Friday, July 26, 2013 (Travel to Eagle River Campground, Chugach State Park, Anchorage, Alaska)

It was a cloudy morning as we prepared to leave.  We weren't really in any hurry because our destination today was only about 38 miles away...Eagle River Campground in the Chugach State Park.  It is the closest State Park to Anchorage, just 12 miles away.  We figured it would be a good spot for our stay in Anchorage...besides, there are few RV parks in Anchorage that have half decent reviews.

We left Mountain View RV Park shortly after 10:30...our ETA at Eagle River Campground was 11:15.  As you can see, it really wasn't a very nice day...fairly warm, just clouds...no mountain views today...

Knik River entering into Cook Inlet...

A four-lane divided highway...wow, we're not used to this!

Unfortunately, we missed the turnoff off for the campground...it wasn't marked, other than a picture of an RV...sheesh, so we had to go a few miles further until we reached the next exit. 
When we arrived at the campground, we started our search for an empty site...yikes, it's pretty full.  We found one, backed into it and then realized it had a slip on the post..."paid for July 26"...does that mean its reserved for tonight or they were leaving today.  After chatting to the camp host, he confirmed that the site was reserved for tonight.  Oh, oh....that means that there were no sites available.  The camp host suggested the overflow section...so off we went to check it out.

One thing we noticed was the highway noise...and there were a couple of "questionable" fellows that left me feeling uncomfortable. There was one RV park in Anchorage whose review was not bad...so we decided to go there (amazing...reviews for most of the RV parks in Anchorage are just terrible).  We found Golden Nugget RV Park and it was quite an ordeal just pulling into the driveway, it was so overgrown!  Once parked, we went into the office to find that the Good Sam rate would be $43 for the night!  We politely declined and left...on our drive through the park to get out, we were glad of our decision.

Okay...where to now?  We decided to go back to the State park and stay in the overflow section...so, yes, we just wasted a lot of time!  Oh well.  By the time we got unhitched and "semi" unpacked inside, and had lunch it was going on to 2:00.  We decided to do our Costco run this afternoon and then continue to another destination tomorrow.

A six-lane divided highway now...it's so nice driving on smooth highways again however we aren't thrilled with the big city traffic...

It was going on 4:30 by the time we got back to our trailer.  There were a lot more RVs in the overflow section...we'll have lots of company!  Steve got our chairs out while I put away the groceries...then it was time to sit outside with a bevy.

We were sitting outside researching our destination for tomorrow when another RV arrived in the overflow section.  They pulled in beside us and once Jim and Claire had set up, they brought over their chairs and joined us.  They had just flown in from San Diego last night and picked up their rental Class C motorhome.  More family (even some from Germany) are arriving Sunday...in total there will be 10 in the group touring the Kenai Peninsula for a couple of weeks.

After a nice chat with them, they headed off for a walk down to the river while we went inside to get dinner going.  Tomorrow we are going to head towards the Portage area...not far from Whittier.

Thursday, July 25, 2013 (Mountain View RV Park, Palmer, Alaska)

We had a pretty darned lazy start to the day...I got up at 6:30 and it never ceases to amaze me how fast time can go...next thing I know, it's 8:30!  Sheesh!  As usual, I sat with my coffee and laptop doing our blog (yay...we have internet again!)  Then it was time for our resistance exercises, breakfast, dishes....and...finally, we are ready to go explore the Palmer area!!  It was going on 11:30...can't rush into these things!

On our way into Palmer (the campground is 3 miles out of town), we crossed over the Matanuska River.  This is the old bridge that is now used at a pedestrian walkway with trails on either side of the river...

We went to the Visitors Information Center to find out more about Palmer..."Palmer was established around 1916 as a railway station on the Matanuska Branch of the Alaska Railroad. In 1935, Palmer became the site of one of the most unusual experiments in American history: the Matanuska Valley Colony. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, one of the many New Deal relief agencies created by President Roosevelt, planned an agricultural colony in Alaska. 203 families, mostly from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, were invited to join the colony. They arrived in Palmer in the early summer of 1935. Although the failure rate was high, many of their descendants still live in the Mat-Su Valley today."

