Blogs from Palmer, Alaska, United States, North America - page 4

It was wonderful to wake up and hear Rowan’s little cute voice in our camper. He came up to our bed right away! After breakfast, we made a plan for the next three days. We started out by going to Target to get rowan’s supplies for the week. It was easier to buy them here than to haul everything on the plane. We brought his carseat from Carson. Then we went to visit Uncle Dick. Daisy was cold riding in the back of the truck in her kennel, so we went back to Target to get her a jacket - size 2T fit her pretty well. Vivian wanted to see a salmon, so we went to Ship Creek to see if there were any running yet. No luck. Our next stop was Palmer to look up ... read more

Today was another low mileage driving day; spent most of the day hiking in Hatcher Pass. The weather was mostly cloudy with periods of light overcast and filtered sunshine. It's definitely cooler because of the clouds, but perfect for hiking (and still no rain!). I'm now at the half-way point of my trip; two weeks down and two weeks to go! The primary attraction at Hatcher Pass (elevation 3500 feet) is the old Independence Mine, a gold mining site that was active in the 30's and 40's and eventually closed for good in 1951. The gold here was mined underground by blasting tunnels, removing the ore, crushing the ore on site and using multiple techniques to extract the gold. It took a ton of ore to produce one ounce of gold! At its peak, the mine ... read more

What a fantastic day! The sun was shining all day, the afternoon temperatures were in the mid-60's, the top was down on the Miata all day, the fall foliage was abundant and colorful, the drive to Palmer was amazing and my new B&B is the best yet! If I could only spend one day in Alaska and today was it, then I'd be a happy man! (Sorry about the gushing, but it really WAS a special day). It's getting more difficult to decide "what" to take pictures of. At some of my stops I could stand in one spot and point my camera in 10 different directions and get 10 great shots. I always try to be conservative when taking scenic photos because, years from now, it's the shots with people in them that will be ... read more

Valdez is another small fishing village, emphasis on small. Dave and I walked around the town last night, which took all of about a half hour. This morning we decided to run the van for a few miles to see if the radiator continued to leak. It did. In this small town there is one repair shop, Mark’s Auto. When we pulled into Mark’s, Steve checked the radiator for us right away and confirmed there was a small leak in the seam. The owner, Mark called Honda in Anchorage for us and was given permission to do the warranty repair work right there in Valdez which was the good news. The bad news was there is no radiator for the van in the state. Honda in Anchorage said they could overnight it if we paid the ... read more

After the beautiful day we had yesterday we can’t complain about the rain today. This is only the second time since we left home that we had to put the tent away in the rain. We did laundry and then headed away from the coast for a few days and hopefully out of the wet weather. First stop on our agenda for today was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. The center is home for orphaned and injured wildlife including black bear, grizzlies, moose, bison, musk oxen, deer and a bald eagle. It is a drive through park, but you can get out and walk if you want and seniors over 55 get in for $5 each. It was more than worth the price when you can get with 10 feet of bears and moose ... read more