traveling

Wildlife Safari on the Alaska Highway

Remember that time I said we loved spotting wildlife? Well we really loved the drive down through British Columbia into Alberta.

As we pulled away from Liard Hot Springs, we made it about 100 feet before spotting this darling lineup of wood bison.

We read in one of our travel pamphlets that while wood bison are a subspecies of the American bison, they differ slightly from the plains bison that are more common in the States. The most obvious difference is in size: these guys are much larger than the bison we’d seen before, and when we looked it up we learned that they are the largest land mammal in North America. Large males can weigh over 2,000 lbs!

I found this handy visual online which compares the two:

As I read this information aloud to Andy as we drove, he tapped my arm and pointed up ahead.

There, on both sides of the road, were about 60 or more wood bison! They ranged in size from hulking males to darling little fuzzy babies.

We pulled over to watch them graze and nap in the tall grass, while others crossed the road right in front of us to meet their group on the other side.

It was very, very exciting—for us, not the wood bison. They seemed pretty nonplussed by the whole encounter.

After a while we decided to move along, and the landscape along the Alaska Highway was just as incredible to watch as the wildlife.

It wasn’t long before we came across another neat animal: a female rock sheep. She was the only one we saw during that portion of the drive, despite the signs all along the road telling us to watch out for rock sheep.

After we passed rock sheep country, we stopped to take a picture of the beautiful rainbow of fall colors on the hill, and this time I was the wildlife being observed from someone inside the Turtle.

The drive took us up into the mountains and then back down again as we approached Fort St. John, B.C.

Once we’d left the mountains we thought the wildlife spotting was over, but just outside of town we came across this handsome couple:

We hadn’t seen as many caribou as Andy had hoped, so this close-up view was just perfect.

There’s a great rocky beach just south of Fort St. John that lots of locals go to launch boats and spend the day, and we saw other boondockers there for the night as well. That night we watched the Northern Lights while Scout and Gracie sniffed around on their leashes, and in the morning we played outside for a while before getting back in the Turtle and driving some more.

Typically we prefer to move really slowly and drive a maximum of two hours a day when we’re not camped out. We’re not in any hurry, it’s cheaper and uses less gas, and we get to see so much more of the world and have more impromptu adventures that way. But since we were trying to stay ahead of the weather, we’d been driving much more frequently than usual, and it was starting to catch up with us. Being in a van all day is not why we’re living in a van!

So when we finally reached Whitecourt, naps were in order. Gracie is the best nap buddy a person could ask for.

Waking people up to interact and play is much more in Scout’s wheelhouse.

We pushed on, and within about 20 minutes of each other we watched a black bear cross the road in front of us, and then a lynx. I speculated that British Columbia wanted to make sure we left satisfied and was quickly sending animals out for us to have one last treat before we crossed over into Alberta.

Alberta felt very metropolitan compared to the rural areas we’d gotten used to, but it was exciting to have cell service and reasonable gas prices again. We decided to take a trip to the West Edmonton Mall to get our wave pool and waterslides on at the World Waterpark. It was a great way to spend a blustery day, and as full-time travelers we always appreciate a fun activity that ends in free showers.

The next day we returned to check out Galaxyland in the mall and went on the “largest indoor triple-loop roller coaster,” the Mindbender, which is very aptly named. Holy moly.

After a few days in town, we escaped back to nature. We had plans to meet up on the road with some friends we met at Diablo Canyon in New Mexico last year, Eric and his PBD (plain black dog), Willow.

We stayed for the weekend at a dispersed campsite outside of Hinton, AB. It was a great spot to catch up on the past year’s travels, have a few beers, enjoy a nice fire in the pit Andy built, and watch some animal playtime.

Now that we were moving away from the land of many predators, we let Gracie have a little supervised off-leash time, and she chose to use her freedom to revisit her favorite sun porch and oversee everyone else’s activities.

While we’re on the subject of wildlife, there are three pets in this picture. Can you spot them all?

Eric is a 5-star animal lover and was a patient and accommodating friend to Scout, throwing toys for him almost every time Scout asked. That meant he was busy from morning to night. Willow loves a cozy chair and a sunbeam, so she didn’t mind watching her human play with another dog.

In case you were wondering, this is what the aftermath of two days of being totally spoiled looks like:

The next day, he was back to his old self and ready to go again!

Of all the wildlife we’ve gotten to see along the way, these two are the strangest and sweetest.

Hmm . . . make that “these three.” Wild beasts, all. I think I’ll keep them.

Yukon Gold

The first thing I said as we drove back into Yukon was, “Wow, the skies are just as big as when we left!” Yes, it’s the same sky as everywhere else, but somehow in Yukon I was constantly aware of the magnitude above me more than other places. It’s beautiful.

It was an exciting time to be my camera, because I had that thing working full time during our drive through Canada. The fall colors were really beginning to explode, and I filled up the camera to capacity every day. I’m sure if Andy asked you to quote me on the trip it would be a three-way tie for, “That YELLOW!” “That RED!” and “That ORANGE!” And that’s only if gasps don’t count.

After spending a few weeks high up in wintery weather, the temperate fall was a welcome change. Scout and Gracie also got to spend more time outdoors, so everyone was enjoying Yukon to the fullest.

On our original trip through Yukon, Andy had mentioned wanting to pan for gold, and as we drove farther through the province, we realized we still hadn’t tried our hand at fortune-hunting yet. We found a nice spot to pull out by the river, took our pot lids, food scoops and a very excited doggy down to the water, and got to work.

