We bought a good road map of Alaska at the Visitors Center in Delta Junction. They had a funny painting on the wall:

We stopped at a beautiful spot called the Rainbow Pass:

The Alaska Pipeline (transporting raw oil from Prudhoe Bay in the north all the way to Valdez in the south) crossed the road:

The drive was very beautiful, with a lot of nice views of the Alaska Range. We stopped at the campsite at Donnelly Creek State Recreation Site. We went for a walk and took some photos at the Creek around sunset (11:30 PM)

Monday May 31 - Donnelly Creek - Sourdough (90 miles)
We had breakfast at a nice viewpoint, and I took some photos of our camper.

We drove through the Alaska range, it was very beautiful! We made a lot of stops to take pictures, we saw snow and some partly frozen lakes. The road is called the Richardson Highway. This is a glacier we saw from the road:

In Paxton we visited the gas station. We thought it would be a village, but it seemed to be only a roadhouse and a gas station. Deserted area! We drove on to Sourdough, where we found a campsite.

Tuesday June 1 - Sourdough - McCarthy (157 miles)
In the morning we drove towards Glenallen. We had breakfast at a beautiful spot overlooking the Copper River....

We went to the visitors center in Glenallen, as well as the visitor center of Wrangell St Elias National Park a bit further down the road.
We stopped at this beautiful lake with views of the Wrangell Mountains. On clear days you can see smoke coming from the volcanic mountains!

At the lake, we left the Richardson Highway, and drove towards Chitina. Beautiful road! Here's some pictures taken on that road...

We stopped at a gas station in Chitina and walked around the small village. It used to be a ghost town, it's not anymore but it still has the feel to it.

Chitina is the start of the McCarthy road, a true adventure! The road is 60 miles long and goes to McCarthy in the Wrangell St Elias Park. The road is very bad, you can't drive much faster than 20-25 miles per hour so it takes you about 2,5 hours. The road is the former railway, they just made it a road by putting stones over it. Sometimes you still see the wood from the railway and they say there's still nails in the road. It rained sometimes. After 3,5 hours (we made some stops) we arrived at the end of the road! You cannot drive into McCarthy, you have to cross two food bridges to get there. We stayed at the Glacier View Campground, as the free campsite was closed because of recent bear activity.

Wednesday June 2 - McCarthy
We walked to McCarthy and planned on walking to Kennecott from there, this is 5 miles. On the way a van stopped and the drives asked us if we wanted a ride for 5 dollars per person, this was fine with us! After a bumpy ride we arrived in Kennecott. This was a coppermine town between 1900 and 1938. Unbelievable how they built this town and the railway to it in the middle of nowhere!! They made a profit of 200 million dollars during the time it was open... In 1938 the mine closed and Kennecott was deserted. A lot of the buildings are in a bad shape but it is still amazing to see! We walked around and took photos. We found a lot of green-blue stones (malachite and azurite). Very pretty!
We also took a hiking trail, but we found bear shit on the path and heard some strange sounds, so we decided to go back.

Thursday June 3 - McCarthy
On Thursday we got up early and took the shuttle to Kennecott. Yesterday we talked to a guy from Kennecott Wilderness Guides, he gave us a brochure of their activities. We decided we wanted to go on their half day hike to the Root Glacier. First we went on a little hike, we took the trail that we didn't finish yesterday. This was the view:

At 1 PM we left with Kevin, our guide, and a girl from Australia, one from England, and a couple from Israel. We all got a pair of crampons to walk on the glacier. The hike to the Root Glacier took about an hour, some dogs accompanied us.

Once at the glacier, we put our crampons on. The dogs really liked the ice, they had no problem walking on it and they even ate it! We saw many amazing things on the glacier: deep rivers, waterfalls, stunning blue lakes... And the weather was perfect!

We also stopped at the Worhtington Glacier, a very beautiful glacier close to the road. Here are some photos taken there:

We stopped for the night at the Blue Berry Lake State Recreation Site camping, very nice place!

Saturday June 5 - Blue Berry Lake - Valdez (46 miles)
We drove to Valdez, which wasn't far. The road was very beautiful!! Especially the part through Key Stone Canyon with many waterfalls... here's a picture of the prettiest one, Bridal Veil Falls:

We made reservations for the ferry from here, on Tuesday at 7:15 AM we are taking the ferry to Whittier.
We wanted to go for a hike, and we took a road that would take us to a parking lot for the trail head. Unfortunately, there had been an avalanche and we had to turn back. The area was very beautiful, so we decided to camp along this road. The first time we didn't sleep at an official campground!

