Exiting Alaska

Our cruise yesterday didn't actually take us within the boundaries of Kenai Fjords National Park, but our first stop today would remedy that. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Seward Chamber of Commerce to get the passport stamp for the park. The Exit Glacier Area is about 10 miles outside of town and is the only part of Kenai Fjords NP that is accessible by car.

☑ Unit #211 for me, #205 for R, and #156 for M/J

Cruising the Fjords

Our big adventure for today was the 6-hour Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise with Major Marine Tours. Since the tour didn't depart until 11:30AM, we headed out after breakfast for a look around Seward. 

At the southern end of town is the beginning of the Iditarod National Historic Trail. Established by Congress in 1978, the trail celebrates the route that first connected Native Alaskan villages and later served mining camps, trading posts, and other settlements founded during the Alaskan Gold Rush Era (1880-1920). Sled dog teams were the only reliable means to transport goods and people along the route in winter. Most notably, when a diphtheria outbreak threatened the residents of Nome in 1925, the only way to get them enough serum for inoculations was by train from Anchorage to Nenana, and then mushers and their sled dog teams (have you heard the story of Balto?) relayed the precious cargo the final 674 miles in less than 5.5 days.

 

938 miles from Seward to Nome

Roll Tide

We had breakfast in the lodge before checking out this morning. Since we had a little bit of time before our float plane was scheduled to depart, we went out for one last look at the bears from the lower river platforms.

Monsters of the Midway

For our last full day in Katmai National Park, we spent most of our time hanging out with the bears. I had asked the lodge about the possibility of a flightseeing tour to visit Alagnak Wild River, Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve, and the preserve portion of Katmai, but nothing could be arranged for today. Guess we'll have to come back to Alaska another time to check those units off my bucket list!

Another sign pic

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

When making our reservations for Brooks Lodge back in January 2024, I also booked us on the day-long bus tour out to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes to ensure that we had spots. Good thing I didn't wait until we got here because the tour was full, and there were several people at the check-in spot this morning hoping to take the place of any no-shows. 

Here are a few foggy bear pics that I took while we were waiting for the tour to start at 9:00AM...

Now that's a fat bear!

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

After checking out of the hotel and returning the rental car this morning, we started the second leg of our trip with a one-hour Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to King Salmon. 

Cook Inlet

Anchorage Away

We didn't have much on the schedule for today, so that gave us the opportunity to explore the area around Anchorage at a more leisurely pace. From Wasilla, it took less than 30 minutes to drive to Chugach State Park. We paid the $5 day use fee at the kiosk in the parking lot of the trailhead and started the hike (~1 mile, one way) to Thunder Bird Falls.

100-foot elevation gain in the first 0.1-mile

Northern Exposure

As we were getting ready to check out of our room at the Denali Lakeview Inn this morning, we watched a moose stroll across the yard.

"Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat..."

Into the Wild

Because our Tundra Wilderness Tour wasn't scheduled to depart until 3:00PM, we had more than half a day to explore Denali National Park on our own. So, we took our time getting out the door this morning.

Another view of Otto Lake from our room at the inn

The Tall One

The original plan for today was to check out of the hotel, grab breakfast from Biscuitclub in downtown Anchorage right when it opened at 9:00AM (biscuits and gravy is my fave!), and then hit the road for the 4+ hour drive to Denali National Park. But after we parked the car (and paid in the ParkMobile app), we saw the sign on the door that they were closed for Labor Day weekend. 🤦🏻‍♀️ At least we'll have another chance to try it out when we come back to Anchorage in a few days...

Flights of Fancy

Due to high demand for the 16 rooms at Brooks Lodge inside Katmai National Park, they hold a random lottery for the opportunity to make reservations. So just for grins, in December 2023 I submitted entries for the four of us for the *2025* season, requesting up to three nights for any available dates during the peak times of July or early September to see the bears of "Fat Bear Week" fame. They said that having a flexible schedule would improve our chances of getting a reservation.

