Month: July 2022

It was another very rainy week in the Kenai, but we managed to do a few really cool activities between the rain. We visited the Alaska Sealife Center (definitely recommended), and did a 6 hour Kenai Fjords Boat Tour, where we saw Orcas going after sea lions. The boat trip was a bit long and expensive for what you get to see, but still glad we did it.

The camping options in Seward are pretty unusual. The city runs 5 back-to-back campgrounds with a total of over 300 sites along the waterfront, many with great views of the bay, for an outrageous $40/night for ‘dry camping (no hookups) and $55/night with hookups). This land was part of a huge railroad yard that was completely destroyed in the 1964 earthquake and tsunami, the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history (magnitude 9.2), and the second most powerful earthquake recorded in world history. You can also park on the street near the Sealife center for free. There are free showers in the middle campground, but much nicer showers for $2 at the Harbormaster office. We paid for 3 nights along the water, but our 4th night in Seward we just did free parking on the street.

On both our first day and last day in Seward area, we had great meals and cocktails at the 50’s style Flamingo Lounge with it’s huge decanter collection. This restaurant would be right at home in San Francisco in terms of style and food quality. We also enjoyed hanging out and meeting locals at the Yukon Bar.

We drove down to the Lowell Point State Recreation Area a bit south of town, where I was able to take my folding kayak out on Resurrection Bay.

We also spent 3 nights just outside of Seward on the way to the Exit Glacier in a fantastic free camp spot along the river with beautiful views of the valley (when it was not fogged in, which was about half the time). This was a great base for doing the incredible Harding Ice Field Trail (my favorite hike so far in Alaska). I also hiked the Resurrection River Trail, which was beautiful until the thorny Devil’s Club plant took over the trail. Luckily there is no poison oak/ivy in Alaska, but you want to avoid brushing against Devil’s Club as well.

Photos albums for this week: Seward and Kenai Fjords Boat Trip and Harding Ice Field Trail.

The weather took a dramatic turn for the worse: cool with rain/drizzle/low clouds most every day, continuing into 10 day forecast. It’s hard to motivate for a long wet hike with no views. We decided we really needed to get out of the van for a few days, and booked four nights in a fishing lodge half way between Soldatna and Kenai, and I booked a half day Sockeye Salmon fishing trip. The lodge was really nice, and a pair of moose came right up to the deck our first night there.

I knew nothing about fishing for Sockeye, and it’s really a unique style of fishing. Sockeye only eat plankton, so bait/lures are not useful. You just pull an empty hook past them and hope they run into it. The limit is 3 per day, and my guide and I caught our six in about four hours. (We actually caught around 18, but all but 6 got away). I must say, Christine’s Salmon Chowder is amaze balls. There is a lot of luck involved in picking the right day to go out, and each day the number of salmon vary a lot. The week that I went out the daily totals of salmon entering the river from the ocean were: 21,400, 20,600, 8000, 9600, 5500, 5200, 18,700, and 45,600 (they use sonar to count the fish as they enter the river). I went out the day there were 20,600, and I met some folk who went two days later and only caught two fish between six guys. Alaskans are also allowed to go ‘Dip Netting‘ the last three weeks of July, where you just stand still with a net and wait for a salmon to swim into it. Crazy.

Next we wanted to go to Kenai Fjords National Park, but the weather forecast was for rain, so we decided to hang out for a few days at Hidden Lake Campground (on the way from Kenai to Seward) and try to do some hiking/kayak between rain showers. Hidden Lake Campground is an incredibly nice campground managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service–and only $10/night! I managed to both hike and kayak, but I got quite wet from the rain doing so. The trails in the area are extremely well maintained. I also decided to get my 2nd COVID booster on the way (before SalmonFest) and felt pretty crappy for a couple of days.

A collection of photos from the week are here.

When we learned that the small town of Glacier View does a 4th of July ‘car launch’ every year, we knew we had to check it out. Wow, what a crazy event. Check out some of the videos in this article from Car and Driver. The best part was watching attendees scramble to grab a ‘souvenir’ car part from the event to take home. Why? The night before we camped at a great boondocking spot right on the Matanuska river just up the road from the event.

On the way to Glacier View we drove up to Hatcher Pass for some amazing views, visited the remains of the Independence Gold Mine, and I hiked the first 3-4 miles of the Reed Lakes Trail, one of the most beautiful hikes anywhere. Check out the photo link below!

