Month: July 2025

We spent two nights camped below Exit Glacier just outside the Kenai-Fjords National Park. We decided to stay an extra day since it was raining and i was feeling a bit under the weather and wanted to ride it out. It was a good day to do it since the weather was cold and drizzly all day. On the 27th we packed up and headed to Seward to look around.

Seward is Mile 0 for the Ididerod dog race to Nome, AK. Also has hundreds of campsites owned by the town set up along the shores and marina in typical sardine fashion. There was a cruise ship in the harbor so tons of additional tourists were mulling about.

We browsed through some interesting shops and had a delicious hot sandwich from a bakery on the Main Street. The town had free dumps and water fill so we took care of that after filling up with fuel.

We drove back to Anchorage to get a medical checkup for me as I was not feeling better. It turns out it was a problem so after admitting me to the emergency room, I was referred to the cardiologist and prescribed some medicines. We could not fill the prescription as nothing was open past 7pm in Anchorage, so we had a dinner at a bougie Mexican restaurant called Sorrenos. The food was good and service was OK. We retired to the Bass Pro Shop parking lot for the night.

The next day we headed in to get the Rx filled and topped off the cupboards. The pharmacy helped with some coupon pointers and a ridiculous cost for a medication went from $800 to $23. This trip has definitely thrown us some curve balls.

We went to downtown Anchorage and hung out at one of the public parks, walked the pups, did some reading, etc and then headed up to Eagle River to get a campsite at the state park. We set up and then met one of Kathy’s former students who lives in the area. She’s a hoot and we had a great visit and learned much about the area, its quirks, and politics.

On Monday, the 28th, I got a call from the Dr and have two follow up’s on Thursday and Friday, so we are in the area until then. We took off after lunch to check out two local parks, did some hiking with the pups, and then met Noria again for dinner and some laughs. We camped again at the Eagle creek State Park. It’s easy, and only $20 for the night.

We are goning yo break camp in the morning, head around the Turnagain Arm and visit the Wildlife refuge, and the. Continue on towards Solditna, the Russian River, and Homer. We have to be back Thursday morning for my appointment.

here are some additional photos of the past few days. Not a lot of sight seeing though.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250725-28-seward-and-back-to-anchorage

We had a nice night with only one interruption. A black SUV with some loud people pulled up after midnight across the road from us. I was able to get back to sleep but when I got up in the morning to let the pups out, there was some campfire smoke in the air. They pulled out and left the thing burning. The worst part is they lit it in a grass area, on the grass, and just left. These kind of people are why we lose access to public places. Uggh. I pulled a bucket of water from the lake and put it out.

I managed to work on the electrical a bit on the truck. It turns out some of the repairs I did in Idaho and two days ago in Wasilla were the cause of the issue. I had connected the ground on the center reverse light pin on the 7-pin cable. This was blowing the trailer reverse fuse. And Ram keeps 12V on all of the time to sense a trailer, so I disconnected the 12V power lead from the 7-pin to remove that sensor. Finally, since the truck camper does not have trailer brakes, I clipped that connection as well (in the patch cable between the truck and camper). This fixed everything, at least for now. I am still seeing a loss of brake controller connection in the codes, but I’ll watch that for a bit. I hope the initial crossed wiring in Idaho that started all of this didn’t kill that truck component.

Now on to the travel. We headed over to the Portage Glacier visitors center and enjoyed the exhibits. We decided not to go to Whittier and headed towards Seward. This is a busy road, as it’s the only one to the lower peninsula. Along the way we were treated to a moose foraging in a pond. Very neat to watch

We continued on to the Exit Glacier and the Kenai National Park to have lunch, hike, and get some park stamps. We headed back toward the highway after several hours and found a great place to camp along the river. The pups and I took a nice long walk along the river and enjoyed the cool evening.

hurry are some additional photos for the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250724-portage-valley-to-exit-glacier

We drove into Downtown Anchorage and paid for parking so we could walk the pups on a trail that winds along the coast. The pups ended up walking 2.4 miles on this walk and had a blast with all the smells.

There was a brewery called 49th State Brewery, so I stopped in for an IPA and an Elk Sausage sandwich. Kathy came up the hill to join me and we sat in the beautiful weather. We then hiked up the road to the Alaskan Public Lands Visitors center. They had some great exhibits and we enjoyed the education. We purchased the coins, fit the stamps, and picked up some postcards and stickers before heading out to the tourist stops.

