Raining Porcupine and Reindeer

On our way to Seward we stopped at the Alaskan Animal Wildlife Sanctuary.  These were all animals that had been rescued, orphaned or animals that were taken from horrible humans.  We had a guide that taught us all about the animals and their history.  We got to feed the deer and the porcupines.  We saw  black bears, a grizzly bear, caribou, reindeer, fox, lynx, bald eagle, musk ox, baby black bear, baby moose, bison, elk and an owl.  We had rainy weather that day but it stopped long enough for us to not get soaked.

The other pictures are from our Wildlife Marine Boat Tour when we were in Seward.  It was raining the entire time.  As we got closer to Aialik Glacier it also got very cold...not really a big surprise.  It was very choppy water.  Fortunately for us we did not get seasick, but many people on the boat would just stumble out the back (where we happened to be sitting) looking pretty green and lose it.  In true Klancic/Hind form, Hannah and I had a bit of a laughing fit while watching people.  After our three rainy days in Seward, we do know that if we had to stay cooped up with 3 adults and a dog for very long it would be highly unlikely that all would survive.  Lilly was the least annoying of all.

We are headed to Denali National Park for 4 nights.  In the middle of all this Hannah had to get a physical and lab work done in Anchorage for her new job in San Diego.


Kit Kat the 3 legged porcupine (break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar... animal sanctuary dark humor)

 Our new deer friend, Solo.

 Musk Ox

 Check out the gigantic "rack" on this reindeer.

Had to have a Blood Mary to wash down the dramamine!

This is the view of the harbor on Resurrection Bay

 Our site, with the fog covering the mountains behind us.  Resurrection Bay was directly in front of us.

Aialik Glacier

Got A Little Tipsy

We have crossed the border and are finally in Alaska.  I joined a Facebook group for people that are traveling in Alaska.  Lots of really good information about where to stay and eat.  As we were driving along the Alcan Highway, multiple people had commented on this bakery/crepe restaurant on this pretty deserted highway.  After passing it we decided baked goods were worth turning around.  This is where the problem started.  With the tow car on we cannot back up so we have to be careful about where we attempt to turn.  We started to make our turn and began sliding down the shoulder which was very steep.  We were all screaming and trying to shift our weight to keep the RV from tipping.  Chris frantically hit the gas and got us back on the road, crisis averted and no baked goods were secured.  Our first campsite in Alaska is by far my favorite so far.  We camped at the base of an 80 foot waterfall.  We stayed two nights.  This was a very non-touristy area.  We were able to experience local methods for salmon fishing.  Dip netting and the salmon wheel are two ways the local Alaskans fish.  One of the fisherman filleted a large freshly caught red salmon, bagged it up and handed it over saying "enjoy our beautiful state".  We spent that day and evening with some new friends, Lisa and Jeff, from California.  We all came back to our site and cooked up the salmon and had a great dinner by the falls.  We are in route to Seward today.  It has been great having Hannah with us.  Our biggest challenge is sleeping arrangements.  The mattress on the drop down bed has been deemed unusable by all three of us.  We rotate who sleeps on the couch, which has sometimes left a grump among us in the morning.

Lake Luane, our last photo op in the Yukon Territory Canada before we entered Alaska

 Stepping over the International Boundary line from Canada into Alaska.

 Our campsite is just to the left of the rock I am on!

 View from up above the falls.  Bad decision on this hike.  Had to crawl up and down the side.  One slightly bloody hand was the only injury.

12 Bear Day

On Sunday morning we hit the local pub to watch the World Cup finals.  We hooked up the car in downtown Jasper and planned to spend three days cranking out some big mileage.  Our first day wasn't out best.  We lost our credit card at the bar, got 4 chips in the windshield from oncoming trucks, the tow car battery died and had a little encounter with the nasty people running the Walmart in Dawson Creek.  We drove an hour north of Dawson Creek and stayed at very nice Provincial Park for the night.  Long days of driving for us are around 9-10 hours.  We are slower than a car because the mountains really slow us down and we have to stop every 2.5 hours to start the tow car.  We stayed night two in an overflow lot at the Laird Creek Hot Springs.  Things improved significantly when we went to the natural springs.  We went in the evening after getting set up and I went back in the morning before we left.  It was beautiful and so relaxing. During our first two legs there were signs everywhere for bison, deer, caribou and moose.  We were very excited but only saw one moose.  Our last leg was completely different.  We saw 12 bears.  I absolutely love seeing the wildlife.  We didn't get pictures of all of them but I've included a few.  We also saw a number of bison.  One was actually running down the road toward us, check out the video (my IT consultant Elena has to post these for me).  We are now in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory and only 300 miles from the Alaskan border.  We have covered over 8,000 miles since we left Illinois on March 23...that is a lot!  We are still happily married!  Lilly still does not like to ride in the RV.  Cheese and Xanax helps but if she could talk...

Banff, Lake Louise & Jasper...Add It To Your Bucketlist

Our third crazy chicken Hannah has hooked up with us to travel.  We left Calgary and spent a few days in Banff and a few days in Jasper with a day trip to Lake Louise.  We have hiked a lot of miles over the last 5 days.  These are the prettiest places we have seen so far!  Tomorrow we will watch World Cup at the local pub and then head directly from there towards Dawson Creek.  We have some long days of driving ahead of us.

 Shopping in Banff

 Big Horn sheep we encountered on our ride up to Sunshine Meadows in Banff

 Took chairlift  and then hiked to get to this viewing station in Sunshine Meadows.

 The next few pictures are at Lake Louise outside of Banff.  The pictures don't even do it justice for how beautiful it is.

 The next few pictures are from Jasper National Park and one from in the town of Jasper.