TD2 2022 Adventure - Alaska or Bust! - Part 5 - Denali National Park

Hello again friends,

You have received this blog post because you were on our list from 2021, or we thought you might be interested.  If you wish to be removed from future posts, no worries, just let me know.

I'm sorry it's been so long between posts.  This happens sometimes -- limited cell service, too much driving, etc.  I'll try my best to get caught up without any more large gaps

So, if you remember back to our "cliffhanger" in Part 4, we had not seen Denali from the State Park lookouts, so we continued past Denali State Park, and even when we got to Denali National Park later that night, Denali mountain was still was not visible — hidden by clouds.  We were surprised that there was no where to show our America the Beautiful National Park pass, so we just drove as far as we could, which was until a Ranger stopped us about 15 miles into the park.  She said we could go no further in our vehicle, unless we had campground reservations (I had tried but they were all booked up), or had made bus reservations (we’re just not into that level of pre-planning).  

Denali wasn't visible the first day; still had some stunning views

On our drive back out we did find a nice place to take a short walk.  And then after leaving the park, we headed north hoping to find a pullout nearby where we could stay.  We had scoped one out on our drive up, but there was significant road contruction right before the park, and we didn’t want to have to go through it again.  BTW, a visitor center worker told me this joke about Alaska:  Do you know the four seasons of Alaska?  Early-Winter, Mid-Winter, Late-Winter, and Road Construction!  Seems true.

Anyhew, we did find a nice pullout to camp in (with a really cool hidden path that overlooks the Nenana river just north of Denali - not for anyone who has a fear of heights, believe me).  You’ll see some pictures and a movie from this amazing and frightening trail right along the cliffs looking toward Moody Bridge.  It really made the parking spot — I visited it before bed, and after waking again in the morning.  

Dramatic bridge and cliffs down to the river below

And the next day ... cliffhanger resolved ... the weather was clear and crisp, so we left early and went back into the park.  We checked in the visitor center how far we could drive before we would be stopped by a ranger and where we could park (only 2 RV spots).  And yes, it was the same spot we were stopped yesterday.  So we pulled in and were the first ones there, and grabbed one of the two RV spots.  Interestingly, as we were walking past the ranger, she told us they had “just decided” no more RV parking in that lot.  But I explained we were told we could park there at the Visitor Center.  She relented (and they probably got their act together the day after we left ;-)  I see online now, they state no RV parking in that lot!

So we walked about 5 1/2 miles (round trip) to get to the best view spot of Denali (within reasonable distance).  After that we brunched in the RV, and then I went out for another hike (Savage River Alpine Hike) that left from that parking lot.  The weather was just perfect (and the smoke was gone) - woohoo!

Yeah!  We got to see Denali in all her glory

So without further ado, here is the full set of photos and three movies for Part 5 - Denali National Park of our TD2 2022 Alaska or Bust! adventure.  As you move your cursor over each photo, you will see a descriptive title.  If you can't read it all, hover your cursor over it and the entire title will appear in a box.

Next up we'll be turning around, as the weather changed again, with rain forecast in Denali, and better weather outlook for down south.  So like the fair(er)-weather travelers that we are, we'll head down that way and see what the Kenai Peninsula has to offer in Part 6 of our adventure!

And no matter where we roam, we always like keep Thistle Dew Too's motto in mind:  

TD2 2022 Adventure - Alaska or Bust! - Part 4 - We made it! (Northeast and Central Alaska)

Hello again folks,

You have received this blog post because you were on our list from 2021, or we thought you might be interested.  If you wish to be removed from future posts, no worries, just let me know.

Well, we finally made it to Alaska!  We took the Top of the World Hwy, which is quite scenic, but in our case, was marred by smoke from more than a hundred fires burning around Alaska.  We were told these begin with lightning strikes, and as nearly all of them are in unpopulated areas, they are just left to burn out during the not-infrequent rain.

So our pictures in Part 4 of our Alaska or Bust! Adventure will often have a bluish tinge to them, and that is very commonly caused by atmospheric dust or pollution, or in this case, smoke from forest fires.  No magic with post-processing can properly correct for this, so it just is what it is ;-).  Trust me, it’s a bummer for the photographer 😭

Shades of blue, thanks to forest fire smoke, mostly in AK

Crossing the border was very quick.  We were worried when the only RV in front of us was in active discussion with the border patrol for at least 20 minutes (he was from Canada)!  We were asked about alcohol (no), tobacco (no), firearms (no), pets (no), and firewood (no) …  and we were on our way in two minutes!

