Homer #2

Today the weather cleared a bit so we went for a drive, visibility was better, not perfect. The wind has been quite strong so we are hoping that the smoke will blow out.

Views around Homer

On a Drive to Kenai

Back to Homer and the Rag-Tag Band, with Dog

The new camera can take panoramas!!!!

6/30

More smoke, another day in the MH. We did think about going to the Visitor Center but for some reason we are not enthuse about Visitor Centers this trip. 

Here are pictures of the area from our previous trip

Homer #1

We did a small drive today down Homer Spit, this is a narrow, man-made piece of land that has numerous small stores and restaurants, well spread out, all on piers. There are numerous free and pay campgrounds on the spit. 
 

We read that the tidal bore here is 33’, higher than the Bay of Fundy but not as impressive. This bay is very flat so you don’t notice the bore. In Fundy, the bay is very narrow and the bor it totally impressive. 

Our First Eagle

Camping on the Beach

A Small set of Restaurants and Stores

End of Homer Spit, from here you can go to the Pacific Ocean

A Brief Clearing from the Smoke

 

We did some food shopping, stopped at the post office to pick the first of many packages (a new camera). 
 

The smoke from the fire was not good today so we spent the day in the MH. I spent a lot of time trying to learn my new camera, each camera has new bells and whistles and takes a lot of assimilation time.

Tonight the Elks Club had Burger night so we went over for a few hours, had a good time with good food and lots of chatting.

Wasilla and Kenai Peninsula

We are now in Wasilla for a few days, plan to go to the Reindeer Farm and the Musk Ox Farm.

We made it to the Reindeer Farm but then noticed that the one front tire on the MH was wearing funny. Called around looking to get an alignment, being a MH we needed bigger equipment. The one alignment shop couldn’t get us in for 2-3 weeks, not happy so I kept calling. Finally found an alignment shop that could get us in the next day. He also had time to do an oil change and look at a tire that has always leaked a bit, not much. 

A Friendly Moose

Reindeer Hoof

Reindeer are very friendly when you are feeding them

Friendly Bison

Beautiful location

Cute rabbit, had the softest fur

 

Musk Ox, so sad looking

On Wednesday we drove from Wasilla to Anchorage for our appointment. We spoke to him about what we wanted one and he told us to come back after lunch. I did remember to tell him that the cats were in the MH and might serenade the garage, he had a good laugh.

Came back after lunch and everything was finished. He added extra air to the front tires so that we road more on the middle of the tread(essentially over-inflated for the weight) so we could get back to the lower 48 with no problems. Also found that the tire that had been leaking a little had a bad valve stem so he replaced that. MH is good to go for the rest of the trip.

The place we went to is a chain we had never heard of. I looked them up and there are 3 in Phoenix. We will try them for service next time. Always looking for a good place.

Once done with the alignment we pulled into a campground for the night before we head for Homer. A bit ahead of schedule but Homer is a nice place to stop for a while and we were having mail and packages delivered there. 
 

This became an interesting trip. There is a forest fire on the peninsula where Homer is located. Homer is at the bottom of the peninsula and the fire was approaching the lone road on the peninsula. The road was open with a pilot car but warnings were out for 2-3 hour delays.

This didn’t phase us at all. Everything worked out fine, we pulled up to the line of cars behind the pilot and only had to wait about 10 minutes before we followed along. Actually, this was the easy part of the drive. The next cause of concern was about 10 miles of construction that had a drop of about 4 inches on the side of the road, no shoulder. That was a bit more challenging. With the fire, all construction has stopped so that helped a bit. 

The smoke made things very eerie

 

Finally made it to Homer and a bit disappointed, the wind had changed and smoke was around Homer. This is supposed to clear up by Sunday so we are hoping the weatherman is correct. We need to wait for the packages and mail. It is also 4^th of July weekend coming up. Getting things done around the MH, just like a house. 

Here are pictures from our previous trip to the Kenai Peninsula so you can see how beautiful it is.

 

Plane Flight Around Denali

This is our big day. We are taking a flight around Denali with K2 Aviation. They seemed to have the best flight for the money. According to their website, 2 circles are made of Denali plus we fly around the valleys and see glaciers. Other companies flights are not so extensive. Hope we make a good choice.

Denali is in the clear again today. I really think the best views of Denali are at the Denali South and North Viewpoints. You can camp at both. 
 

We arrived at the airfield and checked in. We took off around 12:45 and flew for 1.5 hours. Viewing everything from the air is so different, makes you feel so tiny compared to all the mountains and glaciers. Some of the glaciers are said to be a mile thick.

