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Alaska Beach Life in Kasilof & Homer
We had a lofty goal to drive 520 miles from Valdez to Homer, on the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula, in a weekend. Saturday was particularly long with a couple of planned stops, but there was no shortage of awesome views. This is the Matanuska Glacier from a pullout. We stopped for lunch in Palmer because they were having their Colony Days Festival. We learned that the difference between a reindeer and a caribou is whether or not a leash is involved. We had a reindeer hotdog, but I thought it would be strange to put a photo of it next to the reindeer, so here’s a picture of…
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Beautiful Valdez, AK
We had read/heard from many other RVers that the town of Valdez is a favorite. We can’t say that yet since it was only our second stop, but I do think it will be hard to beat. It’s one of the prettiest places we’ve been. First, the drive into Valdez is spectacular! You go over Thompson Pass, one of the snowiest places in Alaska, which averages 700 inches per year. Valdez is the snowiest city and gets 300 inches per year. After the pass, you drive through Keystone Canyon along a river and roadside waterfalls. The town is on the Prince William Sound and there are 360-degree views of the…
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Glacier Hiking At Wrangell-St.Elias National Park
One of the things that Michael wanted to do most in Alaska was to walk on a glacier and I think that the Root Glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park might be the only place to do that without a tour. WSE is the largest National Park in the US, the size of 6 Yellowstones, and has 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America. It’s the most remote place that we’ll be visiting in Alaska and getting there was part of the fun! First, we drove to the town of Chitina, a few hours from anywhere you’ve ever heard of. Then we traveled one of the most infamous…
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Alaska Bound: British Columbia & Yukon
We crossed into British Columbia on the 2nd weekend of May. BC has chain laws from Oct 1 – April 30, so we started our trip north through Canada as early as we could. There are plenty of worthy stops and side trips along the way, but because we wanted to maximize our time in Alaska, we spent most of our weekends behind the wheel. The first day of our drive took us through the Fraser and Thompson River Canyons. We stopped at the Dugan Lake Recreation site for the night. Then continued driving through small First Nation and logging towns of central BC to our first workweek destination of…
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Alaska Bound: Oregon & Washington
We spent a weekend making the big move from Half Moon Bay to Eugene, OR. Eugene was a utilitarian stop, planned so that we could get some preventative maintenance on the trailer. We stayed at Armitage Regional Park for the week. Eugene, home of the University of Oregon, is a very treed town with lots of blooms in mid-April and the weather was just perfect. We tried Voodoo Doughnuts, walked around the Saturday market, and had lunch at Noisette. Our next weeklong destination was the Columbia River Gorge. On our way, we stopped at Silver Falls State Park so that we could hike the Trail of Ten Falls. In a…
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Alaska Bound: Cruising Through California
Since the beginning of our great big RV adventure, I thought Alaska would be our last state visited, if ever. But here we are, 37 states and 4+ years later, and we’re on our way! We’ve just spent the last 5 weeks traveling through California. The time has flown by without too much to report, so just one blog post. I’ve resolved to be okay with not doing a whole lot on our way to Alaska. Just getting ourselves there (and back in the Fall) will be the adventure. Back in early March, we returned to Sunbeam Lake RV Park in El Centro for a night. I forgot to mention…
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Baja’s Grey Whales
On the last weekend of February, we made our way back up to the Bahía Concepción and stayed at Playa El Requeson for the workweek. This beach is unique because it’s a spit with water on two sides. We liked that a lot of locals used this beach, as opposed to Playa Santispac where we stayed on the way down the peninsula. Next, we moved back to Mario’s RV Park in Guerrero Negro for the weekend so that we could go whale watching in the Laguna Ojo de Liebre, one of 3 lagoons on the Pacific side of Baja where grey whales migrate from Alaska to the warm waters of…
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Cerritos Beach & Todos Santos, Mexico
Playa Los Cerritos, ~45 minutes north of Cabo San Lucus, was the end of the road for us this winter. From here, we will be turning around and driving north for a very long time, all the way to Alaska, if all goes as planned! We loved our 2-week stay at Cerritos Beach. Our full-time RV life is not a constant vacation, but rather everyday life, and work, with an ever-changing backyard to explore. However, our evenings and weekends here felt like a vacation. We also really liked Cerritos Boutique RV Park, where we were a 5-minute walk from the beach. We could see a sliver and hear the constant…
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La Paz & Balandra Beach, Mexico
After Loreto, we moved to La Paz, the capital and largest city in Baja California Sur. We stayed at Campestre Maranatha, an RV park that rivals any nice RV park in the US. It had a pool and an onsite cafe but my favorite amenity was the onsite laundry. One afternoon we drove into town to walk along the Malecón. We were excited that we were in town during the first half of Carnaval, the week-long celebration leading up to Fat Tuesday. Then we were disappointed to find out that the parades and main events were only during the last 3 days when we’d already be gone. We also walked…
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Lovely Loreto, Mexico
From Playa Santispac, located at the top of the Bahía Concepción, we had a 2-hour drive down Federal Highway 1 to the lovely historic town of Loreto on the Sea of Cortez. The first 20 miles or so were along the Bahía Concepción coastline and this stretch of the drive was stunningly beautiful. I wish I had a better photo but this is the best we’ve got through our dirty windshield. Loreto was the first Spanish settlement in the Californias, founded with Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó in 1697. It is a Pueblo Mágico, a town recognized by Mexico for its ‘magical’ qualities such as unique beauty, natural…
