2013 - Alaska or bust!

We spent Thursday through Sunday in Haines which is a really neat place. We are very glad that we detoured to go down there.


This is looking down Main Street. Our campground is just to the left of this restaurant.

Our campground was 20 very tight spots that overlooked the Bay. The vista was absolutely beautiful so we were able to overlook the tightness. We set up our screen room and put the sides and back down so our view was out the front and we had our privacy.






The first night there the campground had their last crab feast for the season. We were so delighted that we were able to participate. It started at the dock. The crabs were alive and you had to crack them open and clean them and then the owner cooked them. I couldn't do the kill--didn't have it in me. We met the cutest little family there with two girls--10 and 12. The two girls were so delightful to be around. The little one talked with her eyes--we got such a kick out of her because she told it like it was. She reminded us a lot of our granddaughter, Haydan. We just happened to follow the girls and their Dad down the ramp and he was moving really slow and he told us to go ahead. We told him we weren't in a hurry so started talking to him. He had had a knee replacement two and a half years ago after an avalanche accident--he was an Alaskan State Trooper and was doing a search and rescue when the accident happened, Something went wrong with the replacement and they can't figure it out. He is in a lot of pain and his leg is really swollen. We felt really bad for him because he can't do the things he loves, flying, hiking, etc.
It ended up that we were in the same campground in Skagway too so I think they adopted us or we adopted them--I am not sure.



Haines was a cute little town. It did amaze me that things closed very early there being that they have such a short season. We walked up to get ice cream after dinner and everything was closed. We did our usual end of the road trips. We found a cannery where we bought sockeye and silver salmon and halibut. We ate really good there. The seafood has been awesome and we have been spoiled. We love looking at all the cabins and houses--many of them are beautiful log cabins. There was a cow moose that walked in front of our car driving to the cannery. I had the camera and got so excited that when I thought I was taking the picture I actually shut the camera down. Fortunately, she wanted to pose for us so she kept going back and forth across the road looking at us so Mike was able to get a good shot.


The other end of the road led in the Chilkoot State Park where there was a weir and a beautiful lake. We had been told that there were bears out there so every night we made the trip. The first time we saw them it was so crowded we couldn't get out of the car to see them but the next night we were earlier and we had a ring side seat. The weir is where the man sits to count the fish going upstrream. They have a fence across the river with a hole in it where the fish swim through allowing them to count as they swim through. Seemed like a pretty boring job to me with the exception of watching your back all the time for the big old grizzly. The bear are not stupid so they hang around the weir and catch the fish before they go through the fence. We saw a momma bear and her cub.





If you look closely, you can see the man counting fish and the bear counting man!




The last night there we discovered that the White Fang movie had been filmed there so we went up to see where the set was built. It is a cute little street with stores along the way. There was a pizza restaurant there and a brewery. Again, the brewery closed at six o'clock so we only had a tiny glass of Spruce Tip Beer--it was very good. The pizza looked yummy but we had salmon back at the campground to cook so we decided we should eat our fresh fish.



One of the other couples that we became friends with at the campground came down and told us they had just seen another camper like ours. We had only seen two tear drops so far. Once we got hooked up to go to the Ferry we ran through town to get our last Cinnamon Roll at the Bakery and there we saw not only another Camp Inn but the same exact model of ours. We waited around to see if the owners came back but it was getting close to Ferry time so we went on to the Ferry. A few minutes after we checked in the other Camp Inn arrived so we got to meet them and spend some time with them. They were from Michigan and their was about six months older than ours. What a coincidence--two Raindrops in the small town of Haines.



We are off to Skagway next.

 

Hi Mike & Carol! Terry and I can't tell you enough how much we are enjoying your excellent stories and pictures of your Alaskan Adventure! You certainly have a talent for retelling your experiences! I love to eat crab too, but don't think I could have brought about their demise to do so either. A future trip to Alaska with our teardrop is one of our dream trips. Reading your tales makes us all that more excited and anxious to embark on our own Alaskan Adventure! Wishing you continued safe travels. Take care - Julie

 

You must go to Alaska and the Camp Inn is the perfect camper for the trip. We have had a great time. Both of us feel that the trip has way exceeded our expectations. We thought this would be a once in a lifetime but we both are talking about going back. It was wonderful.

