Saturday, July 16, 2011

Alaska, we made it!!!!!

Hi Everyone-
After 4,097 miles we made it to Wasilla/Palmer Alaska!  Amazingly we didn't break down, woo hoo.  Our first drive through the town was a bit overwhelming because the reality of life hit us hard after two weeks of vacationing.  The Alcan was an amazingly beautiful highway. Total wildlife count stands at 9 black bears, 2 brown bears, 1 grizzly, 3 moose, countless stone sheep, buffalo, caribou, deer and elk. Lucy saw 37 squirrels, 9 different species, haha. We decided if there is a good and bad guy, lucy is the bad guy because the squirrels always win.

Lucy watching for squirrels in a field of flowers.  She's been watching for squirrels the entire trip haha.

The muddy silver bullet, after driving through miles and miles and hours of hours of construction.  There has been extreme flash flooding/land slides near Chetwynd, BC.

We finally made it onto the Alaskan Highway (ALCAN).  It says that the road it paved all the way to Alaska but it was m ore like 92% paved with several spots of gravel and dirt where the road washed out.
Black bear on the side of the road, he was munching on berries and then looked up and stared Nate down while he took the picture.

Reindeer on the side of the road.
Summit Lake.

Stone Sheep, smaller than mountain goats.

Baby Stone sheep.

Our amazing campsite next to stone mountain.

One of the hundreds of lakes we drove by that we can't remember the name of now.
Tough guy eh.
Black Bear

Brown Bear, Nate was sure to point out the differences between him and his close cousin the grizzly.

Sign City in Watson Lake, Yukon. We found one from gunnison and even tiny Lake George, Colorado. No Woodland Park but I'm sure it's in there because there are thousands.
The Goose being silly when she gets bored.
Midnight at camp. This is as dark as it gets.
The elusive grizzly bear!
The Wrangell St. Elias Range after hundreds of miles of flat yukon territory.

Camp at Kluane Lake. It's a Glacial Lake but after so long on the road anything seems like a beach.

We have always thought it is very asian cliche to take pictures of signs but this one was well deserved.
Lucy is a master at finding a spot atop our junk.

Going for a mukluk hike. The mosquitos are no joke! We decided we need headnets and you better believe we can make mukluks and headnets look cool.

Moooosen

Born and raised in Colorado, but this is the first real mountain we've ever seen rising up to 17,000 feet from the 2,000 ft. tundra plain.

A poor picture of the matsuniska glacier about an hour from palmer. Better pictures will come when we get time to go visit it after some house hunting.

Finally made it to Wasilla. This is our temporary home camping on lake lucille and lucy going for a midnight swim. We are looking for places to rent outside of town but the task  is a little daunting considering the huge area, lack of internet access, and the fact that there are very few rental properties that aren't apts. or duplexes. We might end up in the boonies but hey, we moved to alaska for a reason eh? We are staying in town for a few days then heading back out into the chugach wilderness while we have time and light. We'll continue posting until the adventures cease and the sun goes away. Hugs and Lucy kisses to everyone, she isn't shy.

1 comment:

  1. Hey guys! We've been following your adventure, so glad to hear you made it! It's amazing you didn't have any mechanical failures, a 1st for the Murray clan! No get out there and catch some salmon and cut some wood! Winter is coming!

    Unca Todd

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