Arctic Circle

When we first got to Fairbanks, we spent some time here at Pioneer Park.  It was packed full of historical buildings and information all about Fairbanks and the nearby area.  Great stop!  

Today, we got up early and headed north on the Dalton Highway.  Destination....The Arctic Circle (200 miles on slow, bumpy roads).  The Alaskan Pipe Line was often visible as we traveled.

The bridge below spans the Yukon River.  The pipeline is actually connected to the bridge.

For those of you that watch, "Ice Road Truckers" you might recognize this stretch of the Dalton Highway.  Pictures never do justice, but these huge hills make up "The Roller Coaster".  Tami put her hands up and said, "Wheeee!!!"

All along the route today, we saw acres and acres of Fireweed.  Very pretty.

At last,  (after almost six hours)  we made it to the Arctic Circle.  A nice lady took our picture and even included one with the van.  I guess this means we've gone as far north as we will, so it's time to head south.

Anchorage to Fairbanks

I was lucky to find a barber in Anchorage that could cut my hair the way I like it.  We did this right in the campground and had a few other guys wanting a haircut too.  

When we got to Denali, we took a 8-hour bus ride up into the interior of the national park.  Kinda cloudy, but we did see some wildlife including two grizzlies eating a caribou.....pretty cool.

Lately, in the evenings, we've been enjoying watching an episode from "Northern Exposure".  Here is an interior view of the van in sleep mode with the blinds up to cut down on the extended daylight .  We're still sleeping quite well.

 

This is a picture of a "drunken forest".  You can see some trees lean because of the permafrost thawing which makes the roots lose their hold.

Moose are everywhere....well, almost.  We've seen plenty including one that had just been killed in an accident.  This guy looked pretty content.

Fishing on the Kenai Peninsula

We've made it to Anchorage! 

After Seward, we drove over and spent the day and night at Homer.  Below, if you look close, is the three-mile long "Spit" that was jammed with vehicles and tourist shops.  It's where we spent the night and did some ocean fishing. 

After buying some BIG hooks, and some wicked squid bait, we fished off the end of the "Spit" and had some success.

Guess what kind of fish this is (below)?  Here are two clues and the answer will be at the end of this post.
Clues:
John Belushi gave this name to a fraternity pledge in the movie, "Animal House".  (Tim's hint)
Ariel's friend in the movie, "The Little Mermaid" had the name of this fish. (Tami's hint)
 

That night, at our campsite, we fried it up.....it was delicious!










We are including this shot to show that the old van made it to the most westerly point in North America.  Way to go '95 Ford Econoline!

Here we are waiting for our order of fresh halibut in Homer. 

One night, Tim cooked up a bunch of pancakes and we heated up the leftovers in the portable mini-oven the next morning....Flapjacks on the highway!

 

The views continue to amaze us.  Here is another glacier we saw on the way to Anchorage.

By the time we got to Anchorage, we had less than an hour left on our three-day fishing license that expired at noon.  We found a small lake and were determined to use up every minute of the license.  With 15 minutes to go, Tami reeled in a leader line with a tiny fishing fly attached that someone had lost.  She tied it on to her line and proceeded to fish the hour out.
We weren't getting any nibbles when I finally heard her say, "This is my last cast."  I was starting to pick up the tackle box when she reeled in this trout.  I took her picture and checked my watch....11:59.  She made it by one minute!  Boy, was she happy.

Answer:  Flounder

Seward area

Found a Wi-Fi spot so we are taking some time to get in another post. 

 

 

We went to Seward and found the start of the original Iditarod.  So much unique history here!

 

This is Exit Glacier.  We went on a hour hike to get to near it.  Lots of info on global warming and the its effect on retreating glaciers.  Pictures never do justice, but the rich blue in the ice was gorgeous!   

We picked up a 3-day fishing license and decided to try for some lake trout.  We hiked for 45 minutes to this pristine lake. After nearly two hours, we had caught two small trout and Tami just missed landing a real keeper....but it jumped off....... really.  We'll keep you posted on other fish stories.     

New post

Here is a new update.  It's often hard to find a location that offers Wi-Fi.

 

 

 

 

There are some really interesting outhouses along the way.  This one is elevated...not sure why, but the view was great.  I (Tim) knew I would be roughing it on this trip with a lot of late night trips out to the woods, but when you are in a campground with other campers, and it never gets dark, it's hard to find a concealed location.     

 

 

 

We keep seeing animals that we don't see in Chillicothe.

 

After 4000+ miles, it was time to get the oil changed in the van.  In Tok, AK, we found a gas station that had an outdoor pit where oil was changed.  Had a great talk with this guy and decided to include him in our blog. 

 

 

  Here are a few shots of some of the beautiful sites that we have seen. 

Worthington glacier

Horsetail Falls

Mineral Creek Trail in Valdez

Commercial fishing boat and Tender

Tender (boat that collects the fish from the smaller boats)

Birds on the bridge on the way to fish hatchery

 

 In Valdez, we came across this hanging halibut and Tami took this picture just for the "halibut". 

We took a 6 hour ferry ride from Valdez to Whittier.  Very cold, but we saw lots of calving ice chunks from a glacier.   

We are in Alaska!

We have seen a lot of wild life along side the road. We are still on the Alaska Highway (I think we are currently at mile 1352 of the Alaska Hwy).

 

 

 

 

In Watson Lake, BC there is a Sign Forest.  We put up a Home of Sliced Bread, Chillicothe, MO sign.  Tim's mom and dad put up a sign during one of their three trips to Alaska. There are so many signs that we couldn't find John and Wilma's.

We made several stops along the way to look at rivers, waterfalls, beautiful scenery...The first picture was called the Whirlpool and the second one was a little waterfall on the Swift River.

We took short video clips of the bear and the bald eagle.  You can watch the bald eagle nest by searching online for the bald eagle cam in Whitehorse, Yukon.

 

We made it to Alaska.  Now we are three hours behind MO time! We are camping in Tok, AL.