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Arrived early and was able to switch my 2 pm tour to the 10 am tour where I and another couple are taken by van to the site, passing numerous mansions with outstanding mountain views. There was a strong Oriental influence with Feng Shui principles applied: blue ceilings, foo dogs at base of stairs, strong use of color, water treatments. The home was large and built after O’Neill was awarded the Nobel prize in literature for which he received $40,000. A display of his tiny handwriting prompted questions, which elicited the response that he may have had Parkinson’s disease, but his creative flow only worked well when writing. His wife and daughter used a magnifying glass to type up his scripts! Their dog is buried on the property and displayed is Oneill’s poignant ode to their dog. The pool is maintained, occasionally finding animals in it! Danville, CA is quite the town now, far different from what it was in O’Neill’s day. I tried to use my GPS to find the USPO to no avail-turns out it’s in a mall with no label.

 

Left OR after Eclipse, but traffic was so heavy that numerous drivers and I pulled off the road to rest when traffic wasn’t moving on 97South. Then was so tired, i spent 2nights at Klamath Natl Forest’s Juanita Lake campground. Juanita Lake is gorgeous, peaceful and cool to swim in. Back on the road, I stopped at Sacramento Natl Wildlife Refuge (NWR) to purchase yet another Passport book and view a video, pelicans and wildlife as I prepared for Friday’s tour of Eugene O’Neill Natl Historic site and walk of the property. I enjoy the NWR auto tour, driving and leisurely viewing wildlife.

Eclipse was awesome viewed at Madras OR! Cell phone pix don’t do it justice, but a few pix follow. Miracle in obtaining eclipse viewing glasses was just a gentle voice saying, “Try that Fred Meyer store” and there was a young man outside the store selling a pair for $5! Thanks, Universe! And, thanks for the heavenly show!

1. Rainy yet exciting day in Sitka today. Flew in this morning from Juneau and will go back to Anchorage by 10:10 tonight. What a unique history of Klinkit Indians, Russians, and America. The Natl Park Service had a video explaining the many voices of Sitka! So many totems on display and a native wood carver showing his skill, a native beader creating an altar cloth, and museum items and explanations. Did you know the native people created their paint from chewing on salmon eggs to mix their saliva to eggs, then tinting it and using it as paint? The totems were much like those in Glacier Bay. A Ranger presentation on the 5 types of salmon that are found in Sitka, their differences, and how salmon is the basis of much of their resources; not just the sale and eating of salmon for nourishment, but also after spawning the mother dies and becomes part of the nourishment for other living things and the forest and lake. It is not definite why the salmon jump in the water. The salmon may jump because they are entering fresh water after having been in salty sea water for a couple years, or it could be helpful in the spawning process, or they could just be playing! Took the transit bus to Crescent Harbor and checked out the area and St Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the Bishop’s huge house with chapel, dining room, and modest bedrooms, witnessed a performance of native Klingit dances with narration and occasional audience participation, to Fish hatchery and museum, then by taxi to the Raptor Center to meet birds in captivity. I didn’t feel comfortable time wise, definitely wanting to be in time for my flight,  in going to Fortress of the bears but a kindly gentlemen showed me all his pictures like I was there. Oh, there are no farmed salmon allowed in Alaska and once a year for 7 days, with a proper license, individuals can hunt bear in Sitka! Stores in Sitka sell pelts that are beautiful and one picture shows an amusing and creative use for males. Even more than what is already written, but this is quite long already. King Salmon Burger for dinner was delicious!​
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Boat tour today, 8/10, awesome weather with beautiful surroundings! Only the 3rd sunshiny day this season! Lovely people and great staff on the ship. Humpback whales, sea otters, Steller Seals which are huge, bird-filled islands and sheep! Glaciers- one 12 miles long, and that beautiful Glacier blue! What a blessing-Including 3 pm cookie time! 