We are on our way home now. Once we started home we became anxious to get there but we have two appointments in Minnesota and Wisconsin that is slowing us down. I have an appointment at Mayo on the 29th and then we head to Camp Inn so they can check the camper over.

We are sad that we are going to miss the Camp Inn Camp Out this year.

Carol

 

This will be our last post in the 2013 - Alaska or Bust Topic. It's been a wonderful journey but now it's time to get home. We actually spent 54 days in Alaska itself! And we still feel like we only scratched the surface. Guess we'll have to do it again. The total trip will be just short of 4 months. After I have time, I'll post "things we learned" as well as a recap of gas costs, mileage, expenses like ferries , meals, groceries, etc. This might help some who plans to do this in the future.

Moved over to Skagway on Sunday by Ferry. We got in to Skagway the middle of the day so we set up camp and then headed downtown. Our campground was about a half mile from town so we could walk down there. Sunday there was only one ship in so very few people around. Skagway was another cute town--very touristy but there were a lot of fun things to do there.


View down main street walking from our campground.

Our new friends that we met in Haines ended up in the same campground. They had come over on the Ferry on Saturday so they were a day ahead of us. We all had tickets for the Steam Engine on Monday morning early so we agreed to meet for that. Then they invited us to join them for a hike and rafting trip in the afternoon and dinner at night. We had a delightful time. The Steam Engine trip up the White Pass and Yukon was wonderful. Mike was in his glory.

Here you can still see some of the White Pass trail from the train.

Here's a cool picture of the steam train shadow down in the gorge. We arranged our schedule we could do the steam trip. It only runs 2 times a week.

Here we are after the ride.



We came back from the train ride and had lunch and then met up with the Bensons for our hike up the Chilkott Trail. This is the trail that the gold rushers took back in 1898. We only hiked up the trail about two miles but it was a pretty rugged hike for us. Lots of climbing--we wouldn't have been able to do it the beginning of the trip but we have done a lot of walking and are in better shape now. We took a raft trip down the river and saw a lot of Eagles.


Carol trucking up the trail


The Bensons invited us over for tamales so we had a very enjoyable evening with them. We will miss them. Their daughters were a lot of fun. We decided to stay another night because there were still some things that we wanted to do that we hadn't had a chance to do.

The next day we got up and went downtown to the museums. Learned all about the Gold Rush. Went to the National Park Service and took a walking tour of the town. We found the Moore Homestead.




The Moore Homestead. William Moore was the original homesteader in Skagway but his land was overrun by the gold stampeders. Eventually he reacquired most of what he lost and this is his original cabin just as it was seen by the first boatload of stampeders.

In the evening we had tickets to the Show of '98. The first hour they gave you fake money and they had a casino set up. It was fun. The girl at the roulette table asked everyone where they were from. When we told her the Villages, she literally attacked us and broke out singing the villages song. She kept saying I love the Villages. She said she went there with a grandson on someone in the Villages named Vinnie. Ends up after talking a little bit it is Vinnie who works at Havana CC where Mike worked before he took this latest "retirement". Small world. The show was great and we had a lot of fun.




The girl on the left is the girl from Orlando--her name is Delaney Arizala



This was on our way out of town and Mike wanted a picture of the teardrop in front of the old Brothel Saloon.


Wednesday we left Skagway and Alaska. It was a sad day--we had so much fun in Alaska--54 days.



Bye Bye Alaska!!!


PS It is Thursday, August 22 and we are in Sashatoon, Canada. We are still about 5 days to the border. The trip has been great but we are not sightseeing anymore. We are headed home. We should have cell service again on Monday.

 

Mike & Carol thank you for sharing your Alaska adventure and summer with us we had a lot of fun.

 

Here is a recap of our trip through Alaska that might be helpful to any teardrop camper planning this trip. In a subsequent posting, I'll review the costs we incurred. I'm still adding them up!

