Parks – Page 21 – Wandering Dawgs

Remembering our 2013 Travels

December 31, 2013June 20, 2015Posted in Birds, Florida, Georgia, RVing, State Parks, Sunset, United States Forest ServiceTagged Egret, Little Ocmulge, Ocala National Forest, Salt Springs, Stephen Foster, Suwanee River5 Comments

Happy New Year!! 2013 was a great year for wandering!

This year we checked off one of the biggest items on our bucket list: from May to September we made the trip of a lifetime to Alaska and back in our RV. In the fall we visited a beautiful COE park in West Point, Georgia. I’ve already posted about those trips in previous posts on this blog so here are a few photos from our January 2013 journey to south Georgia and North Florida.

We started 2013 with a short trip to three different parks. The first was Little Ocmulgee State Park in Helena, Georgia.

Little Ocmulgee Lake, January, 2013

View out back window Little OcmulgeeState Park, Georgia

Cypress Swamp on the Short Loop Trail at Little Ocmulgee State Park, January, 2013

Our main destination was a week in the United States Forest Service campground in Salt Springs, Florida.

Egret at Salt Springs, January, 2013

Fish jumping at Salt Springs, January, 2013

From the boat ride through Salt Springs Run, January, 2013

A great place to beach the boat at the end of Salt Springs Run, January, 2013

Sunset at Salt Springs, January, 2013

Our final stop was at one of our favorite parks, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida.

The Carillon at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center, January, 2013

Way down upon the Suwanee River at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center, January, 2103

So where do think we will be off to in 2014? Stay tuned for more.

Wandering Dawgs Wander Again

November 13, 2013June 20, 2015Posted in Birds, COE Park, Georgia, RVing, Sunset, WildlifeTagged autumn, fall colors, fog, geese, Nature, R Schaefer Heard, West Point Lake14 Comments

Not all of our wandering is to far away places like Alaska or the Yukon. Sometimes we wander close to home. On Monday, we hitched up the Titanium for a road trip to Auburn, Alabama to watch the south’s oldest football rivalry between Georgia and Auburn this coming Saturday. We decided to take a few extra days and explore a new to us Corps of Engineers park on West Point Lake in West Point, Georgia just off of I-85 near the Georgia/Alabama line. It’s great traveling during the week during the off season. We are almost the only ones here.

R Schaefer Heard COE Campground on West Point Lake Site 113

View out the back window site 113 R Schaefer Heard on West Point Lake, GA

We spent three relaxing nights in site 113 in the campground with no other campers in our loop. The trees were wearing their fall colors and the sunsets were spectacular.

West Point Lake, Georgia

Fall Colors on West Point Lake, Georgia

Beautiful Fall Colors across from our campsite

Sunset on West Point Lake, Georgia

Foggy morning on West Point Lake

Morning Fog

West Point Dam is a short drive from the campground

Looking at our campsite from across the lake

Floating dock next to the boat ramp

Another beautiful sunset on West Point Lake

Our only neighbors were the geese.

Gathering of geese behind our campsite

Geese on West Point Lake

The geese swam by our campsite

We watched the geese in front of our campsite

R Schaefer Heard Campground on West Point Lake is one of three Corps of Engineers campgrounds on the lake. Our site is about 40 feet from the lake and like most COE parks we have a large site with plenty of room between our site and the ones on either side. Our site is a paved, back in site with water and electric hookups, a tent pad, fire ring, picnic table and a beautiful lake view. For more information about the park or to make reservations you can go the Recreation.gov site for R Schaefer Heard

Day 83: Last night in Alaska

August 7, 2013June 20, 2015Posted in Alaska, RV ParksTagged King Crab Legs, Richardson Highway, Tok, Wrangell Mountains7 Comments

Day 83: Tuesday, August 6, 2013. Valdez to Tok, ALaska. Tok RV Village Site 705. 255 miles traveled.