It was a lot of fun and pretty exciting, even though we didn’t see any sparkly signs that we were in a good spot for panning. We wished we’d started sooner in the trip, because I could have panned for hours and hours in any river around.

Scout had other plans for our time outdoors and tried all his best methods to convince us to throw all the sticks he found by the river.

So on the walk back to the Turtle, we threw sticks, played hide and seek behind the trees, and then on the last leg Scout just bounded up and down the path with general Border Collie joy.

Farther down the road Andy wanted to check something under the hood, so we pulled over for a riverside picnic. Though the Yukon is so wide it looks like a lake!

We panned for gold again after lunch, but no luck. We did see a fresh bear paw print in the mud near us, so we decided to make it a quicker stop and get back on the road.

We could see some storms ahead, which made the light moody and surreal.

When the most spectacular rainbow poured out of the sky, we followed it for a full 15 minutes before it evaporated back into the air.

The storm moved all around in the distance, and when we stopped outside Taro for the evening, we could actually see the sheets of rain traveling east along the riverbank.

It never hit us directly, so we basked in the after-storm light and played outside until the sun went down.

Everyone had a successful day, I think.

We had to try one last gold panning session before we left, so we played outside for a bit before packing up.

As I put the panning implements in the Turtle, I laughed at how instantly messy it gets in there, between the toys we keep out to use later, the mud we inevitably and consistently track in, the rocks I can’t stop collecting and have no room for, the boots laying on the floor that we removed to change into “gold-panning shoes”, the travel pamphlets shoved into the front console, among the other regular chaos specific to Turtle life.

I decided to take a picture for posterity, since in 20 years we’ll want to remember the reality of our lives and not just the pretty pictures immediately post-clean-up. Right as I took out my camera, Scout came running to the door to see what I was up to, and the smile on his face and mud on his paws inadvertently made the photo complete: the reason we live this lifestyle, messy as it may be. At the end of the day, we all have that goofy smile on our faces.

There weren’t many gas stations around, so we stopped in Taro for a fill-up and an ogle at this awesome orange beast.

Then back onto beautiful Highway 4 toward Watson Lake, which we’d be passing through one more time on our way into British Columbia and Alberta. But first we had to stop at what was to become our Favorite Campsite Ever, a free pullout on postcard-worthy Finlayson Lake.

Due to the burn ban, we hadn’t been able to have a fire for months, and it seemed like fate that the ban had been lifted right as we came upon this site, complete with cut firewood scattered around for the taking.

We were sitting just a little elevated from the water, overlooking the lake. There was no one around except the two people flying sea planes nearby. It was crisp, cool and clear, and we were on cloud nine that we got to live there for a whole day.

It was such a perfect spot that I took a quick video of the fire so that in future years we can relive the moment.

If we didn’t have the winter weather nipping at our heels, we would have stayed for days. But that chill wasn’t far behind, so we moved on toward Watson Lake.

We thought it would be fun to go visit our signs at the Signpost Village, especially because it’s not too often these days that we’re somewhere familiar. There they were!

Then on we drove into the endless green and gold mountains and valleys of British Columbia.

We had a garbage bag to toss, so we pulled over at a viewpoint to use the waste bins, and accidentally stumbled across this vista.

And this was the view from the other side of the parking lot! Beautiful British Columbia, indeed.

And then to add even more icing to the British Columbia cake, we stopped at Liard Hot Springs and accidentally had the time of our lives. We’d read about it over and over while researching the area, but didn’t think much more of it than “Sure, we could stop at a hot springs; that sounds nice.”

It was wonderful. It’s a provincial park and not privately-run, so for starters it’s really affordable. The day use fee is just $5 per person, but the hot springs fee is waived if you’re camping, which is $26 a night. That’s actually a little on the spendy side for boondockers, but it’s also really nice to have water and garbages at your disposal now and then, in addition to the free hot springs. So we paid for our site, got settled and then went straight to the hot springs.

It’s a beautiful walk down the boardwalk to the springs, over the warm marsh that is very popular with the wildlife, especially during winter.

For a developed hot springs site, this one is surprisingly untouched in all the best ways.

There are bathrooms, changing rooms, and a deck, but other than those few comforts it’s just a lovely pond that’s a piping hot 110-120 degrees at the source and then cools the farther away it travels from there. So the upper pool stays super toasty, and the lower pool is a perfectly warm and slightly deeper swimming pool.

We loved it so much we spent a few hours there on our first trip before going back for dinner and some travel planning.

The Anti-Project always has other plans, but luckily she has a short attention span and was soon on the prowl for buggies while we got a little work done.

As we planned we decided we weren’t ready to leave the hot springs already, so we decided to stay another day, then went back for our night soak. Liard doesn’t have closing hours since it’s a natural springs, so we got to soak until late when we were ready for bed.

The next day was another sunny fall day, perfect for multiple trips to the hot springs.

That night as we splashed around the warm lower pool and visited with some other travelers, the Northern Lights came out in enormous green flickering bands that twisted and arched from one side of the sky to the other over our heads. We laid on our backs and floated in the steaming water, watching the lights and laughing out loud at how perfect it all was.

When we got back to the Turtle, it was late and we were all warm, cozy and ready to snuggle up. While we got ready for bed, Gracie crashed out under her own personal quilt that my niece Ava made for her before we could even make it up to the loft!

With plans to return as soon as possible—especially in the snowy winter months—we got everyone ready to move on.

Gracie’s preferred and self-appointed travel spot is in a clothes bin in the closet, which is kept open for her as we drive. Usually when it’s time to go she hears the engine start and hops into her spot, but if she doesn’t sometimes we have a conversation about it to give her a chance to get in before we start moving. And it’s adorable.

