So we have made it to Glennallen so Dave can fish and fish he did! Caught 6 king Salmon, but you can only keep one a day. He kept the first one thinking he might not catch anymore. It was not his largest, but big enough . I have about 8 pounds of salmon in my little refrigerator. I really only like Ahi and Mahi Mahi but we grilled 2 nice size fillets last night and I have to say fresh Salmon is delicious. We are in a very nice campground with lots of space between the RVs much better than Anchorage. What is there to do in Glennallen? Fish and hike that’s about it. We have been trying, just like at Denali to get the top of Mt Drum and even though it is less than half the size of Mt Denali it still has it’s own weather system…so no luck yet. We went to the Wrangell-St Elisa ranger station just to find out that there is only just a one mile walk and all the trails are down the road 10-15 miles. This National Park is the size of Switzerland ,hard to wrap your head around that, and no roads into it so all hiking. There really isn’t much wildlife around here not even interesting birds. Today turned out to be a beautiful day and I am enjoying the sunshine. I think Beau and Bailey are liking it also. We leave on Friday for Tok AK and then start our way home via Hanes. We will need to go into Canada to get to the road to Hanes which actually is in Alaska. There is only one road in so we will need to drive down then back up to the AlCan to continue on our way home. We will not be taking the AlCan all the way to Dawson Creek home we will take the Cassiar Highway. This is on the western side of the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia.

Some fun facts about Alaska there are no snakes! Well there is a garter snake in the Kenai Peninsula but none where we have been. So being from snake filled Florida I still am on the look out for them when I take the dogs for a walk just like at home. The only difference is that a I don’t have to carry a flashlight since it is light to well after midnight. Alaska is 663,268 square miles over twice the size of Texas it is also larger than all but 18 sovereign countries but has very few roads. For instance the only way to get the the Capital Juneau is by plane or ferry. One disgruntled Alaskanite said the lawmakers won’t authorize a road because then they would have to deal with the voters. The Ferry union is on strike so they might be rethinking that decision. It’s all but impossible to reach Nome in the winter, because no roads exist and the ships can not reach because of the ice floes. In the winter of 1925 there was an outbreak diphtheria and the closes antitoxin was in Anchorage. It took 20 mushers and 150 dogs and 5 1/2 days to get the serum to Nome. This is now the route of the modern day Iditarod. To get to Haines and Skagway by road you must first go into Canada.

Now some pictures!

Our drive from Anchorage to Glennallen

I liked the cloud formation

Manuska Glacier

This is called the Lion’s head but Dave and I think it looks like an Elephant.

This is the best I could get of Mt Drum

Quaking Aspen

Don’t know what kind of berry this is but thought it was interesting.

Well we have been in Anchorage since Tuesday and are due to leave tomorrow for Glennallen so Dave can fish. We have been to the Ulu factory, Ship Creek, Alaska Heritage museum, Alaska Cultural center and Oomingmak . We also visited Grizzly’s a landmark souvenir store and the Hard Rock Cafe where I picked up a pin for my niece, because I am the best Aunt ever 🙂 You may be asking what is Oomingmak ? Well it is a very small shop that offers products made with Muskox fur. The fur is harvested like sheep wool only it is picked up as the Muskox sheds in the Spring. It is very laborious work and the products are extremely expensive. All the products are hand knitted by different native people and it is said to be more durable and warmer than wool. They are made to last at least 20 years. So. If you are allergic to wool but live where it gets cold these hats, scarves, headband and shawls are for you!

I found the Alaska cultural center very interesting as you go around a lake and look at the different housing that has been used and some still being used by the Native Alaskans.

Weather: Cold and rainy…so what else is new? They really need the rain here so I won’t begrudge them, but seriously it has rained about 90% of the time on this vacation and I am beginning to grow webbed feet.

On a positive note I have found a grocery store that rates right up there with Publix and Wegmans…Fred Myers. Yesterday I found my first goat cheese with honey since I left Florida!

So our time in Anchorage via pictures.

On our way to Anchorage stopped for world famous ice cream. I had Caribou Carmel…yummy!

Salmon fishing on the Ship Creek

World famous Ship Creek bridge

On the Ship Creek bridge

Totem pole are supposed to tell a story, but not sure what story it is telling here. I think it is saying you need a haircut

In front of the log cabin visitor center

Don’t understand the significance of painted bears but we have seen many. I just happened to like this one.

In the garden of the Alaska Heritage Museum

The flip side.

Love this picture showing the northern most Kentucky Fried Chicken. I have a picture of one from when I was in Shanghai.

