We’re camped in Chugach National Forest, the second-largest in the country, I believe. What’s extra cool is that our campground is nestled among amazingly high mountains and glaciers, all around us. Here I am biking back from the iron ranger where we paid for our campsite for a week. That’s a glacier visible from the […]
Tag: Alaska
They Take Away the Bear Skat to Keep Wedding Gowns Clean
It’s hard to try to wrap your head around how accessible the wilderness is here in Alaska. We’re only an hour’s easy drive from Anchorage, and we’re staying in a national forest campground, not some boondocking spot down a long dirt road. To get to the trail I’m talking about here, for example (the Byron […]
Twin Peaks & Mt Baldy Hikes
Here in southeast Alaska, we did two hikes in a week with big elevation gains—about 1,200 feet each—which for us is whole lotta climbing. I took way too many photos that don’t do any of the scenes justice. I’m gonna show you anyway! Elkutna Lake This gorgeous lake is a popular spot for people from […]
Wild Things around Chugach
“Chugach” is the name for the native peoples in this southeast region of Alaska, and it’s the name of a national forest and the state park we’re in right now, amazingly near Anchorage. Elkutna Lake and Eagle River Close-ups I’m having a hard time posting photos of views that are not sweeping landscapes, so I’m […]
A Dog Named Spoons, and Other Alaska Myths
I may not have any signal before my weekly email goes out, so I’m throwing up these photos and a few FAQ about our camping the last few weeks in central/southeastern Alaska. Friends ask me questions that make me realize I’ve neglected giving even the basics about where we are and how we’re living. Boondocking […]
Those Previous Photos Have Been One-Upped
I wrote my previous post from the Denali Highway this morning, and then the sun came out, and whammo—the Alaska Range opened up as if we hadn’t seen it at all. It’s impossible for me to display the full range, because I keep zooming in on specific mountains and glaciers, then getting distracted by another […]
Banjo Gets to Enjoy Alaska
Ever since a bear wandered through our campsite in British Columbia, we’ve kept Banjo on a short leash and almost never on the tie-out line that gives her free rein of the campsite. We’ve been on the lookout all the way north for bear, foxes, moose, who knows what, because wild animals do like to […]
Finally Seeing the Light on Denali
What can I tell you about “the mountain” that you don’t already know? You know it’s the tallest mountain on Earth as measured from base to top. You know the absurd controversy about its name. Maybe you don’t know what it’s like to finally see it after you’ve been a curmudgeon about Denali National Park […]
Attitude Check in Denali National Park
Since writing this, I’ve learned more about the protection of the park through the Wilderness Act of 1964 and have a better attitude! Maybe we’ve gotten used to having glorious nature to ourselves. In Yukon, especially, we’d pull off the road to camp, with stunning views and walks on the tundra in every direction—no one […]
Musk Ox and More in Fairbanks
We were in Fairbanks for almost a week, but, because it had been more than a month since we’d been in a city, we had so many errands to run that we hardly had enough time to sightsee. We did squeeze in some fun, though. Musk Ox & Reindeer Research Station The Large Animal Research […]