And with the huge skies of the Yukon in our rear view mirror, we set our sights on the road ahead.

Heading South: North Pole and Chicken, AK Are Real Places

After our long journey up to Deadhorse and back, we needed a few days to recover.

We decided to post up in Fairbanks for a day or two to do some laundry, resupply, see the Ice Museum, and just generally knock the dirt off of ourselves.

After a few days, we began the journey back down south which surprisingly brought us to the North Pole! Ok, not THE North Pole. But North Pole, Alaska which is as close as you can get to the real thing.

The whole town is Christmas themed year-round, from candy cane light poles to road names like “Mistletoe Drive” and “St. Nicholas Drive,” and there are resident reindeer who live next door to the Santa Claus house, where we spent some time getting in the spirit of Christmas a few months in advance.

We’d had our hearts set on seeing a huge herd of caribou in the wild while we were up north, but we made do with Santa’s reindeer. (Which we learned on this trip are the same animal—reindeer are just domesticated caribou! The more you know.) But then on our way toward Tok, AK we came across a darling mama moose and her baby, and felt very lucky indeed. They hung around right alongside the road for over ten minutes before meandering back into the trees . . . but not before they posed for this glamour shot.

The sun was setting as we neared Tok, which we’d traveled through on our way up and had stayed overnight with the dirt bike rally racers at an unused airstrip outside of town. We went back to the spot, and had the whole place to ourselves! That night we saw the best Northern Lights of the trip so far, and the next morning we raced around the track at Top Turtle Speed. I’ll let you speculate on what speed that could be, and hopefully you’re generous.

A much-needed Turtle bath afterwards helped us offload many of pounds of dirt, and we wondered if maybe we should have gone back to try the race track again to see if we could shave some time off our record. But we had more stops to go, and with the dirt highway ahead of us, we knew we were pressed for daylight.

Beyond Tok lay Chicken, Alaska: a real place that I did not make up. We got to town shortly before the one store that was still open for the season was closing for the day, so we looked around, admired how wonderful the chicken soup smelled, took some enormous chicken photos, and drove on.

The next portion of the road is a beautiful drive called “The Top of the World Highway” which was where we finally had to say farewell to Alaska as we crossed back over into Yukon once again.

We had an amazing vantage point to watch the sun set over the valleys far below.

The sky was dark as we approached Dawson City, YT, and since we hadn’t had cell service for most of the last few days, I hadn’t noticed the map showed an unexpected break in the highway until we were right on top of it.

The Yukon River divides the road right outside of Dawson City, so we got to take the Turtle on a small ferry that was luckily still operating on summer hours and ran every 15 minutes or so. Had we been two weeks later, I’m not sure what we would have done, but we took our accidental good timing and ran with it.

This actually might have been one of Andy’s favorite parts of the entire trip. He was so excited. He kept pointing ahead and telling me to look! even though I was of course looking already, but he just couldn’t help himself. It was pretty funny to be sitting in our Turtle and watching water flow by on all sides.

We spent a few days in Dawson City, a historic town full of stories of the Gold Rush and prospecting and super-tough men and women. In the interest of time, and because they haven’t made many appearances in this post, I’ll just show you a few adorable pictures of Scout and Gracie at a nice site we found for an overnight stay as we left Dawson City.

The Alaska chapter of our journey was done, but as we mapped out our progress over Tiropitas, it was clear that there was plenty of adventure ahead!

On Top of the World: Deadhorse, AK + The Arctic Ocean + An Arctic Fox

Here is what you need to know about Deadhorse, AK. It’s a small town in northernmost Alaska near the Arctic Ocean with a population that is often listed at 25-50 permanent residents. The town’s primary function is to house the workers at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, which when including the temporary workers brings the population to around 3,000. In order to house the workers, “pre-fabricated modules” (cozy!) were shipped up and put on man-made gravel pads on top of the tundra, where the workers live for the duration of their employment.

Most people work 12-hour shifts daily for two weeks straight, and then have a week off. The town has a very small airport for transporting workers at no charge, so most people fly home and back in that week. Each work camp has its own building, with different amenities from camp to camp. Some have theaters or gyms or basketball courts, but these are all housed right in the work camp building.

It’s not as if anyone would want to pass the time outside their camp anyway; the mean annual temperature is 12 degrees Fahrenheit, and even the warmest month—July—sees an average temperature of only 47 degrees! Lows in the winter are generally below -40 degrees. It’s freakin’ cold up there. Almost every parking spot in town comes with a power cord.

What this means for tourists is that after being shaken around in your vehicle like dice in a Yahtzee cup for somewhere around 18 hours, there’s not a lot going on up there to do! Well, that’s not necessarily true, but the accomodations for tourists are limited to a gas station, general store, Napa store, a handful of buffet-style cafeterias for the workers that are open to the public during limited hours, and a hotel with a little snack shop and coffee counter inside. So we did all those things on our first full day there.

The white building up there is the hotel. It didn’t look any different than the housing, General Store, or gas station and the town really doesn’t waste good money on signage.

We also came across one of my favorite wildlife sightings to date: a little arctic fox! He was just the sweetest little thing and stayed close enough for us to watch him scamper around for about 5 minutes.

There is also a tour bus that you can book 24-hours in advance (to run a security check), which will take you past the security checkpoint and up to the Arctic Ocean! They charge $70 per person, but once you get that far, you really have to go all the way, right?

