Canada! and home to AK

Lake Louise, Canada

By: Lars

It was the second time my family and I went to Canada together. Twas once again an amazing experience but the only difference was the first time we were in Canada, it was the winter. My sister already covered the first little bit about Waterton National Park, so let's start with going to Lake Louise. One of the things we did at Lake Louise was we went to the Lake Louise Inn, we didn't stay there though, we just went for the swimming! It was a very nice pool with three hot tubs! The only thing that wasn't very fun at our campground was the trains on the tracks right next to our campsite! That was a loud experience. After our second visit to Lake Louise, we were headed to Jasper where we went to a place called Miette Hot Springs. The hot springs were in a pool but the water was from the actual springs. The next two days were long drives and on the second day we got to our destination, yet another hot springs called Liard Hot Springs. This one was amazing. My family must've felt in a hot springy mood because we went to yet ANOTHER hot spring called Takhini Hot Springs. Sadly Takhini wasn't a very good hot springs due to the fact that the pool needed a new paint job and had weird stuff floating around in it. The next three days were long drives, as we were determined to get back home. My mom and dad decided we could drive extra long on 1 day to get back to Anchorage in 2 days because of how smoky it was! On the first day of the drive we ran into a road closure because of wild fires. We had to wait almost an hour before it opened again. Now we are home sweet home!

P.S. We really appreciate those who commented and those who couldn't because we understand a lot people had problems posting a comment on the blog. Thank you everyone sssoooo much for reading our blog and have a great rest of your summer!

First time on the Alcan for everyone except Ray and Kiska
Beautiful drive despite the clouds and smoke~

Canada   By: Ilsa R.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

You probably have read my last post, where I wrote about Waterton and riding the Surrey bikes. Even though that was in Canada, we decided to space things out a little bit. Lake Louise was our next stop after Waterton. Recently my family and I had paid a visit to Lake Louise on a skiing trip, so it was cool to be back again. We didn't do much at Lake Louise because we were only there for two nights which is about the average number of nights we usually stay at a campground. However, we made the most of our time and decided to go swimming at the Lake Louise Inn. The inn was super nice. They had free mints at the front desk and they also had a built-in Starbucks! The pool was nice too, including the three bubbly hot tubs! Back at our campsite, sleeping was harsh because of the trains buzzing by all night long (super painful). After the campground where we got a lack of sleep, we went to Miette Hot Springs. The hot springs there was pretty much thermal water that was placed in a pool and cooled down. It was an OK hot springs. The campground near it felt like a jungle. when I went to the bathroom, I saw this weird looking butterfly that pooped on me!😂 After we stayed at the "jungle campground" as I called it, we headed to the world's greatest hot springs ever called Liard Hot Springs! The hot springs was completely natural if you don't count the granite rocks that they put on the bottom. In the hot springs, there were tons of little caves that you could explore around. At the end of the hot springs it got really skinny and you could go down this weird river-like stream. If you looked up, you could see vines and trees about eight feet above you. After the amazing Liard Hot Springs, we drove to the world's worst hot springs ever which was so bad, I may remind you,  that this sentence does not even deserve an exclamation mark, but a period. One, it needed a new paint job, two, it was super rusty, and three, there was weird brown stuff in it and I don't want to know what it was. After that hot springs, we had only three days of driving to get back home! After we started driving again, we ran into a wild fire! The forest fire company made everybody wait in a line for the fire to jump the road. While we were waiting, I tipped out my guitar and started playing. Time passed quickly and soon we were driving through a massive wild fire! Once we had passed through, our family made a decision to keep on driving and get back home in two days instead of three! We went to a pull-out to sleep and then pretty much from thereby went back home. THE END!      

Liard Hot Springs - kids swimming under the bank in morning sun

Liard Hot Springs

Wood Bison with calves - lots of wildlife on the drive!
We saw a ton of bears, a fox, coyotes and baby sheep

Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, Canada

Wildfire in Yukon - Ilsa played the guitar while we waited an hour for the okay to drive through the fire
It was flaming and smoking on both sides of the road as we went through behind the pilot car

Glacier - Waterton National Park

Back at Many Glacier Hotel!

