Doing It Right…….

Did you ever go someplace, see some stuff, leave, and immediately know you didn’t do it right? I guess it happens to all of us, especially us “travelers”. Sometimes “schedules”, real or imagined, push us on. Life’s journey may or may not ever bring us back. Here is a an experience we had up here in Alaska.

Early in June, we were in Fairbanks, just beginning our Alaska discovery. We heard about the Chena Hot Springs Resort, 50 miles northeast of town. We drove up and stayed at the Hot Springs one night. At the end of this post I will show you some photos of this neat resort area. But now I want to tell you about “doing it right”.

We had left Chena Hot Springs Road the next day thinking, “this is what we pictured Alaska to be”, we have to come back some day. But right then we figured we had to get on with the Alaska “tourist tour” stuff.

Almost two months later, while we were camping on the Delta Clearwater River, we decided we needed to go back west again and spend time on Chena Hot Springs Road as well as see visit the Fairbanks Fair and travel the Denali Highway. So off we went, retracing a section of the highway back to Fairbanks. It was Saturday and we knew popular areas, especially around cities, are very busy over the weekends. We wanted to arrive on Sunday afternoon when those who work had to return to work (we remember those days well) and the best places would not be crowded, just waiting for us. So we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot, got a couple movies from the Redbox and relaxed for the evening.

The Hot Springs Resort is at the end of the 57 mile, paved two lane Chena Hot Springs Road (hereafter called The Road, because I am tired of typing the whole name). It cuts through the huge Chena River State Recreation Area a mecca of outdoor opportunities such as fishing, hiking, camping, rafting, canoeing, hunting, ATVing and wildlife viewing. We drove about 35 miles up The Road and unhooked the Jeep so we could check out many of the gravel/dirt turnoffs to see if they would be OK for the motor home. There were many opportunities. We wondered if just a few hours earlier the weekend campers were packing up and heading back to Fairbanks. We certainly saw quite a few on The Road heading the other direction.

We found what looked like the PERFECT SPOT to camp. Down a good gravel road to 45.5 Mile Pond. We went back and got the motor home and pulled in with the front windshield of the Trek ten feet from the water’s edge, overlooking the lake. AND THERE WE STAYED FOR FOUR DAYS!

Across the pond as an active beaver lodge. That evening three beavers came across the pond and one swam right in front of the motor home. He (or she) seemed to be checking us out and wondering “what the hell were we doing on his pond?”. Back and forth he swam and then he started slapping his tail on the water. I guess he was either telling the others to stay away but more likely, in my mind, telling us to get out. The beavers showed up every evening, but after the first day, they seemed to accept us as “friendlies”.

 

Moose were frequent visitors to the pond, which was only a couple hundred yards across. It was a good thing that I kept the motor home ten feet from shore so the moose could walk between us and the water .  Dee thought long and hard about the best names for the moose and decided One, Two……Twelve was very descriptive. Some we only saw once but several returned. There was a mother and two calves that we saw several times that we really enjoyed  watching. One calf stayed pretty close to mom, but the other wandered around a bit more. At one stage he meandered out on a point of land, just eating grass, while mom and the other calf went into the woods. When he finally looked up, he was shocked and panicked, although we know mom was watching from in the trees. He took off running and just a little later we saw all three close together eating at the edge of the pond.

How did we spend our days on 45.5 Mile Pond? Well first we got up and brushed our teeth….. just kidding. Watching the wildlife, reading, napping, enjoying happy hours, walking and going for rides to explore other places along The Road. Eating was also a popular activity In the afternoons I went fishing, usually catching a couple Arctic Grayling in different spots along the North Fork of the Chena River. I didn’t mention that 45.5 Mile Pond has only very small fish so I don’t fish there. One day we watched a beaver catch a fish. Cool. As far as the reading goes, Dee loves her Kindle and has a backlog of many novels to read. I, have about five books going and have yet to start Michener’s Alaska. I can usually read up to six pages of any one book before dozing off. I think it some type of reading disease. I love to buy books but getting through them can be a real challenge. But more often than not we are gazing out over the waters and shorelines of the pond.

We have pondered and thought back on our ten years on the road, and come to the conclusion that 45.5 Mile Pond is probably our ALL-TIME Favorite Campsite! And that is a big deal considering all the campgrounds and boondocking sites where we have camped.

We did it right and we will be back!

The Chena Hot Springs Resort is a really neat commercial operation at the end of the road. They have lodging, a campground, restaurant and many outdoor activities for vacationers, especially those from Fairbanks for a few days. Their geothermal tour featuring renewable energy projects is impressive. We enjoyed the hot springs and the Aurora Ice Museum, a structure full of beautifully detailed ice sculptures.

Now off to the next adventure……..

McCarthy Road–A Step Back in Time

View of the Matanuska Glacier from the Glenn Highway

We left Palmer heading to Valdez. But we got sidetracked a few times.

The drive across the Glenn Highway was beautiful.

    

     

We boondocked at a convenient roadside pull-off near Glennallen. The next day we turned south on the Richardson Highway. Soon we stopped at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Visitor Center. We had never heard of it, but we were amazed at what we saw and learned from the Rangers. Nine of the sixteen tallest peaks in North America are in the ark. It is the largest National Park in the country with over 12 million acres. Most of the park is very remote and inaccessible to mere mortals. We learned about the Edgerton Highway and McCarthy Road that leads deep into the park, so off we went. We camped at the Kenny Lake Trading Post and took off from there in the Jeep. Here are photos from that 12 hour drive.

The first 33 miles were on the paved Edgerton Highway, to the town of Chitina.

 

We passed a Yak farm, animals ideally suited to the Alaskan climate. We saw very few in the state.

Two Mile Lake

Liberty Falls and Creek and Us. Jaxon took the shot!

Welcome to Chitina, pop. 105.

Used car lot, all in mint condition…..

And, they have a WiFi hotspot!

And a hotel….

The Copper River runs near Chitina. It is known as the dip-netting capital of Alaska. Each year during the salmon runs, Alaskans come to this spot to dip salmon from the waters. You must be an Alaskan to partake in this form of sustenance fishing. There are also many fish wheels set up in the river to scoop the fish out of the water.

The McCarthy Road starts at Chitina. This 59 mile gravel road ends at the Kennicott River. Rental car contracts prohibit use on this road. It was a long, but fun drive with some neat things to see along the way. here are some photos Dee took along the way…

This moose was chowing down in a pond right next to the road. We watched him for 10 minutes.

Kuskulana River Bridge. Built in 1910 as a railroad bridge, it is 525 feet long and 238 feet above the river.

The Kennicott Glacier at the end of the McCarthy Road

From here you walk across a bridge and up a gravel road for 1/2 of a mile to the “town” of McCarthy, pop. 51. This is remote, with no electric, water or sewer systems.

We took a van ride about 5 miles to the old Kennicutt Mine site. I took a tour of the site while Dee walked Jaxon all around and saw most of the same things.

Most of the buildings are now owned by the Park Service and many are in excellent shape.

The mine closed in 1938.

It was almost 6pm when we walked back across the bridge to the Jeep. And we still had that long gravel road to travel. But we made it just fine. It was another great day in Alaska.

Another view of the Kennicutt Glacier.

Time for a bath!