I'm not sure exactly how many entries were received for the 2025 lottery, but there were 3649 for the previous year's drawing, with more than 2500 parties ending up on the waitlist. When I found out in January 2024 that we lucked out and were given September 4-7, 2025, I immediately plunked down our deposit and started planning an Alaska vacation around those dates.  

So excited that after more than a year and a half we're actually starting our trip!

On the Trail of Manny, Sid, and Diego

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, so we went to the church we attended when we lived here in Chicago. Easter breakfast has been a long-standing tradition, so it was nice to have a chance to chat with many old friends and family before the service.

After church, we went back to R's aunties' to pack our bags for a quick trip up to Wisconsin. Then we headed over in the late afternoon to crash the gathering at R's cousin's son's house. (This is his dad's side of the family that we usually see when we come back to Chicago, as well as in Vegas at our reunions.) Most of the cousins' kids now have littles of their own, so it was fun to watch them scramble around the backyard to hunt for Easter eggs! We hung out for a bit after dinner (so much good food!) and then hit the road straight from there. Once on I-90 west, it took us about 2 hours to reach our hotel in Madison, WI.

Resilience and Beauty

We started the long drive back home around 8:00AM this morning. By 9:30AM, we reached the Mono Lake Vista Point and hopped out of the car to take some photos.

Like a Rolling Stone

We arrived home from DC on Wednesday night. Not being ones to gather moss, we were on the road again less than 36 hours later for a quick weekend trip up US-395N to the Lake Tahoe area for the wedding of our friends' son.

This is what ChatGPT gave me when I asked for a rolling stone with no moss 🤣

Where the Streets Have No Name

In an effort to pad our stamp and unit totals, we decided to make our long drive home even longer with a detour to Joshua Tree National Park. Well, even though it added almost another 60 miles, it's still kinda on the way, isn't it?! 😜

515 miles, 8.5 hours

Take It Easy

The penultimate day of our drive back home to California put us back into familiar territory, for the most part. We've driven this stretch of I-40 before, except for the section between Grants, NM and Sanders, AZ, when we took a slight detour to visit El Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument in 2016.

385 miles, 6.5 hours

On Top of the World

We left the hotel this morning a little after 7:00AM and headed about 30 miles east on US-64, turning onto NM-325 north towards Capulin Volcano National Monument. The reason for our early start was because Saiki-delic vacations usually involve some form of self-inflicted suffering. 😜

☑ Unit #189

In truth, maybe we are gluttons for punishment, but besides having a lot of ground to cover today, I didn't want to fight any crowds for a parking spot on this holiday weekend. So the goal was to be there when the Volcano Road up to the rim opened at 8:00AM. 

On the Prairie

After eating a quick breakfast in the hotel this morning, we checked out and headed south on US-69, arriving at Fort Scott National Historic Site just before 9:00AM. From the alert on their website, I knew that the park buildings were temporarily closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but it didn't occur to me that it also meant the visitor center would not be staffed. Oof. 🤦🏻‍♀️ 

☑ Unit #182

Slam Diego

Last year I traveled to Orlando for a conference, and as a bonus, I got to see alligators and manatees at Canaveral National Seashore. This year's conference was a little closer to home, so rather than suffer in traffic on the 5, my colleagues and I took the Pacific Surfliner train to San Diego on Saturday instead. Amtrak business class is totally the way to go!

After arriving at the Santa Fe Depot downtown, we took the Green Line trolley ($2.50 in the Pronto app) to the Seaport Village stop near our hotel. Then we headed across the street to grab lunch at Kansas City Barbeque, which was used as the location for the "sleazy bar scene" from Top Gun.

Maybe this pic will ring a bell...

The Power of Water

To get to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park from West Orange, the iPhone sent us there via small local roads instead of the Garden State Parkway. I'm usually happy to avoid traffic and tolls, but the problem with blindly following directions on this alternate route was that we didn't see the usual signage directing us to the park as we got closer.  On top of that, the streets of Paterson were super congested with kids getting out of school nearby, so we had a little trouble figuring out exactly where we were supposed to park the car. But after an extra trip around the block, we managed to find a spot in the lot next to Overlook Park.

25 miles