Hidden Lake at Logan Pass

Ilsa with her horse Mongo

By: Ilsa R

After our visit to Missoula, we drove to Glacier National Park. Being in Glacier reminded me of home because of the similar plants, animals and mountains. We drove Going-to-the-Sun Road and went on a hike to Hidden Lake. On the way down, Lars and I did a lot of glissading on the snow. We swam in Lake McDonald after the hike, which felt really good! We were in a few campsites in Glacier National Park before we landed at Many Glacier Hotel.  Almost 30 years ago, my mom worked at Many Glacier Hotel as a waitress. Once we got there we went on a short hike that was 5 miles and pretty much right after, my mom and I went horseback riding. In the morning, we went to a huge breakfast buffet which had all the breakfast food you could imagine! That same morning, we drove to Waterton (the Canada side of the National Park). Later in the afternoon we rented bikes and biked around the town. At the bike shop they had a specific bike called a Surrey Bike. A Surrey Bike is basically a car and 2 bikes put together. It had a steering wheel and a lever that you pulled down as brakes. Lars and I were able to drive in the road with it and I felt like I was driving a car!

Biking in Waterton

The Surrey Bike - huge hit with the kids

Yellowstone!

By: Lars
The departure from Leigh Creek wasn't all that bad because my whole family and I were sssoooo excited for Yellowstone! The drive was not that bad and once we entered Yellowstone and saw our fist thermal pool, we all got super excited! That night we went on a boardwalk hike getting a feel for what Yellowstone was like. The day after that, we did more boardwalk hikes but these hikes were different because that day we saw geysers. If you don't know this yet, the reason there are so many geysers in Yellowstone is because lava is closer to the surface of the Earth so every pool of water there is extremely hot from the heat from the lava. This is what makes thermal pools bubble. But geysers shoot up super high because the lava is rising shooting the water sky high! The most popular geyser is called Old Faithful. The reason it got its name is because it's a very old geyser and it is very predictable so the time until it goes off can be estimated and will vary only in a 20 minute range. Old Faithful was the fist geyser I had ever seen and it was astonishing how high the water went! We saw some other geysers and headed to camp for a nice fire while Ilsa played the guitar. That next day, we went on a hike stopping along the way to see amazing waterfalls fall into the Yellowstone river. The hike was like any other hike we do but at the turn around point, we got to Hellroaring creek (the name of the hike) and we dipped our feet in. It was very refreshing! Sadly, the next day we had to pack up and leave Yellowstone heading towards Montana. In Montana we made a stop at Missoula where we met our old friends Darin and Jenn and their 4-year old girl Kaia and their 2-year old girl Makenna. We spent 1 night there with the family that once had a house in Seward, Alaska (that's how we knew them). After the nice reunion, we were headed to Glacier National Park.

Thermal pools bring out the microbiologist in Ray

Great campsite on Yellowstone Lake

By: Ilsa R.

As you know, we recently visited Yellowstone, which Lars wrote about in this post. Since reading the same thing is totally boring, I have decided to write about the things he hasn’t written about yet. So, after Yellowstone, we did a 7-hour drive (very painful) to visit our friends in Missoula, Jen and Darin and their two daughters, Kaia and Makenna. Kaia was four years old and Makenna was two. They were both SOOOO adorable! We stayed with them for one night and in the morning we visited the Saturday market and went out for breakfast.  It was hard to leave them but I think I might go to college there!

Lower Yellowstone Falls

Yellowstone River

Even for Alaskans, seeing a bear this close was fun! 

