After two years in the planning we departed from Heathrow on the 5th June for Anchorage via Chicago. The journey was long and tedious and the four hour layover in Chicago just added to the misery. Can't say that we found O'Hare a pleasant place to have your first experience of the USA. It was crowded, messy and the staff off-hand. Welcome to Trump's America. The flight to Anchorage on American Airways was like an extended Ryanair flight. Little leg room, little service and you had to pay for everything. To be avoided.
The run into Anchorage was full of amazing views over snow covered mountains and rugged coastline. We landed at 10.30 pm and it was broad daylight! Darkness was to be less than and hour in length.
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| Coming in to land at Anchorage |
We had a day in Anchorage before picking up the RV. We were very pleasantly surprised by the City finding it vibrant and spotless clean! I fell foul of the North Face shop and had to make a couple of purchases.
Saturday 7th June
Killed time until we could pick up the RV at 1.30 from Cruise America. Luckily we have hired RVs in Canada as the briefing was rushed and lacking. The outside of the van was filthy, in fact we thought it was a return awaiting preping!
After grocery shopping (VERY EXPENSIVE) we set out to Palmer and the Springer RV site for our first night. Within a short while of clearing Anchorage we soon realised how amazing the landscape was, how good the road network proved to be and we felt we were in for a real adventure.
Springer RV was a very pleasant and well organised site. The staff were very friendly and its location within an intensive farming area had spectacular mountain background.That night we spelt well and enjoyed the sound of bird song for what seemed to be the whole of the night!
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| View from Springer RV campsite, Palmer |
Sunday 8th June
After breakfast we set out to do our first walk before hitting the Glenn Highway. We decided to do a walk called the Long Loop just outside Palmer. The route circled a number of lakes. As we walked to the trailhead we were faced by a flooded track we had to cross! Fortunately a couple with a pickup truck came along and kindly gave us a lift to the trailhead.
The walk gave us great views of the snow capped mountains and took us through some beautiful alpine meadows. On returning to the trailhead the kind couple were waiting to give us a lift back to our RV. Such kindness was only the first of many that we received during our visit.
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| Alpine meadows, Long Loop Trail |
Having said our goodbyes we headed onto the Glenn Highway for the next two days! Most tourist routes for this part of Alaska take the road to Denali but I had read that the Glenn Highway was even more spectacular and quiet. This proved to be very true. What a journey! Spectacular mountains covered in snow, wide river beds and glaciers! I was so pleased that we had allowed ourselves two days to do 137 miles as we stopped numerous times to soak up the views and atmosphere.
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| Along the Glenn Highway |
We stopped that night at the Slide Mountain RV campsite. Another well organised and pleasant site with a nice shower. Being up in the mountains we found that it was bitterly cold around 3 am! However we survived!
Monday 9th June
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| Matanuska Glacier in the Chugach Mtns, from the Glenn Highway |
Continued along the Glenn Highway towards the mecca for travellers of Glennallen taking an hour each way detour to visit Lake Louise a massive lake famous for fishing. We had lunch while looking out over the lake.
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| On the road to Lake Louise |
Anyway we did visit the local roadside eatery and enjoyed coffee, hot chocolate and cake before setting of for our next overnight stop. On the way we visited the Wrangell St Elias Visitors centre just before it closed!
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| Traditional fish catcher. |
Our next stop was at the King for a Day RV site near Copper Centre on the Richardson Highway. The site was dedicated to fishermen and we were able to watch them catching Salmon and cleaning them. We met another charming couple Bill and Mary Beth and had a long chat.
Tuesday 10th June
Issues with the city water supply not working meant we had to contact Cruise America to try and get it sorted.
Headed off down the Richardson Highway for Valdez and in many ways it was more spectacular than the Glenn Highway! The mountains were closer and the roads even quieter. We stopped at the Worthington Glacier and had the whole place to ourselves. The weather, though cold with lots of snow still around, was better than we expected.
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| Worthington Glacier |
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| On the road to Valdez |
Made a stop at the Bridal Veil waterfalls just outside Valdez before we arrived at the KOA RV site just outside Valdez.
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| View from the campsite |
A really nice site, well maintained and thankfully more civilised than those in Valdez itself.
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| Bridal Veil Falls |
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| Valdez under glorious blue skies |
Spent most of the day in Valdez. Wandered the shops and purchased two North Face tops in a store that sold all sorts of outdoor gear. It was strange to stand in front of rows of different types of bullets!
Had a take away lunch that was most bizarre! Had to order in the restaurant and leave our mobile number so we could be texted when our order was ready! Massive burger with bacon and cheese and very nice fries.
A number of fishing boats were coming in so we wandered down to the fish cleaning area to watch the gulls and Bald Eagles gathering for the offal. It was great to get up close to the eagles and see the various ages of the birds.
