Kenai, AK

On Monday, 6/2, we left Wasilla for Kenai.  It's about a 3 -4 hour drive depending on traffic, stopping, etc.
 If you double-click on the map, you can follow the road from Anchorage down around Turnagain Arm to Girdwood and then on to the Kenai Peninsula.  








































Then follow the road to Cooper Landing, Soldotna, and then Kenai.  We are parked behind the Kenai Middle School again, and, it feels like 'home.'

The Peninsula is known as "Alaska's Playground" and is one of the most visited tourist regions in Alaska, especially popular with nature lovers for its beautiful scenery, and with anglers lured by its excellent salmon and halibut fishing.

Saw another one of these signs but, again, that was the only one we saw!

Not sure what this was, but it was unique!

Alot of homes on this hill side.

The drive around the Turnagain Arm was beautiful.  Sometimes you can see beluga whales in the water, but, of course, we did not.

Once you get around, you come to this sign and from there on, it is a sloping climb into the mountains to Turnagain Pass.

Eventually we get to the turnoff - the road to Seward is Highway 9 and the road to the right is the Sterling Highway (#1) which we take.

As we get closer, the Kenai River comes into view.  A very popular river for salmon fishing.  The Kenai is home to the world’s largest salmon with the record weighing in at 97.4 lbs.  The King Salmon Derby in local Soldotna provides the chance to win a $50,000 first prize for landing the next world record.

The Kenai River sonar fish count shows that between 40,000 to 45,000 Kings pass through in July during the second run.  Late May and June show a slightly smaller run. The King bag limit is one per day or two for the season on the Kenai. 

According to the local paper:  For the first time since 1965 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced a preseason closure of fishing for Kenai River early run king salmon.A preseason forecast for the run estimated 2,230 fish to make a run on the river, less than half of what is needed to reach the lower end of the ADFG optimum escapement goal of 5,300 fish.

The early run sport fishery for kings will be closed beginning May 1 through June 30 from the Kenai River mouth upstream to Skilak Lake and the Moose River from its confluence with the Kenai river upstream to the northern edge of the Sterling Highway bridge.

Kings may not be targeted or retained.

Not good news for the avid fisherman.

As we got closer to Soldnota/Kenai, the mountains on the other side of Cook Inlet came into view.

Cute little ice cream stand along the way.

And an old church

And then we finally made it to the Kenai Middle School.  Met with the school maintenance man and got setup.

Will update again in a few days.

Wasilla, AK

Here it is, Wednesday, 6/4, and I haven't updated lately.  Guess I'd better try to catch up!!

I meant to put this in the Glenallen blog but forgot, so here goes.

The Copper Valley, in East Alaska, around Glenallen, also known as the Copper River Basin,  encompasses approximately 20,649 square miles and is bounded by the Chugach National Forest to the south, the Alaska Range to the north, and the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve to the east, and the Talkeetna and Chugach Mountains to the west. This vast region includes the Wrangell and St. Elias Mountain Range, which has nine of the 16 highest mountain peaks in North America. This map should help to show the area that we are in.

You can see that Mt. Blackburn is 16,390 ft and Mt. Sanford is almost as high.  Further down the map in the right corner is St; Elias at 18,008 ft.

Not sure which mountains these are, but they were pretty impressive...

 To the left of these mountains on the map, you can see the little red dot for Glenallen.

We left Glenallen on Thursday morning, 5/28, and headed down the road to Wasilla.  This is called the Glen Highway (Highway #1) and is another scenic road. (Actually, I think they are all pretty scenic)!

Anyway, The Glenn Highway was recently named a “National Scenic Byway.” It runs along the Matanuska River Valley, and is surrounded by glaciers, mountains, and broad vistas.  Many of these mountains are  unnamed.  So, just enjoy the scenery:

Tried to find out what these poles are for, but haven't got an answer yet. They run for about a mile on both sides of the road.

Nice sign, but no moose!

The Matanuska Glacier is the largest glacier accessible by car in the state, as well as one of the oldest. Looming 13,000 feet high and 27 miles long, it is a majestic example of Alaska's natural wonders. It originates from within the Chugach mountain range. 

Not sure where the schools are, but we did meet a couple of buses.

And, yes, dandelions are in abundance here as well.

We found our CG for the weekend.

We stayed here in 2011 and liked it so we came back.  They do a good job of keeping the area landscaped nicely.

These blue flowers are called Artic Lupine.

Today was a short trip - about 140 miles - so after we got setup, we headed to where else - Walmart - to stock up again.

All in all, it was a good easy travel day.

Unfortunately, the whole weekend was overcast and drizzly.  Never rained hard, but always something coming down.  We did drive to Anchorage on Friday (about 40 miles away) to visit the local JCP store and stock up on some clothing.  Went into numerous gift shops but (fortunately for me) Judy didn't find anything that she needed!!

We did take our picture in one store:

This was a mural on a wall at one of the tea/gift shops.

Sunday we went to church in Wasilla - Grace Lutheran - very nice service and people were very friendly.  

We did see a train go by - the Alaska Railroad with only Holland American and Princess Cruises observation cars on it.  Guess they were headed to Anchorage.

That's about all to report from here  (No, we didn't see Sarah!!).

Glenallen, AK

We only stayed one night in TOK as the campground has gotten quite expensive compared to other CG's that we have stayed at ($43).  It has full hookups and cable TV and WIFI, but the WIFI is ridiculous.  They only give you one hour each (something called Tengointernet).  And if you sign off before your hour is up, you can't even get back on!  I think this is the only CG where we have run into this.

They do have a nice Gift Shop that we stopped at on our way out of town. They have lots of stuff, and, we did buy some Christmas presents there. When you buy anything here, you get a coupon for a free chicken if you go to the town of Chicken (about 90 miles away).  In 2011 we got the coupon, wondered what the chicken would actually be, and found out when we got to Chicken - a little plastic chicken!!

We left town and headed down Highway #1 for Glenallen which was about 144 miles away.

Judy took this picture in Tok - she thinks this might have been Grandma Sorensen's place!!

Here we go - an easy day of driving - good road - great scenery again!

And easy day of driving??  Or, so we thought.  The first several miles were real good tar road and I got up to 55 MPH.  Then we started running into not so good road and I had to slow down to around 40.  But then it started - gravel sections of road!!  

Never very long but always very rutty (if I can use that term!!).  Made the truck and trailer shake so bad that we had to just crawl through each one. There must have been 12 or 13 of these gravel stretches in a 20 mile section.

Those were just to give you an idea - no more pictures of gravel road signs ahead!!

However, we passed this sign - Porcupine Creek - where some of the gold miners on the show 'Gold Rush' (Discovery Channel) actually mined.

Judy got this picture at the last second - cute little log cabin on those posts.

The area we are entering is called Copper Canyon where some of the first gold mining was done.  We stopped at a rest area and saw these signs.

Ever wonder what the blue skies are like in AK??  Now you know...

At this point, Highway#1 (Tok cutoff) intersects with Highway #4 which comes from Delta Junction (and further up the road - Fairbanks).

We took a left toward Valdez but Glenallen comes up first.

We made it to Glenallen early in the afternoon so we stopped at the Visitor Center and looked around awhile.  Our CG was just up the road and we got checked in.  It seemed like a nice afternoon, and, just maybe, we could sit outside and enjoy the rest of the day.  However, it was not to be - mosquitoes so bad that you couldn't stand still but what they would swarm over and around you.  So, we spent the time in the trailer.  No TV either, but we did have WIFI so it was good.

Wasilla is our next stop...