AK Adventure Days 47-48: Palmer/Eagle River

For a couple days R&R...I headed north to the Matanuska Glacier Recreation Area campground. This was the first time I’d seen a “safety rest parking” option on one of the Recreation Area’s fee station signs!!...quite a nice option.

I got a GOOD chuckle reading this bear sign!!...The author just must be my kind of person—very funny!!

I went ahead and paid for overnight camping...I didn’t want to stress about someone “monitoring” how long my safety rest parking was going to take...and I also always want to “support” these sorts of areas.  

I had gotten there early to claim one of their only 8 camping sites!!...I’m glad I did...as it WAS the day before the 4th of July..and as the hours passed, there was a constant stream of travelers driving through looking for an open site—too bad the private company contracted to manage the campground didn’t put out a “campsite FULL” sign like most others do!!

I was also glad I had a campsite instead of just parking in the parking lot...since an Irish lady traveling by bicycle from Homer all the way through Canada and down to Oregon...asked if I’d mind if she set up her tent at my site!! OF COURSE I didn’t mind!!...Had a lovely chat with her...and hope she contacts me sometime in the future to let me know how her travels went!! 

Lovely morning view of the Matanuska Glacier....

4th of July...burn ban...no fireworks ban for the entire area!!....I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do to fill up this day after campsite checkout...hated thinking that probably everywhere I’d go there’d be WAY TOO MANY people for me to have to deal with!! LOL!!

I headed back toward Eagle River.  I tried for Eklutna Lake park...INSANELY crowded!!...then went on to the Eagle River Nature Center.  That is a very lovely place...hardly no one there...but since the Anchorage area was in a HEAT WAVE—REALLY!!...temperatures in the 90’s!!...YIKES!!...I opted to NOT do any hiking.

Instead...I stopped at a quaint little ice cream shop...literally the ONLY establishment on the 13 mile drive through the wilderness to the Nature Center!!...remember how much Alaskans purportedly LOVE their ice cream!! The place was packed!!

Outside of an Eagle River subdivision...was a HUGE “drop a rock”!!...maybe they repaint it every year??....WOOHOO!!

It was a restful 2 days...good thing...busy weekend coming up!!