Day 20- Willow Lake

July 1

I tried to get everyone up and moving a little earlier today.  Even still we didn't leave the camper until 10:30 or so.  Lots of drive through coffee shacks so we make a stop for something to drink.  

Our first stop was supposed to be the Alaska Steamers Railroad.  Unfortunately, I found out it was closed when I programmed Google Maps.  They are an all volunteer group so it makes sense they are only open on the weekends.

I had also planned to go to the Musk Ox Farm just outside of Palmer.  It was oxesome!  Our guide was Angelica and she was funny and informative.  I'm Sur ehe other guides are just as informative, but I would defiantly recommend asking to go on her tour if you go.  I was not sure what to expect.  We have an Alpaca farm near us so I thought maybe something similar to that.  You can't interact with the ox as they can be a little more aggressive than an Alpaca.  But you are lead along several pen's and you get to be up close to them.   I know way more about Musk Ox than I ever dreamed possible.  But we all had a great time.  If you ever find ourself in the area with an hour to kill this is defiantly the place to go.

After our tour we needed some lunch.  Palmer is the first normal city we have been in.  When I say normal, I mean not a tourist area and a place that has all the normal businesses.  Places like Target, Walmart, all the fast food, etc.

We decided on Canes.  After was a fast trip to Target for a couple things for the camper.  In the 4 years of owning a camper I've never used the stove until this trip.  I was tired of using a dish towel and wanted hot pads.  

After we took a trip to Wonderland Park.  There, we visited the Garden of Reflection.  I was created by our friend and her friend.  It was designed for parents that have lost a child.  It is beautiful and peaceful and while not a child, we did think of Jen as we walked around.  

The park is a very nice area.  In addition to the garden it has a Veteran's memorial, a very large playground structure, skatepark and BMX dirt track.  I was impressed.  Summer was excited for the playground.  Nearly every campground we have been to on this trip has not had play sets and that is something that she enjoy's.  If you're familiar with the playlet in the petting zoo at Blank Park Zoo it was very similar to that.  I think it's laid out nicer than the one at the zoo though and probably twice as big.

After we stopped at a Fred Myer's for a few things.  It's War-Mart lite, but classier.

One thing I have noticed on this trip is Northern Canada and Alaska love their pizza and Thai food.  Both are everywhere.  On the other hand I have not seen a single Mexican place until today.

On the fire front, I have not heard what has happened in Talkeetna, but late yesterday a fire started near the entrance of Denali National Park.  By late evening the park was closed and everyone evacuated.  There are many other fires in Alaska as well.  It's been a hot and dry summer so far.  We have been lucky so far that we have been just in front of them.

All things considered, I'm glad we left Talkeetna early so we had a full day to do the things we did today!

Day 19- Talketnna

June 30

 What an amazing day!

Today was our flightseeing tour to Denali and glacier landing.

The smoke from last night had cleared off and we woke to clear, sunny skies.  I'm not sure if anyone slept well as it was humid and smokey when we went to bed.  Luckily everyone got up and moving without too much trouble.  We tried to stop at a little cafe called the Flying Squirrel.  They were very slow and before I even got to order anything I got a call asking if we were still flying today as we were supposed to check in 15 minutes prior.  I did remember reading that we were supposed to be there 30 minutes early but for some reason I had 15 minutes locked in my brain.  Luckily we were only a half mile away so we left and got down there.

They use DeHavlen Otter's for planes.  They are a smaller model to the one's I have flown in for the fly-in fishing trips I've been on.  A lot nicer as well.  We had our safety brief, got strapped in and we were off.

  

The flight out was a little over an hour.  Denali is just over 20,000 ft high but we didn't go over 11,000 feet.  It was pretty cool flying between all the mountains.  People do climb Denali and we flew over the basecamp.  It really wasn't visible.   About a 1000 people climb each year and we are getting towards the end of the season so there are only about 30 people still left on the mountain.  

We flew over the glacier flow.  It's roughly 3 miles wide.  From a distance, if you didn't know it was a glacier it would look very similar to a very dirty river.  As the glacier moves its grinding up the rock below it and rises to the surface.  He said if you were to scoop some of that dirt up in your hand it would be as fine as powder.  This is why the glacier fed rivers in the area are so dirty.  That's pretty impressive that ice has the power to crush and grind solid rock so fine.  He told us that the glacier moves several inches every day.  Another fun fact is that there has only been one time that the depth of the ice has been measured.  That was in the 1970's and was over 3000 feet deep.  I didn't quite hear properly, but I think he said that if all the water in the glacier melted, it would overflow the Grand Canyon.

Before too long we were circling the landing area.  It was near the beginning of the glacier.  It was a relatively smooth landing.  Think driving down a gravel road.  

I am not even close to being a good enough writer to properly do justice of the shear beauty and amazement of stepping out of a plane onto a glacier.  You will just have to look at the photo's.  

There was a plane that had landed just before us.  It was full of basic white woman doing a thousand poses and selfies.  If there was a Starbucks in town I'm sure they would all be holding a cup.  The whole experience was totally wasted on them.

The snow was pretty firm and crusty.  I'm guessing it softens during the warmth of the day and then refreezes at night.  Libby and Summer tried to make snow angels but it was too firm.  Everyone had a great time throwing snowballs at each other.  

After about 20 minutes we loaded back up and were in the air.  About a half hour later we were back at the airport.

I have really been looking forward to this experience from the time I first started planning this trip.  It was the first activity I booked.  It was even more special having perfect weather.  They say only about 30% of visitors get to see Denali unobstructed and we were lucky enough to be one of those. 

Since we missed breakfast we were all starving.  Beverage and snack service on the plane was severely lacking.  We ate at a place called Homestead Kitchen.  I had the corn fritter pancakes with burch syrup.  Libby and Summer, both regular pancakes with a side of eggs and Davan had the regular egg, bacon, toast.   It was really good.  

As we were flying back the owner of the campground sent me a text saying that the fire in the area was still going and that they had labeled the area across the road as to be ready to evacuate and that our area was just on a watch.   She offered a refund for the night if we wanted to head out.  After talking to a few people there wasn't really much else to see in Talkeetna other than maybe some hiking.  As much as the campground was really nice as well as the surrounding area we decided it would probably be a better idea to take her offer and move south.   

The place we had planned to move to tomorrow is on a family's property, think AirBNB for camping.  He was open tonight so instead of trying to find a place that might have a single night we decided to just come here early.  It's a nice place.  Kinda backwoods but him and his family have only been doing this a year.  The property has a lot of potential and he's in the process of laying out water and electric.  

We did have a small issue with the electric.  I plugged in and immediately my EMS isolated the circuit.  It was displaying 240 volts.  He was also using this circuit for the dryer and forgot to change it back for RV service.  Luckily I have protection because 240 volts would have fried everything in the camper.  That would have been an expensive mistake for him and another huge set-back for us.  Luckily, since entering Alaska we have been having great luck.  Mechanical, weather and otherwise.  Not too excited to go back to Canada!

We just had some s'more's. Tomorrow we are going to drive to Wasilla and Palmer.  I've found some fun activity's I think the girls will enjoy.

I was able to upload cell phone video's.  I'll have to upload the GoPro video's when I get somewhere that has high speed internet.  As it is, it takes well over an hour to upload the photo's I'm posting.