August 1

SOLTESWEB.NET ALASKA TRIP 2005 - AUGUST Page 1

Monday, August 1 - Fireweed

Fireweed is everywhere in Alaska this time of year. It adds so much to scenery pictures because of its color, and is so pretty all by itself. It can get to be about 6 feet tall!

Eagle River Nature Center

We drove north on the Glenn Hwy out of Anchorage today, and stopped at the Eagle River Nature Center, where we took a 3-mile hike. We really enjoyed the flowers, mushrooms (that red one is the most poisonous in Alaska) and red elder berries along the way, even though the trail was very wet because of recent rains and beaver activity (they go together where you find beavers). Their dams were flooding the walkways.

That's a beaver dam in the center of the picture...the water is only about 2 feet deep.

More fishermen

Eklutna

After Eagle River, we continued north to Lake Eklutna, where we had expected to camp, but were disappointed in the campground as we thought it would be on the lake. No problem...we continued down the road and stopped at the Mat-Su (Matanuska-Susitna) campground in Palmer, where we found several varieties of raspberries ripe for the picking :).

Tuesday, August 2 - Palmer and Matanuska glacier

This morning, we stopped in Palmer. The signs at the Visitor Center showed how far Palmer is from other cities around the world. Can you imagine that London, England and Chung King, China, are the same distance as Montreal? ...that Portland Oregon is 2500 miles away?

OK, so we have more flower pictures from the Visitor Center at Palmer. Amazing, the variety that the Lord has made. Below are some shots of a home-made German RV we found parked near us. Also a shot of Matanuska glacier, about 1/2 way between Palmer and Glenallen.

We are parked for the night near a bridge over Caribou Creek. Earlier, we took out our table and stove and pan-fried some salmon for supper. Patty collected some colorful rocks from the stream bed...lots of green jade here. She has been painting them with scenes and flowers. It's rough being "homeless" gypsies.

Actually, daily we feel we are truly blessed to be able to do the things we do, and we don't take it for granted. We realize that we probably have done more, and seen more, in the last 4 1/2 months than many people have in a lifetime of vacations. Fiona, our daughter, has wondered if we shouldn't write a book about how to be fulfilled living on the road. We started on June 30, 1996...now in our 10th year.

| Previous Page | Home | Next Page |