I will start off by saying that everyone has a different expectation about their trips. Some people are into the history, some into people, some into wildlife and some like ourselves just wanted to see as much as we could because we figure we will never get back to Alaska.

One of the campgrounds told us about the Alaska Tour Saver Book. It cost a $100 but it saved us a lot of money on tours and some campgrounds. Go to www.toursaver.com and you can see what you can save on. We saved about $1000 on different tours, attractions and campgrounds. Also, don't go without getting the Milepost. This book was worth every cent we paid for it. Tells you when to look for different types of animals, where to eat, what to see, what you should be looking for where you are. Great book!! Our's was dog eared and the cover missing by the time we got home.

Here are some notes we made as we went along in case you decide to do the Inside Passage:

Ketchikan was a great place--we were there for four days and I would say that was about right. If you go, don't miss going to Herring Creek to see the Bears, Salmon Fishing and Eagles. Settlers Cove is a beautiful spot--they have a campground but it does not have full hookups. They also have nice hiking trails there. If you want to optimize your wildlife viewing, make sure you time your visit to the various Salmon runs. It seems like July is the best month, especially in the Kenai.

Downtown--go to Creekside and walk around, take the Funiclular up to the lodge and walk to the Fish Hatchery. The Interpretive Center was also worth going to. Don't miss Totem Bight for the totem poles.

The locals recommended eating at Bar Harbor--we did not because they were closed the two days that we had contemplated eating out. You'll find a lot of signs on small business' that say "Closed, Gone Fishing"! This included one doctors office we saw.

Wrangell--if at all possible, if you take the Inside Passage--make sure you are here after July 4. The best thing here is the trip to the AnAn Observatory to see the Bears. (Mike put a link to the AnAn Bear Observatory in the Photo Gallery post). We missed it by a week because we were driven by my eye injections. We took a tour of the Stikine River which was very interesting. In Wrangell we got to really see how rugged a life is for the Alaskans. Although the streets are paved, the buildings go back to the turn of the last century. A real Old West feel.

The campgrounds both in Ketchikan and Wrangell are not much. The one in Ketchikan the sites are really small and it is pretty junky looking but the only one in town. If you are up to dry camping Settlers Cove was beautiful. The one in Wrangell is 7 spots and we were the only ones there. Basically, a parking lot with no facilities. We did have electric, water and internet but no bathrooms. We had to go to the YMCA for showers and there were public bathrooms around. Not very convenient.

Petersburg has a lot of Norwegian architecture and history. We drove the logging trails here and there was a lot of beautiful scenery from these trails. Thought we would see wildlife but ony porcupines.

Sitka is full of Russian history. There was a lot to do here and we only had two days. Probably could have used another day here and less time in Wrangell. Key things would be the Raptor Rehabilitation Center, Fortress of the Bears, Church and the totem pole park as well as seeing the Russian Dancers. In Sitka we stayed at the Sportsmen's Club--nothing special.

We were in Juneau for seven days which worked out great. A lot to do here. Lots of museums--state, city and mine museums. Roberts Tramway and the fish hatcheries were great things to do. Don't miss the Mendenhall Glacier. Be sure to drive over to Douglas and drive to the end of the road. Some awesome views from over there. Glacier Gardens was beautiful. Great pizza and salad at the Hangar downtown Juneau. The campground in Juneau was really nice--Spruce Meadows. It was wooded and private and the restrooms were spotless.

Whittier we took the boat trip to see the Glaciers--it was a great trip but after talking to other campers a long the way I am thinking that the boat trip out of Seward might have been better. Something to consider.

In Seward I recommend the Sealife Museum. We stayed at a campground outside of town but there are some great campgrounds right downtown that if I had it to do over again i would stay there. Be sure to drive out to Lowell Point.

There is the Alaskan Wildlife Preserve between Seward and Anchorage which was definitely worth stopping at. Interesting stories about the trees around based on the earthquake and the animals were fun to see.

