Talkeetna is the staging ground for all climbers headed to Mt. McKinley – this year a little over 1000 will attempt the climb – at a personal expense of around $7,000 each and 3 weeks to do it. Only half will succeed and a few will die.  We celebrated the 4th in this 870 person village watching a parade which lasted about 7 minutes. Read on →

Throughout our journey we have heard repeatedly about last summer’s weather – only 6 days of sunshine. We’ve been thrilled with the abundance of sunny days. It’s made it easy to get some great photos and pics like this one and more in the album titled 07-03 Mt McKinley at right.

What fun – a great tourist event and warm dry weather! Dave was mumbling about being “lemming tourists” as we followed the line of tour buses  to hop on a 3 1/2 hour cruise. Fortunately, we found that this particular tour was so well done that we didn’t mind being packaged as part of a crowd. The cruise had a fantastic speaker – a radio DJ that had many amusing stories about the people who lived along the river. We stopped at Susan Butcher’s Dog Sled property and saw a demonstration of a racing team as well as visited a First Nation summer camp village. Thanks for all of you who recommended that we do this! Check out the photos in the album titled 07-02 Fairbanks at the right.

Many people in Alaska and the Yukon use sled dogs for transportation during the 7 long months of winter. Although I had heard of the Itiderod race, I wasn’t aware of the number of other races held in Alaska and the Yukon. Anchorage even has a storage shed to keep snow available for 2 of the major races that run through the town! We were able to see demonstrations of the teams used in Denali Park, for hauling supplies for researchers and breaking trail, and Susan Butcher’s 4 time Itiderod champion racing teams.

I was amazed to how much the dogs love to run and work! Here’s a fun video of Denali’s working dogs:

[flickr video=3684100502]

Imagine having only one, 95-mile-long gravel road to cover the entire state of New Hampshire. That’s essentially the status of travel in Denali National Park and Preserve – with major emphasis on the preserve.  Read on →

We practically floated our way from Fairbanks to Denali – the torrential downpour and cool temps made for a dreary morning drive. So I put on one of the CD’s that our daughter Rebecca made for me  titled “Get Moving”. What a difference some music made to our morning! It especially perked up driver Dave, so Beck, this video below  is especially for you! Read on →

I just saw him run by. He ran by our camper. He was about fve feet away. He was just a young cub. The golden brown grizzly cub probably weighed about 250 pounds. He trotted slowly out of the trees, crossed our camp site and continued back into the trees on the other side. Grizzly cubs have mommas. I wonder where his momma is now? She is probably a very protective 600 pound grizzly. Yesterday, on our bus ride into the park, we heard a story about how a 600 pound grizzly can pick up a little 300 pound grizzly and shake it like a rag doll. Do you think the momma grizzly ran thru first, and we just didn’t see her??? Or, do you think momma is stll coming, looking for her cub??? Shall we go out and look??? Or shall we sit here and write this post???

We continued on our way to Fairbanks via Tok and an overnight in Delta Junction, a small community at the Northern end of the Alaska Highway. Wonder of wonders – the Smith RV park offered free car washes – and we spent over an hour washing the 1/4 to 1/2 inch of caked mud from the RV and the Scion! Read on →

Anyone, from any country, can stake a claim for $50 through the surveyor’s office to get exclusive mineral rights on that land. As long as they annually demonstrate 200 hours of actual work, they can even renew it up to seven times. Wayne & Linda had chosen a spot about 40 miles up river where they thought the remoteness would have protected their claim from previous prospecting. Read on →

The settlers named it Chicken because they couldn’t spelled ptarmigan, a bird that was one of their mainstays for survival. Pretty much everything here has that same “tongue in cheek” feel. The community is actually three separate properties about 1/4 mile from each other owned by three families. Read on →

(Highway) you ask??? Well, I’ve never driven a road for over 2 1/2 hours in second gear at 25 miles per hour and called it a highway!  We left Dawson City via the free ferry across the Yukon River. The first 5 miles or so were deceptively good and then the road deteriorated at the same time we hit the first uphill climb. Dave & I decided to drive both vehicles because we had heard tales about gravel chipping the heck out of tow vehicles. There are a few more pictures in the album titled 06-20 Top of the World at right. Read on →

The passion for gold ignited 100 years ago by the arrival in San Francisco of millions mined at Dawson City still exists today in the Yukon and Alaska. Read on →

OK – I confess – I love Park Ranger talks – and we have found some pretty good ones as we’ve traveled! I didn’t realize that a main part of Skagway was a National Historical Park, complete with many free ranger movies, talks and walks. Although there are lots of shopkeepers ready to “mine” the tourist, similar to the way the stampeders were “mined” as they arrived in Skagway, my favorite part of visiting the historical mining towns were the park ranger talks. Read on →

The Alaska Marine Highway System (AHMS) has been a fantastic way to travel — these past 3 1/2 weeks through the Inside Passage have been delightful! Mountain peaks, smooth waters, glorious sunsets, whales, seals, sea otters, fellow travelers and small, friendly villages has filled this part of our journey with many wonderful memories.