June 28:

Made 344 miles yesterday, and 

Spent the night at a State Park just outside of Glenallen - $15.00- no hookups, but very level sites in the deep woods, so very private and quiet as well, but the SKEETERS were AWFUL!  Sorry no pic of our campsite! I kind of needed to keep SOME of my blood!  Did not unhook from the truck…  took this picture shortly after midnight…  

After leaving the State Park at Glenallen this morning, we continued on the Richardson Highway, on down to Valdez.  Along the way, even though it was VERY foggy and drizzly, THIS was what we saw:

Worthington Glacier was ESPECIALLY wonderful!  Even though partially obscured by HEAVY fog cover, it was breath taking!  

Neat textured rock in the glacier area.

 

Took these 2 of the glacier with the long lens.

Snow and glacier 

These sure do look like Texas Bluebonnets!  

Stopped for one lane traffic at one point in the Thompson pass as there was a rock slide and they were working very hard to get it cleared up. Could only see about 2 car lengths ahead at some points…

Snow in Keystone Canyon, right after the landslide

Farther down the highway, we saw  and Horse Tail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls

Got to our campsite at Valdez about 2:00 - about 12o miles today, but not bad time, considering the photo stops, fog, one lane traffic problems.  The campground is a VERY level gravel lot - NO MUD!  Set up and went over to the Ferry to see about getting a reservation for next Wednesday to go to Whittier for the truck, Bird and us - so we are SET!  Then came back to see about extending our stay here a couple more days - we had reservations for just 3 nights, but they still have room - we just have to move to another spot for the last 2 days - a Rally is coming in to THIS area - but no big deal for us - again, very level spots..  He is hoping to get this messy camper and truck washed - he is gonna be a BUSY boy, laundry AND cleaning the outside stuff!  LOL!  I will cook a few things up for the next week or so… Can't WAIT to see Valdez harbor without Fog covering these wonderful mountains!!!!  Thinking about taking a Glacier tour as well...

Stay tuned, Folks!! Hoping to have some GREAT pix of the glaciers and the Ferry to Wittier! 

June 25, 2013

More from "Chicken, AK"  … Went over to the Chicken Saloon - the hats  are stapled to the ceiling!! HUNDREDS of them!  We forgot to take one of ours. bummer….  

Local Residents between Bar and Sandwich shop: 

Chicken Mercantile Emporiam -with ANTHING pertaining to chickens that you could POSSIBLY want or need (or not need….)

Chicken Post Office - for the (population of 23 in summer, 7 in winter..)  residents of Chicken…

Sign for the city Limits  

 The Chicken Loop takes maybe … um… 5 minutes, that is if a dog or chicken crosses the road and you have to wait for it! LOL!

A Gold Dredge.. Rusty thing that Den crawled over, drooled over and informed lots of the onlookers as to what was missing and what was original…. he had been out to see the one at Dawson City and THAT coupled with is knowledge of the machinery he ran when he was a quarry boss at the gravel pit 30 years ago, was of great interest to him!  

( I got to read all afternoon!!!!)

Midnight sunset out our back window! Stunning! 

TG and Friend… He wanted one of those Golden eggs…. did not happen..

June 26… Left Chicken for Tok (rhymes with "poke") and stopped at a REALLY great gift shop, explored it and had our lunch in the camper across from the shop in a nice park… and then on up towards Delta Jct.

Stopped at the Delta Meat and Sausage shop and got several pkgs of buffalo, elk and deer sausage, VERY good! We had samples of all before we decided.  Den had seen the ad in Milepost book! LOL~

Dry river bed on the way to Delta Jct

TG and Friends with 2 Prehistoric Pteridactyl skeeters…in Downtown Delta Jct. 

End of Alcan Hwy Milepost 1422

Forest fire on the way to Delta Jct.

Pretty scary to see since we were heading that way! but we did get to Delta Jct safely and met our 'neighbors', slide in truck camper from Ottumwa, Iowa, and a couple with a motorcycle and small trailer - I mean SMALL! but that thing folded out to be a queen sized bed and dressing space! I could not believe it!!  Very nice folks from Michigan!  Forgot to take a pic of our campground… We stayed at Smith's Green Acres in D.Jct.  $34.00 a nite - water and electric.  TREES!  

June 27, 2013

Before we pulled out of Delta jct this morning, the owner came up to our camper and remembered that we were heading for Fairbanks, and he told us about the fires over THAT way that people were kind of fleeing from, so we decided to change our trip and go down to Valdez first and then do that Western loop later - basically just changed our direction to lower area first instead of F-banks first… SO, we headed southwest towards Valdez.

TG with the Snow capped mts.

Along the way to Glenallen on the Richardson Hwy -

Ice still on the river north of Glenallen

We in a State Park tonight, with no services - very quiet, wooded and pretty flat - did not unhook - but if we HAD, the skeeters would have carried our TRUCK away! LORD… really bad.. Forgot to take a pic - did not want to lose ALL my blood to those suckers!!!!!  

