North To, Then South From, Alaska July-October 2018

Time flies and here I am, back home at Faranuf in Portal on the east side of Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains after spending 4 months on the road going to, and from, Alaska.  A lot of things happened, some good, some bad, but I never regretted a moment of it. Here are some of the highlights. 

On the trail up Thomas Canyon in Nevada's Ruby Mountains, July 12.  The wildflower display was spectacular.

The Canadian Rockies in Jasper and Banff National Parks were one of the high points of the trip. 

Mt. Robson in the Canadian Rockies is the most impressive mountain I've ever seen, a true jaw dropper.  From July 24. 

Salmon Glacier, near Hyder, Alaska, July 27. 

Fireweed in bloom along the Glennallen Highway, August 11.  The Chugach Mountains are in the background. 

The Alaska Range as seen from the Richardson Highway south of Delta Junction. That's glacial silt blowing in the air on the Delta River. 

I turned 62 on August 20, so I went to get my America The Beautiful pass when I was in Fairbanks. 

 Denali was "out" for a few days,  just like during my 2016 North To Alaska trip.  This is along the Denali Highway near Cantwell. 

A closeup of Denali. 

As in 2016, I boondocked along Alaska's Denali Highway for a few days. 

One of my favorite off-the-grid sites was a pullout along the road to Lake Louise (the one in Alaska, not Canada). You can see vehicles on the Glennallen Highway and that's Tazlina Glacier and Tazlina Lake. August 24. 

Worthington Glacier, along the highway to Valdez, August 25. 

Meziadin Lake, along the Stewart-Cassiar Highway in British Columbia, September 12.  

Undoubtedly the best sunset I saw during the trip -- at Fraser Lake in British Columbia, September 13.  

Uh-oh...From September 30, Lamoille Canyon in Nevada's Ruby Mountains was on fire. It ended up burning nearly half of the canyon including Thomas Canyon, where I took the first photo in the post. 

Autumn puts on a dazzling display in NE Nevada's East Humboldt range, October 4. 

Along the trail to Winchell Lake in the East Humboldts, October 5. 

One of the most spectacular cloud displays I've ever seen, at Overton, Nevada, October 7. 

At Nevada's Valley Of Fire, October 25. 

North To Alaska II -- July 2-3, In The Beginning...

Though I'm starting this blog post for July 2 when I left for Portal to head for Alaska and 5 months on the road, living in my travel trailer Discovery II (I traded in Discovery I for Discovery II in December 2014),  I'm currently in Fairbanks, Alaska, and it's August 14. This is my second trip to The Last Frontier; the first was in 2016. Though it's barely the middle of August it's cold and cloudy and rain is pattering on my trailer's roof. But it's a good evening to begin putting down what's happened so far during what I've called North To Alaska II.

But first, a few words about my hometown of Portal as I probably wouldn't have driven to Alaska at all, much less twice in 2 years, if I'd lived someplace else. Portal, Arizona is a pretty unique place. It's more accurate to call it a "community" as many of us share the same interests and attitudes. It's tiny, with a population of perhaps 100, and around 500 within a 20-square-mile radius which includes the New Mexico town of Rodeo. We're a bit isolated as the nearest grocery store that we use is 55 miles to the south in Douglas, right along the border with Mexico, and the closest gas is in Animas, New Mexico, about 25 miles and, depending on the time of year, a time zone away. We live on the east side of the Chiricahua mountain range, the largest range south of the Gila River, and Portal is the gateway (portal) to Cave Creek Canyon, one of the great natural wonders of the Southwest and home to birds that you rarely if ever see anywhere else in the US. The Chiricahuas' biodiversity attracts wildlife biologists, herpetologists, and other scientists from all fields to study and, in many cases, retire here. Our area is so unique that the American Museum of Natural History created the Southwest Research Station, located about 7 miles from Portal, to bring people together to do research on varied scientific subjects. There isn't much here of what city people would consider to be entertainment or conveniences, but if you don't mind living with what most people could consider to be inconveniences then in many respects it's paradise. To me it's a great place to live and what's important in relation of travel (I bet you thought I was losing track of my original point) is that it's a place I actually look forward to coming back to after a being away. So it was with this in mind that I left to head north knowing that if all went according to plan I wouldn't be back until December. You can think like that when you're retired.

Sunrise as I left home on July 2. 

Heading out my driveway, aka Faranuf (as in Far Enough) Trail. That's Cave Creek Canyon in the background. 

For the first day of North To Alaska II I wasn't planning on going very far, at most perhaps 100 miles. And for the entire 5 months on the road the only rules I had for a place to stop for the night was to pay $15 or less, preferably dry-camp or boondock for free, and stay at an RV park every 2 weeks or so to have the use of full hookups and laundry to prepare for the next few weeks of self-sufficiency. I did some research before I left home on the website freecampsites.net to get a rough idea of cheap or free places to stay. On that first morning of heading north I stopped off at the Walmart in the town of Safford -- a sign along a highway there reads "Safford...Copper, Cattle And Cotton" -- to buy a portable propane heater to use in the trailer in cold weather. It was a hot and dry summer in southeast Arizona, so to beat the heat I headed east out of Safford to climb up a small mountain range near the New Mexico border where freecampsites.net said there was a bathroom stop with a little-used, free campground. The road climbed into a refreshingly-cool pine forest where I saw the campground. It was on the other side of the road and I had to make a wide left turn to get into a narrow area that was clear of trees -- but not their branches. Being a solo RVer like me has its drawbacks, and one of them is sometimes one pair of eyes isn't enough. I was watching the trees and branches on the driver's side to make sure I cleared them, only to hear a loud scraping noise coming from the right side which I wasn't watching. I got out and went to the passenger's side and saw that a tree had hit the awning, knocked off one of the awning's end caps where a wire was now dangling, and had made a nice dirty line on the material where I'd scraped against the tree trunk. And it was only day 1 of 150...Luckily the damage didn't seem to be too bad; the wire had a plug-and-play connector so I plugged it back in. The next day when I had room at the next campground to extend the awning I tested it and it still seemed to be working fine. It was only later that I heard an occasional grinding noise when I retracted it and noticed some tiny pinholes in the awning material, then found out when I took the trailer in for servicing at an Anchorage RV shop that whatever was wrong with it was bad enough that it was recommended I don't use it at all until I could get it repaired once I got back to the "lower 48". I spent much of that first night on the road trying to figure out which would be the easiest way to leave the campground in the morning without another tree incident and decided that simply back out would be best. This time I'd just watch both sides. 

