Kenai Peninsula AK

7/10 – 7/16/2016 -  Soldotna, AK - We decided to try our luck with a bit of fishing Alaskan style so we went crazy and bought waders, fishing rods and reels, and other assorted gear and met our friends Dominic and Ronnie Sue for our lessons.  After they patiently instructed us on the technicalities of salmon fishing they turned us loose on the Kenai River.  We fished for two days and came up empty with only several lost fish to our credit, when a nice older couple asked me if we would like to try a fly rod instead of a spinner.  When I felt the difference in the feel of the fly rod I was hooked, and bought one for myself.  After trying it out the next day I landed my first Sockeye, and when I handed the rod over to Chippy to try it, I could see that I gotta get me one of these look in her eye.  So Friday morning we both set out with our fly rods and Chippy put me to shame, bagging the daily limit in under two hours while I only accomplished a baptism in the river for me and my iphone….bbbrrrrrrrr.  Sorry we could not get the picture of Chippy with her catch, but with my phone swimming with the fishes, we had to fillet them at the fishing hole and so here she is with her fillets in the bag...LOL. The rest of our pictures from this area went down the Kenai River with the ipnone.

 

7/16 – 7/20/2016 - Homer, AK – We headed to Homer for a few days stopping overnight in Ninilchik, AK where we visited the local area including Deep Creek State Park where there are many bald eagles nesting in the cliffs waiting for the boats to come in to feast on the fish carcasses that are unloaded after the catch is cleaned.  The other interesting thing about this area is the tide gets so low the boats arriving at low tide need to be towed in with tractors.  

 

The ride to Homer was really beautiful following Cooks Inlet south with the towering glacier covered mountains to our west, but when we crested the hills overlooking Homer it took our breath away.  This has to be the most spectacular view we have seen in our Alaskan journey.  We decided to set up camp in Fishing Hole Campground, one of the city owned campgrounds on Homers Spit.  The Spit is a 5 mile peninsula jutting out into Kachemak Bay with boat yards, marinas, campgrounds, shops, charters, Alaskan Ferry terminal, fish processing plants, and of course the infamous Salty Dog Saloon.  Kachemak Bay has the second largest tides in the world where the difference between high and low tides is as much as 28 feet which creates very strong tidal currents.  We did some fishing off the shore at Lands End and I was once again squashed by Chippy’s awesome fishing skills.  She bagged 5 flounder and one small halibut over 2 days of fishing while I caught only seaweed, but I can clean them with the best of them…LOL.  We really enjoyed strolling the Spit and browsing the shops filled with local art, but the surrounding beauty is beyond explanation.  We decided to hit the Kenai River for a couple more days on our way back from Homer before our two week fishing license expired.  We camped once again at Wal-Mart in Kenai overnight and we finally found a spot at the public access area near the city park in Soldotna, but had no luck on the first day.  Since the rivers were getting really crowed, we decided to hit the river the next morning at 4:30am to secure a desirable spot.  The morning started out with a light drizzle and the action was slow.  Brian caught a Dolly Varden (trout family) but threw it back and later landed a nice sockeye, but as the rain increased in intensity and the action slowed we decided to call it a day, final tally on the Kenai River, Chippy 3 Sockeye 1 Dolly Varden, Brian 2 Sockeye 1 Dolly Varden and 1 Rainbow Trout.  Salmon fishing in the river was never part of our planned itinerary in Kenai, but was really an unexpected pleasure which was a lot of work but also great fun we will never forget.  Now that we have waders and fly rods, we plan to do a lot more river fishing in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

7/21 – 7/25/2016 – Seward, AK – After about 2 full weeks of fantastic unseasonal sunny skies and high seventies without a drop of rain, Mother Nature has finally reconsidered.  Looks like rain in the forecast for at least a week, but it is probably a blessing as conditions are very dry and there are currently 3 large forest fires blazing in the state.  We arrived in Seward on a Thursday, and were shocked to find all of the city campgrounds on the waterfront were full to capacity.  We finally found space at Forest Acres Campground, which is also a city owned campground just outside the city.  Friday it rained pretty heavy all day and the visibility was zero on Resurrection Bay let alone the surrounding mountains, so we decided to visit the Alaska Sealife Center which is an aquarium and Marine Science and Rescue Facility displaying local fish, sea lions, seals, otters, and seabirds.    

 

 

 

Fortunately the forecast for Saturday was incorrect and we were blessed with a partly sunny day, so we took advantage and went out for some picture taking and hiking.  We started out downtown on the beautiful waterfront along Resurrection Bay, Mount Marathon, Lowell Point,  and also captured some of the murals that are painted all over town.  The historic Iditarod Trail begins in Seward, tracing the mail route that led to gold strikes in Hope and Sunrise and later the bonanza in Iditarod.  Next stop was Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park where we were able to hike out to within a few hundred yards of the glacier, our closest glacier encounter.  Exit Glacier retreats about 50 feet each year, and there are special markers dating the retreat of the glacier all the way back to 1889. We spotted a beautiful roadside pull-off overlooking   Kenai Lake on the way down to Seward, which we plan to overnight tomorrow and enjoy the view while we avoid the weekend traffic returning to Anchorage.

