NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAYS 59-62 - SKILAK LAKE

We drove on north out of Homer and headed up the Sterling Highway. The traffic was getting more and more abundant with the holiday week coming up. We knew that we needed to get the heck out of the busy areas and go find a nice quiet campground somewhere for a few days.  At least to get through the 4th of July craziness.

We took the West Entrance to Skilak Lake Road, and first ran across the Lower Skilak Lake Campground. We were really lucky that we did. Because there was one empty campsite! This place is FREE!!! It doesn't even say that you have to leave after 14 days either. It is managed by the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge:

https://www.alaska.org/detail/lower-skilak-lake-campground

We found this last campsite where we could slightly see the lake through the bushes. But we didn't care. It was a free campsite and it was quiet and in the woods. AND it was on a Friday night.  To get ANY open campsite is a great thing.  The bonus that it was FREE made it even better. That sounded good to us.

If we sat over by the picnic table, we could see the lake through the trees. We were just happy to stretch out and relax and take it easy for the evening. After all of the busy noise of the night before in Homer, that meant we didn't get very good sleep. We were looking forward to a nice quiet sleep in the woods.

Ahhhh this was so very nice. We ate a little dinner, curled up with some shows on Roku, and went to bed early! 

I'm glad to say that we got a very nice peaceful sleep, and slept in till almost 9:00 a.m.!!!

Now this morning is where things got interesting... Steve had walked down to the pit toilets and noticed somebody had just vacated the most absolute perfect best site in the entire campground!!!

He rushed back to tell me that I needed to go save it, while he was going to pull in the slides and get the gear ready to drive the motorhome over there. I was still in my jammies! 

I tossed on a pair of jeans and my moccasins, grabbed the bear spray, and hoofed it on down across the campground to the other site. I had Nick in tow on the leash, so he was out of Steve's way while getting the rig ready to move.

I stood right there on the new site and made sure nobody else was going to come and take it!!! 

Standing guard with my dog and my bear spray

and defending my territory....lol.

Steve was very quick and efficient in putting the motorhome into "road-worthiness". We got all settled into our campsite. It was PERFECT! 

The site was absolutely wonderful. Being parked parallel to the road meant the whole side of our rig could face out over the lake. Can you imagine having this type of view out of every window? Each time we opened the door, this is what we could see. Our own little private beach.

The front of the motorhome was tucked up tight to a really pretty clump of wild roses.  We could smell them each time we opened the door. Once it was warm enough we had all of the windows open. It smelled great!

We were surrounded by clumps of lovely birch trees. I absolutely love birch. It was so picturesque against the fresh green leaves.

All of the shrubbery underneath were comprised of these beautiful wild roses. Their delicate pink blossoms were filling the air with such a gorgeous perfume.  Having rainef the day before, everything was so fresh and it made the rose aroma even stronger.

Even standing at the sink, doing something as simple as dishes, was enjoyable. Looking out of the windows, eyes playing across the lake. The scene changed constantly depending on which way the sun was shining against the mountains on the other side of the lake.

A pair of loons floated by, calling out there greetings to us. That is such a soothing sound. We have loons in Wisconsin. We can hear them anytime we head up north to camp at any of the National Forest campgrounds. Hearing them now in Alaska just brought on a little wave of nostalgia and homesickness on. Thinking about camping in the North Woods of Wisconsin.

I took out my camera and snapped a few photos here and there. It was such a beautiful place. I want to drink it all in, and then remember it through photos in the years to come. I can look back at old videos or photos and remember these days.

We took a little walk around, and it was even more special because it was our anniversary. Yes, we have been married now for 28 years. We also dated for 2 years before we got married so really it's closer to 30 years for us.  If we make it another 30 years, that means we'll be in our 90s. Two old people looking back on their videos and photos of trips that they have taken long ago. That's why I do all this. So we can remember it all again in our old age...

My scare this past spring with a mini-stroke and discovering 2 small aneurisms sure makes us appreciate this trip even more. 

As we walked around the campground, this is something that I've never seen before. Keep in mind, this area suffered horrible losses from wildfires. So this was a "bucket tree" project to allow people to borrow large 5 gallon buckets to keep right by their campfire, scooping up a bucket full of lake water. Hopefully it can help prevent any crazy wildfires that get started by human accident. When you are done camping, they ask that you use the bucket to put out your fire, and hang it back up on the tree again.

The tags read that this was a special project by the local girl scouts. Also they have financial supporters and backers that helped with the materials. What a great project, and very beneficial in an area that suffered such losses.

Another program that we've seen more and more at campgrounds are these honor system life vest programs. It's called "Kids Don't Float". Select a vest of the appropriate size for your child to use while you are at the lake. When you are done, return it to the hanging rack underneath the sign. Although the life jackets are labeled with the program's name on them, I see a few without labels. I think that's from people donating them when their own children grow out of them. Great idea!

We spent three lovely days on this campsite. Totally soaking up the peace and quiet. We had soft gentle mornings with coffee and donuts...

And a certain little doggy begging for a bite!

We didn't do a lot during the 3 days, except relax and unwind. It was so nice to just take it easy. Nick enjoyed sprawling across our laps and looking out over the water with us. Every now and then a duck or a loon would catch his interest. But then they would swim away, and he would go back to dozing in the sunshine.

AHHHHHHH

Times like this are precious.

Serenity.

As time marches on, and the calendar days go by, we needed to take a close look at our traveling.  It was now after the 30th of June. We were two months into our 4-month travel plan.  We have seen all the highlights that we wanted to see in Alaska.

It was time to "Turnaround" and spend the next 60 days heading back in a southerly and easterly direction.

Leaving Skilak Lake, we would be now passing back through Anchorage and heading east. It was time.

We are thinking of going home in alternate route than the way we came. There will only be two small sections of road that we have to overlap that we traveled on the way up. The rest of the way will be different routes and different sites. We will be taking the Cassier Highway down the more Western flank of the Canadian Rockies. From there we will hit the United States and work our way across the northernmost states. Hopefully recreating the route on US2 that we had to abandon last year due to the heavy wildfires. 

The dark blue line is the route that we traveled so far and the light turquoise line will be the proposed route home: 

Here's a link to the YouTube that also goes along with today's blog: 

129 miles traveled today 

5,103 miles traveled so far