Rain and clouds are the story of our Alaska trip so far! This is the Eagle River Nature Center.
I went a long stretch there without posting, and then I posted on my beloved Homer’s passing, so I’ve gotten pretty far behind on our trip, so let me try to catch up with an overview of our time in Alaska so far. In future posts I’ll give you details and more photos. There are three reasons I’ve gotten so far behind:
- Anchorage is now a very vandwelling unfriendly town.
- The weather is terrible so far in Alaska. We’ve had at least a little rain every day we’ve been here; many times its rained all day.
- Verizon sucks in Alaska.
Together, those three things combined to drive us out of Anchorage to a remote, primitive Forest Service campground near Hope, Alaska for three days where we just hunkered down and stayed inside to try to stay dry and bug-free for three days. Because Verizon sucks, we haven’t had internet. Let me explain.
But, if I turned and looked the opposite direction there was a little blue sky.
When I lived in Anchorage for 45 years it was very tolerant of vans and RVs parking overnight in parking lots. It wasn’t just legal, it was practically encouraged. Every summer thousands of visitors in RVs would set up camp in a few well-known parking lots. That’s why I never hesitated to live in a van for 6 years here, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem–and it never was. But for the last few years I lived in Alaska there were pretty steady rumblings in the media about the “million dollar RVs living in the parking lots.” Apparently it became more than rumblings because sometime after I left in 2006 the city passed an ordinance making it illegal. Now there are “No Overnight Parking” signs in every large parking lot. We went into a Walmart and there was a security guard at the door and I asked him if it would be alright if I slept in the parking lot, and he said that no, it was illegal and that he would be required to phone it in if I did. He didn’t say exactly who he would phone, but I assumed it would be the police. Obviously, we didn’t stay there.
This is a glacier on the drive from Tok Junction to Anchorage. Alaska is covered with glaciers, mountains and rivers. They’re everywhere!
Using good stealth techniques we spent two trouble-free nights in Anchorage at a convenience store while the weather was slightly better. The first day we had dinner with my son who was born in and still lives in Anchorage. The second day we drove out to the Eagle River Nature Center which is one of my favorite spots in the area. But the weather was getting worse with steady drizzle and clouds so we decided that rather than fight with Anchorage for sleeping spots we would head out of town for dispersed camping and wait out the weather. We drove down to Hope where there is a Forest Service Road (Palmer Creek Rd.) that goes back into some really beautiful mountains and has a free campground. Hope is just across the Inlet from Anchorage so I thought we would get Verizon internet there and maybe even back the valley to the campground. But alas the valley was blocked by mountains so we just went back there and set up camp. The weather and mosquitoes were truly awful for the next three nights so we just sat inside the van and hunkered down!
Hunkering down and waiting out the weather is a time-honored tradition in Alaska. Every time you go into the bush, you better be ready to be trapped by the weather for as long as it wants you. If you get in a battle with Alaska, you will lose! Chris MacCandles learned that the hard way in “Into the Wild.”
My So-Called Alaskan life!
After three days the weather looked to be a little better so we decided to move onto the next spot on the itinerary which was Seward, AK. It’s only a few hours drive so we headed down there and had a brief relief from the rain, but as soon as we got there it settled in again. We’ve been here for 3 days now and today was the first half-way decent day. We actually saw a little blue sky.
Judy wondering how I talked her into coming to this god-forsaken place where the mosquitoes are waiting to suck you dry, bears are around every corner wanting to eat you and you better be good at building arks!
As much as I love Verizon in the Lower 48 states, I hate it in Alaska. It just sucks! I did get slow 4g internet in Anchorage, but every time I turn it on it warns me that roaming outside of the country could be very expensive, do I want to proceed anyway? Hey, Verizon, Alaska is in the USA!!! Welcome to the twenty-first century! I don’t know how much it’s costing me, but I hope not too much because I’ve been using it anyway. When we got to Seward I tried it out and we got a slow 3g signal but I upload a lot of pictures and it was so slow to be unusable. My last two posts were from the WIFI in a Starbucks inside a Safeway Grocery store.
But it is beautiful! The road back to our campsite in Hope, Ak.
Here is an overview of our travels followed by a map.
- June 8, 2014 Sunday, Left Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and drove to Deadmans Campground, just inside the Alaska border
- June 9, 2014 Monday woke up in Deadmans Campground, left for Palmer.
- June 10, 2014 Tuesday woke up at Palmer, left for Anchorage.
- June 11, 2014 Wednesday woke up at Holiday convenience store In Anchorage. Went to Eagle River Nature Center. Had dinner with my son Robert.
- June 12, 2014 Thursday woke up in Anchorage. Left for Hope, camped at Hope
- June 13-15 2014 Friday through Sunday woke up near Hope in a free FS campground. Left Sunday for Seward.
- June 16-19 Monday through Friday. Woke up in Seward, posted twice.
Finally we have had one very good clear day, and today is perfect so far! Let’s hope this becomes a trend! Today we are leaving Seward and heading toward Homer before the weekend crowds hit. Here is a map from Tok Junction to Anchorage, and below it is a map of just the Kenai Peninsula.
