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.

We took Rob’s advice and visited the Wildlife Center – about 25 miles north on the Haines Highway. We also left early enough to take a short road trip on the Highway, cross the border to explore the  tundra at the pass. Check out the pics of the moose we saw that morning in the album titled 06-12 Haines at right. Read on →

I began to contact local artists in the various trip destinations last fall about painting places and partners. Rob Goldberg at https://www.artstudioalaska.com/ was one of the 1st artist to respond. Rob said, “I’ve traveled all over Alaska and haven’t found any place more beautiful than Haines – just pitch your other plans and stay here for all 5 months!” Read on →

Here are some cool pics of Dawes Glacier and the fjord. A glorious day, with breaching whales for an encore! Words cannot describe the viewing of glacier calving that we saw today. Here’s a brief video of some of the wildest moments: [flickr video=3611465859]

OK – I confess I was doubtful about what we’d do here – especially since we had to move up our departure from Sitka by 2 days. Boy was I wrong! Once we got the RV set up, we took off for Mendenhall Glacier, which is only 15 minutes away. Check out the nifty pictures we took at Mendenhall National Park. Read on →

Since we only had a few days in Sitka, we chose to park in the city campground beside the Marina and at the base of the O’Connell bridge. It was listed as a busy spot, but pretty quiet when we arrived at 3:00am. Later that morning, as we’re trying to catch some extra zzzzs, we discovered that the Japonski Island not only has the Sealing Cove Marina, but also the airport and hospital, with the coast guard and a float plane terminal in the Sitka Channel – all within walking distance of downtown Sitka! Busy indeed! Read on →

In the last 8 days we’ve had marvelous experiences traveling on the ferries of the Alaskan Marine Highway System (AMHS) from Petersburg to Sitka (through the Frederick Sound) and then from Sitka to Juneau. Both times, skies were blue and waters as still as glass – which made for some excellent whale and gorgeous sunset viewing. Read on →