Sunday June 6 - Valdez
I started reading Into the Wild yesterday, a book about a guy who comes to Alaska to live of the land in the wilderness, but he eventually dies. It's a true story and very impressive! I couldn't stop reading and I finished it today!
We went for a walk, first to a very beautiful waterfall where we spent some time. Then we walked on to the river.

Monday June 7 - Valdez (29 miles)
We drove back to Valdez on Monday. In the harbour, we saw a bald eagle grabbing a piece of fish, he flew to a mast and sat there eating it. We could come very close and we took many photos. It was impressive, we could hear him tearing the fish apart! Of course some other birds tried to steal a part, but they didn't have a chance.

Tuesday June 8 - Valdez - Greyling Lake (82 miles)
On Tuesday we had to wake up VERY early, since we had to be at the ferry terminal at 6:15. Unfortunately it was a very cloudy day with nonstop drizzling rain. I saw a group of whales! Later on we saw Dall Porpoises and sea otters. The boat passed close to Columbia Glacier, we saw the ice bergs very close. Here's some (gray) pictures... The last photo is taken right before we arrived in Whittier, there were two waterfalls where a lot of birds had nests.

Whittier is a remarkable place... The location is very isolated, and there are two huge appartment buildings. Almost the whole town lives in one of them (the nice one), the other one is deserted (the Buckner building). Soldiers used to live in that one. In the harbour they are building a very nice building, I was told it will be a hotel.

Not so long ago you could only reach Whittier by boat or by train. Since 2000 you can reach it by car, you have to drive through the train tunnel! Every half an hour the driving direction changes, since it's only one lane. And of course everything is stopped when the train has to pass. It's 2.7 miles (4.3 kilometers) long. If you go towards Whittier, you have to pay (and quite a lot!) but coming from Whittier it is free. Halfway in the tunnel there are big vans that make so much noise that for a moment I was afraid there was a train was behind us ;)

After the tunnel we stopped at a Visitor Center. A very beautiful one, with a great exposition about the surroundings and a lot of information! We saw a movie about glaciers there. The visitor center was located on a lake with a lot of icebergs in it, some from Portage Glacier:

We drove for a long time today, the weather was so grey... Eventually we stopped for the night at the parking lot for the trailhead to Greyling Lake.

Wednesday June 9 - Greyling Lake - Seward (Exit Glacier Rd) (32 miles)
We drove to Seward, where we signed up for a 7 hour National Park Cruise (to Kenai Fjords National Park) for tomorrow. With Renown Charters again, the same company that I did a cruise with in March.
We drove to Exit Glacier. When we arrived, I wanted to use the toilet. I walked there and found a building, but I wasn't sure if it was a restroom. I thought about walking towards the other buildings, but decided to try the door first. It turned out to be a outhouse, so I used it. When I walked toward the visitor center, I saw a group of people in front of the door, all with camera's, obviously pointing at something. I didn't understand what they were doing... until I saw a black beer with a cub exactly in front of the lady's toilets!!! These were the "real" toilets.. imagine if I would have walked to the other buildings, I surely would have been in the restroom, opening the door and walking into them. So I was very lucky!! It was a very impressive sight to see the bear with her cub.

They disappeared into the woods, and we walked to Exit Glacier. It was beautiful! You could come pretty close to the glacier.

Thursday June 10 - Seward - Watson Lake (82 miles)
Unfortunately we woke up to cloudy skies and even rain... We had to be at the office at 10 AM, the ship departed at 10:30. The boat wasn't very full. Soon, we saw sea otters, bald eagles, and later on sea lions and a rock full of gulls and puffins, it was amazing!! After that we had to cross open sea and it was very rough, we had strong winds. I stayed at the bough, it was cool!! Almost like a rollercoaster :) You had to hold on to the railing. Our captain was Captain Hook and he even had two hooks! I'm not kidding. There were lots of whales, but they prefer staying under the water with rough water. So we just saw fins and their steam. Unfortunately the weather was so rough that we couldn't continue to the glacier and to Kenai Fjords National Parks.. we had to go back to Seward. On the way we saw a group of Dall Porpoisen, they played with the bough and it was very cool to see them playing and jumping!