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| Bald Eagle at fish cleaning station Valdez |
Thursday 12th June
Up early (5am) to get to the ferry port in Valdez for the ferry to Whittier. We were loaded and off by 7.30 for an amazing 6 hour trip along Prince William Sound to Whittier. The weather was beautiful, calm and sunny and the views of numerous glaciers was stunning. Sadly no whales but did spot Sea Otter and Dolphin. We spent the whole journey sitting on deck and was amazed how quickly the journey passed.
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| Sailing Prince William Sound from Valdez to Whittier |
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| Shadows on Prince William Sound. |
Arrived at the strange place called Whittier! A product of the cold war with its housing block for the vast majority of its 400+ residents. The journey through the Whittier Tunnel was certainly interesting being single tracked, shared with the train and having a number of escape rooms for just in case!
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| Whittier: The main housing for all the residents. |
Exited the tunnel at Portage Lake and the retreated glacier and reached our campsite at Williwaw Campsite set in the woods with excellent walks.
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| Williwaw Campsite, Portage |
Met Keith and Barbara from Anchorage and had a great chat. Really nice people.
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| View from the campsite |
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| Moose Pass Walking Trail |
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| Moose Pass, Portage |
The weather continues to improve and this morning was clear and sunny and warming up. Went to see Keith and Barbara before we visited the Portage Lake Visitors centre. The glacier has receded so far that it no longer can be seen from the centre. It has left a deep and lifeless lake. The cafe nearby provided us with the best latte I had in Alaska, it also did a very nice Corn Cake served with whipped butter. Very tasty!
Pushed on down the Seward Highway towards Seward. The views again we stunning and with the warming weather the rivers were beginning to show their true selves as they began to fill. By the end of our trip they were in full spate and were spectacular.
Our next site for two nights was Renfro's Lakeside Retreat, again another really nice and well presented site. The chap running it was very pleasant and the site was on the banks of Kenai Lake which presented us with great views.
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| Kenai Lake, Renfro's Lakeside Retreat |
Saturday14th June
Went down to Seward this morning. A one horse town where the horse is dead! Unless you are taking a boat trip then little else to see or do. As we were cruising for a week we skipped the trips, did a bit of shopping, tanked up the RV and headed back.
Called in at Exit Glacier on the way back to the campsite. It was very busy and the visitors centre was closed. A product of Musk's cut back? Visited a Salmon monitoring station to watch Sockeye Salmon jumping the weir. Here they are trapped, weighed and sexed to monitor the health of the salmon population.
Stopped at the Vagt Trailhead to do a nice, easy walk but sadly no bears.
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| Bear damage to bin |
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| Exit Glacier, Seward |
Sunday 15th June
Headed back north and along the Sterling Highway west to Soldontna and then Kenai eventually to arrive at Homer. Soldontna and Kenai were disappointing, even the cultural centre was closed! Passed miles of dead trees that had been infected by a beetle. We also saw our first Moose of the trip but no bears
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| Road to Soldotna |
As we headed down towards Homer we caught glimpses of the Cook Inlet and the Aleutian Mountain range on the far side. We also passed the Albatross RV site for which we had a booking in a couple of day.
I had been told by a lady at Lake Louise to skip Homer and go to Deep Creek instead as the gathering of Bald Eagles was supposed to be spectacular. We decided to cut out one of our nights in Homer and stopped at Deep Creek for the night. It was a large site and there was only one other RV on the whole site, so we selected a prime position that gave us amazing views over Cook Inlet and settled down to watch numerous Bald Eagles loafing around along the beach and in the nearby trees. The views of the Aleutian Mountain were amazing and were even better in the morning with clear, bright blue skies.
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| View across Cook Inlet from Deep Creek |
Monday 16th June
Clear blue skies and a beautiful view. A walk along the beach watching Surf Scoter, Great Northern Diver and Bald Eagles.
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| Bald Eagle, Deep Creek |
A pair of Semipalmated Plover were flitting around and I was able to get some good shots.
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| Semipalmated Plover, Deep Creek |
As we were getting ready to leave we were approached by the Camp Host (?) who told us off for parking sideways on to the beach as we were taking up too much room! Only one other RV on a site for over 90! A case of little man syndrome I think.
As we got to the outskirts of Homer we began to see why, on two separate occasions, had we been advised to skip Homer. The Spilt and its famous buildings on stilts were crammed with RV parks that had the look of municipal car parks with no privacy between vans. A sinking feeling struck us! We had book for two nights on one of these sites and after the ones we had stayed on so far we were not impressed.
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We had a lunch in a fast food cafe which was quite nice and then went to explore Homer. After a short while we realised that this was not for us! We were mountain lovers and crowds of shoppers was not for us.
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| Homer Spit |
We decided to head back towards Anchorage and regroup as we still had a number of days to go. We had a night booked at Kenai but having seen the site on the way down we were not impressed and decided to skip it.
We did stop at the Russian Orthodox Church at Ninilchik which was very interesting but once again we felt that the books over sold the area.