We praised many shops and found a few trinkets we wanted. I had checked the tidal schedule and low tide was 2 PM, and since it was now 3:30 we headed towards the Turnigan Sound to watch the tides at Beluga Point. We didn’t see and beluga whales but the dogs enjoyed playing on the beach.

we continued onward to top up on water and found a nice campsite in the Portage Valley. We quickly set up and had a peaceful evening of sleep. We took a few photos today. The one below is the Anchorage Visitors Cabin and in the you get to address and send free two free postcards home. Yeah, that was free.

here are some additional photos.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250723-anchorage-to-portage-valley

We got to bed really late, even though the sun was still up, had a great night sleep. Today was chores day: showers, laundry, refuel, water fill, grey and black tank dump, etc. So we headed back in to Wasilla to take care of that. There was a NAPA store next door to the showers/laundry so I did some troubleshooting on some electrical issues I’ve been experiencing with the truck/trailer connection to the camper. I found 2 blown fuses so I replaced them (only to find out one blew again right away). Later that day we noticed the running lights were on after the truck was shut off, so I pulled the fuse in the camper for the running lights. We don’t drive at night here anyway. I have to do some thinking about the issue.

We went on a search for Dr Pepper zero and after three stores, I ended up with 20oz 6-packs of them and headed on to get fuel for hungry Howie. The muskox farm was a few miles from town and we wanted to see these gnarly beasts.

We decided on the tour, which was OK. And we got to see about half of their herd of 75 animals. They comb them once or twice a year to get the fine hair from them and use it for making super soft and warm clothing. $60 per skein, wow! $200 scarf.

I was getting late so we headed out towards anchorage. We found a free dump and another free water source and then got to Bass Pro Shop about 8 pm. We met a couple of other overlanders there and had some nice travel discussions. One gentleman from NY named Emory had been all over the states off and on the past few years. Another was from Quebec and his don is a fishing guide up in Yellowknife, NWT. Two others were from Brazil and Argentina. Kind of cool.

Quick pizza for dinner and off to bed.

Here are additional photos for the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250722-muskox-in-wasilla

We had a great night underneath the waterfall off of mineral Creek Road. A nice night of free camping. The dogs and I took a walk for about a mile up the creek first thing in the morning. This time of year the foliage on each side of the road is about 8 feet tall, so every once in a while, we got a view. I did see a bunch of raspberries that were nearing ripeness.

We headed into Valdez to stop at the Safeway, the visitor center, the Ranger station, and a gas station called Captain Joes. Diesel is $4.30 per gallon just for reference and although we didn’t fill up the last several days, this one blasted through our daily budget.

Although the salmon went running yet at the hatchery, it was low tide so we headed out to the hatchery on the other side of the bay because we heard that some of the fish road coming in. When we got there, sure enough there were thousands of salmon waiting at the stream mouth. We watched them try to jump up, but the way the hatchery works, there is a fence that blocks them from getting up into the stream. We did find a place where there were some of the smarter fish working on their way around the edges. They are definitely determined. We toured the hatchery, but unfortunately, the salmon ladder was not running. The hatchery said it processes 20,000 fish a day. They separate the males from the female females extract, the eggs and the milt, and then in a very controlled process, they fertilize the eggs in the hatchery. Apparently they release about 300 million salmon back into the ocean each year. We watch the harbor seals go in and out of the mouth of the stream. They didn’t seem too interested in fishing, but were there posing for photos?

We also visited the Valdez glacier lake and saw the icebergs floating as well as a bunch of kayakers. Had some crazy dudes there doing a polar plunge.

We perused around town for a bit, and then decided to head out towards our next destination. It was already late in the afternoon, so we found a side road and camped on the edge Lowe River, a massive glacier stream bed. We didn’t see any moose, bears, or really anything else, but we did find Moose tracks at the edge of the river.

Here are some additional photos from the day. https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/20250719-valdez-salmon-and-seals/

It’s pronounced Val-deeez. Just saying, lol. The drive out of McCarthy was bumpy but uneventful. When we go to Chitna, at the fork of the Chitina and Copper Rivers, we stopped at the ranger station to exercise the dogs and get another Wrangall stamp. Kathy struck up a conversation with the Ranger and learned a bit more about the area. Turns out that log cabin is about the only structure in Chitna that has not burned down.

We continued on to the post office to mail some post cards and make a quick lunch. The 30 miles out of the copper river valley to the Richardson Highway was quick. From there we turned left and headed towards Valdez (Val-deeez that is) and this section of the highway is breathtaking as it winds up the canyons, over a pass, and down into the coastal valley. Waterfalls, rivers, snowcapped peaks are on both sides.