Sooooo excited! According to UNiv of AK at Fairbanks 4/9 chance of experiencing Northern Lights tonight! Did some research and Eagle River should be a good location. So headed North about 20 miles to take a nap so I can be awake all night for the hopeful event! Finally got flights to Juneau and Sitka with a ferry ride over to Glacier Bay Natl Park for 8/9-8/16. I’ll camp at Glacier Bay, so need to take tent and sleeping bag along on flight-new adventures! Yesterday did many municipal parks, nature boardwalk, gold pan, Girdwood, Olympic Mtn, Alyeska Hwy/tram, and turnagain experiences-amazing! Happy trails to y’all

Relaxing in rainy weather at Ship Creek campground in Anchorage with train next to it and birds “talking” pretty much all night. Wifi is part of the campground fee! Went to Anchorage Visitor Center and took in their video and museum. Visited the Earthquake Park by the airport, straightened out “issues”, and recharged my personal battery by resting, sudoku, watching video of Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights, bird and mountain watched. When I first checked into campground, there was a black bear by the dumpsters; but, I checked in anyway especially since the bear had a monitor on its neck. There are 130 active volcanoes in AK! If you’re ever traveling and need something mailed to you-you can have it mailed to a FedEx office close to you and will even hold it for 5 days for you to pick it up! Enjoy the day!

Lots of “No Service” areas here in AK, so I’ll post when I can. Right now sitting outside a Safeway market which has Wifi at 7 am on 7/28. Denali’s two days of bus tours took me out to mile 85 of 92 miles on Park Road; so, I got to see most of what could be seen without hiking into the 6 million acres that are Denali wilderness. Nice companions and drivers on bus tours sharing warmth and their own humanity at tender levels. All is in Divine and perfect order right now! While Mt McKinley/Denali was cloud covered, I had seen her previously on the journey to Denali. So, I got to enjoy everything else-the surrounding mountains, valleys, canyons, rivers/ creeks/ lakes, wildlife, wildflowers, trees/ bushes/ grasses, braiding of rivers, more stones than one can imagine, smell of really fresh air, sounds of the wilderness in water/ wind/ wildlife/ and companions on the journey. It amazes me that wilderness does have its own order and randomness at the same time-perfectly aligned trees and rock formations and totally random occurrences of same-but, I have limited human observations while Mother Earth is perfection. There are 130 active volcanoes in Alaska! Denali is considered Arctic desert-who knew? Not I, for sure. And permafrost, areas below surface land, that never thaw out, so that before building a road the area must be dug down to permafrost level so it can thaw over a couple of years! A good portion of Chena Hot Springs Road had many series of dips in the Road which made for an interesting roller coaster type of drive with scenic beauty to knock my socks off. Relaxing in the hot springs for many soaks, then napping, and returning for more soaks revived my body and soul. Chena Hot Springs with lodge and campgrounds draws people  from all over the world speaking their native languages which gets me into a global perspective, which I appreciate. The Aurora ice Museum topped off the day with magnificence! The museum is kept at a constant 25 degrees, so the sculptures don’t melt! It has a bar which serves Appletinis in glasses made of ice! It has a chapel, where world-reknowned ice sculptors couple married! It has its own igloo with an ice xylophone, bedrooms with caribou pelt coverings for seating. Colored lighting throughout adds to the ambiance. Amazing!

