| Author | Message | ||
| CoryDaneRTSIIIL (198.29.191.148) Rating: N/A |
For Any of you traveling to Walt Disney World, Disney Land or California Advenure, I added a link in the "Places We Stay" Section for MOUSESAVERS. This site can save you some good money on tickets, reservations, hotel rooms, etc. See, if you save big bucks on the vacation, thats all the more money you can sink into the conversion. LOL Hope you can benefit from this link - cd Oh, by the way, anyone have a good campground in Washington state or Alaska? I'm kinda wanting to go see the Northern Lites someday. If you know of some good sites, would you post it inthe "Places We Stay Section" so we all can enjoy it. Thanks | ||
| R.C.Bishop (128.123.88.33)
Rating: N/A |
Also Canada and the far Northeast? Thanx for the heads up on CA Disney sites, Cory. RCB | ||
| Tom Caffrey (Pvcces) (64.114.233.113)
Rating: N/A |
Cory, I don't think that you will find many developed campgrounds in Alaska and they might be pretty scarce in northern Canada. One reason is the frost line is so far down in many places and in some places, you can't go deep enough to stay out of frozen soil. It's known as permafrost, so there is no way to place a sewer line for seasonal use unless it can be drained before freezeup. However, because the state is so primitive in a lot of places, many people have yards and garages quite capable of taking your coach even at their homes, and most are very careful to take precautions against freeze damage. What this means is that if you stop at a fuel stop, which is usually also a lodge, and ask questions about where you might park your rig, you will find many people that will say just pull it over there, out of the way. There may be some who will try to see how green you are by suggesting something to see how you react, but if you pay attention, you'll probably be happy with the way you are treated. We've been invited into homes and garages when we were driving cars and most people will be helpful if you don't just make a nuisance of yourself. If you become demanding about a service, you might just get ignored. I wouldn't be surprised if there are camprounds in the Anchorage area, but that's an awfully small part of Alaska. It has about half our population and really is not very typical of life outside of the city. We've had an old motorhome parked in the west end of our town for more than a year, right on the main drag. Officially, it's a 24 hour zone and the motorhome has moved a few blocks in that time, but the other day, I saw a ticket on it for the first time. That's a little different than the developed south. After a few days hanging around Anacortes, the cops started making regular visits, so we didn't stay too long. Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576 Ketchikan, Alaska | ||
| jmaxwell (66.42.92.6) Rating: N/A |
Tom: I really hate disagreeing with a resident, but I would have to say that you know very little of the place where u live. I travelled all of BC, Yukon, and Alaska, and I mean all of it accessible by road in 1980 in a Class A motorhome. In the nearly 3 months that I spent doing that, I never, not even for 1 night, boondocked it. I stayed in improved campgrounds, with full hook-ups, occasionaly no sewer-just a dump station, every night and my longest stay was Anchorage, 3 nights. That was 1980, so I know it has improved since then. The same was true of BC and Yukon. I know that there now is at least 5 full hook-up campgrounds in Anchorage. I realize that some people prefer to boondock, and that's fine, just don't lean on the excuse that there are no campgrounds, because that excuse is flimsy at best. Granted, the price of those campgrounds is another entire discussion. Quite frankly, IMHO, I didn't see anything to attract my return with the possible exception of the Inside Passage thru the Wrangel Narrows, and u do that from the deck of the boat while your bus is locked away down below, inaccesible. So, I grant that u live in one of the beautiful areas, but that is not the case for the mojority area of the State. Like everyplace, if u haven't been there, why not go and see for yourself! | ||
| TonyW (64.12.96.235) Rating: N/A |
Hey Guys, As a former resident and logger/fisherman in S.E.AK. I can tell you first hand that it ain't no amusement park! But you don't need Walt Disney to draw a picture where the hand of God has been at work. They say the 'ol boy was pretty tired when he finally got around to making AK and he just kinda plopped down what he had left over from the rest of the world and called it "good". And he was right. I wouldn't trade one square yard of Alaskan muskeg for a whole state east of the Mississippi and darn few west of it! But you don't see much from the beaten path. Boats and airplanes are the only way in or out for most of the state. But our buses are road bound. That means we can only see about a billion acres instead of the whole state. Jim mentions the impressive beauty of the "Inside Passage" from the deck of an Alaska State Ferry. This is a good way to see S.E. and get to Anchorage from Seattle or Prince Rupert in BC. Most of the islands have a couple miles of blacktop that turns into logging road eventually. The villages can be toured in a couple hours but the ferry is leaving as soon as its loaded: it ain't no riverboat casino!My advice is to wait a couple days, more or less,for the next ferry and meet the people that live there. They just might tell ya where the trailhead is to the local waterfalls, fish hatcheries,abandoned villages and stuff the cruise ship people never see. And you can boondock just about anywhere you can park the beastie. They want you to stay and spend some tourist dollars and won't hassle you if you want to overnight on Main ST. I may regret this but I love you guys!: The "Stikine River Wilderness" is about 1/2 by fast boat out of Wrangell. The Forest Service has a few scattered cabins on a first come first serve basis, nominal fee. Bear, moose,deer,geese, swans, fish-ducks. trout, salmon, steelhead ect ABOUND! The river valley is about 2 miles at its widest and the mountains shoot straight up off the valley floor. Its almost a "closed" eco-system and is very unique.There are also hot springs w/ shelters and skeeter netting. Except for the cabins this is pristine wilderness and the springs