We thought so. So on our third day in Deadhorse, we took the early tour through the oil fields and saw the sights on our way to the beach. There were five others on our tour: a French couple who had flown in, and a couple from upstate New York and their tour guide who had driven them up in a tricked out Ford Escape set up by the tour company specifically for the Dalton Highway drive. Their guide jokingly asked if we’d remembered our swimsuits, to which I replied, “Actually, yes!” He laughed good-naturedly, as it was the first day of September, and said he’d be amazed if we went through with it. Challenge accepted!

The beach access we were able to explore was a nice long stretch that jutted out into the ocean. When we got there, our view was especially lovely under a hazy rainbow.

The guide volunteered to take pictures for us, and got a nice play-by-play of our walk out, and Andy’s sudden and shocking dive below the water.

What a beast! That boy knows how to have an adventure. I take longer than Andy does when it comes to decisions involving plunging my bare skin into frigid arctic water on a 30-degree day. But of course I eventually got the job done.

Ok . . . half done. But I’m telling you; it was so cold that not even my five layers on top could save me from that icy shock, or the subsequent half hour of numb legs and toes! It was awesome. We are very proud new members of the Polar Bear Club, and have a pure white rock from the beach as our memento of the day we took the plunge.

By the time we got back to the Turtle, we’d warmed up under the blanket Andy had brought along and felt ready to take on the Dalton Highway again. We decided to break the drive up into three days this time, because we wanted to check another National Park off our list by hiking into Gates of the Arctic.

We turned southward and said farewell to Deadhorse. We were so glad we made the trip, but are fairly certain we won’t be returning unless Andy will agree with my brilliant idea to build a summer home there. And so far he’s not budging. Oh well . . . goodbye, Deadhorse!

On Top of the World: North on The Dalton Highway to Deadhorse, AK

Andy loves maps. So when we got our Milepost to plan our trip up to Alaska and it had a big Alaska map included, he was super excited. He unfolded it and we started pointing at places we would visit, and finding new places we didn’t know existed, like Chicken, Alaska. I noticed the Deadhorse dot way at the top of the state and said, “So are we going to the top of Alaska too, then?” Immediately I could see Andy’s wheels turning. We did a little quick research. And thus began our two-month-long back-and-forth decision/indecision about making the drive up the Dalton High to Deadhorse, Alaska.

The reason the decision wasn’t obvious is that the Dalton Highway has a bit of a reputation. It’s been featured on BBC’s World’s Most Dangerous Roads, America’s Toughest Jobs, and was the focus of four seasons of Ice Road Truckers. It’s a beast.

Here’s the rundown:

It’s a 414-mile road between Livengood and Deadhorse.
Nearly the whole route is dirt and gravel and in rough condition, with grades up to 12%.
It is one of the most isolated roads in the US, with only three towns along the route: Coldfoot (pop. 10), Wiseman (pop. 14), and Deadhorse (permanent pop. 25-50 but there are several thousand workers living there at any given time).
As the longest stretch of unserviced road on the North American continent, the Dalton is totally remote and has no cell service along the entire route until Deadhorse.
There is one gas station in Coldfoot and one in Deadhorse.
It gets cold up there. In 1971 it was the location of the coldest temperature ever recorded in North America at -82 degrees.
Atigun Pass through the Brooks Range is at elevation 4,739 feet and is considered quite treacherous, especially in unfavorable conditions.
It was built as a service road during the construction of the Alaska pipeline and is still used primarily by supply trucks—about 160 daily in the summer and 250 daily in winter and they’re all driving at top speed and have the right of way.
Travel tips on various sites include bringing two spare tires, plenty of extra fuel, survival gear, and your own surgical supplies.
The road ends at Deadhorse, which is not a town in the traditional sense but an industrial camp in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. So there’s not much to do once you get there.

According to a NY Times article, “In addition to these numerous privations, there is also no good reason for a nonprofessional driver to drive the Dalton Highway.” When we asked around, most Alaskans and fellow travelers we talked to about making the drive told us emphatically that it was a bad idea and just don’t do it.

So there was that.

You’d think that would be enough to make the decision quick and easy. Buuuuuut. . . we were also feeling compelled by the other characteristics of that most remote wilderness. For example:

Just south of Coldfoot you pass into the Arctic Circle!
We’d get to see arctic tundra and (hopefully) arctic wildlife.
The Arctic Ocean is just beyond Deadhorse, and though the area is blocked by security, there is a tour company that will take you right to the ocean, after you pass a security check and pay them $70 a person.
Gates of the Arctic National Park sits on the west side of the highway, and though you can’t access the park by car, you can hike in on foot from a few parking areas.
The terminus at Deadhorse is the farthest north you can drive in North America. And we have plans to drive to Chile one day, so it would be pretty freakin’ cool to have driven the continents from top to bottom.
Apparently it’s really, really beautiful up there.
It’s almost completely wild.
Adventure calls!

I think by now you have a pretty good idea of where we landed on this one, especially if you read the title of this post. (We decided to go.) A few final pushes in that direction came from our friend Sam, who is a native Alaskan and knows all the information contained in both above lists and said that he wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone, but he knows the Turtle is capable and so are we, and that we should definitely do it. That’s all Andy needed to hear, so he was locked in. I was at 98% until my friend Lexie sent me a video by a pair of overlanders who had made the trip just a week earlier in their truck camper, and the scenery was more beautiful than I’d even imagined, and also they saw a baby grizzly bear. So I was locked in.

We got to Fairbanks, got all our supplies in order and bought a CB radio so we could communicate with the truckers as an added safety measure. We got up early the next morning and began our northward journey to the top of Alaska.