The Visitors Center was a mini museum in itself...lots of information.  Once we were finished, we went for a walk to see some of the historical sections of the community.  This is the bell off of the USS St. Mihiel...it is significant to the City of Palmer because the St. Mihiel was the ship which transported the first colonists from Minnesota on there way to Alaska. The colonists left San Francisco on board the USAT St. Mihiel enroute to Alaska in the spring of 1935 as part a New Deal project.

Our walk really didn't amount to much because the map we had didn't make sense, so we decided to go back to the truck and go for a drive instead.  We quickly determined that there really isn't much in Palmer, so we thought we would take a drive to nearby Wasilla.  That seems to be the major hub of the area, having a lot of newer shopping areas and fast food restaurants.

This is Wasilla Lake...

...and City Hall...

We stopped to fuel up with diesel...the best price we have found in a long, long time...$4.13/gallon (that's like about $1.03/litre...roughly).  Then we headed back to Palmer...these are the mountains that we are camped near...

We parked the truck and went for a walk over the bridge (the one in the picture at the start of this blog) and followed the walking path down to the river.  We met two couples camped down there in small Class C motorhomes.  One couple was from the San Francisco area and one couple was from Wales (they fly out from Anchorage tomorrow).  We had a pleasant chat with them and found out about their travels to Denali...good tips!

We were back home around 3:30...time for a little work around the trailer (since we have full hookups) before we leave in the morning.  Tomorrow we are driving a short distance to a State Park just outside Anchorage...hopefully there will be a spot available for us. We will likely be there for a few days while we check out the area...I'm looking forward to going to Costco...pretty bad, eh?

Steve took a couple of pictures of the RV park...



See those clouds building?  Well, after a beautiful warm day with temps around 78F/24C, we had a bit of a thunderstorm...not a lot of thunder and lightning but a heck of a down pour!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 (Travel to Mountain View RV Park, Palmer, Alaska)

We woke to sun streaming through the bedroom window...no clouds to burn off this morning!  It was an absolutely gorgeous warm start to the day...we hate to leave this beautiful spot!  A little fog did roll in over the water...made for some cool pictures...

The sun glistening on Valdez Glacier with fish jumping in the foreground...

It was 9:40 when we left Allison Point and headed back to the Richardson Highway and the return drive north.  The Lowe River...

Back through Keystone Canyon and another look at Bridal Veil Falls...

 

An old railroad tunnel through the mountain...

 



More stunning scenery...

It's a long climb up to the Thompson Pass summit...

Tiekel River...

Oil pipeline runs 800 miles to Valdez...

After 115 miles on the Richardson Highway, we reached the junction with the Glenn Highway and turned west (left) onto it.  This was the start of a long stretch of road maintenance...it extended from the junction, through the town of Glennallen and for quite a distance beyond (it seem to go on for miles!).

There was a water tanker spraying the road with water...great, so much for our clean truck...

 ...then a little dust...

We had just gotten back onto pavement when we came across some bridge repair...

 Chugach Mountains...

Sheep Mountain Lodge...

Staging area for rafters...

Tail end of the Matanuska Glacier...there was no sign for the viewpoint so we blew past it and missed getting a photo of this awesome looking mountain and glacier...

Matanuska River...

At this point, the Milepost book states..."CAUTION: Narrow, winding road westbound next 25 miles; no passing lanes, very few turnouts, 7 percent grades, slow for 35 mph curves..." (yikes!)

 ..."soft dirt shoulder to south with steep drop-offs and no guardrails"...glad we are on the north side! Beautiful view of Long Lake...

Another stint of road work...

River rafters...

Kings River...

Stunning views over Matanuska River...

Just before 5:00, we arrived at Mountain View RV Park. Palmer, Alaska...the sun was shining and it was hot!  I'm not complaining, but I certainly didn't expect it to be so hot in Alaska!  We got leveled off, unhitched and then sat outside in the shade with a cold beer before we continued our unpacking job.  It's not a bad RV park...nice to have grass at the sites.  With our Good Sam discount, it is $31.50/night with full hook-up and wifi (although, the wifi is a little slow...perhaps it will improve once the Caravan behind us leaves). For the most part once you get past all of the road construction past Glennallen the highway is fine...just a few bad spots that sneak up on you.

We'll check out Palmer tomorrow and then likely continue onto Anchorage after...we'll see...can't plan too far in advance!