The first town we reached was Chicken, Alaska.  My B-I-L Dave explained that the gold miners couldn't agree on how to spell ptarmigan, the local grouse, so instead they called them chicken (smaller, but quite tasty, I'm told), and hence that became the name of the town.  We were hoping for a weath of chicken paraphernalia, but the places we checked out surprisingly had none.  So instead we took some pictures, because they do have chicken statues galore ;-)

You really can't miss Chicken, AK

By the time we had arrived in Tok, AK (pronounced “toke”), we were ready to set-a-spell.  Carol had not been feeling so well the last few days in Canada, so I suggested a COVID test might be appropriate.  Ding, ding, ding ... we have a ... winner?  And my symptoms had started by that point, so two winners!  On top of that, Carol started to get a rash on her back, which she later self-diagnosed as shingles, so she won the trifecta!

This all happened on a Saturday, and she contacted her doctor in Hawaii (who amazing replied within an hour) to see about an anti-viral prescription for the shingles (as they can get quite painful).  But we needed a pharmacy, which Tok does not have.  However, they did have a new clinic built for their native population, which just happened to have an after-hours triage nurse on duty, and we were over there within an hour — amazing!  Giant horse pills for anti-viral meds, plus a prednisone prescription, and it really made a difference!  The shingles cleared up pretty fast, but our COVID-coughs lasted longer.  Thankfully, no serious or long COVID symptoms (we were both double vax'd and double boosted).

With our “batteries” now recharged (literally and figuratively), we headed out for more sight-seeing, and a reprovisioning run to Costco in Anchorage.  We found a great overnight spot in the Matanuska State Park so we could see — you guessed it — the Matanuska Glacier and Matanuska River.  Quite a few pictures from this scenic stop.

Looks like the smoke has cleared for some scenic vistas

After reprovisioning in Anchorage, we checked the weather on the Kenai Peninsula (very wet), and then checked up at Denali National Park (looking better), so we headed north to see what we might see.  Denali is very frequently obscured by clouds, and sure enough, at two state park lookouts you come upon first, we couldn’t see anything.  And … cliffhanger ... we’ll tell you how things turned in Part 5.

So without further ado, here is the full set of photos and three movies for Part 4 - Northeast and Central Alaska of our TD2 2022 Alaska or Bust! adventure.  As you move your cursor over each photo, you will see a descriptive title.  If you can't read it all, hover your cursor over it and the entire title will appear in a box.

Next up we'll be heading north to the Denali National Park in Part 5 of our adventure!

And no matter where we roam, we always like keep Thistle Dew Too's motto in mind:  

TD2 2022 Adventure - Alaska or Bust! - Part 3 - Northwest Territories, Arctic Ocean, and Yukon, Canada

Hello folks,

You have received this blog post because you were on our list from 2021, or we thought you might be interested.  If you wish to be removed from future posts, no worries, just let me know.

After we checked out the drive to Tombstone Territorial Park in Part 2, we decided to take the Dempster Highway (aka The Dempster) all the way to Inuvik, and then continue on the final push to Tuktoyaktuk (aka Tuk) which is right on the Arctic Ocean.  We wanted to experience the different landscape inside the Arctic Circle and take advantage of the fact that we could drive all the way to the Arctic Ocean!

Ferries are (a smooth) part of The Dempster

The Inuvik-to-Tuk Highway was a milestone – the first road in history to reach the polar shore of North America. It's another 87 miles from Inuvik to the Inuvialuit community of Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic coast.  

Plentiful lakes to reflect blue skies and puffy clouds

We'll try to give you a little bit of a feel for both the Inuvik and Tuk communities, and the drive that it takes to get out here (and back).  Spoiler alert:  it's smoother than expected in some areas, much rougher than expected in others, and really dusty! 😬.

Both communities are built upon permafrost, and as you saw in Part 2 (Dawson City), you don't want to heat up the permafrost!  So they now have very modern construction techniques that effectively put their houses up on elevated piers and beams, with raceways designed to bring through the utilities (power, water, sewer).  Those also have to stay above the permafrost, and at the same time, not freeze in the middle of winter.  Quite a challenge!

We were lucky we didn't try to get here any earlier.  Just a week earlier, the ferries weren't running since there was still lots of ice in the rivers.  And the Arctic Ocean still hadn't had its ice-out around Tuk!

Camping right on the Arctic Ocean (so early, it was free)

In talking with some of the Tuk locals (who just stopped by to chat), they all said they like winter the best!  Remember they won't see the sun for two months and it's bone-chillingly cold.  But, I guess they can go anywhere on their skimobiles -- roads are not needed.  I can't even imagine it. 