The first thing we noticed was the Alaska Pipeline, which was to be our one constant over the next few days, as it parallels the Dalton all the way to Deadhorse.

Also notable was how much more it felt like fall! It was much colder and the colors were gorgeous.

The pavement soon ended and we began the brain-rattling portion of the journey across the pitted, wash-boarded and pot-holed dirt road that would continue all the way to Deadhorse. It was a really beautiful drive, and we still felt pretty fresh when we saw the Arctic Circle sign and pulled over to take a few pictures.

The Turtle still looked blue at this point, too! We continued on to Coldfoot, watching the lovely scenery as well as the gas gauge.

We weren’t sure what to expect when we finally reached Coldfoot after 8 long hours, and were pleasantly surprised to discover the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center tucked away on the west side of the highway. The facility is a cozy spot to learn about the Northern Lights and the flora and fauna of the area, and they have maps available and flyers with information about Coldfoot, Wiseman, and Deadhorse since there’s no cell service all along the highway.

They also print out the weather forecast for the towns and the Atigun Pass, which on our visit showed snowflakes in the next day’s box. We’d already made it halfway there, so there was no turning back. We filled up with gas across the road and had a surprisingly top-notch dinner buffet at the restaurant/bar/gift shop/one building in the town that felt kind of like a church basement but really served up a mean meal. Then we drove just a bit north of town to a nice little turnout for the night.

As predicted, the next day was super cold and foggy and the snow loomed on the horizon.

We could barely see the scenery behind all that fog!

There were huge mountains on all sides but after a while we couldn’t see them even a little. It was just a blank white backdrop in every direction.

As we gained elevation approaching the Atigun Pass, the snow set in so suddenly that we were climbing the pass before we realized it and it was too late to chain up. If there were any turnouts we couldn’t see them at all, and there was barely enough room for two cars to pass one another, much less to pull off enough to not get hit by other passing vehicles.

We climbed and climbed, following the guard rails since that’s all we could see, and hoping against hope that the speedy ice road truckers wouldn’t blast by us.

At least we could read the road signs. . . what does that one say? Avalance Area? Oh good.

Andy handled that Turtle brilliantly, and I alternated between nervous picture taking and looking at the sky so I wouldn’t have to look over the dropoff into the white abyss. We finally made it through, and amazingly encountered no trucks. But even after the pass, the roads were so slippery that we pulled over on the road that leads to Galbraith Campground to chain up as a precaution.

On the return drive, we noted this spot was where we’d pulled over and were shocked to discover that there had been mountains surrounding us the whole time, but we had no idea.

Scout loved this stop. He’s a real snow hound, and he bounded through the snow and grazed on it and tried to get me to run with him, but it was too slippery. We did get an arctic frisbee session in though.

Soon the snow lessened, so we asked a driver on the CB if there was any more snow between us and Deadhorse. He said it was nothing but mud, so we removed the chains and bumped lurched down the road the rest of the way through the arctic tundra. It felt like being on another planet. It’s completely flat as far as the eye can see!

From the literature we took from the Visitor Center, I learned that because the ground is all permafrost beneath the top layer, there is a lot of standing water in the tundra because it has nowhere to go. Seeing little puddles and lakes everywhere wasn’t at all what I expected, but it was really interesting and beautiful.

After 10 exhausting, jarring hours, we made it to Deadhorse!

We really felt like we were on top of the world. I put on 10 layers and Andy put on his one extra layer so we could examine the Turtle and let the animals out. Gracie hopped out, felt the cold, and jumped right back in. Scout was unfazed and just wanted to play frisbee again.

We were thrilled and amazed that the only part that had come off the Turtle had been removed intentionally—as we drove with the chains on, they were slapping into the corner of the running board on Andy’s side, so he just took it off. Otherwise, we’d made it in one piece!

We were worn out by the drive, so we hopped back in to cozy up for the evening and admire the view out our living room windows.

We’re all good at getting cozy, but Gracie is the professional. She zonked out so hard that when I jokingly put my hat on her head, she just slept right through it. We all could relate, and the whole gang slept like logs that night, excited to explore the northiest north the next day!

The Road to Alaska – Part 8: Feelin’ Fall-y in Denali

Our adventure of a lifetime was in full swing by the time we left Anchorage for Denali National Park, which was our second park in Alaska so far.

Alaska has 8 National Parks:

Denali
Wrangell St. Elias
Gates of the Arctic
Kenai Fjords
Glacier Bay
Katmai
Kobuk Valley
Lake Clark

Due to the terrain and undeveloped nature of the state, however, only two are accessible by car: Denali and Wrangell St. Elias. We’d stopped at Wrangell St. Elias on our way to Valdez, but didn’t spend much time there since we were working with a bit of a deadline and the park is so huge that it could take hours just to see a small portion anyway. We did take a little walk through the park and saw both the namesake Wrangell and St. Elias ranges, and had even camped out with a beautiful view of the mountains the previous night.

Denali was the next on our list, and we couldn’t wait to get in there and see some wildlife and hopefully Denali (a.k.a. Mount McKinley) itself. They say on average only 1 in 3 visitors gets to see the mountain, as it’s often socked in by clouds or fog, and we had a cloudy forecast. So we arrived with fingers crossed and bought our tickets for a bus tour the following day. I didn’t know this before we went, but Denali National Park is only accessible to the public for 15 miles of the 92-mile road into the park. You can drive in as far as Savage River, but after that all tourists—other than those staying at Teklanika Campground—must pay for a bus tour in order to access the remainder. Some of the tours can last as long as 12 hours, but we went for an 8-hour ride since we had a doggy at home who would need to go out. It was a chilly morning, and the windows were steamed up for the beginning of the trip, but soon they cleared and we could all sit back and watch the fall colors roll by.