Below is a link about Los Angeles’ city ordinance that disallowed living in one’s vehicle. The law just got overturned. It is now not illegal to live in a vehicle. I will start a thread in the forums so people can talk about it. I wonder how this might affect Anchorage?
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-homeless-vehicles-20140620-story.html
Canine, it’s not what it seems. They struck down that law because it was too vague. They made it illegal to LIVE in your car, but the cop could interpret that any way he wanted. They were giving tickets to people for having sleeping bags and stoves in their car at 3 in the afternoon because that meant they were LIVING in it.
The many laws in California against overnight parking or camping were NOT struck down, just this one law against LIVING in your car. This one ruing will have almost no impact on anyone else because everyone else wrote better laws.
Bob
Thank you for the clarification. I definitely read more into that. I am kinda bummed, though. Lol.
Hey Bob, Have you tried stealth camping at some the hiking trailheads in Anchorage? Prospect Heights would be a good one. The trailhead at the Hillside ski area, Far North Bicentennial park, or even Kincaid park near little Campbell lake. I’ve also seen somebody boondocking in the carrs parking lot at the corner of Jewel lake and Dimond Blvd. He’s there all the time. I know what you mean about Verizon. I have it too. Good luck to you in your travels. I hope to go full-time in an RV next year.
Mary, I worked for Carrs/Safeway for over 30 years and they are always a good choice. They have a lot of employees in at night and it’s easy to blend in. But, they are noisy and busy, so they were always my last choice. When we go back, I think we’ll try Eagle River. It’s also part of Anchorage but I know some places there.
Thanks for the tips!!
Bob
Bob_
Even though you’re gettin’ cabin/van fever…the pictures are still cool.
Lot of rain in Southeast Wisconsin lately…had some marble size hail bouncing off my solar panels with no problem…pretty happy about that. I read they can handle golf ball size…don’t really want to find out. Hope the weather improves for you guys/gals. Peace.
Openspaceman, fortunately the weather has improved. Yesterday and today have been quite good, I hope it lasts!
Bob
I keep hearing “Anchored Down In Anchorage.” They say it’s the crappy times that make the best stories. Maybe your “foreign” Verizon signal is coming from Russia.
That would be a very impressive cell signal to make it here from Russia! But you never know!
Bob
I had heard of the mosquitoes but the rain is a surprise to me somehow. I hope the recent decent weather continues. From my viewpoint in the Great Lakes, the scenery is still beautiful, but I understand how difficult it is to be indoors day after day.
Calvin, remember Anchorage is a port city on the ocean so like all ports it is susceptible to lots of rain. Generally the rainy season comes later but this year it came early.
Bob
Wonderful pictures! Hey, is it just the two of you, or did other vandwellers caravan with you?
fiddler, no one else came along. We are here alone.
Bob
It’s too bad you have all that beauty around you and the rain, mosquitos and an over abundance of bears to ruin it. Is there a good time of year to travel there? For future reference and to avoid a lot of the above.
Monique, generally this is the good time to travel here! Just not this year.
Bob
Mosquitoes are probably the only thing that Alaska and Alabama have in common. I hope the weather improves soon.
Naomi, we have had few good days, and then it rained all day today! Hopefully we will get good weather soon.
Bob
Bob it is 105 in Phoenix and very blue sky. And what is a mosquito? (lol). Can’t have it both ways. At my age it is easier to stay cool then warm.But there is always Quartzsite after New Year.
But Opa, if you are snowbird in an RV, you can have it both ways! Maybe I’ll see you in Quartzsite in January.
Bob
Bob, I think you’ve mentioned this before but it seems to have slipped my mind. What camera are you taking all these lovely pictures with? Is it the gopro? Or is the gopro just for video?
Myddy, the majority of them are taken with my Canon 6D DSLR. But a surprising number are taken with my Nikon CoolPix AW 110 which is a waterproof Point and Shoot. It takes really good pictures but it only has a 4x zoom.
The Gopro is for action, hands-free photography both still and video.
Bob
oh, lovely. Rain and mosquitoes, my two favorite things for camping (not!). I’d rather have bears. Actually, I have had bears and it was better than mosquitoes. 🙂
Do you only have the van to escape to when it’s rainy and buggy? You’re not setting up a tarp? I tent camp so I travel with a big shelter for the rain and bugs, but it would not stand up to desert winds, which explains some of the questions I’ve asked you in the past about that. Two people in a van for days on end waiting out the weather is quite a feat!
It looks beautiful when you’ve been able to get out, though.
Ming, no, we don’t have a tarp, we are just inside in the rain.June is usually the best time with little rain in Alaska so I never planned at all for rain. We did design the van so we both had an area that was ours if we were trapped inside. that has saved us!
Bob
Actually the rain gave me an excellent excuse to read, snack & sleep!!! I shall admit to one 24 hr period when I avoided rain by Mostly sleeping. If the sun is shinning, one cannot get away with such behavior.
Al, So I shall look back and laugh at the time I took advantage of a short break in the rain to heat water outside and wash my hair while being swarmed by ‘skeeters and remembering to “tweet” my bear whistle?