We stopped at the pass and hiked to the bottom of the Worthington Glacier. The funny thing about glaciers is that they are covered in debris and hiking around them is challenging and dangerous. We watched small boulders tumbling down where we were trying to hike and decided this was not a great idea. We did get to see the river emanating from the bottom though.

We continued across Thomson Pass and down the road into Valdez (did you say it,? Val-deez) where we stopped to view Bridal and Horsetail Falls. So beautiful. We made it into town, stopped at the post office to mail some more postcards, and then I almost caused an accident at an intersection that I thought was 4-way. Turns out it was only 3-way which is weird. Oh well; tourists. We headed up to grab a free camping spot up mineral canyon. Camped in a nice pull off next to a waterfall on horsetail creek (different creek). Sounds like our back yard, only louder. We lit a fire and hung out while the logs were converted to ash.

Here are some more images from the day. https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250718-mccarthy-to-valdez

We camped by one of the old railroad bridges. The Kennecott company brought the supplies into the Kennecott mine and hauled the ore out. This campsite was about 10 miles in on the McCarthy Road. People talk about this road being extremely rough, but it seemed to be in fairly good condition. For anyone who has driven the Mojave Trail this one’s butter smooth.

I didn’t do as much research as I should have on McCarthy and the mine, so when we arrived, everything to the town is blocked off. I probably could have driven across the bridge that had a sign that stated “private no trespassing”, as it is owned by the town, since there is camping on the other side. But instead, I just opted for the $35 primitive campground that sits next to the glacier lake. It is definitely beautiful out here, with the Kennecott glacier and towering peaks in the background.

To get to the town there is a bus service, five dollars each way to get up to the Kennecott mine. Since you can’t drive in, and the walk is about 5 miles one way, a dollar a mile doesn’t seem to be that bad of a deal. Plus, dogs are allowed in the park, and in the town, and ride free on the bus, so we took them along.

I have wanted to visit this park for quite some time, and the Kennecott mine was the number one on my list. It is the most preserved early 1900s copper mine in the United States and in 1998 it was designated a national historic site. The town as well as the US government and some private entities are doing their best to rebuild and maintain the structures in this very harsh environment. The mine itself operated from the early 1900s until 1937 and produced $100 million in profits over that time. There is so much behind the mine that you can’t see, including the thousands of miles of tunnels that followed the veins through the mountain. It is truly impressive what humans can create. This is one of those typical mining towns where the company owned everything, and provided schools, recreation sites, stores, dining, and everything that miners would need to complete the difficult work that they signed up for.

Fortunately we didn’t have to walk the 10 miles, but the dogs were definitely pooped by the time we got back. Up at the mine there’s a creek that runs through the site that the pups had a chance to get some water and do a little swimming to cool off. It’s definitely not 110° like home, but it’s 78° and full sunshine, they can feel hot.

We decided to stop in town, the town of McCarthy, and have a beverage and some curly fries at a restaurant called The Potato. We continued on through town and checked out the Mercantile and viewed a couple of other restaurants. The old town is definitely quirky, beautiful, and falling apart in places. But more people are coming here and rebuilding and it’s kind of a neat place.

The campground is set at the end of the glacier. We were sitting on the shore watching the lake and heard rocks crumbling and falling into the lake. It’s definitely an interesting sound. After doing some research and reading a bunch of information about the glacier, it turns out all of those piles of dirt out there are actually remnants of the glacier they have melted, and are actually still part of the glacier. Underneath all that rock (debris carved for 10,000 years from the mountain) is still a big frozen hunk of ice. What we are seeing is the normal life of a glacier melting and falling into the lake. The lake actually drains off of one side into the river, which itself is impressive in size. I had looked into hiking to the glacier, but after watching all the people yesterday that we’re coming back, the 4 mile trek is very rough terrain, and definitely not suited for our pups. (People were coming back soiled up and returning clip on ice treads). The pups definitely didn’t like the bus ride, they certainly wouldn’t like that hike. We’ll see some glaciers in the pass above Valdez, and in Valdez as well.

The truck has decided to heal itself, and we’re gonna take it and offer some thanks and praise for God taking care of us. Today will only be 175 miles to Valdez, but due to the roads, it will take about five hours.

here are some additional photos from the day. https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250717-mccarthy-and-the-kennecott-mine