We also learned that the climbing season I almost over. It is a short climbing season, early April to mid-July. The snow is very soft right now with the warmer temperatures so everyone is climbing from 11 PM to 5 AM. Remember it is daylight all day now.

Our pilot was great, he kept up a running dialog. He had been a mountain climber so we heard a different perspective. The plane is heated but not pressurized. We all had to wear oxygen masks starting at 15,000 feet. We flew up to 23,000 feet. Everyone had a window seat and the pilot made a lot of dips and turns so everyone could see. 

Here are some stillf from the fight and I will send you under a seperate email 2 videos we took. I couldn't create the videos without music, themusic selection was horrible, turn off your volume. 

This is a glacier slowly moving down the mountain

Day 6 in Denali-Time to say goodbye

Today was our last day in Denali. I had tried to get another day but couldn’t. Weekends are tough, it is much easier to get reservations during the week.

We hitched up and left. Once out from under the trees we realized we had a cloudless day. Optimism abounds. Our optimism was well founded, the day remained clear and we saw Denali almost the entire trip. W have a view of Denali from our MH in our campsite.

What makes Denali so impressive is its height. The rest of the Alaskan Range is up to 10,000 feet. Then comes Denali, at 21,000 feet or so. Sticks out like a sore thumb. The other reason is that Alaska is not very high in altitude. Where most of these pictures were taken we were at 1,000 feet or so. You see 20,000 feet of mountain.

We have plans to take a plane ride around Denali in 2 days. The weather is clear today and we hope this continues. We camped for the night at the Denali North Viewpoint and had a clear view of Denali. Such a striking mountain.

Could it be Denali???

Yes!!!

View from our campsite

Denali

Day 5 in Denali

This was a rest day. Did laundry and the sky looked good so we did our daily trip to Savage River in high hopes of seeing Denali. We keep hoping, that is all we have.

Came home and did a light cleaning of the MH.

Day 4 in Denali-Eielson Bus Trip

Today was our scheduled bus trip into Denali. Denali has totally limited access. The paved part of the road goes the Savage River and stops. At that point access is restricted to permitted vehicles and the park busses.
 

There are numerous shuttle buses going this way and that. For a tour of the park, you can either take a shuttle, a transit bus or a narrated tour. All are school buses but they weren’t bad at all.

We took off at 8 AM. Everything we needed for a day in the park. Cameras, lunch, drinks, snacks, sun glasses, hand sanitizer etc. etc. The bus did have an overhead rack for all the packs.

The neat part about the buses is that once you pay for a bus you can get on/off any time you want and hop any other bus(except the narrated tours) that comes along. You are limited as to how far you can go into the park by your initial bus ticket.

Our ticket took us to Eielson Visitor Center, right across from Denali. 4 hours one way. The driver drives, everyone on the bus is in charge of when we stop.

If you see something or want to get off just yell “STOP” and the bus stops. The bus also stops/slows for all sorts of other things: animals, other buses, hikers, bikers etc.

The entire bus ride is on a dirt road, in good shape though. For many miles, the road is essentially a 1-way road and the buses an only pass each other at the wider spots. Our driver was extremely careful on this part of the road.

We had breaks every 1.5 hours or so. Felt good to stretch our legs, have a drink etc.

We finally arrived at Eielson, if Denali had been clear you felt like you could reach out and touch it. We did see the bottom half.

Those 2 white dots are Doll Sheep

Animals: squirrels, Snowshoe Hares, Moose, Pica, Juvenile Ravens, Golden Eagles, Caribou, Golden Grizzly, Doll Sheep. A good day for animals. Some were pretty far away so they are just spots.

2 Magpie chasing a Hawk

Someone on the bus had one of those electronic zoom cameras, wow, totally impressive in how far they can zoom in. There is image stabilization so the pictures are crisp. We were so impressed we decided to get one for the rest of the trip. The camera he had went to 840MM, the latest model goes to almost 1400MM, we will be able to see eyeballs at a distance.

Our current good camera is 10 years old an has served us well. Tom will start using that camera and I will use the new camera with all its bells and whistles. The new camera, a Canon SX70, also does video. This is a handy feature which we have on our good camera now. I hope to use it for whales, eagles and whatever else we see. I am not great with video since I need to use a screen instead of the eye piece. Not sure what other bells and whistles the new camera has but the camera should be waiting for us when we get to Homer in 10 days or so.