A taste of Alaska

We've left the coast and moved inland.

It's time to start contemplating a move south as winter is looming.

Most of the lower 48 crowd has left and its just us and the Alaskans.

They are staying for the winter...

We have thousands of miles to travel to escape the icy grasp of winter and slowly

but surely the clock continues to count down.

The days get shorter.

Night time is getting longer....

Before we leave though...  I need to leave you with a few parting shots.

This Sea Otter checks me out.

A few flowers still hang in there...   for how much longer?

Moving inland means an instantaneous change in climate.

Especially this time of year.

Passing thru the Anchorage Metro - we head north on the Glenn Highway

and once around Palmer (and the Alaska State Fair!)  we notice the trees showing colors.

This morning we saw fresh snow on the mountains above us.

Its only a matter of time till that snow is down where we are!

The Tundra is turning orange and the contrast with the Spruce is beautiful!

Ever vigilant - Gracie keeps an eye on things.

Lucy could care less.

We pass Matanuska Glacier and I have to stop to take a photo.

It's a beautiful time of year.

I want to linger and see summer surrender to winter, yet I dont want to

linger too long and be caught up in winters icy grip.

Kate reminds me of the Donner Party....

Tonight we are in Tok Alaska.

We could easily play it safe and turn right and head south on the Alaska Highway.

In 10 days we could be in Washington or Montana....

But we are going to turn left and head further north.

Its time to take the Top of the World Highway again and head over to

Dawson City in the Yukon.

Dawson is the site of the Klondike Gold Rush and we are in search of our own

Gold Rush.

The Gold Rush of Autumn.

Wagons Ho!

Adios Seward

Its been a while since we checked in so I wanted to

make a short post to bring you up to date as we have

finally moved on this morning and are back on a roll....

🚌🚗

We've been boondocking in Seward on the waterfront for the last 6+ weeks

(hard to believe it's been that long)

Most of the folks from the lower 48 have gone and our neighbors are now locals

in search of Salmon.

The Silver Salmon run started a few weeks ago and its been a real hoot.

All of a sudden - everywhere you would look in the bay - fish were jumping

into the air.   24/7

Upon closer inspection we'd see that they were being chased by Dolphins and

other Marine Mammals.

It's been a non-stop show for the past couple of weeks but finally the imminent

winter tells us its time to move on.

We learned a new phrase.....

"Termination Dust"

Its the first light snow that coats the mountains and signals the impending end

of summer.

They uttered that phrase on the local news about a week or so ago.

We'll Termination Dust has arrived and its time for us to move on.

Kate does not want us to turn into the Donner Party of 2017.

We are now headed to the Yukon in search of fall color.

We left Seward this morning and are spending a couple of nights along

the Glenn Highway above Matanuska Glacier.

Already the tundra shows the colors of fall....

More to come in a few days.