2014 - A Year of Dancing on the Edge

No big deal, I'll just pick a few highlights of the year and post a review. Oh boy, what was I thinking? It was not a year to review lightly. Although we traveled through only eight states, some were the biggest and arguably the most spectacular in the country. So how am I going to do this? Systematically or randomly? Thematically or chronologically? Logically or emotionally? Geez, so many choices. Well, let's see what develops if I just jump in.

We started full-timing in 2011, and we've covered much of the country, except for those pesky tornado-ridden flat states smack in the middle. Somehow we just can't seem to get to them. No offense to the Heartland, but it just isn't as compelling as those states around the edges. We covered a lot of completely new territory for us this year, in some pretty exciting and "edgy" places, many of them the least populated areas of the western USA.

We brought in 2014 on the southern edge of the country at a New Year's bash in Vermillionville, Lafayette, Louisiana, dancing to Geno Delafose's Cajun/Zydeco music. 

Then we two-stepped along the Gulf Coast of Texas to spend a peaceful month beach combing on Mustang Island. 

We salsaed down to the southernmost tip of Texas during that time to do some exotic bird watching on the border of Mexico.

Green Jay

My son Mark joined us in Texas for a chunk of the winter, and we took in some old and new sights while cooling our heals along the southern edge of Texas and New Mexico. 

Mark - Enchanted Rock, TX

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Early spring found us tangoing inland, making our way diagonally northwest through Arizona. While in Pheonix we hit my now all-time-favorite museum: the Musical Instrument Museum.

We crossed over into Utah to spend a glorious month at Zion National Park, one of our 

all-time-favorite places. We were joined by Steve and Wendy, two of our all-time-favorite people, with whom we waltzed in the Park.

Continuing our diagonal trek, eastern Nevada was a big surprise - much more textured and scenic than we expected. We eased on up the Great Basin Highway and the Loneliest Road, making stops at Great Basin National Park and the Bonneville Salt Flats. 

Great Basin National Park

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

Crystal Crane Hot Springs, OR

We tight-roped much of our Spring on the edge between the Oregon Cascades and the Oregon desert, in Bend. This started our season of dodging the wildfires in the western states. 

Painted Hills, OR

Two Bulls Fire, Bend, OR

We gently dropped our RV in Springfield, Oregon for some repairs, while we boogied on toward the northwest corner of the country. After a brief and lovely visit with our good friends Nick and Cindy in Gig Harbor, we burst into our greatest adventure yet - the Great Edge that is Alaska. For this first venture into Alaska we decided on two of the most popular places - the Inside Passage and Denali National Park. Anchorage served as a base for other smaller cakewalks into the surrounding areas.

Glacier Bay National Park, AK

Seward, AK

Three bull moose, Denali National Park, AK

North Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm Fjord, AK

Our flight back to the lower 48 brought us to Seattle, another visit with Nick and Cindy in Gig Harbor, and a reunion celebration with our rig. 

Gig Harbor and Mt Rainier, WA

We spent the rest of our Summer and Fall in California, swinging our way south along the eastern edge the Sierra Nevadas. It was our first time in the Sierras and after hearing so much about how uniquely beautiful that area is, we have to concur. From Lake Tahoe, to Mono Lake, to Yosemite, to Death Valley, eastern California is a real wonderland. 

Lake Tahoe, CA

Mono Lake, CA

Yosemite National Park, CA

Death Valley National Park CA

And here we are, finishing up 2014 in Southern California, krumping around the edges of Los Angeles, the largest metropolis in the country. (Well, to be truthful, we are actually on the edges of San Diego right now.) In any case, it's a pretty major change after spending so much time hiding in the hinterlands of the California mountains and deserts. 

San Dimas, CA

Guess where, CA

It was a year of extremes, ranging north to Alaska and south to the Mexican border; 

Glacier National Park, AK and El Paso, TX

...from the pale salt of Bonneville Flats to the textured rainbow of the Valley of Fire. 

...from the lows of Death Valley to the heights of Mount Whitney; 

...from the peopled buzz of southern California to the pristine remotes of Alaska; 

Santa Monica Pier, CA and Denali National Park, AK

...and from smoke filled skies to crystal clear altitudes.

Yosemite National Park, CA and Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, CA

It was a year for wonderful dances with good friends (Nick and Cindy,  Lynn and Glenn, Wendy and Steve, so many Chicago buddies and DMT friends) and family (The Hoyles, The Herveys and dearest Mark).

