Day 340: Stymied by a Moose

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Ben

This morning, we left Wasilla and headed South into Anchorage where we quite accidentally stumbled onto the Alaska Jewish Museum. The museum is currently running an exhibit about Operation Magic Carpet. Turns out the airline that facilitated the evacuation was Alaska Airlines:

After lunch, we headed to the Anchorage Public Lands Information Center. The kids completed the Junior Ranger program there, and we watched a fascinating video program about the Great Alaska Earthquake:

We also wandered into a weekly arts and crafts bazaar:

Before dinner, we took the kids to a paved bike and hike path in Anchorage. All was going well until we ran into a moose in the middle of the trail:

After waiting 10 minutes or so for it to leave, it just stood and stared at us. When a seven foot tall moose refuses to move, it’s time to go the other way, so we went back to the car. Only in Alaska!

Tonight we’re overnighting at the Chabad of Anchorage. See the trip map for driving details and our current location.

Day 337: Denali National Park

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Ben

This morning, Trish laid out M’s Junior Ranger badges and patches on the fabric that she is going to use to display them. We’ve been to quite a few National Parks and Monuments:

We drove South to Denali National Park, where the kids got to work on their Junior Ranger books:

Another badge for the collection:

We stopped by the kennels. The Park Service mushes sleds in the winter through the park for perimeter patrol, search and rescue, scientific research, and trail and facility maintenance:

The sled shed had some displays:

There are about 40 dogs here at the kennels:

A boy and his dog:

The dogs are quite regal:

Stop staring at me!

The tack room, which features the nameplates of dogs no longer at the kennel:

The main attraction of Denali National Park is Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. From base to summit, McKinley is taller than Everest, and it is the largest mountain by volume of any mountain situated entirely above sea level. Sightings of the mountain are infamously elusive, as McKinley is so tall it generates its own clouds. There’s only a 30% chance of sighting McKinley on any given day. Today was very cloudy, so we drove South to overnight at a roadside free campground just North of where the best roadside views of the mountain can be had. Hopefully the weather will be good after Shabbos and we can see the mountain as we continue South.

This afternoon I replaced a couple of the cell antenna members that had been broken off by low hanging branches. This is the smallest diameter aluminum pipe Lowe’s had, hopefully it doesn’t affect the antenna’s tuning too much:

Good Shabbos from near Denali National Park! See the trip map for driving details and our current location.

Day 335: Back to Fairbanks

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Ben

We stopped at the gas station in Coldfoot before driving back down the Dalton Highway to Fairbanks. The Post Office here is only open 3 days a week for four and a half hours:

We stopped by the interagency visitor center in Coldfoot, the largest building here. The kids received their Junior Ranger badges for Gates of the Arctic National Park which we passed yesterday on our drive up to Deadhorse:

On the way back to Fairbanks we had a flat tire. I changed it at Gobbler’s Knob. The nice thing about dual axle RVs is that the good tire can be driven up onto a ramp which lifts the flat tire off the ground. I did still have to use the jack to finish the job:

We stopped again at the artic circle wayside for a photo:

Looking North towards Coldfoot:

Crossing the Yukon River:

We arrived back at the Lowe’s in Fairbanks a little bit after midnight. See the trip map for driving details and our current location.

Day 332: North to Fairbanks

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Ben

This morning, we drove West to Fairbanks. While we did see two moose on Thursday’s drive, today we did not see any. After reaching Fairbanks and having lunch, we went to the visitor center which had an extensive exhibit area:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger books for the center and received their badges:

You know you’re in Alaska when…

From the visitor center, we went to Arctic Bowl and played a game. Here I am coaching B:

Not that I know what I’m doing myself:

M gives it a throw:

In the end, I narrowly avoided defeat by M, who had two strikes and a spare!

When we fill up the fresh water tank, water sometimes spills back into the “water closet” through the smaller overflow line or the larger vent line when we park at an angle, making a mess. I added hoses with shutoffs to these two holes so that this won’t happen anymore. I just have to remember to open them up again when we’re done driving for the day. This is only a problem when the tank is completely full:

Tomorrow, we will drive to Coldfoot, where we will leave the RV the following morning as we drive with just the truck to Prudhoe Bay, dip our toes in the Arctic Ocean, and drive back to Coldfoot in one day. The day after that, we will drive back down to Fairbanks. It’s a grueling 1,000 miles over 3 days, 75% of it on gravel roads, but we figure if we came this far, we might as well go as far North as we can by car. See the trip map for the driving legs to the Arctic as well as today’s drive and our current location.

Day 279: North to Manzanar

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Ben

This morning we did laundry and shopping in Lone Pine. M and B tried out the local skate park:

We drove north to Manzanar, one of the dozen or so detention camps built to imprison over 100,000 Japanese Americans for the duration of World War II. You know, because they might spy for Japan or something. Just in case.

This was the second detention camp we’ve visited. We visited Heart Mountain in the summer of 2011.

The only thing more shocking than America violating its own constitution to detain its own citizens based solely on their ethnicity is the fact that most Americans today don’t even know this happened.

The visitor center listed the names of those detained here:

There were dozens of blocks, each containing 14 barracks, a men’s and women’s toilet building, and a mess hall. Today two barracks and a mess hall in one block are the only remaining buildings at Manzanar:

The barracks were just tar paper over plywood. Each barracks was divided into four rooms which housed up to eight people:

The prisoners at Manzanar built their own social hall which was converted into the visitor center:

Some blocks built community gardens, which no longer have water running through them:

The West side of the camp has a memorial obelisk at the inmate cemetery:

After the kids received their Junior Ranger badges, we continued North to Independence where we are parked just off of Onion Valley road just a bit out of town:

Onion Valley is the hardest cycling climb in California, but I’m still sore from Horseshoe Meadows on Monday, so I doubt I’ll attempt the climb tomorrow. See the trip map for today’s drive.

Look Before You Live!

Category Archives: National Park Service sites

Day 340: Stymied by a Moose

Day 337: Denali National Park

Day 335: Back to Fairbanks

Day 332: North to Fairbanks

Day 279: North to Manzanar