Ilsa with Makenna in Missoula

Corn Palace, The Badlands, Mount Rushmore

By: Lars

It's been awhile since our last post so we have a lot to catch up on! Our first stop was the Badlands! One of our stops we made before the Badlands was the Corn Palace. At the Corn Palace, we saw huge frames filled with different colored corn creating a picture. After this corny stop we were heading straight to the Badlands. This was a cool experience because I got to see and eat bison! The amazing thing about the Badlands is that before you're just driving on hilly and grassy terrain and then, BOOM! You see these giant sandy mountains similar to Bryce Canyon! We stayed at the Badlands for one night, for dinner. As I was saying before, I got to eat a bison burger with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and pickles. It was very scrumptious! The next day we packed up and started heading towards the campground called Leigh Creek campground. We made another stop before Leigh Creek, and that stop was at Mount Rushmore! The mountain with the presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln carved into the mountain. That was probably one of the most amazing little stops we've ever made on both of our road trips. After that mountainous experience, we were headed to Leigh Creek campground. Turns out, Leigh Creek campground is inside of Big Horn National Forest. Leigh Creek was a small campground but good enough that we could manage until the next day where we will be heading to Yellowstone National Park!

The Corn Palace!

All The Amazing Things!  By: Ilsa R

Ok so, we have seen a LOT since we last posted and we are not in South Dakota anymore. Let me tell you about it. So the first place that we visited was The Badlands, which to be honest, was not exactly my favorite, so I will just skip that one. However, I will tell you about where we went on our way to The Badlands. We went to the Corn Palace!  The Corn Palace is basically a big building (not made of corn) that has a design on the front that is completely made of corn! Also, the inside is well... pretty much a corn-everything visitor center. The second stop that we made on our way to the Badlands was an old-fashioned 1880's town! It was so interesting to look at old saloons, a school, a church, a grocery store, a doctor's office and so many other things! After visiting The Corn Palace, the 1880s old-fashioned town, and The Badlands, we headed to Bighorn National Forest where we stayed in a campsite for one night. Our campsite was pretty much a usual campsite (if you don't count big rock walls going up the sides). On our way to Bighorn National Forest we visited the famous Mount Rushmore. I think our luck was pretty good that day because it happened to be the day that we met Nick Clifford, the only person who created Mount Rushmore who is still alive!  Make sure you don't miss the next post, on Yellowstone National Park!

P.S.  I am now going to highlight all of the places that I have been to!

Ilsa at the 1880s Town - School Room

The Badlands - lucky to time it with the fields of yellow flowers

Mount Rushmore - meeting the only surviving driller

Mount Rushmore

Camping in Bighorn National Forest

Leaving Minnesota - On the Road Again!

Our water dog Kiska is also sad to leave Minnesota!

Minnesota!  By: Ilsa

Doing our usual trip to Minnesota this year was not the same as it was years before. For one, it's June! Usually our trip is in August which is WAY warmer.
 Spending time in Minnesota was so much fun even with the colder weather! There are always fun activities to do and having Kiska there with me just put the icing on the cake. Some of the activities that I did on the lake were tubing, water skiing, fishing, paddle boating, swimming, and many more! It is sad to leave the lake and my grandparents but I am excited for the planned adventures ahead! Also, my whole family was at the lake with me which puts the sprinkles on the cake after the icing! My three uncles and aunts were there including my cousins. Make sure to keep following my blog and we also enjoy comments! See you again in South Dakota!

By: Lars
Remember how I always write about how it’s so hard to leave a place that we’ve visited for a while with our Scamp? Well, leaving Minnesota to start our road trip was probably the hardest of all the other places that we went to. The reason this is is because Minnesota is where most of the families on my mom’s side come to my grandparents' lake. This is also a time to meet my cousins Reece and Keegan! Every summer Reece, Keegan, and I go tubing, swimming, and other activities in the water and in my grandparents' yard. This year was a lot more different though because we came a lot earlier than we usually do when we come in August. One, it was colder so that meant less sun, a colder lake, and more wind than usual. Two, we had Kiska accompanying us on our trip to Minnesota. And lastly, we still have our Scamp here from our last trip! This made our 9 day visit to Minnesota less and more fun at the same time! It was fun to visit our family in Minnesota but now, it is time to go on our real road trip and like I said before, it's not a road trip if we're not on the road!