 

 

 

 

 

Talkeetna_Anchorage

7/6 – 7/8/2016   - We actually stayed outside of Talkeetna about 2 miles as the crow flies, but in Alaska that translates to 30 miles by road, in a quiet little town called Trapper Creek at Trapper Creek Inn & RV Park, a nice little campground right on the Parks Highway.  Talkeetna is certainly a quaint little tourist town with pubs, eateries, art galleries, shops and many adventure tours from rafting to flight-seeing.  It is also a train stop for all Alaskan cruise passengers who also do the land tour, so the town is very active both day and night.  Located at the confluence of three major rivers, the town keeps its mining history alive with renovated miners' cabins and gold panning all over town.  Talkeetna is also the staging area for over 1,000 climbers who attempt to climb Denali each year, where most climbers take a plane to the base camp at 7,000 feet to begin the ascent to the summit (20,320 ft).  This is also one of the best areas to see this mountain without having to climb it.  During the climbing season of May and June climbers must make their way to the ranger station where they are required to submit to a battery of planning considerations before they are issued a permit.  The ranger station is decorated with the flags and banners of successful climbers, since 1903 there have been over 40,000 attempts to reach the summit but only about half have been successful, with about 125 deaths, many whom the bodies have never been recovered.   

 

 

 

Wow we finally saw Denali, albeit in our rear view mirror today while leaving Talkeetna on our way to Anchorage.  Even over 100 miles away it looks huge.

 

Anchorage

7/8 – 7/10/2016 - Didn’t do any tourist stuff in Anchorage, stayed at Bird Creek Campground in Chugach State Park on Turnagain Arm in Cooks Inlet and the setting was beautiful, surrounded by water, mountains and glaciers galore.  Just did some shopping for supplies and fishing gear on our way to Kenai Peninsula where we are going to meet up with Dominic and Ronnie Sue whom we met at the information center when we were visiting Smithers BC a couple months back and they are willing to give us some fishing lessons to catch Sockeye (Reds) Salmon when we get to Soldotna AK.  We will stop in Anchorage for a few days on our return this way.

 

 

 

 

Denali National Park AK (Home of "The Great One")

6/30 – 7/6/2016 – Spent our first two days in Denali driving through the park taking some pictures, browsing the local shops, and sampling the local fare, love the pizza….Lower 48 Pizza with Reindeer Sausage, ground Elk, red peppers, and mozzarella,  very delicious.  We were going to sample the “Deadliest Catch” Pizza with 1 ½ lb of King Crab Legs but $60 for a pizza seemed a bit of a stretch.

 

We will head into Denali on Saturday for two days in Riley Campground and then two days in Savage Campground,  to bond with nature, hike the trails, and take a bus tour deep into Denali. 

On Saturday we decided to do a couple of hikes and although we didn’t see any wildlife, we did see some pretty sights and enjoyed the fresh air.  The first hike took us along Hines and Riley Creek and they were running pretty heavy as we have had a lot of rain over the past two days.  These are all glacier fed creeks and there are no fish due to the heavy silt in the water from the glaciers, the water is actually gray from all of the sediment. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second hike was around Horseshoe Lake and along the Nenana River which feeds the mighty Yukon that flows to the Bering Sea.  No wildlife here either, but there were several beaver dams in the area, and a great deal of beaver activity evidenced by all of the downed trees. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday we took the Tundra Wilderness Tour, an 8 hour bus tour which takes you deep into Denali to mile 62 and although it was a cool rainy day we were treated to a plethora of wildlife.  As we crossed the Savage River at mile 14, which is as far as personal vehicles can drive into the park, we saw our first Caribou of the trip.  We also learned that the area around Savage River was closed to hikers and tenters due to a Grizzly Bear problem.  It appears that last week this Grizzly encountered some hikers who were frightened and threw a day pack to scare off the bear, which is not the correct thing to do, as the bear proceeded to tear open the pack and consume a couple cans of soda and some candy.  When a bear associates food with human contact, it becomes a dangerous animal.  The protocol was to capture the bear, which took a couple of days, recondition the bear by shooting bean bags and rubber bullets at the bear when it sees a human, release him back into the wild, and observe him in the area for a few days.  When all seemed to be ok, they reopened the area on Saturday, but the bear charged several groups of hikers and eventually attacked one of them, fortunately the woman was not seriously injured, but did require treatment at the hospital in Anchorage.   Unfortunately for the bear, he will now be tracked down and killed.  That being said, we continued on our journey into the wilderness where around the corner we saw a golden eagle sitting on top of a tree.  Denali is home to the largest population of golden eagles in North America whose diet consists mainly of ground squirrels and arctic hares, unlike their cousins the bald eagle that are not found in this area since there are no fish.  We next came across a herd of Dall sheep high in the mountains and several more Caribou, but the best was yet to come.  At almost the end of our 62 mile trek, we finally saw our first Grizzly bear feasting on some vegetation while keeping an eye on a herd of Caribou some distance on the other side of the road.  He was very cooperative and stayed in the same spot for quite some time, even after we made our turnaround; he was still there napping on our return trip.  We did spot another Grizzly bear on the way back, which was a very light brown color, almost blonde, but was too far and blended into the scenery too well to get a picture.  We were quite pleased with all of the animals we saw today, and got a special surprise as we were approaching our drop off point with a Cow Moose with two calves just grazing by the Visitors Center causing a real traffic jam.   Our only disappointment on the day was that since it was so overcast, Denali (formerly Mt McKinley) was not visible, but they say only 30% of the 350,000 to 400,000 annual visitors are lucky enough to see the peak each year.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, with a bit of apprehension, we head to our next campground (Savage) which just happens to be in the vicinity where the Grizzly bear has been attacking hikers, now only hard sided campers are allowed in the campground until the bear is put down, no worries we won’t be hiking nearby.  We finished our visit to Denali NP with a few more hikes near the Visitors Center and a stop at the Park Headquarters to visit the mushing demonstration and the Alaskan Huskies that are an integral part of Denali NP.  These dogs are the main transportation for the park rangers in the winter to ensure the safety and security of the park, with each dog averaging about 3000 miles each winter pulling the sleds.  We still have not seen the “Great One” but have not given up as we will still be in view of the park as we travel south towards Anchorage over the next couple days.