We were back much earlier, they gave us part of the money back. We decided to start our way towards Homer. We saw many beautiful lenticular clouds on the way!! The whole sky was filled. We stopped at a campsite at Watson Lake, it was so pretty there... a lake filled with water lillies and we saw an otter swimming (at least we think it was an otter).

Friday June 11 - Watson Lake - Homer (132 miles)
Today the road was very beautiful. First through Sterling and Soldotna, and then we took the road to Homer. This road follows the coastline, and is so beautiful! On the other side of Cook Inlet we saw the mountains and volcanoes. It's quite a big town (for Alaska ;) ), and it has a long pier, the Homer Spit. We drove there, it was unbelievable how many RV's there were!! The big business here is halibut fishing, we saw boats coming back with huge halibuts.

Here's a panorama taken from the beach, we walked there and collected beautiful rocks. The panorama is not stitched very well, but you get the idea. And also a photo of the nice houses near the sea.

After this we drove around Homer, it has many beautiful suburbs. It's almost like the alps! Beautiful wooden houses with a great view...

Saturday June 12 - Homer - Ninilchik (57 miles)
We drove to Ninilchik, one of the oldest settlements on the Kenai Peninsula. There is a foot path going up the hill that ends at the Russian church. Very beautiful! From there you also have a good view over the Cook Inlet and the two vulcanoes on the other side. Here's the pictures! We spent the night there, and we saw a beautiful sunset.

Sunday June 13 - Ninilchik - Kasilov/Kenai (24 miles)
We stopped in Kasilov to get petrol. When we wanted to leave, I couldn't get the car in "drive" gear... I tried for a while but it really didn't work. The woman who worked at the gas station tried it, but she couldn't do it either. So we called Go North and then a mechanic. He found out the transmission cable was broken, he thought he could put the gear in drive manually so we could drive to the Chrysler dealer in Kenai and wait for it to be fixed. Unfortunately this didn't work... So... we had to be towed! We were brought to the Chrysler dealer and the driver left us in front of the dealer. It was a Sunday so we had to wait until the next morning.

Monday June 14 - Kenai
On Mondaymorning we woke up early to talk to the people of the garage. They couldn't look at it immediately, but they would look at it later today and call Go North about it.
We we walked to the old downtown of Kenai, we went to the visitor center where they had a nice art exposition. We then visited two Russian churches, one of them is in use and we could look inside. They were on a beautiful location. The second one, that is not in use, is a memorial chapel for somebody. The dealer told us the cable was broken indeed, a new one had to be shipped from Fairbanks and it would arrive tomorrow.

Tuesday June 15 - Kenai
The cable was supposed to arrive after noon, but nothing came...We called Go North, they didn't understand either, they asked the dealer in Fairbanks to send it overnight but they used ground mail so we had to wait another day!

Wednesday June 16 - Kenai - Potter (181 miles)
Our cable finally arrived at the dealer and they started to work on the car immediately (they wanted to get rid of us too I guess ;) ), and around 1:30 we could continue our trip! A lot of rain was expected for today, and it came true...
On our way we could clearly see the salmon season had started, places that were deserted when we first passed were now crowded with campers and people fishing in the river. We followed the Kenai river for a long time, and passed the Kenai Lake, which has a very beautiful blue color. We drove to Hope, an old gold town, very nice to see.

After this we drove back to the Seward Highway. The area was very beautiful, we drove along the Turnagain Arm (sea arm) but unfortunately it was very cloudy and we got a lot of rain, so we didn't see much.We stopped just before Anchorage, at the town of Potter. There was a boardwalk there that takes you over the Potter marsh, a nature area. We saw many birds and also some salmons!

Thursday June 17 - Potter - Kashwitna Lake (144 miles)
We drove to Anchorage where we spent some time. We drove on to Palmer. A lot of people moved from the midwest of the USA to Palmer after the dustbowl. They tried to make a living there as farmers, and after a lot of trouble they managed to. We saw many farms around Palmer, it's the most important agricultural area. Here are some pictures of Palmer, and look for the ultimate proof: the water tower, I haven't seen them anywhere in Alaska, but a lot in the rest of the USA. The traffic sign was very funny!