We decided to head back to Portage and return to Williwaw, a site and location we really enjoyed visiting. We hadn't booked but took the chance that there would be a space and were lucky to find a nice quiet site and booked in for two days.
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| Food locker |
On the way we spotted two Moose and Debbie spotted a Moose and calf. However no bears!
Tuesday 17th June
Slow start to the morning after rain during the night. Walked to the Portage Visitors Centre and didn't see a soul on the way. Arrived to find it closed. Musk strikes again? Had lunch in the really nice cafe nearby and enjoyed a very nice vegetarian chilli. Chatted to the lady who ran the place and she encouraged us to walk up to the Bryon Glacier.
It was a nice gentle walk and the views of the glacier were really good. Returned to the cafe for another excellent latte and choc-chip cookies.
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| Bryon Glacier, Portage, Alaska |
Did a bit of birdwatching on the way back and found a Wandering Tattler by one of the pools.
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| Wandering Tattler |
That night we indulged in another game of what we now call Table Scrabble.
Wednesday 18th June
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| Chickaloon Bay, Cook Inlet, Alaska |
Sadly we departed Williwaw, a great site and good walking and we decided to use our newly liberated days to head to the Denali State Park; not as popular as the Denali park but the scenery was supposed to be as good with great views of Mount Denali.
Needing a campsite with full hook up I booked us for our last two travelling nights at the Riverside RV at Houstan. Another mistake! Arrived to a poorly run, scruffy site with music blaring out from an RV full of kids. We dumped the black and grey water, filled up the water tanks, had a close inspection of the facilities (only 1 toilet taken from an infant school and a dirty shower) and decided to get out of the place quickly.
We pushed on up the George Parks Highway towards Talkeetna until we arrived at the state site of Montana Creek. On the way we stopped at Thunder Bird Falls and walked up to see them.
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| Thunder Bird Falls |
The Montana Creek campsite was by the river so that evening we were definitely using our mosquito cream.
Thursday 19th June
Up early and off to Little Coal Creek for a walk that was to give us excellent views of Denali Mountain. The run to the trailhead took us an hour but the views made it all worthwhile.
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| Little Coal Creek Trail |
The walk was the best we had done in the two weeks. It climbed slowly through the forest until we left the tree line and were rewarded with spectacular views of Denali and the surrounding mountains. The melting snow made part of the path difficult so we had lunch looking at the amazing views and then headed back down.
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| Mount Denali from Little Coal Creek Trail |
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| Lunch looking out at Mount Denali |
Headed further up the Highway towards Cantwell and on the way spotted a young moose that looked like he had had a few fights! On the way back I had a brief glimpse of a Black Bear walking down on of the side roads. By the time we had turned around we caught the briefest of glimpses of it disappearing into the woods.
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| Moose crossing! |
We decided to get a meal at a restaurant we had seen earlier. On arriving we had the strangest discussion with the owner. He looked like something out of the X files. The place was gloomy and smelt of damp. He explained that he wasn't providing food as the cook wasn't in. We were quite thankful and got out quick!
We returned to Montana Creek for our final night there.
Friday 20th June
We had booked to stop at the KOA site at Palmer so we could sort out the van before returning it tomorrow to Anchorage. Heading that way we took a detour to Talkeetna which was a bit of a tourist hot-spot with lots of souvenir shops, coffee shops and restaurants.
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| Talkeetna, Alaska |
We decided to visit the mining museum at Hatcher Pass so set the satnav for it. At Willow we took a left and headed off down a narrow country road. As the miles went by the road became narrower and rougher. However it ran through spectacular countryside with a raging river along which people were camping.
As the road climbed the mountains became more snow covered and wild. Pouring over the map (not the best) it became apparent that the satnav was taking us via the most rural of roads.
We pressed on until we reached the end of the road as it had been closed due to snow! We had driven up the less accessible side of Hatcher Pass in an RV!
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| Heading up Hatcher Pass |
Returning the way we came we stopped for lunch and enjoyed the amazing views and then pushed on to Palmer and our last night in the RV
Saturday 21st June
Dropped the RV off without any problems and managed to get into our hotel early so we could rearrange cases for the cruise down to Vancouver. Had lunch at a Big Paw Restaurant. Debbie had a massive pizza and I had meat loaf with mashed potatoes and very nice it was too.
Sunday 22nd June
We had arranged to be picked up and taken to Whittier for the start of the cruise. The coach made a number of stops, one being at the Alaska Wildlife park which was incredibly expensive and an unscheduled stop at the visits centre at Portage. This led to the strange sight of an english couple quickly disappearing to the little cafe and souvenir shop we had frequented on a number of occasions in order to buy more of the wooden badges I had been collecting.
We were dropped of at the cruise liner but went for a quick walk around Whittier before boarding. Being Whittier it didn't take long to look round and see we embarked for our cruise down the Inner Passage and to Vancouver for our return home.
Online Photo Album of the trip