floods wipe out every trace of human activity.If observeing the majasty of nature and the sence of awe and wonder that accompany it is what you are looking for then AK can offer that in thousands of locals. My point is this: "The Stikine" is just one of hundreds of isolated river valleys in AK.You can't see them from the road because there are none. (Almost all Forest Service cabins are on water in AK so air-taxi by float-plane is also a possibility.) I lived on Wrangell Is. for 5 years and Prince of Wales Is for 5 years. P.O.W. has more coastline than the lower 48 and scores of hidden coves freshly scoured by the previous winter storms. But there arn't any roads to them. Its MHO that a once-in-a-lifetime-trip to AK has to include some other modes of tranport than just by coach. I've only seen Mt McKinley (Danali) from a distance and would like to see it from the air but have no intention of trying to hike all over the BIGGEST rock on the planet! Nope: The Alcan ain't no Route 66! No Cement dinosaurs or House of Wierdness(okay, there are a few!) A person really needs a reason to go to AK otherwise there ain't much to do when you get there. From S.E. to Anchorage is a fishermans paridise. Most folks ship their catch home. Halibut and King Salmon are more than worth the exspence of shipping. I'm rambling now but as a footnote, The Wrangell Narrows are sometimes reffered to as "the pin-ballmachine" because of all the navigation aids exspecially at nite. The darn thing turns almost 180 degrees on itself and is pretty scary the first time thru at night. TonyW | ||
| TonyW (205.188.209.11) Rating: N/A |
Opps, I forgot they moved the southern terminis of The Alaska State Ferry system 90 miles north of Seattle to Bellingham WA. a few years back. TonyW | ||
| Peter Broadribb (Madbrit) (216.67.221.163)
Rating: N/A |
TonyW, you should work for the Alaskan Tourist Board, you have me even more keen to visit. However, it must take a lot of planning and insider knowledge to see a fraction of what you have mentioned. Perhaps you should write a guide book or even offer tours with the modes of transport needed to access those hidden delights. On the other hand, why spoil the beauty with hordes of tourists..... LOL. Thanks for a great insight, I enjoyed your ramblings a great deal. Peter. | ||
| R.C.Bishop (128.123.88.32)
Rating: N/A |
WOW!!...maybe we should forget our trip to the far Northeast of Canada/US in favor of a trip to the great Northwest......(just kidding, Ian. My wife is locked in, in 2004, for the Great Acadian homecoming at Calais). Maybe we can do the AK trip a year or so later, in which case, we'll need some helpful stuff traveling west thru the Yukon. Thanx, Tony, for a real sales pitch!. I can hardly wait!  RCB | ||
| Tom Caffrey (Pvcces) (64.114.233.9)
Rating: N/A |
JMaxwell, you have revised my thinking! We were planning to take our trip up through the interior next summer, so I guess I spoke out of turn. It's nice to know the amenities are there for when we want to use them and I expect that we will make use of some of them. I don't mind you disagreeing a bit; that's how we learn some of these things. And the last time I went up thrrough the interior was in the winter of 1971-72. Since I was from Seattle, it did seem quite primitive at the time. I got caught in a blizzard in central BC; 30 knots and 30 below. It was kind of a squeaker, but I did learn some things about cold weather. On my way back out, I ran into 50 below in Tok Junction, 60 below in Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory and 54 below in Whitehorse, in the Yukon. That was the first time I had seen gasoline over $2 a gallon. When I went through Williams Lake, BC, there was a patch of 50 below. From what I heard people saying, I gathered that 4 mpg wasn't especially unusual in a pickup. On more recent trips, we haven't been hearing about the cold weather as much. We seem to have a lot more trouble with snow and slick roads. We've got a copy of "The Milepost" in our eBay watch the we hope to buy soon. It's supposed to be good as a planner for the Alaska Highway. Tony, it sounds like you had some fun around here. We like Southeast for all the things you mentioned; about the only thing we don't like at times is the rainy weather. That was a big reason for us getting into the busnuts scene. Take care, you guys. Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576 | ||
| jmaxwell (66.42.92.6) Rating: N/A |
After reading Tony's narrative, I almost yearn to go back; almost! I had actually given thought to a trip where I would ship the bus up on the ferry, have an agent secure it in Skagway and I would just meander up the inland passage as a deck passenger (well, maybe a roomette just for the hell of it), staying a couple of nights at each stop then maybe drive to Dawson and back down thru Yukon and BC. I had thought the State Ferry Authority would provide me with a lead or two on getting an agent to receive my bus, but they acted like I was some kind of wierdo with a goof-ball idea. So, the plan just sort of never developed. I don't suppose that Alaska would be anywhere near the same if it was fully accessable by road, so maybe it is just as well that most of us cannot see it all. I just know that if they had more access Hilton would build a resort and McDonalds would put up some Golden Arches. Guess I'll just wait on them to finish that causeway between Frisco and Honolulu so I can go back to Hawaii. | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A |
I have to say this about Alaska... I went up to Fairbanks in the short time between winter and summer when the days are exactly 12 hours.. no mosquitos (hadn't hatched yet), covered in snow one week and not a trace of it the next. I went out in 20 below and sat on a mountain top EVERY night waiting to hopefully see the Aurora. When it finally hit one night, it was the MOST incredible visual experience of my lifetime. Period. Wall to wall, horizon to horizon, violent, beautiful, silent colorful lights, dancing, twisting and wooshing from one edge of the world to the other, orchestrated by the amazing interaction of the solar wind playing on Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere...all for the price of just sitting waiting. It came and went in 5 minutes but for that alone I'll go back... Cheers gary |