RoadNotes: Bear Paw Festival

Eagle River Campground, Chugach State Park, Eagle River, Alaska – July 10 through 13, 2014

After making sure Steve and Nancy would be OK we left to continue to Eagle River. Nope the Parks Highway hadn’t gotten any less busy since yesterday.

Down the road we finally see our turnoff. As usual of late the clouds are playing tricks in the distance.

At the end of our exit we notice the entrance to the local landfill. Then as we turn on the road leading to the campground we see this sign.

Good thing Church’s Guide to Alaskan Camping had forewarned us about this or we might have started having second thoughts.

It’s a beautiful campground and after circling a couple of time we find our spot. Lots of space between campers and plenty of sunshine for the solar panels.

We decide to head on downtown as we are on a mission. Back in Fairbanks we discovered that EJs side of the electric mattress warmer had bit the dust. Searches there at Walmarts and mattress shops had turned up no replacements. Knowing that Anchorage offered better options, we would continue the search here. We’ve been able to do without running the heat at night by using our mattress warmer. But now EJ is having to pile on the blankets to stay warm. It does get cool at night.

In Anchorage after stopping at numerous stores we decided to let Bed, Bath and Beyond order one for us. We were pretty sure it wouldn’t get here before we left the area, but after our trip to Soldotna, Homer and Seward we would return through Anchorage and we could pick it up then.

However, it did give us a good excuse to do some exploring downtown.

First of all, Anchorage is full of one way streets which is a challenge for the GPS.

But it also is filled with beautiful flowers.

We checked out the Captain Cook memorial.

Saw some cool totems.

Played tourist.

Watched these young kids play their hearts out and sounding really, really good.

Saw lots of murals.

And of course we couldn’t pass up another Brewery to add to our research!

But we didn’t miss this.

Returning to the campground, we caught up with KC and Sheila. Inviting us over to their RV, they introduced us to a new board game. We decide to go to the Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River tomorrow.

The next day, Frank offers to drive to the Bear Paw Days festival. He thought he could get a good spot up close, but we arrived as the parade was starting, blocking the roads. So we parked about a quarter mile away and walked in. But this gave us a great opportunity to see the people and the parade.

There were even some horse drawn carriages.

We visit the vendor tents and it wasn’t long before we are getting claustrophobic from all the crowds and it’s time to get the heck out of here.

The 4 of us find a pub and after a wait of about 20 minutes we get seated. Apparently lots of other folks from the festival had the same idea.

We did see some pretty flowers tho’.

And Mocha has her own to appreciate.

Sunday rolls around and pretty soon folks start leaving the campground. Late in the afternoon, it’s nice and quiet again. Then the animals start to emerge. We had our own show without having to go anywhere!

Realizing we hadn’t really explored the park we took a little hike along the river.

We’ve enjoyed our stay here. The campground is close to Eagle River and Anchorage, but not too close. We’ve enjoyed camping with KC and Sheila and now that everyone has left, we’re enjoying the solitude.

So is Miss Mocha.