Driving to Alaska {Wrangell St Elias National Park}

Day 12

Early morning we set out thru Wrangell St Elias National Park on the scenic, 46 mile Nebesna Road.  Only the first 13 miles or so is paved, after that it's just dirt roads and 3 streams you must drive thru.

We chose to hike the Skookum Trail up to the volcano. 

I spotted a nice moose antler along the trail. The kids were excited to see one up close, 

then we left it where we found it. We later learned that mice eat the antlers for calcium. 

Once we made it to the river, Daddy, DB and the kids relaxed there for awhile while Courtney and I headed to the top of the volcano.  This was the view shortly after we split up.

Here you can see Courtney ahead of me, for perspective.

This next section was a bit sketchy due to it's steepness and loose rock. When crossing the river earlier, I slipped and landed on my hand. It was still throbbing painfully and I was afraid of what would happen if I landed on it again. So I stayed here while Courtney went on ahead. You can just barely see him on the top third of the mountain here.

Not a bad place to sit and rest a bit.

Now we're headed back down. Courtney kindly carrying my jacket 

as I could no longer tie it around my waist with my injured hand.

The top section of the hike was thru tundra, a squishy, pillow-like ground covering. 

You never really knew if your next step would hold up or sink down in. A strange experience.

After we were exhausted from our hike, we camped in Glenallen at the Caribou RV park for two nights so that we could take a side trip without the RV to Valdez the next day.

Driving to Alaska {Alaska border to Tok then Wrangell NP}

Day 10

We arrived in Alaska!

We saw another moose! What a picturesque spot to see one!

Here's a closer view.

We were looking forward to hiking the trails and staying in the campground at Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, but we were sad to find out that it wasn't open yet. It was raining so we didn't even get to hike the trails alongside the road. We did get to check out the view from the deck though. Hopefully on our way back thru in September, it'll be open.

We ended up staying at 3 Bears RV park in Tok for the night before 

heading to Wrangell St Elias National Park in the morning.

Day 11

As we were coming up to Mentasta Lake, we just had to stop and 

admire it's beauty. Never have I seen such a beautiful reflection in water!

There was still a good amount of ice on some parts of the lake.

Birding!

We arrived at Wrangell St Elias National Park in the late afternoon. At the Nebesna Road visitor center, we watched a movie about the park and the kids earned their Jr Ranger badges. The park is very large and the hike we wanted to do would require more time than we had. The volunteer graciously offered a spot for us to park for the night so we could hike first thing in the morning. Before bed we hiked to the river to check out the views.

Driving to Alaska {Yukon's Kluane National Park}

(still) Day 9

After spending the morning at the bird banding event, we hit the road looking for Kluane National Park.

We were very excited to see the St Elias range appear before us!

Mount Logan, the tallest mountain in Canada stands inside this park at 19,551ft.

 Mountains and glaciers cover 83% of this park!

All of a sudden we could see the crystal blue water!

The little white dots in the bottom middle to left are dall sheep.

A closer view.

Such a heavenly place! We hiked up to a great overlook spot.

A wonderful way to spend Mother's Day!

You can see the RV below us. 

We stayed at Destruction Bay for the night. 

We crossed the road and walked a trail to the lake.