Totem pole at Alaska Cultural museum

And another one

Sculpture outside culture center

As you know from my previous post that it was either rainy or cloudy when we went into Denali National Park and could not see Mt Denali. (The say the mountain makes it’s own weather and only 30% of the people trying will actually she her).Well that all changed today as we were leaving on our way south to Anchorage. We saw “her” in all her glory and “she” is fabulous! Well you might wonder why I call the mountain she and her it’s because she is strong and beautiful just like the women in my life. We stopped for the night in a little town call Talkeetna we didn’t want to unhook the jeep so didn’t explore the town but went to a pretty good restaurant call Latitude 60 degrees. I guess back in the day it was a hopping place because the place was filled with picture of musicians that had played there. The only name I recognized was Arlo Guthrie. So here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Today we went back into the park to do a 2 mile mosey but before that we stopped at the Visitors Center. Denali is partnering with Subaru to make it a zero landfill park. In other words everything must be recyclable. Our water came in aluminum cans and they can be recycled in 60 days to new cans. Subaru is also partnering with Grand Tetons and Yosemite. Had a nice talk with the young man and he said that Subaru has had zero trash in the last 15 years at it automotive plant and has produced over 300,000 vehicles in that time. I feel so much better about my Subaru!

Our mosey was at Savage Trail. It is the last stop on the 15 miles that POVs are allowed on the road into Denali. Although there were too many people to see any of the large animals we saw earlier in the week it was still a nice walk. And even though there were other people on the trail we could still “hear the quiet”. So enjoy the pictures:-)

Just a Raven sitting on a rock

Can you hear the water? Very cold glacial runoff.

Wanted to prove I was actually there.

Dave and I have matching jackets 🙂

Hi I’m a squirrel what are you?

I think you are a long way from the ocean.

This is what the glacial runoff looks like. It will never fill with water from side to side but every year make a new runoff pattern.

Lichen on the bridge.

I see you can you see me?

I think this is a baby Ptarmigan.

Hello blog-a-sphere we are now in Denali National Park. The weather has been on the cool side but then anything below 75 is cool to me. It has been too cloudy to see Mt Denali, but will try everyday we are here and maybe. They say Mt Denali has it’s own weather system and that only 30% of the visitors will see it. The mountain itself is over 20,000 ft and about 1000 people climb “her” every year. When the park was first established it did not include Mt McKinley now Mt Denali that came much later. The native Alaskans petitioned for around 60 years to have the mountain’s name changed to Mt Denali, but Congressmen and Senators from Ohio kept blocking because it was named after President McKinley ( he was born in Ohio) It was during the Obama administration (This is the only time you will see me give that administration kudos or job well done, but job well done!) that the name was changed by the department of The Interior.

POVs are only allowed on the first 15 miles so to get into the interior of the park you go by bus. Before you get too excited these are converted school buses and the round trip of 120 miles takes 7-8 hours. The road is a well maintained gravel road. Most of my pictures were either taken though my window or over the heads of the people on the other side of the bus….not ideal. Our driver was a naturalist and had lived in the area his entire life so lots of good information. If someone saw an animal they would yell stop and he would. We were not allowed off of the bus at this time so we would not disrupt the animals feeding habits. They have a very short summer and the animals need to bulk up before winter in order to survive.

We saw Grizzly Bear, Fox, Caribou, Artic Ground Squirrel, Dall Sheep, Ptarmigan and some rabbits.

Today we took the dogs with us, but there are very few places they are allowed to walk even on a leash. We had blue sky and was hopeful, but alas no Mt Denali.

So enough typing and onto pictures!

Wanted to show the ruggedness of the mountains

Caribou

Hey you looking at me?

Saw him pounce on something just before this picture.

The road we traveled

Looking out my window on the way back…a little freaky.

What can I say I like bees!

Me and my flowers!

We are in Fairbanks AK and leave tomorrow for Denali National Park. So want to bring you up to date. We finally came to the end of the AlCan Highway in a little place called Delta Junction for those following these post you will remember that we started at mile zero in Dawson Creek BC Canada on July 1, 2019. It was rainy once again when we left Tok and was hopeful that it would help with the smoke…it didn’t. Our first stop was Delta Junction it has a great visitor’s center and of course the most important thing.. the end of the road sign. Fairbanks has been interesting, but looking forward to Denali. We arrived on Thursday and Friday because of the rain we did our shopping to re-supply as there will not be any stores to speak of until we are in Anchorage on the 23rd. I also decided I needed a pedicure and I am not exaggerating when I say it is the absolute worst one I have ever had, so bad I actually left a review on Yelp…which I never do. We visited North Pole and had a nice talk with Santa evidently I need to do better. What the heck does he know! The University of Alaska Fairbanks has a very interesting museum that concentrates on Native cultural as well the exploration of Alaska. As many of you probably do not know I have a background in design so I really loved all the fabric and beadwork. Today we went to the University’s Muskox and large animal research center. The tour was very interesting and enlightening. Apparently by the 1860 hunters had wiped out the Muskox population in Alaska. In the 1930’s 40’s a grant was give to repopulated the area. Babies were imported from Europe to New York by ship then overland by train to the west coast of the US then by barge to one of the small islands, When the population reached about 800 and they were old enough they were re-introduced to the wild. They can only be legally hunted now by the Native tribes and 2 tags a year issued to hunters. Because of the changes in the climate the herd in Canada is being decimated by disease that ,they think , is being introduced by rodents. This facility is studying the animals in the hopes of providing a way to help the other herds. One more thing the Muskox are brushed everyday and that fur/hair is being turned into yarn as a cottage industry. It’s about $100 a skin so won’t be making a scarf anytime soon. On to pictures

