2023 Alaska Revisited: Series Finale

(2023 Alaska Revisited Ep 30)

We’ve come to the end of our 2023 Alaska Revisited blog series. It was a blessing to have you follow us for over six months and 30 episodes, and your encouraging comments were really appreciated!

This final episode provides some stats and interesting details, along with related photos.

In addition, Pat and I answer various questions about the trip (favorite campground, best hike and so forth) – from when we left home thru Vancouver, BC, and then north thru Canada and Alaska until we returned home.

Finally, we reveal our favorite cinnamon bun of the trip!

Part 1 – By The Numbers

190 days – total length of trip. 185 days were camping
137 – places we camped. The longest single stay was four days at Whitehorse, Yukon.
$21.93 – average cost per night. The most paid was $65 at Rincon Beach, California.
37 – free nights at pull offs, moochdocking, Walmart and Cracker Barrel.
$303/$413 – cost of laundry and propane.

Q&A – Home thru Vancouver – March 25 thru June 6

Favorite campground

(Pat) Rincon Parkway Campground, CA – epic camping right on the Pacific. Magnificent sunset!
(Ed) Organ Pipe Cactus NP – remote, quiet and many types of beautiful cacti

Favorite place visited

(P) Driving the Pacific Coast Highway: coastline, classic bridges and elephant seals. Enjoyed the whole thing!
(E) Tonto National Monument desert super bloom – surprise detour with steep uphill hike to cliff dwelling among yellow, gold, white and blue desert flowers

^{Cave hiking in Pinnacles NP}

Best hike

(P) Tonto National Monument desert super bloom – see above
(E) Lower Bear Gulch Cave Trail, Pinnacles NP, CA – hike along creek in deep crevasse and up rocky stairs to a small reservoir. We thought we saw a California condor in the nearby peaks.

Favorite Meal

(P) Fresh Harvest Cafe, Florence. OR – Mother’s Day breakfast, a lot of food that we really enjoyed.
(E) Big Daddy’s Fish Fry, Tofino, BC – fish and chips in a cozy little restaurant on Vancouver Island, the two-piece order was enough for us both!

The Spruce Goose spans the entire museum building

Favorite Attraction

(P) Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, OR – in addition to lots of interesting planes and space displays, we got to go inside the Spruce Goose and sit in Howard Hughes’ pilot seat.
(E) Redwoods – we had a ‘wow’ reaction every time we walked among the big trees.

Favorite National or State/Provincial Park

(P) Humboldt Redwood State Park, CA – we camped in a Redwood grove.
(E) Valley of Fire SP near Las Vegas, NV – desert camping and hiking amid weather-etched sandstone. We also watched big horn sheep butt horns just a few yards from our campsite.

Bixby Bridge on Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur

Most Amazing View

(P) Super bloom of desert flowers in Arizona – beyond Tonto NM, desert blooms cast distant hills in yellow and orange.
(E) Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur – see Pat’s favorite place visited above.

Part 2 – By The Numbers

21785 – total miles driven
$8438 – total gas cost ($ 2.87/gal – lowest price at Murphy/Walmart in Warner Robins, GA, $6.31/gal – highest at Bob’s Welding, Inuvik NWT)
3 – Percy oil changes
2 – flat tires – at the Alaska border and on the Dempster Highway
8 – US/Canada Border Crossings
14 – ferry rides to Vancouver Island and across the Yukon, Mackenzie, and Peel Rivers, all in Canada

Q&A – North thru Canada and Alaska thru Home – June 7 thru October 1

Favorite place camped

(P) Boondocking near Arctic Circle on Dempster Highway – remote pullout where we enjoyed fall colors of the tundra and picked blueberries
(E) Milepost 96 on the Denali Highway – we hiked under a rainbow with views of Alaska Range in the distance. We were all alone!

