Alaska

They call it The Last Frontier, the 49th state…. Alaska is truly a crown for the explorer who dreams of going to the extreme exploration of a state of top geography. Known by its glaciers, endless green forest, wildlife and bears ( lots of them) its name is just as enigmatic as it can get!!

After a 7 day crossing driving between 250 and 350 miles across the west of Canada, we made it to the border!, I had seen the map drawn on the wall in many ocassions and I was wondering if we could park Scotty right behind it as a background and we were so lucky to have that space empty for our arrival!! So, photo session was in the menu.

Looking at some history about how Alaska ended up being part of the US, it is yet again, a very interesting one! Alaska (Aljaska in Russian) was part of Russia. At some point Britain and Spain wanted to take control and they almost went to war because of this, but Spain decided not to pursue those lands. Then the US came and displaced the British!! One of the reasons was that the Russians were willing to sell this large extension preferably to the US and not to Britain. So, in 1,867 Russia (who was having financial difficulties) sold this territory to the US for $0.36 per acre; by doing this, the US had grown by more than 586,000 sq miles !!

Now, my take on the road conditions going to Alaska: I was told a few stories about the bad road quality ( and I’ve got scared at some point!!) that I should take a spare tire, that Destruction Bay was terrible, that trucks would throw rocks on my windshield which would end up ready for a replacement, etc etc….

Well, not true!!! The road in general is fine but there are some sectors in both Yukon and Alaska that create extreme dust conditions ( or muddy if it has been raining ) but something that is seen frequently is the infamous Frost Heaves… areas of fairly good asphalt but depressed due to the perma frost effect beneath the surface; sometimes you can’t see them and you will be found jumping up and down in spectacular fashion!. I heard a story of someone driving another Class A motorhome that had its windshield broken because the jump was so strong that the structure didn’t hold its shape resulting in the glass ruptured. The name of Destruction Bay doesn’t do any justice to that beautiful area! and the road is just fine. You can see some semi trucks but not THAT many… So, the trick is GO SLOW!!

Now, the issue (at least for those who love to keep the RV clean and shiny like me) is that there are no washing companies nor facilities in Anchorage!! I wish we had Blue Beacon or similar but there is none!! The only option available is a self wash at the Mountain View Car Wash in which you do it yourself with some limitations, that’s it.

There is tremendous business potential for some locals to create a company and provide RV washing !

Now Scotty looks much better after the wash

And the Escape as well!!

Another interesting fact in Anchorage is that there are NO brush type of car wash…. no one could explain why but the only thing you find is either contact-less car wash or Do It Yourself… and that’s what we did on the Ford! And there are soooo many dirty cars…..

We decided to pay a visit to downtown which seems to be fairly similar to any city in the Lower 48 States. Sadly it is notorious the level of homeless people, particularly from the native groups.

I was also told that it was easy to see moose walking on the streets of the city!! Well, we saw NONE!! The closest we could get was when we went to visit the park next to the airport…

However, the best version of it came up at a souvenir store ( sorry haha)

A proper visit to Alaska should include sights of glaciers, whales, endless green forests, etc but that means you need to allocate a good number of days and deep pockets! We decided that we should stick to Anchorage and nearby sites as well as what you see on the way in and out of Alaska.

You see tons of companies that offer aerial tours and our campground was located near the local airport and we could see so many Cessnas taking off and landing in a daily basis.

This is the Inlet of Anchorage on the way to Homer, a good place to get a view of whales and sea lions.

This is the Thunderbird Falls Trail nearby Anchorage

And here’s Claudia posing and the glacier in the background

And look who is here!! A Land Rover Defender from the United Kingdom…. that plate is so familiar I could recognize it miles away haha

It was now time to celebrate Claudia’s birthday!! at the best restaurant in town, The Glacier Brewhouse

Time to plant another tree!! Tree number 22 went to the Northern Nights campground in Glenallen, Alaska. Judy Shaw (GM) was very happy to provide home for this nice Colorado Blue Spruce!!

In the next chapter you will find us doing the crossing southbound towards the Jasper and Banff National Parks!! Geography will again delight us with marvelous views. See ya!!