Anchorage I recommend taking the trolley tour around town and then go back to the areas that were of interest to you. We were fasicnated with the history of the earthquake so did a lot of things involved with that. There are a couple of really good museums in Anchorage and its interesting to see all the float planes.

We spent two nights in Coopers Landing at Kenai Riverside RV Park. It was okay but again parked right on top of each other. There are two things to do here--one is a raft trip down the Kenai River which was awesome and the five mile hike which I think was called Russian something or other. The campgrounds there could tell you where it is.

We loved Soldotna. We were there during salmon season and just found the fishing to be very fascinating. If you are going to be in the Kenai during the month of July, you definitely will need reservations. it was very crowded down there during that period. If you go during season, be sure to go to the river and watch them fish and don't miss going to Kenai City at Beluga Bay to watch then do their netting.

We then stopped at Ninilichik--unless you want to go out Halibut fishing I would skip this stop. You could see the Orthadox church and the little town as you drive through.

Homer was our favorite. We stayed at Oceanside which was right on the water. Loved the campground. It was fun going out on the spit, don't miss the Salty Dog and all the shops. Lots of restaurants out there too. Also the two museums there were both very good. If you like seafood, the Auction Cannery had wonderful fish that you could go and purchase. We went to Seldovia--I hesitate to comment on this because we weren't impressed but while we were on the ferry there were other people who raved about it so again its a personal view. Again, be sure to take the roads out of town. The views were outstanding from up on the mountain top. You might see the Kirchners from Alaska The Last Frontier fame.

From Homer we started our journey out of Alaska and back towards home. But many more adventures awaited us before we left this wonderful state.

We drove to Palmer which is just north of Anchorage. It was interesting as well. We stayed at Big Bear RV Park which was fine. Be sure to go up to the Independence Mine--very interesting. Pretty drive up there too. We saw it when schrouded in fog and you could sense the ghosts of the old miners as buildings appeared and disappeared in the fog.

Talkeetna was a great place--the town is fun to walk through, the Flagstop Train (Called the Hurricane Gulch--in the coupon book but you have to make the reservations a week ahead of time and it only runs Thursday to Sunday). It was very interesting and I recommend it for sure. The Lodge there is very beautiful so I recommend driving up there. Talkeetna is where we had the best view of Mt. McKinley.

We only spent two nights at Denali Park. We did take the 12 hour bus tour which we thoroughly enjoyed. Saw lots of wildlife, Mirror Lake and the Lodge at the end of the road.

Fairbanks was great. We stayed at Rivers Edge which was very nice. The Steamboat and the Gold Dredge were very interesting. Pioneer Village was also worth walking around--interesting to see all the old buildings.

The Campground in Haines was right on the water but the sites are really small. We stayed there because the owner has a crab feast every week and we wanted to partake in that. We loved Haines--beautiful scenery, seeing the bears in the park, the cannery, and the set where White Fang was filmed.

In Skagway we stayed at Pullen Park which was right downtown so we could walk to everything. We ended up staying longer than originally planned because there was a lot to do here. We rode the Steam Train, walked the Chilkoot Trail and rafted down the river, went to a play, visited the cemetery, took the parks tour. A great stop.

It was a fantastic trip. The teardrop worked great. Things we took that we did not need were: lanterns, comforter, side tent, canopy. Things we had that we would take again: Northern Breeze, rugs, a blanket and a light spread. We had small gear bags that we used for our linens, tools, tent parts, locks for the trailer. A big gear bag with antenna. mosquito torches and lanterns. We both had seven days of heavy clothes and seven days of light clothes. I kept the ones we were not using in duffle bags in the car. You need to take things that you can layer with. We had our fleece jackets, rain jacket, sweaters, sweatshirts and turtle necks and then shorts, capris, jeans. We also had sandals, sneakers, flip flops and hiking shoes. That worked fine for us.

Other things that were helpful were solar shield for the windows to help keep it dark at night, take your car wash that you use for car and trailer because we had to wash it several times along the way, take lots of quarters for laundry, showers and car washes, we had a package of fiber towels from the hardware store--used to wipe up condensation, wet feet, used to clean up car and camper. We had two plastic shoe boxes to keep our shoes by the door at night but actually ended up changing our shoes in the car and just wearing our flip flops to the camper.