Percy poses at the Arctic Ocean, nearly 5000 miles from home

Favorite place visited

(P/E) Dempster Highway and the Arctic Ocean: 1000 miles of dirt road and a once in a lifetime experience.

Fireweed and distant mountains on the Denali Park Road

Best hike

(P/E) Denali NP near Teklanika Campground – the park bus dropped us off at Sable Ridge and we walked several miles along the road. We enjoyed phenomenal mountain views and dodged a road-hogging caribou!

^{Fresh salmon and chocolate-frosted cake – a delicious way to celebrate Ed’s 66th birthday!}

Favorite Meal

(P) Burger Bus in Kenai – fish/chips and a cheeseburger combo on a cold and rainy day. It brought back fond memories of Burger Bus meals on our 2018 Alaska trip.

(E) Pat’s dinner for my 66^th birthday: fresh salmon caught in an adjacent lagoon and a homemade cake. Wow!

^{Lu-lu Belle approaching Columbia Glacier, expertly piloted by Captain Fred}

Favorite Attraction

(P/E) Lu-lu Belle glaciers and wildlife cruise near Valdez – ten-hour cruise to see seals, puffins, whales, goats, and the Columbia Glacier. It was amazing!

Favorite National or State/Provincial Park

(P) Denali NP – four days of great views, hikes, and camping.
(E) Jasper/Banff NP – bugling elk and spectacular Rocky Mountain views

Most Amazing View

(P) Peyto Glacier and Lake Overlook, Banff NP – we were rewarded after a VERY steep hike to the overlook. The blue color of the lake was beautiful.
(E) Denali Airflight – we flew through rugged mountains near Denali and landed on a glacier!

Part 3 – By The Numbers

18 – moose, all mamas and babies, no Bullwinkles.
30 – bears, 14 grizzly and 16 black bears.
Billions and billions – hungry mosquitoes.
3 and 2 – Star Trek-themed attractions and Gorns.
100,002+ – signs in the Watson Lake signpost forest, including two of ours.
320 feet, 11 inches – wingspan of the Spruce Goose H-4 Hercules
20310 feet – elevation of the Great One, Denali
22 hours, 6 mins – length of day on June 27 at Chena Hot Springs near Fairbanks
7/15/23 10:48 pm – 7.2 magnitude earthquake for which we received scary cell phone evacuation alerts.
20 – frozen toes that dipped into the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk, NWT.
13 – Cinnamon buns eaten (countless calories) (doesn’t include cinnamon bun-flavored cookies and popcorn).

Best Cinnamon Bun

And now, the big reveal you have been waiting for.

It wasn’t an easy choice, but we agreed our trip’s BEST cinnamon bun was at Braeburn Lodge, an unostentatious restaurant an hour north of Whitehorse, Yukon.

We split a huge, pillowy, cinnamon, deliciously-iced bun – bun perfection by any measure!

Looking Ahead to 2024

In the new year we will explore new RabbiTRAILs at a couple north Florida state parks in January and then camp in the Florida Keys in February. We’ll have other travel plans to announce as the year unfolds.

See you in 2024. Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!

Denali NP: Revisited

After the Glacier-Wildlife Cruise on Friday, August 10, Phil flew home late Saturday and Pat and I left Anchorage on Sunday morning. Our plans were to revisit Denali if the weather was good. We wanted to see some of the sights and hike several trails that we couldn’t during our first visit rainout.

We camped at Willow and Talkeetna on the way (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pts #46 and #47) and arrived at Denali (map pt #45) on Wednesday, August 15. Campsites weren’t available in the park so we set up camp at a private campground six miles south of the park.

We checked the weather forecast for the next two days and decided to ride the park transit bus to the Eielson Visitor Center on Thursday. Eielson is about two-thirds of the way to Kantishna, at mile 66 of the 92-mile-long Denali Park road.

We were amazed at the mountain and valley vistas that were shrouded by rain and fog during our first visit. The unspoiled wilderness and immenseness of Denali is awesome. And to think, we only saw about 2% of the park!