And I'm sure they prefer snow to the washboard gravel roads that are typical in sections run by big rigs. For the wheelbase of Thistle Dew Too, boy that washboard can be teeth-rattling.  The only answer given our rear dualies (side-by-side tires), was to take it slow.  (Off-road vehicles can reduce tire pressure, but that risks a blow-out with dualies.)  You may get a feel for that with some of the movies about the passing trucks and their major dust storms.  

So without further ado, here is the full set of photos for Part 3 - Northwest Territories, Arctic Ocean, and Yukon of our TD2 2022 Alaska or Bust! adventure.  As you move your cursor over each photo, you will see a descriptive title.  If you can't read it all, hover your cursor over it and the entire title will appear in a box.

Next up we will be heading into Alaska on the Top of the World Highway!

And no matter where we roam, we always like keep Thistle Dew Too's motto in mind:  

TD2 2022 Adventure - Alaska or Bust! - Part 2 - British Columbia and the Yukon, Canada

Hello folks,

You have received this blog post because you were on our list from 2021, or we thought you might be interested.  If you wish to be removed from future posts, no worries, just let me know.

Crossing the USA-Canada border turned out to be quick and easy (we headed east to Sumas).  We drove through BC for quite a while before slowing down, knowing we had a lot of ground to cover.  This was a very pretty stretch of road.  

Beautiful jade green Muncho Lake

At Whitehorse, we opted to leave the major AL-CAN Hwy (Rt 1) and head toward Dawson City (Rt 2), and eventually, Top of the World road into Alaska (in next post).  We did get to some wildlife -- the bison herd you see below, and both black and brown bears (which were too quick for my camera).

Bison mama molting and giving birth

One interesting story to go along with the muddiest picture of Thistle Dew Too.  We decided to take a side trip to Keno City (not sure why), where they still mine for silver.  The drive out was no problem, and we noticed there was a loop to get to and from Keno City, so I had hoped to come back the alternate route.  But by then it had started raining, and the roads were getting muddier and muddier.  And mining equipment was digging them up pretty badly.  

At one point we start going down a somewhat steep hill and Carol asks, are you going to turn-around?  I tell her that's no longer possible (road too narrow, not to mention the mud).  But I concurred it was to risky to keep going forward.  So I cleaned off the mud-caked backup camera, and slowly started to back up the road hoping no one would block my way, and that my wheels don't start spinning.  Finally, we make it to a point where I can turn around, and we slowly make our way back to a camping pullout we had found earlier.  

At some point while we were doing that we said "we are in the middle of freakin' nowhere!"  Hence the signage scraped out of the caked on dirt on the back of Thistle Dew Too.

We're Back!! From the Middle of Nowhere

Here is the full set of photos for Part 2 - BC and Yukon, Canada of our TD2 2022 Alaska or Bust! adventure.  As you move your cursor over each photo, you will see a descriptive title.  If you can't read all of it, just mouse over the title and you'll see the full text.

Next up we will be continuing up north in Canada, and drive into the Northwest Territory of Canada and up to the Arctic Ocean. Boy can that sometimes be a bumpy ride!

And no matter where we roam, we always like keep Thistle Dew Too's motto in mind:  

TD2 2022 Adventure - Alaska or Bust! - Part 1 - Visiting Family (NV, CA, WA)

 Hello folks,

You have received this blog post because you were on our list from 2021, or we thought you might be interested.  If you wish to be removed from future posts, no worries, just let me know.

Well, we bit the bullet and have started our 2022 Thistle Dew Too (TD2) Adventure known as Alaska or Bust!  Now some of you might question the wisdom of driving a 14,000+ lbs vehicle all the way to Alaska and back when gas prices are at an all time high, and you'd be right.  So, we may be changing the name of our adventure to Alaska AND Bust! 😱

In any case, we spent the first few weeks visiting and staying with family.  First is Carol's brother Dave who so graciously lets us park our RV at his home in Nevada.  

Desert Collared Lizard on the trail with Dave

Next up was a day's drive to Greg & Katherine's neighborhood where we were got to see them for the long weekend both in San Jose, CA, and at Katherine's family home in Napa, CA.  

Hiking Windy Hill with Greg, Katherine, and Luigi

Then it was a 3-day drive to get to Alli & Noe's new apartment near Tacoma, WA.  Alli & Noe were married this spring, and just before their wedding, Alli got a new job, Noe was able to transfer his, and boom -- they're off to a new location to start their married life together.  We are so excited for them.

Carol, Alli, and Noe at Point Defiance

Here is the full set of photos for Part 1 - Visiting Family of our TD2 2022 Alaska or Bust! adventure.  As you move your cursor over each photo, you will see a descriptive title.  Click on the photo to read the full description.

Next up we will be heading into Canada, and will zip through British Columbia and get into the Yukon. 

And no matter where we roam, we always like keep Thistle Dew Too's motto in mind: