I had plans to do a sentimental last trip in the 50 state journey post today. United Airlines thought it would be better to instead give us 32 hours of intensive togetherness while running on about an hour of sleep. 🤪

From yesterday’s post, we made it to the Anchorage airport, and were about to board our overnight flight departing at 8:56pm. We loaded up, and everything was fine… other than the AC not working so we spent 7 hours in a 75° cabin. Not a restful night of sleep.

We landed on time, switched our phones from airplane mode at 7:35am, and BOOM…

United was offering a 14-hour layover 😳 We called the customer service rep and they had all of zero options… according to United, we’re no planes going to RDU from Newark, LaGuardia or Kennedy with 4 available seats. We said no thanks, give us a refund – we could drive home before we sat here until 9:40pm. And then who’s to say they won’t cancel again?

We started working on a rental car. There were literally no rental cars in the Newark/New York area? Why? Because it is the sporting super storm in NYC this weekend: NBA Championship Game and the World CupZ And let’s not even get started on the guy who heard us talking about rental cars and wanted to ride with us?!?! I’m sure it would have been fine but dude, we’ve had no sleep and now in crisis travel mode! It’s not the time to make new friends!

We were starting to look at Amtrak for a train to Raleigh. And then, thank you Jesus, we found a rental car with SIXT. We’ve never used this company before but they were a life saver today!

So after a redeye sweatbox flight, we hit the road for a 7 hour road trip!

Lawd have mercy! It’s been a day!!

And why is there so much doggone traffic on I95???

And why did the last day of our Alaskan vacation involve a drive through New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia?

Finally, we made it to RDU at 6:03pm, turned in our rental car, picked up our luggage (which did get to fly on the 2pm flight out of Newark), and hit the road (again) for home!

And as a bonus welcome home gift, it was blazing hot!

Oh my goodness! 32 hours after we woke up on Friday in Glacier View, Alaska, we finally made it home! What an epic end to our 50 States Journey! One day we will laugh about this… not today, but one day.

Trip stats:

Total miles: 2,992 miles

Miles today: 564

Total steps: 227,721

State(s) Covered: one GIANT

Mom’s Cafe: 2 loaves of bread, 4lbs of turkey, 2lbs of ham, 1lb of roast beef, 1.5lbs of cheddar, 2 heads of lettuce, 3 cases of water, plus chips, oranges, cookies, Diet Cokes and other snacks.

So many ornaments for the travel tree and 50 states worth of the best time together ♥️♥️♥️

Couple of flashback photos from our first and last states:

Last Day! 

It was really strange to wake up, leisurely pack, eat breakfast, leave our AirBnb, and not head straight to the airport. When we were planning this trip , the return flights were early morning or evening flights, and since we always want one more day of travel, we chose the later. Our flight tonight doesn’t leave until 8:20 and its only 2 hours to Anchorage so plenty of time for a few last minute adventures.  

We said goodbye to Grandma Brolene’s cabin, but not without a little wrestling and wrapping up Mom’s Café’s final meal (for now), and this one is to go!

 

And of course more photos of the view.  I know it’s been an excessive amount of pictures but you just cannot grasp the beauty of Alaska.

 

And again, the Alaskan mentality of nothing goes to waste!  I loved the road markers made from paper plates!

 

Our travel companion, ChatGPT, helped us find a stop today at the Muskox Farm in Palmer, Alaska.  It was awesome! 

 We got to see the older male muskox who are their own “herd”.  The rambunctious adolescent males have their own pasture because they like to head butt for no reason.  

 

We saw the babies and their mamas – they were so little compared to their mamas. The mamas watched us intently the whole time we were near their pasture.

 

We learned so much in this quick tour.  First, they don’t use an electric fence because the muskox get itchy with their fur and love to rub on the fence. Their top fur is different than their fur underneath – the top coat is like a water-resistant parka. Their nostrils look like a painting.  The swirling warms the air before it gets to their lungs and then cools it from their lungs in their exhale. We also learned that muskox use a height-based hierarchy. So, the bigger the muskox, the higher up the chain you would be. Mike would be a big deal in the heard because of his height. 

 

Before this trip, we had never seen a Muskox.  Now, I think the muskox may be my spirt animal.  They like to eat and sleep.  They are really only aggressive when you bother their babies. And the older cows get their own pasture where they just give you a side eye when you walk past.

Muskox are also VERY food motivated. They figure out that food was kept in this barn… you can almost see the entire face of the musk ox in this metal!

This was an awesome little side adventure. We were going to have lunch at the picnic tables but there were LOTS of school field trips today and the picnic tables were full.  Popped open the hatch and instant lunch location.

Our next adventure was to check out Hatcher’s Pass.  The drive wasn’t bad and we made it to the lower parking lot… and then we found out the the upper lot was not open so we started up the one mile walk.  I cannot even calculate the elevation change for this walk.  All I know is that it was straight up! These two thoroughly enjoyed the snow and the resulting snowballs. And we met the cutest dog who was hiking with his mom and grandma.  The walk was tough but the views were awesome!

 

Once we got to the top, we realized why the lot was closed.  Nike was filming a commercial for the winter wear on the top of the mountain.  They didn’t seem to be doing much but still pretty cool to see.  Unfortunatley the visitor’s center was closed, but again, the views and the walk were great!

 We made our way to Anchorage, because we were shooting for an early dinner at an Italian place, Sorrentos. A few months ago, someone told Mike that she was from Anchorage and every time she went home, this was her favorite restaurant so we wanted to check it out.  Since our flight didn’t leave until 8:20, we have plenty of time to return rental car and check bags.  Plus, don’t you hate airport food?  It’s way overpriced and never very good. 

The World Cup has started and USA played at 5pm here (9pm EST). The boys really wanted to make sure we were somewhere either showing the game or with Wifi so they could watch.  Sorrentos had both – although we really couldn’t see the TV from our table. Thank goodness for wifi!  The food was fantastic and USA won!!  Great time was had by all!

 

Rental car returned, bags checked and now we wait for our flight, with fingers crossed that we can sleep for the 7 hours it will take to get to New Jersey…

 

Up and moving relatively early today for the last planned activity of the 50-State Journey. Today, we are hiking on a glacier!  The entire reason we are at Grandma Brolene’s House (that’s the lady who owns the house) is because of this hike.  The Matanuska Glacier is one of the largest healthy glaciers and after finding that, we just searched for nearby AirBnBs.

I don’t think these views will ever get old!

The roads had a bit of curve to them 🤢 and then we traveled down a very Alaskan road, until we reached Matanuska… WOW

We got our helmets – we will never forget helmets again! – and were ready to go!

Our guide, John, has been in Alaska for 6 seasons, but is from Charlotte, NC originally. We decided we got the best guide there was (especially when other guides started shouting questions to him on the hike). He pointed out some wolf prints as we made out way to the glacier’s terminus, the toe or end of the glacier.

 This was incredible to see!

We learned a LOT on this hike  One thing that we all really thought was cool was that all of this that appears to be gray/dirt and rock is actually glacier.  If you touch it, it is ice – dirty ice, but ice.

We were also impressed with the blue ice.  Because of the depth and wavelengths and all that sciency stuff, glacier ice looks blue.  All along the glacier were these seems that looked like someone spilled a blue shushie.  In places it looked like it was neon glowing underground.

 

Most glaciers are on state and federal land so hiking isn’t allowed.  The Matanuska Glacier is owned by a local indigenous tribe and they lease this small portion to our guide company.  You can only hike with a certified guide and only on a very small portion. The glacier is over 27 miles long and 2-4 miles across.  We walked about 1.3 miles in and 1.3 miles out. Glacier hiking is limited not just to preserve the glacier, but to protect hikers.  Under the ice of a glacier are puddles and streams of water that can open up at any time.  Maybe the opening is small, but it can create a crevice big enough to fall into.

 Before we got to the actual white ice of the glacier, we had to put crampons on our shoes.  These are like snow chains for your shoes. You slide them over the outside of your shoe like a sock, and there were chains and spikes that dug into ice. It was crazy how much easier walking became once we put on the crampons. (Seriously thinking of ordering some for ice weather at home.)

 

When we called yesterday to check arrival time, the operator said to give yourself 45 extra minutes for road construction. We were outside the construction zone so we arrived for our 11am hike at 9:40am. Thankfully,” they were able to add us to the 10am group, and it worked out great! We hiked with a group of military members from Kentucky who were in Alaska for training. Today was their team building day.  They were great – cussed like crazy, but so fun!

 It was like being on another planet. Just unreal. We all kept saying “can you believe we are on a glacier?”

 One of the best parts of the day was when Chris used tools to create two small holes on the side of hill. The higher hole acted as a sediment deposit and the lower hole became a fountain or us to drink pure glacier water.  I so wish we had brought our water bottles, but we made do with our hands.  This was the BEST water we have ever had. Ice cold and so clean tasting.

 

On our hike out, we passed a pile of white powder which was the calcium deposits from the glacier silt (glacier flour), and hiked through a solid crevice. 

 Definitely one of our coolest adventures!

At the end of the hike, Chris showed us an aerial photo of the entire glacier. There are folks that go all the way to the summit of the mountain at the end of the glacier.  The fastest recorded time is 31 days – one way. We covered about half of this little area, and that was just enough!

We headed out of the glacier canyon (yikes this terrain) and were starving! Christ suggested we grab lunch at the Long Rifle Lodge nearby.  So glad he suggested this, but the outside didn’t really indicate that it was a restaurant at all, but oh my goodness the food! And our waiter was originally from Murphy, NC!

Click the photos below to enlarge and note the time, the dessert arrived and the time when the plate was empty!?! One minute!! They were like velociraptors.  Thankfully, I didn’t loose a hand in this feeding.

 We really didn’t have a lot to do the rest of the day (not surprisingly, Glacier View isn’t a hot bed of activity beyond the ). We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site (Alaskan version of a State Park), and once in the recreation site, we decided to check out the Edge Nature Trail – holy cow!  These views were stunning!  And this was by far the funniest sign we’ve seen on a trail… not just a moose, a Very Aggressive Moose LAUGH 

 We got back to Grandma Brolene’s house and while I caught up on the blog (offline, because there is little to no signal in this area), this crew was wiped out! At least for a little bit. Once they recharged, they were ready to enjoy having a bit of space – which is the best part of an AirBnB.

And then what may be my favorite pictures of the trip… somewhere in Alaska, they realized they kind of like each other. ♥️

One thing we have learned throughout Alaska is that everything is usable, and nothing is wasted.  The same is true at Grandma Brolene’s house… leftover cabinets or closet doors?  How about the bottom of a bathtub used as a top of the shower?

After recharging and starting to think of packing options for tomorrow’s travel home, we headed out for dinner at another place that several folks at the glacier tours suggested, Sheep Mountain Lodge. Good gracious!  They know how to cook in Alaska!

These 2 and this view… 

Since Grandma Brolene’s wifi is really really slow and there is no television, we have played a lot of cards.  I’ll be honest, it wasn’t just the boys who had a hard time with this initially, but we have really enjoyed the time.  Lots of cards, talking and laughing! Couldn’t ask for anything better with my boys!

 

Tomorrow is our last day but with a late night flight, we still have a whole day and a bit of travel before we make it back to Anchorage. I feel certain we will find some adventures along the way!

Today was an open day with only one planned stop and a final destination of Glacier View, Alaska as our final AirBnB. We learned 2 things this morning. First, Leo can sleep through anything. We all got up, talked, had coffee and cinnamon rolls, and he never even rolled over.  And second, we are not ready to cook from an Alaskan Cookbooks. Halibut Lasagna, anyone? Moose liver? Although the Caribou Stew looks kind of good.

This is our cabin owners’ dog and he just walks around monitoring everything. He has no idea he is as big as he is because he’s as skittish as a mouse.

At first we thought we were going to be all rained out but we could see the sun trying to peek out.

The only pre-planned stop of the day was Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve. This is the largest national park in the United States, but only a small portion is accessible by paved road… we were not ready to drive 2+hours on gravel.

The Visitor’s Center, Exhibit Hall and Theater were really interesting with lots of examples of animal pelts, and a model showing the massive size of this park.  Wrangell- St Elias is larger than Vermont and New Hampshire combined, and boasts a glacier larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. While the park may be large, the population is not!  In the 1790’s approximately 1.200 people lived in the Copper River Basin. There was a peak in the 1920’s following the gold rush up to 2,850 people.  And now, over 200 years later, there are only 3,500 people in this area!

 

The Theater showed a movie explaining the history of this area, especially regarding its formation and the glaciers.  

The glacier flour acts as a filter/cleaner for the glacier water.  Initially, it is cloudy and gray, but as the silt settles, the water clears.

 Since it has rained for last day or so, we decided the long trails were not for us. A four hour drive with wet & muddy feet is not my idea of happy. Instead, we hit the Loop Trail that leaves from the Visitor’s Center and includes a few beautiful overlooks. 

 Back on the road, we decided since it was 12pm and we had a whole day free, let’s head down to Valdez, Alaska.  Because when are we going to be back here??? The weather absolutely cooperated and the views, again, were gorgeous!

It really is hard to explain how beautiful Alaska is.  You see one view and think “this is the most beautiful view” and then you go around a corner and think “No, nevermind this is the most beautiful.” Happens over and over especially today since we are traveling on the Richardson Highway which is one of the most beautiful drives in Alaska. Without a doubt, I can 100% agree with this statement. 

As we started going up in elevation we were nearing Thompson’s Pass. This area gets upwards of 42 to 46 FEET OF SNOW every year! Thompson’s Pass also holds the record for highest snow fall in one day: 62 inches! The clouds settled in and it looked at times like we were driving into oblivion! Then it would clear to show massive crevices created by the glaciers. And again, the views! The boys said it looked like cold Hawaii!

 

Then we entered Keystone Canyon.  The canyon was formed by the Lowe River and it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been! The number of waterfalls and cliffs was staggering. (Just a warning, there are going to be a lot of pictures to follow.)

We could just stare of these views forever… well, not really because we were getting hungry so headed to Valdez. All along this journey, we had been watching the roadways and tree line for bears – the one animal we haven’t seen in the wild. (We wanted to see one in the wild but from a safe distance.) Back to our story, we are driving to Valdez, looking at the window and we see a black dot moving… Turn the car around!  Mike does a U-turn, and BOOM!  There’s a big ol’ black bear!

 

Welcome to Valdez, Alaska! 

 

The resturants in Valdez have great names… first, we tried the Potato, but they were out with food truck for next half hour.  So we wandered into town, and after stopping for souvenirs, the owner of the shop suggested we try the Fat Mermaid. We’ve had good luck with restaurants with FAT in the name (Miso Phat in Maui was ahhh-mazing!) so we took his advice. IT was fantastic!

Downtown Valdez is a neat town, but not very big so we covered it within an hour or so.

 

The drive back was just as awesome, and maybe more so because we were just waiting to see what was next!  All the guide books and websites said to make sure you see Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetails Falls ✔️✔️

We made a quick whip-in to one parking lot to read about the Railroad Tunnel of 1905. We loved the story of the railroad dispute between NINE railroad companies. The dispute became so heated that guns were drawn and the railroad building just stopped!

And of course, then we had to see how close we could get to the falls.  Im sure it was just to meditate, right?!

 

The snow along Thompson’s Pass was crazy considering it is JUNE!!

 

I think we stopped at almost every overlook, because why not? When will we be here again? But man, it was getting colder by the minute. As soon as the sun went behind a cloud, you remembered you were in Alaska. 

 

But honestly, how could you ever forget with this in front of you? Even the clouds make it more beautiful?

We finally made it to our last AirBnB.  The Bear Den is in Glacier View, Alaska and feels like you walked back in time to your grandma’s mountain house in 1970. We unloaded and since we are still full from our Fat Mermaid early dinner, we just had snacks for dinner.

And then we started another round of Garbage! We finished another game of all 10 hands, but oh my word ,the trash talking! 

 

Tomorrow, we head out for our last activity, but I have no doubt we will find more to do that just one thing!

Today was probably our longest drive of this trip. We left our big old cabin near Fairbanks and made our way to the southeast corner of the Alaskan Interior. There is one pre-planned stop, but otherwise, we are just going to see what we see and stop when we need to stretch.

The one pre-planned stopped today was to North Pole, Alaska. Imagine the NC/SC line South of the Border area had a baby with Christmas, and that is North Pole, Alaska! Everything is Christmas themed! The light poles, the names of roads, the bank signs, McDonalds… the one place that didn’t have a candy cane pole was Wendy’s and it was closed 😂

But the highlight of the town was the Santa Clause House! If you love Christmas and roadside attractions – this is it! We started in Silver Bell Square. My boys (all of them) were so good to indulge all my Christmasy requests!

There is nothing Christmas that they don’t have… Bob Ross Nutcracker? ✔️Got It! Ornaments of childhood toys? ✔️Got it? Greenhouse “Old Christmas” ornament? ✔️Got it! Santa as a Dog Musher Snow Globe? ✔️Got it! Mike said he had never seen so many jingle bells in one place in his whole life.

We stopped in the “The Sweet Shop” to buy fudge, chocolates and their specialty soda drinks. You pick a base (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Root Beer, etc) and then pick 2 syrup flavors. I had Diet Coke with Orange Syrup and it was delicious! Boys had Sprite with Blue Raspberry and Lime syrup. They loved it – I thought it was like eating a bag of sour patch kids.

If you ever mailed a letter to Santa at North Pole, there is good chance it ended up here! They receive 1,000s of letters each year in every language!

North Pole was wonderful and if we were closer to home, I probably would start Christmas decorating now!

We left North Pole (still humming carols), and headed south. The topography was completely different on this side of Alaska. A lot of the area looked like North Carolina. Later today, we will go through the eastern side of the Alaskan Mountain Range, but for now, it is pretty flat.

We found more of the dippy roads, or rather they found us. A couple of times, the dips snuck up on us, and I’m fairly certain we were airborne for a second or two.

I think we are following the path of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline because we saw it several times in the background of our drive.

 We were looking for a good picnic spot along the way, and ChatGPT gave us a couple of options.  (It is so nice not having to scour the internet looking for roadside picnic spots). Found one – Big Delta State Historical Park. Mom’s café opened up and we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed in to explore the park a bit.  

We headed in to explore the park a bit, moving quickly to avoid the giant Alaskan Mosquitos. This area was a hub of activity in the early 1900’s as a midpoint between Fairbanks and Valdez.  The original buildings were expanded by a Rika Wallen, who added east and west wings onto the original roadhouse.  She was an avid gardener and did so well that the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Alaska studied her farming technique. (I think Rika and I would have been friends). And it looked like they were still using her garden now.  

The drive was absolutely gorgeous. Hills, mountains and roads that go on and on… The further south we went, the more of the east side of the Alaskan Mountain Range we could see. And the closer we got to the mountains the colder it got.  Eventually, the temperature bottomed out at 42DEGREES… in June!

 

We drove by what seemed like the base of the mountains and could see these gray streaks.  If you get closer, you can see that they are valleys carved by melting snow and leaving the glacier flour of crushed rocks and sand behind as they melt.

More mountains means more snow poles.  This set had reflectors on them, so at some point someone is driving on top of packed snow that is very deep!

These views are ridiculous. Every time I think we have seen the most beautiful view, we turn the corner and there is one even more beautiful.

As we were driving, we hit some construction sites with a roadside flagmen.  We waited, and eventually a pilot car came, and we fell in behind and off we went. This part was totally normal. We followed and followed, and then realized that the Alaskan DOT doesn’t take you around construction… they take you straight through it! Probably because, there are very few secondary roads.  For the most part, there is one main paved highway to get everywhere.  So if there’s construction on the paved road, you are going through the construction or you can wait months/years for it to be completed.

 

After 150 miles, we finally turned off Highway 4. Only 5 miles to our next cabin, or we could go another 213 miles and hit the Canadian Border! 

Think we will stick with staying in Gakona and completed our longest drive of the trip. 

 

We unloaded quickly – it was pouring rain – and got everything settled. Our sweet host left us homemade sweet rolls for breakfast.  YUM!

We had Nacho Plates for dinner to use up the last of some of the groceries. Mike and I cooked and the boys cleaned… the funniest was when Leo said “so where’s the dishwasher?”🤣

And for the first time in all out trips, we finished an entire 10-hand game of Garbage in one sitting! 🃏🃏

 

Tomorrow, we are heading to the little known but largest National Park, Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve, and then on to Glacier View. Cannot believe we are almost to the end of this trip!

 

 

The best days are sometimes those you never see coming. Today, we were going to Chena Hot Springs because it was only an hour north/northeast of Fairbanks (and there really isn’t a lot to do in Fairbanks).  We had zero idea what to expect but it was pretty inexpensive, and we could go anytime before 11:45pm.  No early morning schedule meant we could sleep late. The weather cooperated with a nice gentle rain until about 11am.  We had a big brunch of eggs and bacon, and stayed in our PJs until almost noon! Finally, we got motivated to pack up and head out. 

The Chena Hot Springs were discovered in 1905 by 2 mining brothers looking to ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. However, while they enjoyed the hot springs, they failed to stake. Three years later, George Wilson established a Homestead and staked his claim. By 1911, the Chena Hot Springs Resort was one of the premier destinations for the Alaskan Interior. 

We discovered the Hot Springs from the Alaskan Department of Tourism, TripAdvisor and ChatGPT. 😉 It is one of 4 things that repeatedly pop up when you search “what is there to do in Fairbanks?” The Chena Hot Springs are about an hour drive from our cabin on some of the most rolling/dippy road we’ve ever traveled. It wasn’t the terrain that rolled, it was the road – we’re guessing it’s due to the freeze/thaw/freeze of Alaska. 

We also saw a new kind of snow marker to advise snow plows of the edge of the roads. We found this out by using Google Image search, but the fact that it seemed to know the road we were on from the picture was a little unsettling 😬

The drive to Chena Hot Springs looked like we were driving to the NC Blue Ridge Mountains.

Finally we made it to the Resort. If you love kitschy, cheesy, left behind by time places – you have to come here! It is awesome! We aren’t entirely convinced that the whole operation isn’t a front for the Russian Mob. But whatever, we had a blast!

After you come through the entrance, there a giant plane in the air and an old fire truck with no explanation for either.

Then there is a giant dome like structure with no signage (later we found out this was the Ice Museum – more on that later).

We headed to the pool sign-in area. Picked up our rented towels and changed into our suits. There was an indoor pool warmed by the hot springs and then the outdoor hot springs. The Hot Springs keep the water at 106°. There was a slight sulfur smell and it was a gravel-bottom pool/pond but it was still really cool to be in naturally heated water in 50° weather.  (There were also several men who gave off a Tony Soprano vibe but we’re just going to roll with it at this point.)

Then we decided to head in to the chlorinated hot tubs and relax even more. We have had such a great trip together. As much as I loved being with the boys when they were little, it’s been pretty great getting to who they are becoming.

After the hot tubs, we showered and changed back into dry clothes. We wanted to check out the ice museum but the next tour was about an hour away. We decided to grab some quick appetizers while we waited. The restaurant at the resort just continued the show with animal hides and oversized tables. It was just the best! (We may or may not have seen a chipmunk scamper across the lobby after we ate, but we are not focusing on that).

After our snack, we headed back to the Activities Center for our tour of the Ice Museum. While we waited for the start, we checked out the Activitorium 🤣🤣

Then came the Ice Museum! Oh my word, this was place was crazy! It was so cold that we all got parkas when we entered. And then they opened the door… everything was made of ice!

Seriously, how random is it to stumble onto this???🤣🤣🤣

They actually rent out these rooms and give you military grade blankets and suits to stay warm. Why would you ever want to spend the night here???

We did enjoy the little apple martini served in an ice glass! We saved it afterwards so boys could drink Diet Coke from it afterwards 😁 and we loved the toys made of ice 🧊

Love that they had red noses when we left 🤣

We headed home after the coolest most random day ever!

We had dinner of fried pork chops back at our cabin, and made it through half a game of garbage before we decided to relax with some TV before bed.

Tomorrow we leave our cabin in the woods and head out to explore the eastern sign of the Alaskan Interior.

Let’s start with the handsome face! Stitches are coming out and the cuts are healing. Ribs are still a little tender, but better every day. Thank you Jesus because this could have turned out so differently!

We left our cute little cabin in Healy this morning, but we decided to squeeze in one more hike before we said goodbye to Denali. The Horseshoe Lake Trail is a beautiful trail without a lot of severe elevation change – it’s more gradual which you don’t notice until you come back up 🤪 The hike starts along the Alaska Railway and then gradually makes it way down to the Horseshoe Lake.

This was a great stop with a cool stand for everyone to make the same photo the same way. Then the photos are uploaded to show an ongoing time lapse.

Hoping this link works:

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We made it down to the lake, and saw the cutest baby beaver. He was fast and from the looks of this beaver dam, this little guy and family have been busy.

Then we heard some crazy chirping and squawking. This woodpecker made an amazing nest for her babies and the squawking was her babies calling for their lunch.

Love watching this two together. They don’t know it yet, but they are going to miss each other next year…

Ongoing debate: Bear or Moose?

The coastline for the Nenana River was pretty but rocky. Of course, these two just saw that as an obstacle to climb.

Back on the trail…It was just beautiful!

The burl knots (that I am now calling burl butts because they look like the trees have butts) are everywhere. We did some research and turns out that even scientists aren’t 100% certain what causes them other that it is a defense mechanism of the tree for an injury, insect damage, fungus or bacterial or an environmental stress. The Alaskan Bowl Company actually makes a birch bowl specifically from burl wood.

We hiked around the edge of the lake. Mike and I did our part to pull up dandelions. They are an invasive species here in Alaska and we’ve seen several park rangers walking the trails pulling dandelions.

So glad we came back for one more hike!

We stopped off what we are calling an Alaskan Bucky’s, Three Bears. This location was built in 2018, and it is the largest one we have found. It was an Ace Hardware, Grocery Store, mini-Costco, Liquor Store and Convenience Store.

We headed north on our way to Fairbanks! There is not a lot in between Healy and Fairbanks. But there were some cool bridges and again, the scenery was beautiful. This part of the Alaskan interior doesn’t get as much snow as other section, usually because it is too cold for the moisture to fall. This section of Alaska reminded us all of the Blue Ridge Mountains back home.

We tried to stop in the town of Nenana, but we covered the entire town win about 3 minutes. It was a really sad ghost town where 80% of the town was boarded up buildings. The train depot seemed to be only building remotely maintained.

We made it to Fairbanks and decided to stop off at the Kiwanis Club Park for our Mom’s Cafe lunch. Michael and I ate leftovers from last night’s dinners but we still had a few meals served.😁

We made to our new home for the next 2 nights. The cabin is 5 minutes from Fairbanks, and one turn off the highway, but it is like you were dropped into the middle of the woods. It is so pretty and so peaceful! And boys are thrilled to have not only their own beds, but their own bedrooms!

We got everything unpacked and settled, and all enjoyed sitting for a while in something that wasn’t moving. After almost 2 hours, Michael said “we gotta go do something” YES! That’s my boy 🤣

There is not a lot to do visitor-wise in Fairbanks. Even ChatGPT and Tripadvisor were limited in options. We were going to go downtown to walk around a park/town square/river walk area before dinner, but there were so many people literally laying on the square’s benches, we were a little nervous about the environment. Downtown Fairbanks is every downtown on Sunday evenings – not much happening. Maybe it will be better tomorrow. Truthfully, Fairbanks is a little depressing. I’m sure some of it is due to the amazing sights of Denali. It also doesn’t help that we have spent the last week in these funky little towns dotting Alaska. The big city problems, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, are very present here, much like in Anchorage. Enough reality – Pivot and Adjust!

We decided to have dinner at Pike’s Landing. Here’s what we didn’t know: 1. Pike’s Landing is on the National Register of Historical Places. Honestly, couldn’t figure out why, but apparently it has to do with the landing being used during the gold rush and Chena River access. The Landing is named after John Pike, a World War II veteran who homesteaded here after the war. He then created the landing, restaurant and hotel. Now there is also a little reindeer park.

2. Pike’s Landing Restaurant is beside Pike’s Landing Hotel which is a hot spot for the senior citizen community… which meant they were all eating with us at Pike’s Restaurant. We literally brought the average age down by 25 years. Not sure if you’ve ever waited tables but senior citizens can be, let’s say, demanding. Some of these folks – yikes! As a rule, if you are as peculiar as these folks were about your food, you should stay home and cook for yourself. The poor waitstaff! And my word, the temperature inside 🥵 It just ended up being too funny to us and we couldn’t stop laughing with every new instance 🤪

And we got some funny pictures to remember forever!

After dinner, we decided to stop off at Walmart to restock Mom’s Cafe and to get dinner supplies for tomorrow night. We are making a day trip or two tomorrow and don’t want to have to rush back for dinner in a restaurant. While we got the groceries, the boys went to wander… I told Mike they would be in sports section… BINGO

While we were sweating through dinner, we did a little research and learned that our cabin is only about 3 minutes for a viewing spot of the Alaskan Pipeline. When are we ever going to see this again? So our post-dinner/post-Walmart excursion took us to a viewing spot, just above Pump 8 of the Alaskan Pipeline!

And some wrestling…

Back at the cabin, we finished off the night by finishing our game of Garbage and then crashed. I mean it is midnight here (4 am at home), but you would never know it. When they say Alaska is the home of the Midnight Sun, there were not kidding!

Tomorrow we are off on a day trip or two to see what lies outside of Fairbanks.

A packed vacation day agenda makes my heart smile and today, in the words of Mike Brown, my heart was grinning like a possum! We had to be up and out of the cabin by 9:20 to make to our first stop: ATV riding near Denali. (Unauthorized off road vehicles are not allowed within the park, and face a $1,000 per wheel fine!) This is the first year that the boys can ride their own 4-wheeler, so they were pumped!

We chose the side by side – actually I chose it so everyone wouldn’t have to wait on me if I was slow on a 4 wheeler.

After the safety speech and getting equipment – and meeting one of the employees from Wilmington, NC – The boys had to meander through a little training course and then we were off!

We are riding through an old coal field/mining area so the roads were crazy bumpy and the dust was insane!

Someone is having a great time! 😂

We stopped on top of one the hills. In true Alaska style, the views were amazing. Our guide, Amber, told us the history of the area, and our other guide, Aiden, found some coal on the ground.

Right below us is Otto Lake. It is a warm lake that you don’t swim in because it has leeches 🤢 Because Otto Lake isn’t as deep as other lakes, moose come there to teach their babies to swim. I had no idea until this moment that moose can swim! Apparently, they are quite agile in the water! Who knew?!?!🫎

And then it was back on the trails…

I love how they told boys to ride to avoid the water. They looked like frogs🤣

The second stop was in an area called Dry Creek. Normally, this area is dry except when the ice and snow start to melt, and then the water and rocks start to move! These sand walls are called alluvial fans. They’re created from the wind and water.

The trees growing here have roots that don’t go down, they go out. The entire forest works together sensing when one area needs more of some mineral or is affected by disease. The roots and grass form almost a thick carpet called carpeted root system.

Aiden must have had a geology background or at listened carefully to training section on rocks because he knew everything about the rocks in Dry Creek.  For instance, one rock isn’t a rock at all, just hard pressed sediment.  The indigenous people would rub the sediment rock against another to break it up and then use the sediment in pottery and crafts. There was also this really crazy looking soil on the edge or creek.  They called it creek peanut butter because that’s what it looks like.  Peanut Butter is also Aiden’s trail name because he got stuck in this last year. (Side note, Amber’s trail name was Roadkill because someone ran over her foot with a side by side 😂)

You’re just going to have to trust us that we saw a porcupine.  He was right back there…

While we were looking at the porcupine, someone noticed that the front right tire of Leo’s 4 wheeler was flat.  Not exactly sure what he hit, but it sure popped the tire.  We were a bit ahead of schedule so Amber called on her radio and within a few minutes, a couple guys were there to repair. 

Unfortunately, since these are 4-wheelers, they were uncomfortable with any new drivers operating with the new tire. So Leo hoped in the side by side with Aiden. I was worried, he would be disappointed but Aiden really liked driving fast and crazy, and Leo said it was awesome! Loaded back up, we went to tackle the rest of Dry Creek which is the wettest dry creek I have ever seen.

Crazy eyes is getting nervous… but it was a beautiful space

We crossed back onto the coal miners trail and then back to a lower part of Dry Creek and then a new route back to the starting point. A few more pictures, and then it was time to clean up. Good gracious, we were dusty! But what a great day!

We decided to head into Denali for some hiking and of course, Mom’s Café!

From the video at the Vistor’s Center yesterday, we were really excited to go visit the Denali Dog Kennels! The dogs were so cute.  They were all just stretched out and napping when we arrived.  Some were in their houses, and some were in kennels on the side.  The ones in the kennels were there because they were prone to eat rocks 😂 Thankfully it was only 65° today, so not too hot for them.  One of the summer interns said it snowed last week, and all the dogs were on top of their wooden houses, just laying the snow!

And of course, my Mikes had to get their picture with sled dog Mike.

And then we got to the puppies… oh my goodness! They might be sturdy and dependable sled dogs one day, but today, they were silly goofy pups!  The pups were 9 weeks old and the biggest one, named Mammoth, was just a clumsy mess. They wrestled and chased each other.  Three of them got stuck on one tube and then one got stuck in another 🥰

We had about 40 minutes before the next kennel demonstration, we decided to do a portion of the Roadside Hiking Trail that ran nearby.  We saw lots of burl knots and moose scratching marks along the trail.

So glad we saw the kennel presentation.  When they dogs saw their harnesses, they went crazy!

But once, they started running, they were all business!

We met the nicest couple from Australia.  They are here for a month traveling through Canada and Alaska.  They told us they were so excited to go home and tell their mates, they met a family that had been to all 50 states! And then the very best surprise… they let the puppies try the run!!

While we were waiting for the puppy run, the official state bird of an Alaska showed up… a mosquito! (It’s not really the state. 😉) but look at the size of these things!!!

And now, the puppy run! This is how they start training for mushing.

We headed back to Mile 15 to try a portion of the Savage Alpine Trail. I say a portion because the total hike was a four mile one way hike which wasn’t bad.  However the elevation was over 1,500 feet and the hike was noted as strenuous. Usually, if the National Park Service thinks a hike is Strenuous, then it is going to be ridiculously strenuous. So Mike and I did one portion around the ginormous rocks, and Michael and Leo did the hike PLUS the  ginormous rock.

Boys definitely got the better view, but I’m not sure we could have handled what they did.

Afterwards, we decided to try the Savage River Loop trail.  This was a beautiful hike and if we had waterproof boots/shoes, it would have been so much easier. Our shoes and socks were pretty nasty by the end but thank goodness for a washer/dryer!  The hike was great, but was still icy in spots, so crossing was difficult in some spots.  We never could be sure that the bridge to cross over was there so after almost 2 miles in, we decided to turn around.  (Later on we saw another couple made it across, so I think we stopped just a little bit short of the bridge 😒)

But on the hike back, we got to add an animal to our ✔️ Saw It : Mountain Goat!

In fact, there were two. We started watching closely as a man got closer and closer.  Started thinking I was going to have a video to sell to “When Animals Attack.”

We started headed back to our cabin, but then saw one more quick hike to the “Ranger Interpretive Cabin.” I mean, what’s one more mile, right?

Both Amber and Aiden suggested dinner at 49th State Brewery, so off we went to grab dinner. Thankfully, it was on the way to our cabin. The food, atmosphere and the house made beers were great!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our kitten cabin and Denali but maybe we can squeeze in one more hike 🤞🏼

We said goodbye to our little Talkeetna cabin but not before heading to the Talkeetna Roadhouse Bakery to find that famous cinnamon roll we heard about in Seward. I set an alarm to be there early and not risk a sellout! The bakery smelled fantastic and the lady who owns the bakery was the best. Within 10 minutes, she told me about early morning trips to town with her Grandfather during her summers on the Jersey Shore and about watching a pastry chef in Bali. Oh my goodness – these were so worth a morning alarm!

Talkeetna is such a cool little town. They have made such an effort to maintain the buildings and the stories behind them,,, including gardens♥️

We finished breakfast and packed up our clean clothes to head to Denali, and the city of Healy. But not before a few more pics…

As we headed out of Talkeetna, we thought about going north to “technically” cross the Arctic Circle because when are we going to be back? And then we realized it was a 7-10 hour drive one way from Fairbanks, which is 5 hours from Talkeetna. Uh, nope!

We headed north to Denali State Park before we got to Denali National Park. In planning for this trip, Alaska Tourism and ChatGPT suggested that the best views of the Denali Mountain were actually in Denali State Park. Our drive was actually directly through the State Park, so it was no problem. I am so glad we did! WOW!

Michael found a hike around Byers Lake that looked within our range, about 4.5 miles. (When your 18-year-old suggested a hike to do together, you always say yes)! So off we went. The Hike was beautiful! The scenery with the recent warm weather has completely changed – everything is green! And 78 degree weather with 20% humidity is close to perfect!

These twisty trees were my favorites, and the burl knots looked like butts in the trees 🤪. The bear fur stuck on the trees was a bit unsettling (but the boys said it might be moose or moss).

We ended up only going about halfway around the lake because of trees down along the trail, and we were getting hungry 😀 We decided to head up to the North Viewpoint in the State Park. Again, we were driving right beside it and this spot had picnic tables for the latest franchise location of Mom’s Cafe. Lunch with great but the views were not. The clouds have set in, and you could no longer see the top of Denali. Oh well, we have seen him before and maybe we can again over next few days.

Back in the car for a little longer to get to Denali National Park. We passed more giant snow markers. As we were driving, Leo asked how big Alaska was compared to Texas? We said you can’t compare it to Texas – you have to compare it to the entire United States.

We Made it!

We decided to head into the Park and check out the Visitors Center to get our maps and talk to the Rangers about the best hikes. I also had paid for a multi-day pass and wanted to get my moneys worth 🤣)

Michael got a picture with the ram, and Leo got one with the wolf… is a sign? (Actually, this was totally staged 😁) The Visitors Center was really interesting with a focus on the native customs and the survival skills of the early settlers. I think I may try this recipe for blueberry pie, but I’ll skip the bear fat lard 😂.

We definitely want to see the Denali Sled Dogs tomorrow so we checked out the movie, The True Heart of Winter. These pups are bred here in the park and handle the winter maintenance within the park when the snow gets too deep or too cold for machines.

The road into Denali goes about 93 miles into the 2 million acre park. There are is also an additional 4 million acres of wilderness that belong to the part but are conditional wilderness… meaning they are totally untouched. But you can only drive 15 miles into Denali in a private automobile. Today we decided to go as far as we could see what we could see along the way today. I’m so glad we did because the wild life was busy today. This Moose was clearly used to being the center of attention. He just walked and posed.

Then this family of reindeer completely ignored everything except the food. I guess with everything just started to bloom, they are busy foraging despite a bus, and about 10 cars watching them.

We went all the way to mile 15 – Savage River Trailhead. We will absolutely be back here tomorrow.

The views on the way back were beautiful and the same animals were still just munching along. We loved that these two moose just meandered across the road without a care in the world.

We checked into our new home for the next few days in Healy, AK. The Cabin is great – larger than the one we stayed at in Talkeetna. The bBoys have their own area in the loft, and Mike and I have an actual bedroom downstairs. The kitchen was small but perfect. I’m not sure who stocked this cabin but they did an awesome job. EVERYTHING you could need is here! But like every tiny house/cabin, everything has a space where it belongs, and as soon as you use it, you put it away.

We fixed fajitas for dinner, and planned to finish our Garbage game from Talkeetna. However, once we finished the dishes and sat down on the couch with a little TV, we started head bobbing with sleep 🥱

We decided to crash early because tomorrow is a busy day. (So excited to have an agenda tomorrow 😁)

After 4 nights, we are finally headed to a new place. I feel like we have been here forever!

We are headed up to Talkeetna, and of course, we have to go back through Anchorage… There are very few major roads and highways Alaska, and I really think Mike and I could drive to Anchorage with our eyes closed 😂 The views were just as beautiful but it was crazy to see how much more green there was today versus four days ago. The temperature change has been insane… from 50’s to high 70’s in less than 24 hours!

And check it out – a Mom’s Cafe location now serving the Wasilla, Alaska area!

On the way to Talkeetna is Wasilla, Alaska. Wasilla is famous for 2 things… being the home of Sarah Palin and the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. One of these interested us, wanna guess which one? 🤭

In all seriousness, the Iditarod Trail from Seward to Nome was originally a mail route, then a gold avenue and then the way folks received diphtheria serum during the 1925 epidemic. But in 1973, the first Iditarod Dog Sled race was run – 1,049 miles from Seward to Nome, and it’s been going strong ever since. Initially the winners and their sled dog teams took up to 20 days to finish, but with advances in sleds, dog breeding and care, and supply delivery, the winners are completing the race within 8-10 days. (And how do we know it’s true… because we read it on plaques! 😁)… and we watched a video, Why They Run, about the history of the Iditarod dogs in the Iditarod Headquarters.

But the best part of the Iditarod Headquarters was meeting Riley Dyche, a 6-time Iditarod Musher, and his dogs! We got to check out his sled and he showed us some of the training equipment and medications that they used along the trail. When they’re on the trail, they stop every 6-7 hours, and take a 4 hour break. After caring for the dogs and getting them bedded down, he said he got about 45 minutes sleep for every 4 hour stop 😳 As interesting as it was to talk to Riley, the best part was getting to pet and be a part of their off season training by riding the pull cart.

But ultimately, no matter how well trained and athletic, they are still puppies who love scratches and a good belly rub!

After loving on the pups a little more, we loaded back in the car and headed for our latest cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska.

Our new cabin is a tiny home that maximized every.single.inch.of.space. Seriously, you can sit on the toilet and load the washer 🤪 But hey, at least there is a washer and dryer! The boys loved that we have a yard – or at least common space to play soccer. ⚽️

Our guide from yesterday told us if we made it to Talkeetna get 2 things: Caribou Kabob and a cinnamon roll from the hotel in town. You can’t commercially sell Caribou meat but when we checked with ChatGPT, we learned that usually Elk is marketed as Caribou. So once we unpacked we walked to the funky little downtown area to find these famous kabobs. Turns out it wasn’t hard to find. Skewered North is a pretty famous place in Talkeetna for meat kabobs. The Elk kabob was delicious! Michael decided to try the Mexican food truck and tried reindeer quesadilla, which Leo kept calling a Rudolph Quesadilla. 🤣

After our 5pm dinner (Talkeetna shuts down around 7pm), we decided to check out the downtown shops.

The Wooden Spoon Co. owned and operated by the maker of the spoons. He was born and raised in Talkeetna and made some of the coolest wooden spoons, bowls, spatulas etc. Guaranteed for life. He sold right and left handed spoons angled specifically for skillets – perfect angle to get into the crease of the pan. Ax handles, wooden utensils, pasta measurements bowls, platters, cutting boards, you name it. If it was made out of wood, he made it. We were also tickled to meet a couple from right outside Danville, Va. so only 30 minutes from our house!

Talkeetna’s downtown was full of shops and restaurants, and plaques documenting the history of the town. We also loved the photo-ops… well, I liked the photo-ops, and the boys tolerated my love of them 😂

Talkeetna is also known as one of the best spots to see Denali (the mountain or Mt McKinley). So we grabbed some ice cream and walked to River Park to see if we could see Denali. Only 30% of visitors are able to see to the top of Denali due to clouds, so we were hoping to be part of the 30%… BINGO! It was so pretty that it looked fake, almost like someone propped up a fake background.

We decided to walk home along the Denali View Historic Walking Tour… actually we just started walking this path and figured with 5 streets making up the town, we would find our way home. The “walking tour” was beautiful and gave some insight into the town founders. And gave one more peek at Denali.

We made it back home by 7:15 and with plenty of daylight left, the boys enjoyed more soccer, we got all the clothes washed and repacked, and enjoyed a night just sitting on the porch. The famous Alaska mosquitos haven’t been bad so far, but definitely see them more that the temperatures are rising.

The little cabin doesn’t have a television, but does have wifi, so boys are good. We finished the day with a few hands of Garage and checked off a pretty great first week of vacation (despite a rocky start).

Tomorrow, we head further north to Denali National Park but not before we find that Talkeetna hotel with the cinnamon rolls in the morning…