Ilsa with her cousins and Grandma and Grandpa

Lars and his cousins Reece and Keegan

Baby loons hatched while we were here!

Scamp Trip Leg #2 - Day 1

Seattle

Final destination of the first leg of our road trip - Seattle!

 This is actually going to be the last post of the first leg of the trip. After we made it up the coast of Oregon, we headed to Seattle to meet up with Jack and Sandy and their 2 sons, Tommy and Jimmy. That evening, Tommy and Jimmy, and Ilsa and I all had a nerf war on the block... it was probably the best nerf war I have ever had! The next morning, we went to Mighty-Os donut shop. The donuts there had so much flavor! After Mighty-Os, we walked to Tommy and Jimmy's school where we had to depart. I hope I get to see them soon because I had lots of fun with them! My dad, my sister, and I are headed back to Anchorage. My mom will be driving Kiska and the Scamp to Minnesota so it will be waiting there for the next leg of the trip!

Lars, Ilsa, Jimmy and Tommy

Mighty-O Donuts

California Wildflowers

California Wildflowers

by Ilsa

The flowers on the coast of California were in beautiful bloom when we arrived. This winter, California got more rain than expected, which caused the flowers to be spectacular.  I couldn't help but borrow my mom's phone to take a lot of pictures.  I have never seen such a variety of flowers in all different colors!

California Poppy - State Flower

The Coast Post

Golden Gate Bridge

 By: Lars

It was a little sad having to leave Yosemite but once again, we were looking forward to visiting a new place and seeing new things. Our next destination was San Francisco. There we would meet up with my parents' friends, Greg and Kara, and their seven-year-old son Benjamin. It was wonderful to finally play with another kid after having to be with my family 24/7!  Greg cooked a gourmet dinner that night preparing us for the next beautiful day to the coast of California. That day, we went over the Golden Gate Bridge!  After the drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, Greg and Kara and Benjamin came with us to a campsite on the coast. When we got there, we immediately went hiking (not a surprise)! It was a beautiful hike and Benjamin wanted to go hiking more when we had to turn around (nice Benjamin)! The next day we had to depart from Greg, Kara, and Benjamin. That day was very exciting though because we drove to the Redwoods State Park. The trees were huge but not as big as the Sequoias (the Redwoods were taller though). The next day Ilsa and I explored on the Redwood trees and found tons of little caves and "castles".  Soon we were on the road again.  We drove through the Redwoods National Park, too. We stopped at a beach along the way and we flew kites but sadly Ilsa's kite broke off and almost got swept away in the ocean but she saved it in time. That day we didn't know where we were staying but we made reservations at a place called Beach Front Inn. No joke... it was the nicest hotel/lodge I have ever been to! We had a perfect view of the coast and a heated pool!  The next day was yet another day driving on the gorgeous coast. Our next two nights we camped on the coast and it was awesome! One night we were right next to the beach and there were numerous trees to climb! All of us are a little sad because tomorrow my sister, my dad, and I will be flying back to Anchorage and my mom will be driving Kiska and the Scamp to Minnesota. Thank you everyone for reading our posts. It has been an amazing experience and I can't wait to write more on the blog on the next part of our road trip in 6 weeks.

Hiking on the coast with our San Francisco friends, enjoying the wildflowers in bloom

California coast near the Redwoods

California Redwoods

California Redwoods

Kite flying at the northern point of the California coast

Stopped in at the Tillamook Creamery for ice cream and discovered much more -
including a dairy museum where the kids learned the modern ways to milk cows

Last nites of camping.... kids finishing up homework and thinking about returning to reality!

Yosemite!