It’s been startling how quickly the season has advanced as we travel north! It has accelerated the timeline, but luckily I love fall and I’m exactly in the mood for it.

On the way to the Visitors Center that would be our turnaround point, we stopped a few times and got to hike around, use bathrooms, and take pictures.

Along the drive we saw ptarmigan, Dall sheep, moose, Arctic ground squirrel, and a mama grizzly bear and two little cubs in the distance running along fast! There was much speculation as to why they were running, since they’re so close to hibernation that they should be conserving calories. Our guide guessed that the mama could smell a male grizzly nearby and she was trying to protect her cubs. We stayed and watched for a long time, and still they ran and ran until we lost sight of them.

We continued on to the Visitors Center, and had a little time to walk to the lookout and admire the view.

Then back onto the bus, where we had fewer people since many had started hikes and would take another bus down later. So for the whole trip back we had great views on both sides of the bus, which really came in handy when a big male grizzly was sighted on the opposite side of the bus. We hopped over and I took some pictures that are grainy, but still fun to see.

We’d found a nice spot to park for the few nights we’d be in town, so we went back and settled in for the evening, taking the animals on a nice walk and even snapped our first 4-person selfie with the pets.

The next day we went back to the park and took a walk around Savage River, which was moody and cozy in the drizzle and fog.

During the summer the park has three daily demonstrations with their sled dog team, which we had timed our hike’s end to attend. I was so excited to see the dogs. They are actual working dogs who spend the winter helping the rangers get around and haul supplies to the cabins and outposts around the grounds. Since the park is a designated wilderness area motorized vehicles aren’t allowed anyway, but additionally the dogs are part of the history of the park and actually much more reliable than vehicles.

They are bred not for appearance in any way, but for their athleticism, double coat, closeness of paw pads (so ice doesn’t pack between them), bushy tail (to keep them warm when they sleep outside with tail over face, creating a warm pocket of air), and a trait where their arteries and veins are very close together which helps keep their blood warm as it travels around their bodies. But their appearance is still pretty darn cute too.

They were so sweet and eager to run. The trainer told us that they harness two fewer dogs to the summer “sled” for the demonstration than they do for the winter sleds, because if they didn’t she’d end up in the ditch!

Andy of course loved the sled.

We would have loved to stay extra days to climb all the mountains and watch fall continue to move in, but we’d planned a trip up to the Arctic Ocean and every degree counts when you get close to freezing. So we pressed on Northward for what was to become one of the greatest adventures yet!

The Road to Alaska – Part 7: Anchorage, AK with Family + The Kenai Peninsula

When we planned our road trip to Alaska, we wouldn’t have anticipated that we’d be spending so much time with familiar faces, but after our super enjoyable visit with friends in Anchorage, we still had more fun coming our way!

Knowing we were spending some time up north, Andy’s mom Genie had planned a trip with Andy’s nephew Will to visit Alaska while we were in the area. Will loves to fish, and the Kenai Peninsula has been on his list for some time now. So they flew in to Anchorage, where we kicked off the trip by catching up, having dinner, and witnessing the beginning to Will and Andy’s very promising career as meat smoker models.

We drove down the Kenai Peninsula and stopped at Deep Creek, a fishing spot that had been recommended to Will by a fellow fisherman back home. We stayed a few hours, enjoying the sun and scenery as we watched other people catch our fish.

After a few hours with no luck, we decided to head into Homer to check into the house Andy’s sister had rented for the travelers. We parked the Turtle in the driveway, and were instant neighbors! I’ll under-exaggerate here and say it was a beautiful spot.

The next day we tried another fishing spot, this one just as scenic as the last. We’re beginning to see a trend in our Alaskan fishing spots: so picturesque you’d go there even if there weren’t any fish.

Except this time, there were!

A number of locals mentioned how sparse the fishing was this season, and it seemed like a pretty big deal when even the seasoned fishermen caught anything. So we felt very pleased that by the end of the day, all four of us had a caught a fish! Andy, Will and I all got humpys, and Genie got a nice big silver (gifted to her by some boys fishing next to us, but we all agreed it totally counted).

Afterwards we went down to the spit, which quickly became one of my favorite spots on our Alaskan journey. The whole spit is lined with funky shops and restaurants built on piers or decks or just smashed up against one another, people are filleting huge halibut and salmon right on the walkway, and the whole place is set against a backdrop you just can’t believe.

As we walked down the beach to get pictures of the rainbow, we took what will go down in history as The Greatest Photo of Us Ever Taken.

Sunglasses for the win!

The others did a much better job modeling and nailed it on the first try.

When we got home, Andy began preparing the fish for our big dinner.

We got so involved with preparations for a banquet, that by the time the meal was finished, it was midnight. (We didn’t know yet, but that would become kind of our thing during this trip.)

Even Scout had given up on us and went to sleep on the futon before we finished. Of course he woke up ready to play as soon as I tried to take the picture, but that’s to be expected with this one.

We still had three pink salmon on deck for us to enjoy, so before leaving for our third day of fishing Andy began experimenting with some new recipes and preparation methods. The night before he’d brined some for smoking, using the recipe given to us by Sam’s mom, and here he is removing it and readying it for smoking later in the day.

Here he is with his partner in mischief, who did not find Andy’s obsession with the new vacuum sealer strange in the least, and in fact suggested they try vacuum sealing the vacuum sealer bags.

