2017 Florida to Alaska Trip

[bfisher003]

Glacier takeoff 7/22/17
https://youtu.be/3HwM74Mq84I

[bfisher003]

Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, BC
https://youtu.be/ODon2Zv0nYc

[Superslif]

Here is a good photo site of a couples travels thru BC. Yukon and Alaska the last 20 years. I used it as a good reference as to what the roads look like. Very nice high resolution pictures Yukon Sights by Sue Thomas

[bfisher003]

Day 29, 7/23/17: We packed up and rolled out of Talkeetna to head down the Spur to the Parks Highway (3) around 11:00 AM, with our goal being to reach the Anchorage area; only about 110 miles. The roads were mostly very good all the way, but we drove at a leisurely pace of 55-60 mph. We stopped for gas in Willow. We got off the highway and drove through the Eagle River Campground to check it out with the thought of maybe staying there, so we paid the honor system $5 to dump our tanks. There was no water at the dump to flush our black tank and they had a sign saying that sometimes their well could not keep up with the demand, so I guess their pump was turned off. We decided we should probably stay a bit closer to Anchorage since my wife found some things she wanted us to see there. We drove a few miles further south and ended up staying in a nice municipal park called Centennial Campground on the north edge of Anchorage. We are booked here for two nights. $35 per night for only electric, no water or sewer, although they do have a water station and dump. We are in site #5, right across the road from the dump. We get an occasional bad whiff if the breeze is wrong. LOL. This is a nice campground, clean and well maintained with staff that walks around checking things. They really stressed that bears are very commonly in the campground and really stress bear safety, but so far we have not seen any. The staff here is very nice and friendly and they seem to truly care about their campground and campers. There is some road noise because this campground sits right beside Highway 3 (Parks Highway), but it did not bother our sleep. After setting up we drove through Anchorage to Kincaid Park and went for a short stroll there with our dog. We could see the Turnagain Arm. The park had lots of people picnicking, biking and hiking, and it is something like 1,500 acres, so very large and supposed to have lots of moose and bears, but we saw neither. After returning to the campground we made a very nice dinner of Filet Mignon and trimmings.

After dinner we took our dog for a walk around the campground and just in case, I had the bear spray in my vest pocket, but no bears. LOL

[bfisher003]

Our campsite at Centennial Campground.

[Superslif]

Looks like a nice spacious campsite.

Just a little heads up. The Salmon dip netting season is July 10 -31st on or along the Kenai River on the Kenai Peninsula. The big spots for dip netting seems run from the Russian River near Cooper Landing to Soldotna and towards the city of Kenai. Southwest of Soldotna towards Homer is less traveled.

The Fred Meyer's store in Soldotna is "crazy" busy. RV's triple parked...Free dump station there on the rear west side of the parking lot.

[bfisher003]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated!

[bfisher003]

We drove through Soldotna this morning. Very overcast, chilly (50s) and rainy, but you were sure correct—it was super busy!! LOL

[bfisher003]

Day30, 7/24/17: We went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and really liked it. Very neat place and well worth the cost of admission, not counting the $150 or so we spent there for souvenirs, gifts, etc.. Afterwards we went to Fred Myers to get some prescriptions filled and get some groceries for our trip down the Kenai Peninsula to Homer. Grilled some chicken for dinner and watched a little Netflix via the Mobley and AT&T.

[bfisher003]

Day 31, 7/25/17: We broke camp and went to Fred Myers and waited while they got one of my wife's prescriptions sorted out with our pharmacy back in Florida, so we did not get on the road to Homer until a bit after 11:00 AM. The weather was overcast and drizzling rain off and on while we drove down the Seward Highway. It was still a nice drive and the road was very good. We stopped at Turnagain Pass (Elevation 1,015 feet) and had lunch in the trailer.

The tops of the mountains all around were in thick clouds.


