I have created a 10 minutes video of our time at Iniakuk Lodge, north of the Arctic Circle. I uploaded it to YouTube this morning. We have never really used video in our travels, but will continue to learn. Hope you enjoy. Click on the link below to view it.
Gates of the Arctic
What an amazing experience. This is by far our largest page, so may take time to download everything. Enjoy – we certainly did. Click the link below.
Denali National Park
We were not able to fly into Denali National Park, but we still had a great 48 hours in Talkeetna. It snowed almost the entire time we were there. It was classic beautiful winter, no wind, mid 20s and about a foot of new snow, all on top of tons of existing snowfall. Throw in the foot while we were in Anchorage and we have seen nearly 2 feet of freshly fallen snow.
On the train north we spent two hours inside the park, so we did officially spend time inside the park boundaries. We did see several moose while in the park as well. Now we are off to the true cold. Sunday’s forecast in Fairbanks is for a low of -18 and we will be 200 miles north of that.
We did see the northern lights on the train as we arrived in to Fairbanks. Elizabeth and I went for a walk from our hotel at midnight to view them. Pictures will be in our next post. Enjoy our Denali link below.
Kenai Fjords
What a wonderful start to this trip. The weather was perfect – 12” of snow for the start of the Iditarod followed by a cloudless sky the following day for the drive down to Seward making for spectacular views. Day 3 we took a 3 ½ hour tour on a boat. Our captain mentioned if we headed south there wasn’t much till we hit Antarctica in about 11,000 miles. Hawaii is in there somewhere, but kind of a funny thought.
We hope you enjoy the pictures and stories on the link below.
Alaska
March 3, 2022
Our National Park adventures will resume, starting tomorrow evening with a winter trip to Alaska. At first Elizabeth did not think Alaska and winter would fit into her plans, but she is truly excited now to venture off to the great white north. Fairbanks is supposed to stay above zero all this week! 😉 (Iniakuk will be a bit cooler as it is 200 miles north of Fairbanks). At least the days there are basically the same length as wherever you live, as we approach the spring equinox.
Our good friend Mark will be watching Rangeley for the two weeks we are gone. Thank you to him for allowing us to take off like this.
We have a nonstop flight tomorrow from Phoenix to Anchorage. Saturday morning is the start of the Iditarod Dog Sled race. The start is part of a week long winter festival in Anchorage. Elizabeth is looking forward to the Reindeer Run on Saturday afternoon. Anchorage’s version of Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls.
We will drive the 120 miles south to Seward where we will take a boat to Kenai Fjords National Park. We then will head back to Anchorage where we will catch the train for the journey north to Talkeetna where we plan to fly into Denali National Park and land on a glacier.
We catch the next train out of Talkeetna (48 hours later) heading north to Fairbanks. From there we get a plane ride 200 miles north (60 miles north of the Arctic Circle) to Iniakuk Lodge where we will spend 4 nights mushing (driving dog sled teams) and hoping to see the Aurora Borealis (northern lights). We will also mush the 6 miles north into Gates of the Arctic National Park.
So this trip literally includes planes, trains and automobiles as well as boats and dog sled teams.
There are 8 National Parks in Alaska so we will return in the summer (maybe this summer – who knows) to visit the remaining 5 Parks.
In April/May we are planning another road trip with Rangeley. He and I plan a couple short section hikes on the AT (150 miles total). This will be his first back packing experience (hope it goes well). Elizabeth will fly east and meet us probably in Virginia. We will then go to the northeast to visit family, Ohio to visit Rangeley’s Amish family then head up to northern Michigan to visit Isle Royale National Park, head to northern Minnesota to visit Voyageurs National Park and then west to Montana and Glacier National Park before returning to Phoenix.
That will leave the 5 Alaska Parks as the only ones remaining on our list to visit. What an amazing journey this has been. Thanks for travelling along with us.
Roaming Rangeley Recap
Our third road trip in the past 11 months is now in the rear view mirror. All three of us have really enjoyed driving around seeing the beautiful sites and meeting many wonderful people that call this great country home. It is amazing to me how resilient our society is, as we did this all while the world has been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
When I have hiked on the Appalachian Trail or ridden my bicycle I have always enjoyed sitting outside a local store and watching and talking with the people of small town America. These roads trip have been the same concept, but covering a much larger geographical area.
The US is very easy to get around. There are great roads everywhere. It was eye opening to see how America works from the farmers growing corn in Iowa, the ranchers of Texas with their cattle, mile long freight trains and trucks everywhere moving product so we can go to our local store (or log on to Amazon) and purchase just about anything. As consumers we take most of the supply chain for granted.
As far as “what is next?” we don’t have any real plans at this point. Elizabeth has a busy fall with the return of in person corporate events. Click the link below to read our recap of this trip. Thanks for following along.
Millersburg, Ohio
We had another great visit with our Amish friends in Ohio. Rangeley didn’t get to swim, but he did visit 3 different farms and was fine around all the animals. He was a bit hesitant around a 1 year old and a 2 year old but quickly warmed up to the mini humans. He has never reacted around Charity (who is 2 1/2) so we didn’t understand his initial reaction to Dennis’ nieces.
Since you are not supposed to take pictures of the Amish, the photos do not include any faces. Click below to read about our visit.
Vermont
We had a great time visiting family in Vermont, the state we both grew up in. This was Rangeley’s 40th state visited! He will visit 5 more new states on the drive home. He loved being at my sister’s house where he could run free and visit the river every morning. (He was never loose without supervision.)
Click below to read about our latest adventures.
Rangeley Maine
What a great few days. Rangeley the pup had an awesome time in Rangeley the Lake and Rangeley the town. We met up with my thru hiker friends and met many more while doing trail magic. Click the link below to see the many great pictures.
Acadia
We sure do enjoy visiting the National Parks. It is the journey and everything around the parks, not just the parks themselves that make for the amazing experiences we have had so far. Acadia is very dog friendly and even though it is one on the 10 most visited parks we found lots of places for Rangeley to enjoy the ocean. He sure has enjoyed Maine so far and he has more to come as we head to the town of Rangeley tomorrow to meet up with our AT friends again.
Click the link below to read our stories.
Gary and Elizabeth's Adventures 