Geez Louise, I just disembarked from a boat cruise of the Kenai Fjords National Park, and it was all about glaciers and fjords and amazing views, but to me, it was the mammals and birds that blew my mind. We saw sea otters, sea lions, puffins, and I don’t even known what else right now […]
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Spawning Salmon at Williwaw Creek
The Chugach National Forest campground we stayed in called Williwaw—the one that’s right on the Trail of Blue Ice and other trails with access to several glaciers—is also right on Williwaw creek, an unusually clear creek running from the glaciers far above. The Blue Ice trail runs alongside it for part of its five miles, […]
Trail of Blue Ice
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Price of Adventure (at Tombstone)
On our way to Tombstone Territorial Park in Yukon we drove a short stretch of the Klondike Highway and then the infamous Dempster. Up here there’s constant roadwork in the summer, and by roadwork they mean, “bulldozing the old road and pushing a pile of dirt beside it for a new road.” I was too […]
You Keep Watching the Tundra, Then You Remember to Look Up (at Tombstone)
I said this to Tracy yesterday while we were hiking along the mountains in the northern part of Tombstone Territorial Park, here in the Yukon, a little east of Fairbanks. The sub-arctic tundra here is so beautiful—moss and lichen and flowers—a deep cover that insulates the permafrost right below. Even if the ground weren’t captivating, […]
Faro: Named for a Card Game
Faro, Yukon, is a tiny little town born from mining, but not the kind we’re used to hearing about up here near Alaska. Yeah, people panned for gold along the Pelly River (Pharaoh/Faro is an old French card game they played), but the big deal was lead and zinc. As in, the world’s largest open-pit […]
Why Do People Camp Like This?
Shana and I have a little thing going where we complain to each other about other people in our campgrounds. Because, as Julia Louis-Dreyfus says, it’s not whining—it’s telling the truth. Yesterday, Shana sends me a text describing something especially odd in her campground in California. A large group of women dressed up in white […]