One example of the beautiful needlework

The baskets are also beautiful

Haven’t shown a flower lately:-)

Cassiopeia

They eat all the time!

We finally made it to Alaska! We literally had to drive through fire to get here! It was so smoky that we could not see the beautiful mountains that surrounded us, but we will need to go back this way so maybe then we can see them. One of the firefighters told us that their were 57 fires in the Yukon and also fires burning in Alaska…so typical Metzler vacation. We also learned that Tok Alaska was originally called Tokyo because the AlCan was built during WW2 to take troops to protect “Alaska( which wasn’t a state yet) and Canada” from Japan . But because of the anti Japanese sentiment they shorten it to Tok. So here are some pictures. The trip took over 8 hours to go a little under 400 miles with our average speed being about 40MPH

July 8, 2019: We are now just outside Watson lake just inside the Yukon. We left Fort Nelson on July 6, 2019 and broke up the drive at a provincial park called Liard River Hot springs. It is open year round and I wished we had left Fort Nelson a day earlier so we could have spent more time there. This has so far been my favorite camping spot even with no amenities. We were separated from our neighbors by lush bushes and trees and the hot springs was such a bonus. We were ,however, allowed to run our generator for a couple hours at night and in the morning. We decided not to as it stays light until 11:00pm. It rained all night but by morning it had stopped and was very cold for the rest of day. We got a later than usual start at 9AM but we were only going a little over a 100 miles. Liard River Hot Springs is at mile marker 496 yes that right folks we are 496 miles from Dawson Creek (mile 0)and just 1470 miles to the North Pole well North Pole Alaska (near Fairbanks) where we will camp for a couple of days. July 9, 2019 Yeah we have cell and internet here in Whitehorse. We will explore Whitehorse on our way home. We have seen bears, Mountain Sheep and a couple of herd of Bison in the last couple of days. Both the bears and the Mountain Sheep were not where we could pull over so my pictures are pretty much flybys. The Bison are pretty good. Tomorrow we leave for Tok Alaska and then by Thursday we should start our Alaska adventure beginning in Fairbanks. So now for some pictures Enjoy

This little guy was by the side of the road!

A replica of a canoes used by explorers in the early days of opening up Northern BC & Yukon

Raindrops

Just a bee and his Fireweed!

Went over a few of these bridges with the metal roadways.

Sign Forrest located at Watson Lake BC

DATA,DATA,DATA You never really know how much you depend on “data” or the internet or WiFi until you are on the open road. The reason you can be on the open road for extended periods of time is that you pay all your bills online and conduct all your business on line. What happens when you run out of “data” or can’t get internet? You become very FRUSTRATED!!!!! I was doing fine because when we didn’t have internet I would use my phone data until one day I found out I didn’t have an unlimited data plan like I thought. So I kept getting nasty grams saying I only had X amount of data left. Well I have solved that problem so I do not have to rely on the non-existent WiFi most RV camps have. I was lucky the other day I got 90sec of wifi to check my bank account. Do you remember the song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” by Allan Sherman? It’s about a boy that has been sent to camp and he is writing home. The weather has been awful and he is stuck inside. He tells his parents all sorts of terrible and unpleasant things that are happening. By the end of the “letter” the weather has changed and all the fun activities have started (look it up). Well that has been me for the past few weeks. The weather has been cold and rainy and we have had some issues with the motorhome and I have been ready to head home. But the weather has turned and we have had near perfect days since we got to Fort Nelson BC. We head out tomorrow for Watson Lake we are hoping to overnight at a hot springs called Liard River. Sites are first come so we will have to see if there are any left when we arrive. Also from here on out the road becomes pretty bad and will need to average only about 45MPH, on the plus side we should start getting a close up and personal look at the animals. I will have my telephoto lens on the camera. Now for some pictures!

Beau and Bailey have really adapted to life on the road and I think they are enjoying seeing all the new sights and people.

Those who know me know that I love flowers! So the following are just flowers I have seen along the way. Some may be repeats…sorry! Enjoy!