Wrangell St Elias National Park

How do you know it is fall in Alaska? You open your eyes and look.

Fall

We decided to pack the girls up and go for a camping trip. Along the way, you could see and smell fall all around.

The road

Leaves
Alaska reminds me of the reason that AUTUMN is my favorite time of year.

We headed out to Wrangell St Elias National Park. Along the way, we passed:
Mat Su Glacier
The Matanuska Glacier.

Autumn in the car
Autumn enjoyed the car ride.

Sean in the car
Sean seemed overjoyed at the idea of going camping with three girls. Can't you tell?

We stopped for lunch.

Sean eating Our lunch
Sean decided he needed to eat ALL the lunch.

Emelia
I thought it was funny too Emelia.

I don't know about this
Autumn wasn't sure about lunch.....

After about five hours, we finally made it to our destination.

Wrangell st elias
Wrangell St Elias- Nabesna Road. Are you ready for a blast from the past?

Photobucket
Here we are with Autumn in May of 08- she was.... 3 months old.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
Our family photo!

Sean, Autumn and I went to Wrangell St Elias- the McCarthy road section in May of 2008. Autumn was only three months old, now here we are again with Emelia this time and she is.... three months old. I'm so glad that we are willing and able to take the girls out and experience Alaska.

Our campsite
Our campsite.

Panorama
The view from our campsite (directly in front of us) and behind us:

The view
We were near running water again, which I'm a great big fan of... it drowns out the bear noises I hear all night long!

Autumn enjoying the view
Autumn taking in the view.

Sweet girl
Enjoying the sunset.

Sunset
Don't you wish you were here?

Mosquito netting
Back at camp, Emelia was enjoying camp time mosquito free!

Tent
Sean got the tent set up whilst us girls....

Hanging at camp
Watched!!! Sean always says camping takes a lot of effort, but I quite disagree, camping is fun if you are a Jordan girl.

After getting our tent all set up, Sean got to work on:
Fire starter
The fire.

Blair witch
It was starting to get cold, but Emelia and I watched on as Sean and Autumn worked on the fire.

Helping
See, Sean didn't do ALL the work.

getting a fire going
Autumn pulled her fair share of work.

Starting
Without further ado ladies and gentleman....

The fire
We have FIRE!

Autumn checking it out

Smiling

I took this opportunity to get some photos of my sweet darling girl Emelia.

Photo op in the woods
That is Sean's contiko box. We use it at night time to store our food in, but it works quite well as a prop in my photo taking adventure.

Sweet Emelia girl
Does she remind you of anyone?

Back at camp, Autumn was:
Sitting
Hanging with her Dad and sipping on:

and drinking
Coffee.

Coffee
We have to keep a close eye on this one. She would drink ALL the coffee if we let her. One thing you have to know about Autumn is coffee or not:

Too excited
The child is too excited to sleep on camping trips.

Sleeping
Emelia on the other hand, she'll sleep anytime, anywhere.

The projected overnight temperature was 37 degrees. What actually happened though:
29 degrees
29 degrees. It was quite cold out there. Our campsite was frosted over in the morning, but we stayed nice and warm in our 4 season tent. I'm so glad we have that tent. We would have froze in our old tent.

Sunrise
Despite the cold temperatures, it was beautiful outside. We decided we saw about as much of Nabesna road as we were going to see and we made the decision to drive up to Denali Highway.

Cherish
We stopped by the Ranger station on the way out for a photo opportunity.

Mountains
Some of the views from Denali Highway.

Caribou
Now Autumn will tell you that those are Moose, but they are caribou. We saw quite a few on this adventure. This is a good opportunity for me to explain to you that fall time in Alaska makes the mountains look like they are coming to life. Some of the ground vegetation turns red and it just lights up the mountains. I'm really not sure that you could see a mountain coming to life anywhere else in the US.

Jeep
After a good deal of driving and a TON of rain, we picked a camping spot off of the Denali Highway.

The rain
Sean got the campsite together (again) and I was busy....

Berries
Picking berries.

Eating berries
Autumn and I were enjoying our berries.

Talking with chips
Emelia was working hard at "talking" with a bag of chips that Autumn gave her.

I think I can
Almost Emelia.

I did it!
I did it!

So let me make sure I drive this point home for you. The girls and I were in the car enjoying berries and being dry while Sean:
In the rain
Was getting the campsite together in the rain.

Sean alone
Again I say, I don't see where all this "camping is hardwork" idea is coming from.

Once the campsite was set up and the fire was going, Autumn emerged from the Jeep

Singing in the rain
To enjoy some singing in the rain.

Just singing in the rain
Doesn't she look so sweet! Now I must tell you, even though it was raining, it was much warmer here at this campsite. The overnight temperature only got down to 42. That is like twice as warm as the night before right?

The next morning we woke up, I got the girls in the Jeep and Sean got the campsite packed up (again!). We headed out for the road, but first we needed to stop in Cantwell for some gas.

$4.259 for gas
You think your gas is expensive? Try living in Alaska.

Another sunrise
I guess in the end, it is worth it for views like this.

Termination dust
Fresh snow.

We stopped on the side of the road to take those last two photos and when I turned around to get back into the Jeep, hello!

Moose on the Loose!
There was a moose on the loose!

So, we drove 800+ miles, spent two nights out in the wilderness. Saw Moose, Caribou, swans, birds, mosquitoes. Had lots of family time, an emergent run for the bathroom in the wilderness (yep ladies, you haven't really camped until you find yourself needing to go to the bathroom and no toilet in sight!), drove the Jeep until we ran a tire flat and now have returned home. Fall is definitely in the air and I'm so glad that my little family got the chance to see Alaska in all its glory.

Hope you enjoyed our adventure!

The End.

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