2018 Alaska Trip 3784 - 1808161401 — Panorama view from Polychrome Pass

2018 Alaska Trip 3852 - 1808161736 — Toklat River flowing from distant mountains

The park road crosses wide rivers and climbs steep mountains. Steep drop-offs along the narrow road that were hidden from us during our first bus trip were now clearly visible and a bit scary!

At Eielson we hiked a short (.8 mile one way) but very steep (1000 ft elevation gain) trail to an alpine ridge overlooking the visitor center. The day was partly cloudy and the views were wonderful. Had the day been clear, we would have seen Denali.

2018 Alaska Trip 3837 - 1808161716 — Pausing for a photo on the Eielson Alpine Trail – great views but no Denali

Like our previous trip we saw lots of animals, including a mother grizzly and cub that crossed the road right in front of several buses.

On Friday, we hiked a loop trail along the Savage River. It is one of the most beautiful hikes we have ever taken.

2018 Alaska Trip 3901 - 1808171548 — Savage River

We broke camp on Saturday and prepared to leave for Fairbanks. The day was clear. Before we left the Denali area, we caught a spectacular glimpse of The Great One!

Denali NP: The Great One

(2018 Alaska Ep 38)

2018 Alaska Trip Video 0433 - 1808051513

After picking up Phil in Anchorage on Saturday, August 4, we traveled north to Denali National Park and Preserve the next morning (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pt #45).

Denali National Park and Reserve is huge – at more than six million acres, it is nearly three times the size of Yellowstone. Only a small part of the park can be accessed via a 92-mile road from the park entrance to Kantishna, a historical gold mining area. The first 15 miles of the road can be driven in a private vehicle. The reminder can only be seen on a bus. We had bus tickets for the following day.

Bus riders hope to see Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. But only 30 percent of park visitors actually see the mountain. It is usually hidden by clouds.

There has been controversy about the mountain’s name. Alaska natives called the great mountain Denali long before western explorers discovered the mountain. It was officially renamed Mt. McKinley in 1917 to commemorate President William McKinley, US president from 1897 – 1901. President Obama restored the mountain to its Alaska Native name in 2015.

It was raining as we left on Monday for the eleven-hour roundtrip to Kantishna. Most of the trip is a winding dirt road. Before long the bus windows were splattered with mud. Thank goodness for frequent rest stops and the driver’s diligence to clean the windows at each stop.

Despite the drizzle during most of the day, we could see broad valleys and lower mountains. There were several heavy downpours as we crossed higher elevations and even a few brief periods of sunshine.

We saw four of the five major mammals that call Denali home: a herd of about 15 caribou (also known as reindeer), several distant dall sheep, a much closer grizzly bear, and a cow moose. Only wolves remained unseen.

During the bus ride we never saw Denali or the other tall mountains.

With rain in the forecast thru Thursday and only a week in Alaska, Phil decided to take the Alaska Railroad to Anchorage on Tuesday and to rejoin us on Friday for a glacier-wildlife cruise in Seward. More on the cruise in an upcoming blog update.

Pat and I remained in the park. We enjoyed a sled dog demonstration given by National Park Rangers. We’ll share more about sled dogs in an upcoming blog post.

On Thursday we awoke to sunshine!

The gray skies had become brilliant blue. Fresh snow dusted the tops of the lower mountains near our campground.

2018 Alaska Trip 3291 - 1808091145 — Early snowfall on the lower mountains near our campground

As we drove toward Anchorage we could see the distant tall mountains.

We even saw Denali and are now members of the 30 percent club!

2018 Alaska Trip 3329 - 1808091515 — Denali and the tall mountains

2018 Alaska Trip 3351 - 1808091609 — Denali, the Great One!

We head to Fairbanks after the cruise and saying goodbye to Phil. If the weather is clear, we hope to visit Denali again to see more of the amazing park and mountains.