America the Beautiful – Page 6

State 2:

Welcome to the next post in my series highlighting states we have visited throughout the years. I hope you will enjoy coming along for the ride! I will be featuring the states alphabetically and next up is

Alaska

Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959. The capital is Juneau and it is the only state capital that can only be reached by air, boat, or birth. The largest city is Anchorage.

We spent 50 glorious nights in Alaska in the summer of 2013.

I loved meeting so many wonderful Alaskans and hearing their stories. Wildlife, glaciers, boat trips, a flight seeing tour, eagles, halibut fishing, Denali National Park, taking the RV on the Alaska Ferry from Skagway to Haines, and a train ride on the Alaska Railroad are just a few of the amazing things we experienced while we were there. Our favorite place was Haines. The most exciting thing we did was take a flight-seeing tour from Talkeetna to see Mt. McKinley and land on Ruth Glacier. The farthest north we went was Coldfoot, north of the Arctic Circle.

Pullen Creek RV Park, Skagway, Alaska

Waterfalls along the Klondike Highway

Arriving at the Haines ferry dock

Watching for whales in Haines, Alaska

Bald Eagle at Chilcoot Lake State Park, Haines, AK

Haines boat harbor

Deadliest Catch!

Mendenhall Glacier

The free George Black Ferry crosses the Yukon River from Dawson City to Top of the World Highway.

Poker Creek Alaska

The signposts show other towns named after chickens. Who knew there were so many?

The Pedro Dredge in Chicken is a National Historic Site.

Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska

Downtown Talkeetna.

We went really close to Mt. McKinley

Loving every minute of our time on Ruth glacier

Home of author Mary Lovel in Sherman, Alaska

The Alaska Railroad runs right behind our campsite

Such an amazing sight to see their tail

Stellar Sea Lions on day trip to Juneau

Calving on Aialik Glacier one

A pair of Orcas on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez

There were Puffins in the water

Sea Otters on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez

Wandering Dawgs at the Arctic Circle

A good look at the Alaska pipeline as it goes underground

Four of these fish are ours!

Mount Redoubt sunset in Ninilchik, Alaska

Anchor Point is the most westerly highway point on a continuous road system in North America

Our first moose sighting was this cow by a pond

Lukor liked it on top of his house

Polychrome Overlook, Denali National Park, Alaska

Caribou grazing in Denali National Park

Do you see the profile of a face on the right side of the rock?

Chunk of ice from the Columbia Glacier

Fireweed behind our campsite made the beautiful view even better

Mama bear looking for more fish near Valdez

Every day was memorable, every day was special, every day we saw something spectacular. Was it worth driving over 14,000 there and back? Absolutely!

To read previous posts about the states featured in this series just click on the state name: Alabama

Welcome to the first post in our series highlighting states we have visited throughout the years. I hope you will enjoy coming along for the ride! I will be featuring the states alphabetically starting with

Alabama

Alabama became the 22nd state on December 14, 1819. Montgomery is the capital and Birmingham is the largest city.

We’ve traveled through Alabama many times on our travels either at the beginning or the end of a long trip. All of our stays have been short so we haven’t been able to spend a lot of time exploring but we have enjoyed all of our visits there. Our travels never took us to the space center in Huntsville and we never had enough time to visit any of the Civil Rights museums or walk on the white sand beaches along Alabama’s Gulf Coast. We did enjoy many beautiful campgrounds and had fun cheering on the Dawgs when Georgia was the visiting team at Jordan-Hare stadium at the University of Auburn .

We spent our first ever night night on the road in Montgomery at the beginning of our cross country trip in 2006.

Our very first night on the road on July 14, 2006

We discovered camping in Corps of Engineers parks on our way home from a three month trip in 2007.

Prairie Creek Campground - Our first COE Park — Prairie Creek Campground – Our first COE Park

Sunsets over the lakes and rivers in Alabama are some of the prettiest we’ve seen.

Sunset over the Alabama River at Prairie Creek Campground

We love camping underneath Spanish Moss draped trees.

We love it when we discover a pretty, peaceful place to spend the night.

Scenic drives and walking trails made our stays at Oak Mountain State Park one of our favorite campgrounds of 2016.

View from the top of Peavine Falls Roadgames in Auburn.

We planned a couple of fall trips around the Georgia-Auburn game in Auburn.

Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn University

We didn’t get to walk on the beautiful Gulf beaches in Alabama but we did stop for lunch at Flora-Bama on the state line between between Florida and Alabama.