It was also a year of changes. We hugged and kissed goodbye to our foldable kayaks and Ms. Subaru, who took us 85,000 miles into our journey. We welcomed two new inflatable kayaks into our family and hope to be introduced to a new car any day now. 

We're deeply grateful for all our new and old partners, and for our natural world that reminds us daily of the wonder and goodness all around us, and we wish the same for all of you. 

Remember, keep your dance card open
and have a Happy New Year.

Denali From Above

The question of the day: Will we see it?

If it got to be our last morning in Denali National Park and we still no had sight of  Mt. McKinley, (or any mountains for that matter) we had a Plan B.  Of course there was no guarantee, even from the air, and if we didn't see The Mountain we could live with that. A lot of people who come to Denali to see The Mountain, don't.

Although our plan was to take a flight-seeing trip from Kantishna back to the park entrance, we had to be ready to take the bus in case the weather was so ugly that the flight would be cancelled. The bus shuttle back to the park entrance left Kantishna at about 6am so our bags had to be on our cabin porch at 5:20. (No luggage on the tiny plane.) So we got our bags out, wandered bleary eyed over to the lodge and discovered that the flight was a GO!  

 A couple of hours later and we were ready to roll down the dirt runway. 

Did I mention it was a tiny plane? Although it held five passengers, plus the pilot, the inside felt smaller than my old VW bug. It was tight. Rick got the co-pilot seat and he was pretty happy about being able to see all the gear up there. I was right behind him. We all had headphones so that we could hear the pilot and talk too if we wanted to. 

(BTW, all the photos in this post were taken by Rick, so many thanks to him. I lost my whole series of the flight seeing trip and the following day at Talkeetna. Oh well, it happens. Thankfully Rick and I often take pictures of the same things.)

First we flew over the McKinley River. Just as we were taking off I spotted a black bear along the river…See it down there?  : )

Although it was a clear day, there was a layer of smoke at about 16,000 feet. Look at the first picture in this post and you''ll see it. The pilot didn't know where it was coming from - somewhere far away, maybe Siberia, he said.  He felt confident that he would get us up over it for a good look at Denali. 

We followed the river to the Muldrow Glacier. I'm going to get this wrong, but I think I recall that the formation in the next photo is the remains of a dam created by a glacier as it receded, and then the dam burst and deposited the minerals as the water flowed away. Don't quote me on that, but it was interesting.

I think it might be Red Mountain. The name fits, 'cause nothing else around is red.  

We basically followed Muldrow Glacier up through the mountains.  There are glaciers between the various mountains, and the pilot was identifying them, and the various peaks for us, but there was no way I could keep them all straight. We were just busy being awestruck and trying to take it all in.  Here we're approaching the smoke layer.

Denali has two peaks, the north and the south. I don't know which one this is, but this is about as close as we got to either of the peaks, and the best shot we had of The Mountain. Yes, it was massive. Majestic. Spectacularly enormous. And we were right up there.

The pilot flew us around the peaks a bit so that both sides of the plane got as good a view as possible. As you can see there were some wispy clouds and/or smoke obscuring some of the peaks. 

From that point on we followed the Alaska Range northeast to the park entrance.  Under the snow the mountains look like shear black rock.

We flew by glacier...  

…after peak

…after glacier

…after peak

…after glacier.

We simply tried to see as much as we could and take pictures of features that were interesting or unique. Believe me we were snapping  away as much as we could while still trying to just experience the awesome feeling of being up there looking down at all these beautiful, pristine mountains. It's so different from "real life" that it's hard to know what to feel. 

I'm just going to throw a few more of these Alaska Range pictures at you to give a sense of how it felt to be bombarded with this scenery. Try to imagine moving over and being surrounded by it all.

The snow began to thin as we descended. At this elevation the mountains look like they're made of dirt and gravel under all that snow. 

The vegetation began to cover the bare earth, and we followed another one of the hundreds of glacial rivers to the airstrip six miles south of the park entrance.

What can I say?

Although we were back on the ground, Rick and I were still totally elated for hours.  It was a serious splurge, as far as the expense, but completely worth it. We were so fortunate to have the whole experience, plus a clear view of The Mountain and the rest of the Alaska Range. It really helped us understand the immensity and grandeur of Alaska.