Finally in Valdez and have GREAT wifi!  So these are late in posting but will show the next batch in a new post!   

Getting through American Customs was easy:

 and then we drove up the Top of the World Highway. 

 Piles of rocks along the "Top of the World Highway" quite common up here - just to say "we were there"….

 and the views were GREAT!!!!! 

lakeside stream, found some WONDERFUL glittery rocks…. might be a wee bit heavier by the time we get to ABQ!!!! LOL! 

the road, not so great!  lol! Paved part of the way and then we got to the Taylor highway and it was VERY ROUGH and DUSTY!  Had lunch along the way in our camper (you BETTER, as there is NOTHING along the way - no food, no  fuel, no water, no potties, NADA!)  Took us till about 3:00 - another time change…… It is really hard to keep track of date, time, month, etc, as it is daylight almost 24 hours a day - twilight for about 3 hours out of that 24….  

153 miles later, we got to Chicken  at about 3:30 (NEW time!) and checked out the gift shop, BIG chicken out front, signs that show the different 'bird or chicken names' and checked in!  Den parked the camper and got jacks down, etc, and I came inside and almost DIED!  Stuff was on the floor, a wine glass broken and DIRT everywhere!  The road was SO dusty it came in under the slide, in the water heater, and all around the door…..  I had just cleaned yesterday afternoon, so I was NOT a happy camper….  but an hour later, he had helped me vac and clean up the broken glass, and all was well - the camper and truck are doing well, despite the dirt and dust…. Nothing broken on Bird OR truck!  So far, no chips that we have noticed….  

Will post pix of the campground at Chicken in the next day or so.... 

campsite: tight spaces, only elect and wifi, no water or sewer….. 

… As usual, crammed in kind of like sardines, but should be fine!

Not sure what are plans are for tomorrow, after all we saw of this rough road today, not sure if we want to backtrack to go to go up to Circle…. we are going be here three nights, so 2 days of exploring this tight area - (maybe panning for gold, maybe heading to the Chicken Bar - MUST have a beer there!)  There is another Dredge here that Den wants to check out - he went out for the Dredge tour in Dawson City yesterday and this one is smaller - since he is a retired heavy equipment operator, that is RIGHT up his alley!  I stayed home and READ and cleaned yesterday…. (and should have waited!  LOL)  Might even pan for gold and hit it RICH!!!!!  

Maybe more tomorrow!  

STILL trying to get pix posted from Alaska!  As we went toward the US border from the Yukon, we saw several places where there was still Snow!

Still can't get this posted... so will try again tomorrow.......

June 23  1:15 A.M.  I took this pic of the glow in the sky this morning before I went to bed- AMAZING!

Left Dawson City this morning at 8:30, and waited in line for the ferry for 2 1/2 hours!  

Will post tomorrow, took nearly 3 hours for these 2 photos to post!!!!!

 

June 20 -

We are in Dawson City till Sunday morning, so today we took a walking tour around town - very easy to cover the small, compact area - Lots of the businesses have been upgraded and some new construction (Hotels and Inns, and the information centers and museums), but there are MANY that are still in the original buildings - wooden floors, old counters, etc.. Very nostalgic and interesting!  Small antique shop/outfitter store, the usual tourist junk and some VERY fine locally made jewelry stores!  Went down to the ferry landing, where we will board on Sunday morning to leave this area - The Ferry only goes to the shore across the Yukon River, and then we will head on out to Chicken and Eagle and Tok - FINALLY Alaska on Sunday!!!!

Our campground and site - gravel lot, very close together, but very walkable to see the town !!

These 2 pix took 2 hours to load, so maybe more can go tomorrow!  Den is going to go see a gold digging dredge - I am going to try to add more pix while he is gone.... 

 Till then! DnD

This morning, June 19, we left Whitehorse and headed on up the road to Dawson City.  As of yesterday, we have been on the road for 4 weeks and it seems like just a few days! 

Went past a series of  lakes, rivers and streams, and not much else - you better come up to this area with Supplies, Fuel, etc, and not expect to find a restaurant or ANYTHING else!!!!  There are pullouts quite often, considering the remoteness..  We have our own food with, of course, so lunch is in our camper (skeeters are what we call "Prehistoric Pteridoctile Skeeters!")  

We did stop at a nice rest area at "Five Finger Rapids", very pretty!  And the wild roses were a WONDERFUL scent while we were having lunch!

Roadwork continues all summer it sounds like - frost heave this spring was particularly bad, the locals told us.

LOTS of "whoopydoos" and slow driving from Whitehorse to Dawson City...

Inside of camper took a sort of beating - some things fell of the counter that have NEVER fallen!  But nothing broken at all - Our first greeting to Dawson City:

We are in Dawson City till Sunday morning - So will see if I can post on here!  The internet is "Tengonet" and I HATE Tengonet!!!!  NOTHING but problems……  GRRRR!  

Lots to see in this town - gold mining, stores, shows, dinner theater, etc... Will know more by tomorrow night!  

Till then......................