We did a somewhat touristy boat/truck trip to Knik Glacier. I don’t think I’d recommend it. The 30 minute ride (each way) in the military surplus truck was very uncomfortable, and unfortunately one of their boats had broken down, so there was a lot of time waiting for the remaining boat to shuttle us to the glacier. But It was cool to see the foot of the glacier from the river, and the owner of the company had some great stories, including one about the time he was trampled by a moose. We camped 2 nights at an even better boondocking spot right on the Knik river with a view of the glacier.

Then on to Hope, AK, population 200. Hope is a very cute little town 1.5 hrs from Anchorage. We camped in the yard of the McCabe cabin (friends from SF). Hope is a great place for live music on weekends, and I heard a great rock/americana band and a fun traditional bluegrass band. Some of the headliners for SalmonFest play in Hope just before or after the festival. Hope is situated on the ‘Turnagain Arm’, which has the second largest tidal swing in North America. The inlet can see tides as large as 40 feet!

So many great photos from this week! Here is the set for Hatcher Pass, Knik Glacier, and Hope. Here is a collection from the car launch, but I recommend watching the youtube video to really appreciate the event.

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Our next stop was Denali National Park. A large portion of the park is no longer accessible (except by bush plane) due to a big rock slide last August. We had a reservation for 5 nights in the Teklanika River Campground, which you need to book 6 months in advance, as it’s the only campground you can drive to deep within the park.

Our first day started out beautiful, and we took a bus as far into the park as was possible. But unfortunately later that afternoon the smoke from several forest fires blew in and never left. The smoke was really unpleasant, so we ended up leaving a day early. I did get in a couple good hikes, both ‘trail-less’ hikes, one in the tundra, and the over in the Teklanika riverbed. I even found a full set of moose antlers. Too bad I couldn’t bring them home. Overall we saw way less wildlife compared to the last time we were here: only a few caribou and sheep. No bears, wolves, or moose.

From Denali we went to Talkeetna, stopping briefly at the never completed Igloo Hotel. In Talkeetna we spent 3 nights parked right next to the city park in the center of town. I love this town. Great food, live music and interesting folks. Talkeetna is the town where most climbers of Denali Mountain, the highest peak in North America (20,310 ft), start their journey. The local history museum is excellent, with a great video on what it takes to summit Denali Mountain. We also went on a touristy but fun jet boat ride. But mainly we hung out at the Fairview Inn listening to local bands and people watching.

Full sets of photos: Denali National Park and Talkeetna. There are not many good photos from Denali NP due to the smoke, but luckily the smoke cleared once we arrived in Talkeetna.

You might think the Denali Highway is the good road from Anchorage to Denali National Park, but in fact it is a mostly gravel road, only open in summer, between the tiny towns of Paxson and Cantwell. Before the Parks Highway was completed in the early 1970s, the Denali Highway was the only road access to Denali National Park. 

We spent 2 nights at Tangle Lakes BLM campground, which was quite windy (good for keeping mosquitos away, bad if you want to kayak on the lake). There is an easy short hike with great views from the campground.

Next we stayed in the camping area at the Clearwater Lodge. All the staff were extremely friendly and helpful, but everything except the camping fee was crazy expensive ($9/gallon gas, $15 hot dog!) We spent some time hanging out and playing cribbage with a retired bush pilot in the tiny on-site bar, and, of course, added our signed dollar bills to the collection on the walls/ceiling. On our last morning we woke up to see a mama and baby moose walk by.

There were a surprising number of Air Force jets flying over this part of Alaska from the Eielson Air Force base outside of Fairbanks. This is one of the only places they are allowed to break the sound barrier. We happened to be here during a thunderstorm, and it was really hard to tell which was thunder, and which was a sonic boom. We were told by the owners of the lodge that periodically the sonic booms from the jets will break their windows.

Unfortunately the mosquitos were horrible here, and smoke from over 100 fires started impacting our trip this week. Almost 2 million acres in Alaska have already burned this year.

Random week 6 observation: a surprising number of Europeans bring their RV with them. So far I’ve seen 3 small RVs with German plates, and 1 with French plates. I asked one of the Germans about it, and she said its fairly common for folks from Europe bring their RV over, and everyone comes in via Halifax.

The full set of photos for week 6 can be found here.