The Kenai Peninsula

This morning we got up and had a fantastic breakfast here at the B & B - stuffed French toast, reindeer sausage, fritattas, etc. Then we headed out for Seward, about 3 hours south of here on the Kenai Peninsula, which is unbelievably gorgeous. It’s all snow-capped mountains rising up out of the water, rushing streams, waterfalls, etc.



Seward is one of the oldest cities in Alaska, settled by the Russian fur traders first, then the beginning of the Iditarod Trail - not the dogsled race, but the original trail to the gold fields. Now it is primarily a fishing town.

We did some shopping on the quaint old main street and then drove to the nearby Exit Glacier Park. We walked for about an hour to get to the glacier and it was incredible to be that close. You can actually feel the cold breeze, hear the ice creaking and cracking and see the blue ice deep in the fissures.

Then we went back into Seward to fulfill one of the last items on our list of things to do in Alaska - a king crab dinner! We ate in a restaurant overlooking the harbor with snow-covered mountains in the background, and the dinner was everything we hoped - even blackberry cobbler for dessert.

Now we have to pack and get ready to fly home tomorrow. Our flight isn’t until late, so we’ll have time to see more of Anchorage during the day - we think the salmon have started running, and there’s a little more shopping to do. My next blog entry will be from home, but you can check the North 2 Alaska blog for news of Tuesday.

Sunday

If we were a little disappointed in what we could see on Saturday, Sunday more than made up for it! It was sunny and almost cloudless for our drive from Denali back down to Anchorage and we had gorgeous views at every turn. We could see Mt. McKinley from many viewpoints and could hardly make any progress for stopping to take photos!



We arrived in Anchorage in mid-afternoon and checked into our Bed & Breakfast, which is a pretty awesome place. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Mark and Kathy, who had to catch a flight home and get back to work.

K & G and K & O had some great Mexican food for dinner, sat in the hot tub for awhile, and enjoyed the view of Turnagain Arm, a huge tidal arm of the Pacific that runs beside Anchorage.

More of Denali

Saturday turned out to be cloudy, chilly and misty - not the best weather for seeing the mountains and the critters of the Park. Our transportation was modified school busses - slightly more comfortable seats than the kids get! We saw 7 or 8 blonde grizzly bears, including mother and yearling cub pairs, a couple of red foxes, lots of snowshoe hares, and some caribou and Dall sheep very far way, but were a little disappointed not to see any moose or wolves.

Because of the clouds and mist, there was no chance of seeing Mt. McKinley, which can often been seen at the far end of the round trip tour, but the landscape was really pretty in a misty, mysterious sort of way. You can really see how the glaciers formed the area.

Adventures in Denali

We're back in Anchorage at our B & B where we finally have internet access again so I can catch up on our adventures in Alaska.

The Friday float trip down the Nenana River was fantastic. They had very attractive (!)dry suits for us all, and it was a good thing as Oliver got bounced out of the raft early on! We dragged him back in not much the worse for wear and continued on down the river. We were hoping to see bears, moose or something exciting down by the river as we floated by, but no such luck. The scenery was beautiful, tho, and the river just wild enough to be exciting.

It was chillier and windy that day, so a stop at a coffeehouse after the float trip warmed us all up. Then the girls and boys split up - the guys to go hiking in the park and the girls to visit a sled dog kennel in the park and see a demonstration of how the dogs are used. These are working sled dogs - much bigger and stronger than the racing ones. We enjoyed seeing them and then finished off the afternoon by hitting a few gift shops.

The guys had an even better afternoon. On their hike they saw 3 grizzly bears, 3 moose, a marmot, and some Dall sheep! And they had photos to prove it.

Marmot

Grizzly bears

Moose

Dall Sheep - usually not seen this close up.

After a really good dinner and another dip in the hot tub, it was to bed early as we have to be at the park at 7:00 tomorrow for our day-long bus ride into Denali National Park.

Amazing flight!

Thursday morning we all packed into a very small airplane and took off to fly into Denali National Park and around Mt. McKinley, also called Denali (the big one). It was absolutely amazing - and a little scary! It was cloudy in spots so we just had brief glimpses of the top of Mt. McKinley - over 20,000 feet high!













From that height, we could see many glaciers - some of them 30 and 40 miles long. The ice on the oldest glaciers is over 3000 feet deep! The stripes on this one were formed when several glaciers came together. The dark lines are the dirt and rocks along the edges of each of the merging glaciers.

Talkeetna is a funny little, laid-back town. It is the base from which climbers leave for Mt. McKinley. We had some lunch there and then took off for Denali itself. The park is really huge - although Talkeetna is at the edge of it, we had to drive north for several more hours to reach the park entrance.

After checking into our cabins there, we explored the area they call "Glitter Gulch" near the park entrance - lodges, restaurants and gift shops - had some pizza for dinner, tried out the hot tub and went to bed as we had to be up early for our float trip down the Nenana River.

Wednesday

One of the reasons we planned this trip the way we did was to visit Elmendorf Air Force Base, where our mom and dad met and were married during World War II. We weren’t sure if anything would be left from that era or if we could even get on base to see, as this is a strategic, high security base. But with the help of Gary’s military ID and some very nice people there, we got to visit what we are pretty sure is the chapel they were married in.

After leaving the base, we drove up to Talkeetna, where a cabin was waiting for us. The weather is still unusually warm, and we are continually amazed at how late it stays light. Mark took a sunset photo at about 11:30!

Catching Up

Just realized that I had never posted anything about Skagway. First thing in the morning we took an old-fashioned train up through the White Pass, following the route the gold seekers followed on foot, with a ton of supplies! Look closely at the photo - we are crossing a scarily high trestle bridge!



The trip was beautiful - and a highlight was seeing a black bear just as we came out of that tunnel above.

Skagway was a cute little town - quite a few of the old buildings are left so there's a lot of atmosphere.

Seeing the Glaciers

All morning we were still cruising across the Gulf of Alaska, coming back close to land in the afternoon. By 4:00 or so we were in Prince William Sound, coming into College Fjord. The scenery was spectacular - snow-capped mountains all around. There are more than a dozen glaciers in the area, all named for colleges by the party that mapped the area in the 1890s. The largest is Harvard Glacier




We didn’t see any of the glaciers calve, but we did see lots of sea otters. They are so cute! They didn’t seem too frightened by the ship - several floated right by the ship on their backs so we could see their expressive little faces. This one is hard to see, but they really were cute. Now we need to be on the lookout for a moose.

It’s hard to believe the cruise is already over, but at least we still have more vacation to look forward to. Tonight we are packing up - they take our luggage before we go to bed and whatever we need for the night has to go in the backpacks tomorrow morning. We disembark in Whittier and meet up with the tour company that has arranged the rest of our trip. Tomorrow night we stay in Talkeetna, near Mt. McKinley, and take an airplane trip over Denali and to the mountain on the next day before heading up to Denali. Not sure what internet access we will have for the next several days, so it may be awhile before there’s a new post.

Sitka

I thought Sitka was the most picturesque of the towns we visited - the setting is breathtaking and there doesn’t seem to be much industry to spoil the looks of the waterfront.

Cruise ships can’t anchor at the docks in Sitka so the Spirit was anchored out in the bay and we went back and forth on little boats called "tenders."

Sitka was the capital for the Russians when they owned Alaska and still has quite a bit of Russian influence. This church is the Russian Orthodox church in town and has one of the old onion domes on part of the building.

After we left Sitka, we headed out into the open ocean where there was much more motion, even on this large a ship. Fortunately, we had seasickness patches so haven’t been affected. In fact, it was the best night’s sleep - just like rocking in a cradle!