My first campsite -- free yet dangerous. 

So the next day I carefully backed out, checking both sides, and got the heck out of there. I then backtracked down into the valley -- and nearly ran into a deer that had cut across the road in front of me. Come ON, it's too early in the trip to be tested this much!  Once my heart dropped back down from my mouth to its accustomed place I headed north to the town of Clifton on Highway 191 that climbs up to the Mogollon Rim. Clifton surprised me with its monster dump trucks lining up to take out material rom a vast open-pit copper mine. I later read it has one of the largest copper reserves in the world; it certainly was big enough.

Caution: Monster dump truck crossing!  

Not the kind of landscape I was expecting to see, but compelling and fascinating nevertheless.

Those dots in the center distance are the monster dump trucks that crossed the road. It puts the size of this copper pit into its correct perspective -- it's huge. 

Sorry, I don't have room in my rig for a spare that size.

Leaving Clifton behind, the road climbed and twisted its way up to the Mogollon Rim, following what was thought to be the route Coronado took to fruitlessly find the legendary "Seven Cities of Gold". I pulled off at a rest area near the summit to get a view of the mountains to the south, including the Chiricahuas, at least 50 miles away as the crow flies. I could even make out the landmark of Dos Cabezas in the Chiricahuas' northern section near Willcox --

The knob (actually two) of Dos Cabezas, meaning "Two Heads"

Then I look off to the east and saw my first fire of the trip, burning along the New Mexico border. 

This next photo was taken with the 500mm lens. You can almost see the flames. 

To be continued...a lot. 

March 29-April 9 -- Africa's Amboseli,Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater

As usual, time has flown by and it's now July 1, meaning that I'll be leaving on my next journey tomorrow -- North To Alaska II with truck and travel trailer for 5 months on the road. Since I'll be blogging quite a bit on that trip I've decided to put the rest of my Africa trip on one post so I can get caught up. So here are photos with brief captions; "they" say a picture tells a thousand words anyway. 

March 29 -- Amboseli National Park was so flooded that parts of the roads disappeared underwater. 

Hang on! The safari vehicle rocks back and forth as we go across to the other side of the road.

Gray-headed Kingfisher.

Superb Starling. They're as common as our European Starlings, but much more striking.

Diederik Cuckoo, one of my favorite birds that we saw on our African safari.

Goliath Herons are the world's largest heron. 

An African Spoonbill. 

An adult Gerenuk, one of the most unusual-looking animals I saw on the safari. 

Mt. Kilimanjaro was completely and spectacularly out on our last morning at Ol Tukai Lodge and Amboseli National Park. 

On the road to Tanzania and the main safari -- Golden Pipit. 

Fire-fronted Bishop. Our guide got quite excited when he saw this as they're common only locally. 

On to the main tour and Tanzania's Tarangire National Park...Here's a Dwarf Mongoose on a termite hill along the road. 

The awesome and very common Lilac-breasted Roller. 

Lions lazing in an Acacia tree. 

A beautiful Waterbuck. 

An Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill flips a caterpillar into its mouth. 

The scene at one of our many "rest", i.e. bathroom, stops. Notice the "Barak Obama" souvenir stand and "Improved Bull Washing Bar" across the street. We found out later it's a laundry soap. 

The entrance to Serengeti National Park. 

A cute Dikdik. 

This Black-backed Jackal was right alongside the road. 

A Lion pride, taken with the 500mm lens. 

We did see leopards, but they were lazing in trees far away from us. I used my 500mm lens to get a decent closeup. 

2 Lilac-breasted Rollers are always better than 1. 

We had quite a few encounters with elegant cheetah while in the Serengeti. 

The expressive Lappet-faced Vulture. 

The view from my room at the lodge where we stayed while at Serengeti National Park. 

Just another leopard lazing the afternoon away...

A playful lion cub. I guess he'll grow into those feet.. 

One of the lioness at the tree with the lion cubs. 

The cheetah were so photogenic...

We ended up our safari at Ngorongoro Crater where we visited a traditional Masai village. The Masai don't like to have their picture taken, but our tour operators give the village money for us to be allowed to visit. 

The schoolroom at the Masai village. 

Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest intact volcanic crater. 

Greater Flamingo. 

The wildlife in Ngorongoro Crater stretches as far as the eye can see. 

Black rhinoceros at Ngorongoro Crater. Seeing them was one of the high points of our African safari. 

And tomorrow it's once again back on the road to Alaska; I'd taken the trailer there in 2016.