Palmer Alaska, located just an hour or so north of Anchorage was a good place to layover for a few days. The Elks Lodge has RV parking with electric hookups right on an awesome lake between Palmer and Wasilla. Upon arrival I wasted no time assembling my stand up...
Midnight Sun in Fairbanks
Look out the window in June at midnight and you would swear that the sun never sets in Fairbanks this time of the year. Technically, the longest day of the year, on summer solstice (June 21st) there is 21 hours and 49 minutes of official daylight. But it remains...
Resilience & Natural Beauty – This is Valdez
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu As I mentioned in my last post, Valdez wasn’t originally in my plan for this trip. Before actually visiting my only perception of this place was shaped by the Exxon Vadez oil spill...
Miles of Awesome – Alaska Highway #2
The Alaskan Highway adventure continues…….. Sometimes it is hard to wrap my brain around just how far it is to Alaska. And just how much of that distance is vast wide open wilderness sprinkled with small outposts of civilization where the highway traveler can refuel, pick up supplies, find...
Loosey Goosey at Liard Hot Springs
Somewhere along the Alaska Highway between Dawson Creek and Whitehorse lies a place called Liard River Hot Springs. Previously known to the local Kaska Indians the hot springs natural heated mineral pools provided year-round warmth to weary travelers. Back in the 1940’s when the highway was being constructed the...
Banff NP – Creation of a Canadian National Park System
It was here in Cave and Basin National Historic Site (located in Banff) that Canada’s first National Park was born. Back in the 1880’s the Canadian Pacific Railway was stretching it’s way across Canada opening in its wake a path for pioneers (very similar to US history). Although Aboriginal...
Sand in your shoes – Bruneau Dunes State Park
As I started my trek north with a plan on crossing the Canadian border around mid May it was time to visit a few State Parks along the route. Not surprising that the further north I travel the colder and wetter the weather gets (go figure!). I try not...
Presidents & Parks – Great Basin National Park
Great Basin is probably one of the least known national parks, partly as it was created recently, in 1986, prior to which only the caverns were officially recognized, as the Lehman Caves National Monument (established in 1922), and partly as the area is far from any other famous landmark,...
At Home in Prescott – Paddle, Hike & Bike
Prescott, AZ – this is one of those places that will certainly go on my list of future places to call home – or at minimum places I want to go back to soon. At the urging of friends Pat and Linda who live in Prescott I changed my...
Volcanos & Beer Around Flagstaff
The National Park Service isn’t the only branch of Federal Government that protects awesome places. Near Flagstaff there are two really cool sites managed by the Forest Service that are not only interesting but tell stories of a volcanic past. “All Nature’s wildness tells the same story: the shocks...