I continued to find other goody bags stashed around the house, including this battery and handful of dried garlic chips. Also, all the dinner knives in a pouch, not pictured, but one of my favorites.

We packed up with discussions about how one might vacuum seal the vacuum sealer, and went back to Deep Creek to try a new spot this time. Unfortunately the weather had lived up to the rainy forecast, and as we fished it got colder and colder, until we finally had to admit defeat. Luckily, we had smoked salmon linguini on the evening’s menu, so we were excited to return to Homer and prepare it.

On the way, we saw more rainbows! Alaska makes really nice rainbows.

That last one is the view from the house, so we had that rainbow to admire out the big square windows as we made dinner. It really was an amazing spot. Will created a few antipasto platters that were as delicious as they were beautiful.

It was a good thing he did, too, because once again dinner wasn’t on the table until midnight! I think it must have something to do with the long daylight hours up here, but either way we partied into the A.M. every day. Andy’s smoked salmon linguini was better than any I’ve ever had in a restaurant, and fully worth the wait. Another fine fresh Alaskan fish meal!

The view from the rental house changed daily, each time a surprise and delight. The morning we left was another hit.

We took advantage of the scenery by taking a few group shots on our way out.

I had to get a photo of Scout and Will, the two best buddies you’d ever hope to meet. Scout is crazy about Will, who very generously spent much of his time playing outside with him and throwing the frisbee in the back yard. Nothing beats a boy and his dog!

We left Homer mid-day, and had planned on stopping to fish one last time on the way back to Anchorage, but the Turtle had other plans. We broke down (Andy easily agreed this one was official) and immediately got towed by a good Samaritan to a spot just up the road, which turned out to be a great place to be broken down.

Andy had no idea what the problem was. I said maybe we’d run over a lawn mower, because that’s what it sounded like, but he thought he’d investigate further despite my diagnosis. After a bit, this wizard not only figured out what the problem was, but also happened to have the spare part that we needed on hand!

Remember that time we broke down at Mike and Becky’s house in Bend, OR? While that problem was being investigated, Andy had bought a distributer to see if that was the problem, which we all know now it wasn’t. (It was Becky pulling fuses out.) So we had an extra!

While Andy pulled the Turtle apart and worked his magic, Will and Genie went fishing, and I used the time to run Scout and let Gracie play outside for a while, cleaned up the Turtle, and read my book in the sun with the animals. It was actually a very nice afternoon for all involved!

When we got back to Anchorage we decided to have an early dinner, so at 10 p.m. we stopped by 49th State Brewery to have huge delicious reubens and play with WikiSticks.

We still had a full day left in Anchorage before Genie and Will had to fly back, so we visited the zoo. . .

And saw the world’s largest chocolate waterfall at Alaska Wild Berry Products.

The candy store also had huge chocolate bars that Andy really, really wanted to touch but he obeyed the sign anyway, and a polar bear.

After a delicious Italian dinner, this time at a much more reasonable hour due to Will and Genie’s 3 a.m. wakeup call, we said our goodbyes.

The trip was unforgettable, and we’re so glad you guys came up north to meet us. Alaska isn’t the same without you!

The Road to Alaska – Part 5: Yukon! Valdez! Gracie Cleans Her Tail!

Everything you’ve heard about the drive to Alaska is true.

Ok, wait.

I guess I don’t know what you’ve heard about the drive to Alaska. Let’s go with this instead: if you’ve heard that the drive to Alaska is mile after mile of astonishingly beautiful scenery that seems too enormous and perfect to exist in real life, then what you’ve heard is true.

Especially once you hit Yukon. I have so many photos of this drive that I promise you’re hoping I never show up at your house for a slide show. Because it would take longer to show you all the gorgeous scenery and tell the stories than it took to drive through it. But here are a few of my favorites.

Right??

If you make the drive, be sure to multiply your estimated drive time by 2 to account for all the stoping and staring you’ll be doing.

The beauty didn’t stop once we hit Alaska, of course. We went to Valdez, where we’d been told the best fishing awaited us. You’ll just have to believe me when I tell you that I caught a fish on my very first cast, and then caught two more before Andy had even finished attaching his lure! (In all fairness, he’d gallantly put mine on first, which is why I was fishing already. But it just goes to show you how good the fishing is in Valdez!) We estimate that we caught 25 fish—dollys and humpys. We kept two to bring with us and released the rest, not because we didn’t want them, but we just didn’t have any room left in the fridge after all the fish we caught in Haines. A fine problem to have, it’s true.

From Valdez, we took a very early ferry over to Whittier. As we drank our coffee and admired the ocean, the fog made the horizon completely disappear, which was lovely.

As the sun rose, a chubby little porcupine came out of the bushes and delighted everyone in the ferry line.

The Valdez-Whittier trip is about 4.5 hours, and so beautiful that even though it got chilly we stayed posted up on the deck under our blankets for most of the ride.

Once we arrived in Whittier, we drove straight on to Anchorage. We had so much fun visiting friends while we were there that I’ll make a separate post to cover all those adventures.

For now, I’ll make the title of the post accurate with the following pictures of Gracie cleaning her tail.

The Road to Alaska – Part 3: New Aiyansh, Stewart, & Hyder

Holy cow, you guys.

We knew before we began the drive through Canada to Alaska that it was going to be beautiful, but somehow we weren’t even prepared for how majestic this part of the world is!

Every new place we go, we just look at each other, wide-eyed, and laugh out loud in amazement that we’re getting to see all this.