Our last night in Alaska was spent back on the Alaska Highway in Tok, 90 miles from the Canadian border. The drive was beautiful and I am not going to bore you with pictures. As soon as we arrived at the campground we spent about an hour washing the truck and fifth wheel to try to remove a month’s worth of dirt and mud.

Our last meal in Alaska was a feast of Red King Crab legs we bought at a fish market in Valdez and cooked on the stove in our kitchen. Eaten under a tree on our picnic table it was absolutely the best meal we have had on this entire trip.

Alaska by the numbers:

Number of nights on the road	83
Number of nights in Alaska	50
Total miles driven so far	9,249
Number of different campgrounds so far	37
Farthest North location traveled	Coldfoot, Alaska
Farthest West location traveled	Anchor Point, Alaska
Number of pictures taken	thousands!!

Day 77: Dall Sheep watching in Glacier View, Alaska

August 2, 2013May 21, 2015Posted in Alaska, RV Parks, WildlifeTagged Dall Sheep, Glacier View Alaska, Grand View RV Park

Day 77: Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Williwaw Campground to Glacier View, Alaska. Grand View RV Park Site 1. About 150 miles traveled.

The drive to our RV park along the Glenn Highway was scenic with no wildlife sightings. I am still constantly on the lookout for moose and bears. We passed through areas where caribou are sometimes seen but there were none to be found today.

The Grand View RV Park advertises “Dall Sheep Viewing” so we stopped there hoping to see some Dall Sheep on the mountains across from the campground. While I did laundry all afternoon we got out the binoculars and spotting scope in hopes of seeing the sheep. We weren’t disappointed. Four of the Dall Sheep (big horn sheep) were grazing high up on the mountain late in the afternoon. They were too far away for photos but they were fun to watch.

View out the back window of Dall Sheep on the mountain at Grand View RV Parl Alaska

This interesting mountain was behind our campground

We could see Dall Sheep on the mountain behind the RV

Two relaxing nights in Chugach National Forest

August 2, 2013February 25, 2015Posted in Alaska, Glaciers, United States Forest Service, WildflowersTagged Chugach National Forest, Fireweed, Portage Glacier, wildflowers, Williwaw Campground1 Comment

Day 75: Monday, July 29, 2013. Homer, Alaska to Williwaw Campground on Portage Glacier Road in the Chugach National Forest near Whittier, AK. About 180 miles traveled.

We enjoyed our time in the Kenai Peninsula but it was time to move on to our next Alaska Adventure. The sky was clear when we woke up and we watched the boats going out into the bay before we left. The drive north through the Kenai was beautiful and as always we kept an eye out for moose. Unfortunately, there were no moose to be seen! The only wildlife of the day was a family of ducks at a rest stop at Tern Lake

We enjoyed watching the boats going out in the bay our last morning in Homer

Mama and baby ducks at Tern Lake

It was peaceful at Tern Lake

After staying in private RV parks, city parks, national parks, state and provincial parks, we spent two nights in the first United States Forest Service park of the trip. The road through the campground is paved and each site has a paved pad. When the last few weeks have almost all been in gravel, parking lot type campgrounds it was such a treat to have no dust! Our site was surrounded by trees and wildflowers and we had a large picnic table and fire ring. A perfect place to relax.

The campground is located on Portage Glacier Road which leads to Portage Lake and then the town of Whittier. There are several glaciers in the area which can be seen from the visitor’s center at Portage Lake and from the campground. The only way to see the Portage Glacier is to take a cruise on the lake. We decided to pass on the cruise and enjoy the ones we could see from land.

Glacier view from the visitor’s center at Portage Lake

Portage Lake

Portage Lake just a couple of miles from our campground

Another glacier at Portage Lake

Portage Lake

View out our back window at Williwaw

Beautiful campsite at Williwaw Campground in Chugach National Forest

View from the campground

Day 76: Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Our campground was so beautiful the truck didn’t move all day. We started the day by going to a salmon viewing platform where salmon can be seen in the creek when they are spawning in August. We were just a few days too early and never saw any. After seeing no fish we went for a hike along the Williwaw Nature Trail.