I believe this would be an absolutely beautiful drive when the sun is shining and the weather is clear. As Superslif said above, there was a lot of traffic going in both directions from Cooper Landing on west and lots of lodges and guide services. I hope the weather is clear on our way out. Around 4:30 PM and a bit over half way to Homer we stopped for the night at Bing's Landing Campground at mile 80 of the Sterling Highway, just before we would have arrived in Sterling. This was a beautiful state recreation area campground. It was dry camping for $15 a night, but our campsite was very private. Several of the sites were being used by fishermen and I believe they were cooking some of their catch. Our campsite was almost perfectly level; close enough that we didn't have to use our Andersen Levelers. It was a very quiet peaceful night. While walking to the iron ranger to handle the fee I asked one of the fishermen if he'd seen any bears around. He said, "not today." Yes, I had our can of Counter Assault bear spray with me. LOL The weather never did clear up and it continued to drizzle with occasional sprinkles all night. We had a great dinner in the trailer of beer battered fried fresh halibut, etc.. I believe that so far on this trip this campground was my favorite and I believe there are many like it in Alaska and especially along the Sterling Highway.

[Gladie]

If you liked Bings Landing, I believe you would like Morgan's Landing on the Sterling Highway also. We fished at Bings but stayed at Morgans. We stayed at Alaskan State Parks as much as possible on our 3 month trip in 2015.

[bfisher003]

Day 32, 7/26/17: I got up around 6:00 AM this morning and made a cup of coffee. We sort of simulate how we make coffee at home—Keurig machine and pods. This is what we use most in the TT.

It makes a very good cup of coffee, too. Anyway, took my coffee and went outside to sit quietly and watch the morning come alive. Yep, bear spray was handy, but I still wondered just how badly I would soil my pants if a brownie walked around the corner of the trailer. LOL It was still overcast and drizzling rain (and it has been all day). I finally woke my wife up around 8:30 AM and made her a cup of coffee and in return after she got woke up she made me sausage and eggs. [emoji3] There much to do to break camp other than her getting the inside sorted out while I warmed up the Ecoboost and raised the stabilizer jacks. We got on the road around 10:00 AM. I topped my gas tank up at the Tesora station Cook's Corner in Sterling. The Highway was very good all the way to Homer Spit. But the weather has been crappy all day and we had some stretches of heavy fog at the higher elevations (>425'). We took our time, mostly driving around 50 mph on the wet roads. I lost count of how many turnouts I pulled into to let other drivers pass easily. We stopped at a nice little park area and had nachos for lunch. We saw a couple of cow moose and fortunately I was going slow, because one of them ran across the road pretty close in front of us. I had to brake a little to avoid hitting her, but not real hard.

We got to the Homer Spit a bit before 3:30 PM and drove the entire length down to Lands End by the ferry terminal, then went back and set up camp in the rain in site #3 in the City of Homer Fishing Hole Campground. It sort of surrounds the Pier 1 Theater. The campground is a far cry from the one we had last night. Mostly level, but we used to Andersen Levelers and the surface is gravelly mud. Kind of a squalid campground, but then maybe the weather is making it that way today. We are only a couple of sites in from the fish cleaning station and they are cleaning some really nice Halibut. Homer is billed as the Halibut capital of the world. This is dry camping and is $20 a night. I ran the generator for a while until it started raining harder and I had to **** it off so I could cover it. It's a great inverter generator, a Champion 3,400 watt with remote and electric start. It lives tied down in the front of the bed of my F150 with a cable lock and a tonneau cover over it. We were set up in the campsite by 3:30 PM. I will say this about Alaskans—they are hardy folks and do not let a little rain, wind and chilly temps (51 F) stop them from fishing.
The view out our rear window.

Homer Spit is packed with RVs, fishermen (and women) and tourists from one end to the other. It is a lot more touristy than I thought it would be. Why I thought this, I don't know. I had planned to spend a couple of nights at least here, but if the weather is like this in the morning I think we will head back out and go to Seward. Oh, I want to apologize for not putting a picture of our campsite last night in, but I totally forgot to take one.

[bfisher003]

Originally Posted by Gladie

If you liked Bings Landing, I believe you would like Morgan's Landing on the Sterling Highway also. We fished at Bings but stayed at Morgans. We stayed at Alaskan State Parks as much as possible on our 3 month trip in 2015.

We are definitely going to try to stay in several more before we depart Alaska!!

[jzeurcher]

We just parked in the City of Homer Mariner campground just West of you. We have been just a couple days behind you since Whitehorse. I can't believe we are just parked about a mile from you. Yeah the weather sucks right now. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow. Should be able to get some good pictures tomorrow. Are you leaving tomorrow?