One of my favorite spots yet was the next stop on our map after leaving Stewart. New Aiyansh, BC and the other neighboring villages of Nisga’a are so beautiful that I can’t possibly do it any justice with words. And believe me when I say that I’ve been trying! Even when we were there, both of us were more quiet than usual.

A volcano eruption in the 18th century left the area covered in lava rock, which now is blanketed in dozens of different varieties of moss, ferns and little succulents. And the pools of water scattered around the lava fields are a perfectly clear aquamarine color that felt like something out of a fairy tale.

The Drowned Forest was a favorite stop for me.

A neighboring village has a bouncy suspension bridge spanning the Nass River, so we crossed it and I quickly admired the view as I hurried to the other side. Andy, of course, loved it!

Vetter Falls was a rainforest wonderland, and we walked out as far as we could to see if we could spot the “phantom fish”—steelhead that get trapped at the falls and develop snake-like bodies with large heads—but they lived up to their name.

Andy tried very, very hard though. So you have to give him credit.

We stayed the night at a lake near Cranberry Junction, which had a name but will now just be known as “mosquito lake” in our memory. It was a gorgeous spot for a feeding frenzy though!

Although staying indoors to escape mosquitos has its advantages.

The next day, we drove to Stewart, BC, which took us five times as long as it would have had we not stopped every half mile to marvel at the mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls.

Right next door to Stewart is a little town called Hyder. . . Alaska! They’re minutes away from one another, and have a very similar vibe; they’re just separated by a border agent on the BC side.

A local tradition is to get “hyderized” at the Glacier Inn, so we did. A bracing shot of Everclear later, we had our official cards!

The next day, one of the locals we’d met found us and invited us out for a day of fishing on their boat! We had a phenomenal time, especially considering the weather was clear and sunny so we could venture out on the speed boat to explore, fish and pick wild blueberries.

There were other perks as well:

It was such a treat and we’re so grateful we got to join! Thanks again, Kim and David!

After we left the dock that evening, we drove up to the Salmon Glacier, the fifth largest glacier in Canada. Because the sun doesn’t set until 11 p.m. around here this time of year, we had plenty of time to drive up and stop for photos along the way.

We found a great lookout to stop for the night, and watched the sun set behind the mountains.

The view from our front yard when we woke up the next day was pretty incredible!

We even had friendly neighbors!

Scout and I took a little walk while Andy made coffee.

I love our morning coffee views these days.

We drove back down the mountain to Stewart, where we got our fishing licenses and headed out to the dock to see if we could catch a few crabs. We had great luck catching crabs, but for a little while it seemed like the only crabs in the water were females! We met a local who was also crabbing from the dock and enjoyed hanging out with him while we all released the ladies back into the ocean. By the time he had to go he’d caught a number of prawns, which he gifted to us. We were totally thrilled. I’ve never had fresh prawns before, so it was generous and very much appreciated! Thanks again, Tim! 🙂

Well, I have more tales to tell and I’m not nearly caught up all the way yet, but I just looked at the time and it’s almost grizzly bear feeding time here in Haines, and we want to see more bears!

Yes, I said more! Spoiler alert:

Everything Rolls: Lessons From the Road

Living on the road full time has proven to be even more drastically different from “real life” than we’d anticipated when we began this adventure almost two years ago. We assert that it’s waaaaaay better (for us), but there definitely have been a whole lot of lessons we’ve gradually been learning along the way. These are all things that we’d never had to consider when our house didn’t move, and it’s funny when we find that our new behaviors are now so deeply ingrained that when visiting friends in their stationary houses, we still anticipate things falling out of cabinets whenever we open them, for example.

I thought I’d list a few of the funnier lessons we’ve learned in the last year and a half.

Never trust the flatness of any surface, no matter how level it may look. Everything rolls. Put that egg on the counter without hovering your hand above it for a second first, and you’ve got a cleanup job in between you and breakfast! It’s not a matter of will it roll, it’s what direction, and you better be ready.
Always open liquid containers slowly, because you’ve more than likely changed altitude since you last closed it. I mopped up a whole lot of wasted sunscreen, shampoo, and ketchup before learning this lesson. You can’t trust a bottle on the road.
You can’t take people’s recommendations for the “best food in town” unless you’re in your home state, or at least a neighboring state. Regional tastes vary so much that Yelp has been rendered useless to us. You just don’t know what the ideal flavor profile is. We’ve gotten tips from locals about where to go for dinner for the “most amazing Mexican food we’ll ever have” only to discover that in that state, sweet marinara-flavored salsa is the standard, among other atrocities.
If you see a sign for a free dump station and potable water that’s right on your way, it’s going to be a good day.
There are loads of great places to park when boondocking downtown. One of them is not the local newspaper office. At 3:30 a.m. the trucks pull up and idle while metal doors are flung open, and the workers chat loudly while tossing heavy piles of paper into their trucks. This all happens six feet away from your face. Newspaper offices may seem harmless, but they’re hazardous to your sleep.
Never assume that the mess you don’t feel like cleaning up right now is your secret. A house tour could happen at any time. We vandwellers just love to check out each other’s setups, and if you meet some fun fulltimers and you slacked on clean-up duty that day, you’d better just come to terms with them being in close quarters with your dirty dishes and sandy dog cushions, because you just can’t forfeit the tour swap!
Let yourself wake up enough in the morning to realize where you are before opening the back door and hopping out. Just because your back yard has been the woods for a week doesn’t mean that you won’t step out—in your pajamas and —into the middle of some town’s morning commute.
We also just recently learned that we are Napa Blue. You really do learn something new every day!

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