After our visit to Palmer we drove to the Hatcher Pass, a very beautiful area! The road was pretty steep. We stopped a couple of times to take pictures...

The visitor center was closed when we got to Independance Mine, but you can still see everything. It used to be a goldmine, but now it's deserted and falling apart (like Kennecott). Once a lot of people worked and lived here! We climbed up and walked around the village, it was so fascinating! There were old rusty things lying around everywhere, and the buildings were falling apart.

After this we had to take the same road back, the rest of the Hatcher Pass turned out to be closed. Fortunately we could take a shortcut to Wasilla so we didn't have to go back all the way to Palmer. We drove for a long time, the area around Wasilla is very pretty, surburbs of Anchorage.

Friday June 18 - Kashwitna Lake - Denali Highway (163 miles)
In the morning we woke up to a wonderful view, and we could even see Mt. McKinley at the other side of the lake! We saw float planes landing and starting from the water, a nice view!

The flight took an hour, and it was sure worth the money! After the flight we visited the cemetery of Talkeetna, there's a monument for all people who died on Mt. McKinley (most climbers come to Talkeetna first to catch a plane that drops them on the mountain). There's also many pilots burried here... it was interesting and impressive.

After this we continued our way, and we took some pictures of Mt.. McKinley. We were not the only ones, it was funny to see so many tripods!

We found a nice camping spot next to a creek, on the Denali Highway.

Saturday June 19 - Denali Highway - Teklanika Campground (Denali NP) (61 miles)
In the morning we drove to Denali National Park. Unfortunately our internet reservations mysteriously disappeared from the computer... We were lucky everything was still free so after some hassle we got tickets for everything. We stayed at Teklanika Campground, which is only for RV's (tents are not allowed anymore because of wolves). The fun thing is you can drive there yourself, normally you are not allowed to drive into the park with your own car.

Sunday June 20 - Teklanika Campground (Denali NP)
On Sunday we had to be at the busstop at 7:40, the bus would leave at 7:55. The first stop of the bus was after 5 minutes, other people had been on the bus for more than an hour (from the visitor center).
The tour was wonderful, the most beautiful part was the Polychrome Pass, here's some pictures from a break spot, and a picture of the green busses that drive through the park:

We saw Mt McKinley again, we were so lucky with the weather! This is one of the first moments that we saw the mountain, we stopped to take pictures.

The bus drove on to Eielson Visitor Center, from here you had a wonderful view on the river and towards Mt. McKinley. I found this cute ground squirrel, I could come pretty close. They are like prairie dogs, they sit up straight and look around.

We continued our way to Wonder Lake, it took us more than 4 hours in total (from our campsite). On our way we saw the homes of beavers as well as a moose in a pond. This is Wonder Lake, our final destination:

We wanted to walk to the other side of the lake to take pictures of Mt. McKinley reflecting in Wonder Lake, so we didn't go back with the same bus. The only problem was the heat, it was really warm! It was around 35 celcius, and walking wasn't fun anymore. We decided to take the bus back. At 3:15 there was another bus, and it had place for us. The trip was wonderful again! At the Eielson Visitor Center we could see a grizzly bear through the telescopes. For most animals it was too hot, they were sleeping in the shades. On the way we saw a grizzly with 3 cubs, but that was only fun for people with binoculars, we just saw a brown spot moving in the distance.
Before arriving on the campsite we saw a lynx! That's pretty rare, it was an impressive view.

Monday June 21 - Teklanika Campground (Denali NP)
We decided to get on the bus again. We took the bus to Eielson Visitor Center. The day was beautiful, but around Mt. McKinley there were clouds. On our way back from the visitor center the driver dropped most of us at the bridge, he would take a break and pick us up later. I took both my camera's even though I had only two slides left on my film. That was too bad, cause there were caribou under the bridge who started running when we crossed the bridge. Amazing view!

Later on we saw a Dall Sheep on a cliff, that was beautiful! We watched it for a while, and then the sheep decided to leave the cliff, and he crossed the road right in front of us and climbed the mountain on the other side. What a beautiful animal!

We came back to the campsite late, but the light was so beautiful that we decided to hike in the river bedding of the Taklanika River. It was beautiful!

Tuesday June 22 - Teklanika Campground (Denali NP) - Fairbanks (140 miles)
On Tuesday we drove back to Fairbanks, the end of our trip!