Probably the key tip was staying organized and putting everything back where you got it so you could find it the next time. Actually worked fine. We only unloaded the car once and repacked and didn't find anything out of place. That's saying a lot for us.

We bought bear spray but after being there and talking to other campers I think I would get an air horn to use instead of the bear spray. Points that were made were that if the wind was blowing you would get the bear spray back in your face and the air horn supposedly scares them away. Since we didn't have to use it, not sure.

If you have any questions, just send us a note. We would be happy to share more details of our trip.

Happy Teardroping, Carol

 

Mike & Carol sounds like a great trip thanks for all the information.

 

Finally have had time to sit down and recap our expenses. I broke it out into two categories--just Alaska and the total trip.

Total miles driven 14,295 (AK not broken out)
MPG 18.5 with our Honda Pilot
Fuel in Alaska $1138 Total Fuel $3136
Campgrounds in Alaska $1893.62 Total trip $2701
Ferry was $3164
Entertainment $3381.28
Dining in Alaska $1935 Total trip $2778
Groceries in Alaska $2110 Total $3022

Hope this helps anyone who is planning a trip.

Also, we forgot to mention in our recap that we had Rock Tamers on our Honda which we felt really helped. We have a few dings on the side from where trucks passed us and threw them sideways but the front on the camper faired really well.

The other day I thought of some other tips but now can't remember what they were so as I think of things I will just post them. Old age is sometimes a problem.

 

Ken, we're happy to share. We stayed in private campgrounds most of the time so govt campgrounds would save some money ( but not the marriage since the "facilities" weren't as nice or were nonexistent). Also the Inside Passage was a big ticket item but I feel worth every penny. In hindsight we should have stayed longer in some places like Sitka but were driven by the ferry schedule.
As for more tips, I'll leave that to Carol. Her memory is better the mine but we'll put up new ones as we think of them.
Mike

 

Thanks for even more information.

 

Whew, good trip and those costs do add up and stay hidden... so if I'm reading this correctly it ran apx $14k + the ferry?? does that sound about right???
"Just a Wandering Mind that wanted to know"..hehhe mann, they do sneek up on you...
thanx

PS, i know I was amazed at the costs on my little 20 day outer... I now figure apx 2.5 tanks of gas per day, apx $80-100, and campsites at apx $35 (High side for a meal squeezed in there somewhere)... not cheap... heheh, but worth it...

 

That's about right. We spent a lot on tours that may be we didn't need to do but we figured this was a once in a lifetime deal. Food and dining out was a lot more than we expected even though we knew food was expensive up there. We didn't go to any elaborate places to eat--it just added up.

 

Agree.. once in a life-time trips, you don't want to come back sad that you didn't do something....it's worth the memory which in the end is about all we have...
fun...

 

Mike and Carol,

I agree the groceries might be a bit high, having shopped (at Fred Meyers )
during a month long visit to family in Anchorage. I didn't shop outside the city.
Considering most of the stuff is shipped in it didn't seem outrageous.
My bigger surprise was at the high quality of the food especially fresh produce and meats.

I strongly agree about the value of MEMORIES!

 

Jenn,

I feel bad that I neglected to mention that you and Meribeth gave us a lot of hints for packing up for our Alaska trip. We would never have survived with all those bins rather than the gear bags that you recommended. That gave us so much more room and we labeled all the bags so it was easy to find and pull out. Meribeth got us started with the Kitchen bin--that was the only bin we used. We kept all our kitchen gear in that so when we got someplace I just pulled that out and put it under the stainless steel table by the sink and it acted like another shelf. We kept our George Foreman Grill, Keurig coffee pot and all my collapsible bowls in there along with our dish towels.

Carol

 

We really enjoyed "watching" the progression of your trip. Thank you for taking the time to post so much of the information you acquired!!
Where will the next big trip be to?

 

Next big trip is to Rainbow Springs-haha.