got a tiny piece of halibut to try. Then the rest of his dinner consisted of dog food. But he joined us on the lawn chairs, (on my lap). 

The beauty surrounding us was amazing. Just sitting and looking out the front of our campsite, this was our view! Yep. Mountains with snow on them. Right there.

Our first night at the campground was not too bad. It was a Thursday night. We got a good night's sleep. But then the next day it was Friday. All the weekend warriors started rolling in. And boy oh boy did things get loud!

During the day there was a lot of activity, music, noise and a lot of driving through the park. Many people were driving through looking for campsites, but there just weren't any to be had. Everything was full up. It seemed like it was a constant parade of vehicles coming through. One of the locals had said it was like their "4 days of summer" because it was the first nice weather that they've had. It was the first 4 days in a row with no rain forecast and the temperatures were finally warming up. He said after that everything will get cold and miserable again. So everybody was rejoicing and getting out and about to celebrate the four days of summer that they only get every year???

Later that night as we were in bed, the music had died down at some of their neighboring campsites and we had just dozed off to sleep. 

But then the real bedlam started!

There was shouting. There was screaming. There was banging and slamming. There was a lot of noise. There were dogs wildly barking over and over... Totally crazy. It went on for quite a while. 

We later learned it was a bear working its way through the campground. People were reacting and upset and I think the people in tents were having a real difficult time.  We had heard earlier that the bear had walked right up to a man's campsite and took a steak off the grill where it was cooking over the fire! So I guess this bear doesn't have any fear of humans and was creating havoc as it was going around the loops of the campsites. 

We stayed inside with our doors locked. We never leave any food out or anything else that a bear would find interesting. 

The next morning, the rangers were stapling up signs throughout the park about the reported bear problem. 

We figured it would be time to move on, but first we took a walk down by the lake. It was absolutely marvelous and peaceful and calm. Especially after the night we all had!

It was so serene, and the mountains off in the distance just added to the beautiful landscape. The water levels of this lake fluctuate a lot, Steve had read that it's used for facilitating the water used in Anchorage further to the south.

We hung out for a while on the lake shore, but then it was time to say goodbye and move on. It would be Saturday night and things would be probably even crazier than Friday night??

We got loaded up and roadworthy, and away we went to scoot our way now through Anchorage and get south of the big cities. It will be nice to get back into the rustic camping and remote campsites that we enjoy. 

Here's the video that goes along with this blog:

60 miles travel today 

4,530 miles traveled so far