Wednesday, 7/26, I spent traveling to Fairbanks and in the Morris Cultural Center in Fairbanks being enlightened and entertained. Videos of archeological and environmental information along with the museum broadened my knowledge. The cultural presentation of indigenous young people dancing and singing entertained and delighted me. A helpful NPS Ranger helped me decide which way to go next to accomplish getting to my objective of seeing all NPS sites in AK, of which there are 16, to which only a small portion can be attended by driving! Roads are very limited in AK; l guess paved roads get to less than 10% of the state! Marine Ferry and fly is how I’ll get to the remaining NPS units, as I’ve driven to the only ones that can be driven to: Klondike Gold Rush NHP, Wrangell-St Elias NP &Preserve, Kenai (pronounced keen-eye) Fjords NP, and Denali NP& Preserve. Because of the remote locations, NPS has passport stamps for remote locations at accessible locations. On Wednesday at Morris Cultural Ctr in Fairbanks, I obtained passport stamps for Gates of the Arctic and Yukon Charley Rivers NatlPreserve. And in Homer, I obtained passport stamps for Lake Clark Natl Preserve and Katmai NP&P. At this point, I’m half the way there, with 8 passport stamps obtained and 8 more to go, for a total of 382 NPS units visited out of 417 total. Still to go are 8 in Hawaii, 6 in PR/Virgin Islands, 1in Guam, 8 remaining in Alaska and some scattered thru lower 48 that were closed when I went through the area. Anyone interested in joining me on the Hawaii, PR/Virgin Islands, or Guam adventures, please let me know.

Back to Denali. The Dog sled demonstration and kennels are fabulous! I didn’t realize that Iditarod dogs are bred for speed, while others are “working” dog teams, that haul, as part of a team, 40+ pounds each on missions. At Denali, in winter with temperatures colder than 40 degrees below zero, they haul rangers and materials needed to various sites in the park, and remove/bring back items needing to be removed from their current locations. Dogs in the team love their work! The mushers, people who work with dog sled teams, seem to love it, also, as was stated in a Ranger presentation about the 4 females and 1 male Ranger on the Winter Team. No hot showers for 3 months? Hmmm. Want Water? Melt dry snow. Want heat? Start a fire. Want food? Bring it with you. That’s really adventure! Hear nothing, still and quiet. No technology or communication with anyone but team members and radio communication with home base operations for 3 months. Talk about isolation! Oh, working sled dog teams don’t have dominant dogs; the dogs are put in different positions and rotated-can humans learn something from this approach? Okay, talked out, rather typed out. Y’all enjoy now, as it is all we truly ever have.​ PS- working sled dogs retire after 9 years to be adopted by loving caregivers residing in really cold places. Ten-minute showers obtained by purchase of $4.50 token in the shape of a bear head! I used outdoor electric outlet at Riley Creek Mercantile to charge phones and heat decaf coffee water in hot pot. Denali has its own USPO where the postal worker agreed to hand stamp postcards for me; postcards required additional postage and stamps can be overlapped-who knew?

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Elk Island, Jasper, Banff, & Yoho Canadian Natl Parks and Miette and Liard River hot springs to get me to mile 0 of Alaskan Hwy on 7/8/17 in Dawson Creek. Elk Island in Alberta, Canada, introduced me to Bison being of two varieties-prairie bison vs wood bison, the latter are larger and have a more exaggerated bump.   The moose in the middle of the road tickled my fancy, for sure. The spiral “staircase” for the train to travel up the mountains surrounding Kicking Horse Pass was quite amazing! Miette hot Springs at Jasper NP were quite relaxing while Banff provided amazing scenery and goats. But,  what thrilled me most was taking pictures by moonlight over the same route I had just driven in sunshine-so cool! Mile 0 of Alaskan Hwy in Dawson Creek on 7/8 encouraged me on this long journey knowing I was indeed closer to the Last Frontier of Alaska where I’ve not been before.

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Beautiful drive to Denali, stopping for pix along the way. Honolulu Creek fascinated me, as I did somerockhounding  there. Got checked in at campground, instant tent setup and off to Visitor Center where I am now outside using wifi to post this at 5:30 am. Four hours time difference from NY’s EST. there’s 20 hours of daylight now. Ranger presentation on winter sled dog work was very interesting followed by Denali’s Park video. It’s Denali’s 100th anniversary! After Visitor Center, I drove the 15 miles to Savage Creek, stopping for pix. Today I take the Nature history bus Tour. Rain is predicted for the next week here!