Half Dome at sunset from our campground

By: Lars
After the amazing visit to Sequoia National Park, my family and I were headed straight to Yosemite National Park. We were at Yosemite for a total of four nights. When we got there, we were trying to get a campsite in the Yosemite valley - the most popular place in the National Park - but every campsite was full (not really that surprising because Yosemite is one of the most popular National Parks in the world). Instead we stayed at a lodge in a town called Wawona (this is in the National Park but not in the valley). Fortunately, my mom and dad were able to make campground reservations for three nights in the valley the next day! The next day, we were all excited to go to the valley. When we got there, we were confronted with an amazing view of famous mountains like El Capitan and Half Dome. We also saw a wonderful waterfall called Bridal Veil Falls. We just couldn't wait to drive down into the valley and see these wonderful mountains and waterfalls up close! We were in an area called Half Dome Village. It was called that because we were camped somewhat close to Half Dome. That day we rented bikes... and when I say bikes I mean 1980 Banana bikes with no brakes on the handle bars and instead you have to pedal backwards to brake! It was fun though because we biked to what we think is the tallest waterfall in the whole National Park called Yosemite Falls. It was amazing and beautiful! That evening, my dad taught my sister and I how to set up a hammock (we got hammocks for Christmas)! The next day, we went on a 6 mile hike through 2 beautiful gushing waterfalls. The first waterfall was called Vernal Falls. The second one was further up the hike and it was called the Nevada Falls. We were planning to do a loop but the loop was closed due to rockfall and snow. So instead, we backtracked and got back in time to hang out in the hammocks. That evening, my sister and I decided to sleep in our hammocks outside for the fist time! I believe it should be a mandatory experience for everyone to enjoy! The next and last day was an exciting day... it obviously started with a hike but afterwards, my dad, my sister, and I went bouldering on some big granite boulders. If you don't know what bouldering is, it is a form of rock climbing on natural and unnatural terrain that is not high off the ground. We did this for a couple of hours and then went home tired from the active day.

Lars looking out at El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridal Veil Falls

Hammock sleeping at the campground!

Yosemite National Park 

by Ilsa

Chaparral Tree - so much in bloom in April

Yosemite National Park was way warmer than I expected it to be. The hiking was pretty phenomenal and I am quite sure that almost every hike that we did in Yosemite had an amazing waterfall to see. The first day that we arrived was complicated. My dad thought that the campsite that we were staying in was first come first serve, but apparently it wasn't. We went to the reservations office to see if we could work something out, and we got an even better campsite in the valley! It wasn't available til the next day so my mom and I got to stay in Big Trees Lodge that was built roughly 160 years ago! My brother and my dad both parked the Scamp and slept in there for the night because there was only one queen-sized bed in the room.

On the way to Yosemite Valley, we went on a small hike in Wawona and we saw a beautiful tree called the Chaparral Tree, and after that we started seeing them everywhere. Later that evening, we rented bikes and rode around the National Park. Also, Lars and I were taught how to set up a hammock by our dad! We were going to sleep in them the first night, but then we decided to do it on the second night.  On the day that we slept in the hammocks, we went on a six mile hike to Nevada Falls! The hike was so beautiful...we got really drenched in water when we got close to the first Falls. The second Falls was at the end of our hike and was wonderful. I said "this is like a luxury spa for hikers" at the end. There were tons of boulders for Lars and I to climb on and the water was in magnificent condition for us to run in and cool our feet. The next day (after sleeping in our awesome hammocks), we went on a little walk up to inspiration point and got a good look at Yosemite. Also that day, we walked around Half Dome Village and found a good spot to go bouldering. The spot had tons of boulders that were perfect for climbing...it was a blast!

For the last and final day in Yosemite, We decided we would pack up early and head for San Fransisco. We didn't do any hiking that day which seemed pretty crazy for a Robinson, but we were able to manage.

Hopefully you have been enjoying reading our blog! - Ilsa R.  

 

Nevada Falls
The waterfalls in Yosemite were unreal - not only is it April, but a huge snow year too 

Bridal Veil Falls