Kev n Jens Adventures: Headed to Haines for the Southeast Alaska State Fair

Tuesday, July 26, 2022 - After almost two weeks in Soldotna, at Gail and Brian's it's time to move on. It's been a bit overcast and off-and-on rainy while here, but on our drive out, we were able to see the mountains that are visible from Soldotna! We drove 4 hours to Palmer and stayed at the same campground we had stayed at on our drive through 6 weeks ago. We stopped at the Mantanuska Brewery for a quick beer and appetizer before heading to the campground.

We think this is Mt Redoubt, across the Cook Inlet. It was visible at the end of quite a few streets as we left Gail & Brian's. Funny that we hadn't seen it the whole time we were there.

Beautiful day as we leave the Kenai

We stopped at Potter Marsh, just outside of Anchorage for lunch and a walk on the boardwalk

Matanuska Brewery had great beer and artichoke dip

The mountains as the backdrop to the brewery

love the drive into Mt View RV park

Wednesday July 27, 2022 - We are on our way to Haines, AK for four days and found out that the Southeast Alaska State Fair is going on there Thursday through Sunday. We decided to increase our drive times so we could get there on Saturday for a full day of the fair. We took the Glen Highway from Palmer to Glenallan and found a small State Campground on the Tok Cutoff (Dry Creek Campground) to spend the night. We stopped for lunch and a hike at Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Area. It was a mile and a half loop out to several glacier viewing platforms.

Beautiful drive on the Glen Highway

the hike through the aspens to view the Matanuska glacier

Glacier selfie

more selfies

the glacier under the mountains and the Matanuska River

Mount Drumm which is part of St Elias-Wrangell NP

The view out the window of our campground at Dry Creek Campground

Thursday, July 28, 2022 - We drove 5 hours today to Snag Junction Campground. We stopped in Tok for lunch and after lunch we were back on the Alaska Highway driving a section that we bypassed earlier in our trip by driving the Klondike Loop to Dawson City. It was a pretty good road with some heaves and some gravel spots, but the majority was good.

Snag Junction Campsite that we shared with Gerry & Gene

We found a nice little river at a rest stop and Kev decided to see if he could catch some trout, but all he got was some extra mosquito bites.

more nice views

today we're still driving around St. Elias-Wrangell, with lots of snow covered peaks

We stopped at the visitor center in Tok and then had lunch at a park across the street

This grizzly was in the visitor center and the plaque said it had been killed illegally with the aid of an airplane, in May of 1986. The hunter was fined $20,000 and had to forfeit the mounted bear.

we're back in burled wood country

and gravel road

where work trucks drive way too fast

At Beavercreek we crossed into Canada. The agent asked us about our entry into Canada from Montana, on June 1st. She asked several times if we had been "charged". We were confused and she went to another computer, came back and continued to ask about our "charge". Finally I thought back to the chicken incident on our drive through and asked if she was talking about the chicken we brought into Canada. She said "Did you bring in a pet chicken?!" We explained what happened and it seemed to appease her. Kevin is afraid the chicken incident is on our permanent record and will follow us forever.

Maribelle smoking a cigar (actually chewing on a treat)

Our campsite at Snag Junction. The last few campsites have had quite a few mosquitoes and we've been happy to have a dining tent we can sit in, so we're not stuck in the RV

Pretty lake in the campground, with beautiful cloud reflections

View of Tiny through the woods

Friday, July 29, 2022 - We drove 4 hours today, through the Yukon. There were a lot of gravel sections of highway around Destruction Bay and a Canadian work truck kicked up a bunch of rocks and one cracked our windshield. The crack luckily moved downward, so we might be able to hold off on replacing the windshield until we get home. It was a really pretty section of the Alaskan Highway, with Lake Kluane next to the road for about an hour. It was nice that we didn't see very many other cars all day. We stopped for gas and ice cream in Haines Junction and took a right onto the Haines Highway.

It seems that every lake we pass has two trumpeter swans (they are a little hard to see, but they're there)

crack in the windshield

our basil plants from Gail like the dashboard

We stopped for a rest in Burwash and took a few pictures with the world's largest gold pan

Our campsite at Million Dollar Falls (a small 35 site provincial campground in the Yukon)

The girls got me a few small 100 piece puzzles to keep in the RV, so I got out the moose puzzle today

so fun!

More mosquitoes at Million Dollar Falls, so we sat in the dining tent

A campfire seemed to keep them at bay, after dinner

Saturday July 30, 2022 - It was a 2 hour drive to Haines today. We got there just in time for the Southeast Alaska State Fair parade, through downtown. It was the tiniest parade anyone's ever seen, but lots of fun. Then we headed to the fair for the day. It was also pretty small, but interesting to see in comparison to the Indiana State Fair, which we love to go to, this time of year. We got to Haines a day early, and we didn't have a campground reservation, so we used our camping app iOverlander and went searching for a spot for the night. There was a rest area about 2 miles out of town overlooking the Chilkoot Inlet.

A view of Lep in the side view mirror, when we were leaving the campground

Back into the US (it was quick and easy)

About 5 miles of the Haines Highway was under construction. A pilot car took us through this mess.

The band which led off the parade

Maribelle got into the parade with the most lovable dog contestants. The dogs (who registered ahead of time) each had a number and people were supposed to vote by texting, for their favorite dog of the parade

When the group of dogs was in front of the judging stand the emcee said that people were requesting the number for the jumping dog.

The contest then moved to a park down the block and we got Maribelle a number

Mirabelle wins Most Lovable dog according to us

She didn't win, but we sure had fun!

We grabbed lunch at the fair

The community garden was on the fairgrounds and they used it as a wine garden

It was such a cute little fair. In the animal barn, they had a few bunnies, a few baby pigs and 2 goats

the wine garden

$20 entrance to the fairgrounds for the day. They had two stages with music all day/evening

There were fish throwing contests

A local band

Our spot for the evening

A walk along the beach

Sunday, July 31, 2022 - Today we checked into our campground. It's going to be a great spot to spend the next 4 days. It's basically downtown and right on the channel/harbor, with great views. We had a low-key day, walking around town and hanging out enjoying the view. After dinner we drove to Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site. We had heard that when the fish are in, it's a great spot to see bears.

A bench in the wall in front of the Hammer museum

View from Main St

The Haines Harbor

Our campsite at Oceanview RV park

firepit with a view

Chillkoot Lake

the fish were jumping in Chillkoot Lake

It was a foggy evening

This area has the highest concentration of bald eagles in the US

One the way home a Grizzly and her two cubs came up from the river and walked right past us

We pulled the video from our car camera...

Totem pole along the river

The view from our campsite

Monday, Aug 1, 2022 - Today Kevin and i decided to take the Haines/Skagway fast ferry to Skagway. It's 15 miles up the channel to Skagway, 45 minutes on the ferry. As we got off the ferry someone yelled to Kevin. It was Bruce, who Kevin had known at Merck and then done consulting work for in Connecticut right before we retired. He was on a cruise that was docked in Skagway and he and his family were headed to Haines for the day. It was so crazy to see someone we know in such a random place in Alaska. Skagway was much bigger and much more touristy than Haines. I'm so glad we're in Haines, there are 3 cruise ships docked in Skagway and it's so, so busy with people everywhere. We visited the Klondike Goldrush National Historical Park, which had a good movie about the goldrush and lots of good info.