Anchorage, AK Population approximately 400,000

Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, is embraced by the Chugach Mountains and the waters of Cook Inlet.  It’s a place where young spirits and adventurous souls come to play.  One can step foot on a glacier, fish for king salmon, hike to a mountain vista, fly out to Mount McKinley, and still enjoy big city life. Above is a beautiful scene along the Seward Highway on our way to Anchorage.

On the Seward Highway is the Alyeska Resort and tram.  The tram is a seven-minute ride to a viewing deck with breathtaking panoramic views of mountains, hanging glaciers and wildlife. We rode the tram and enjoyed the beautiful views.  See pictures below:

Along the highway was a business featuring chainsaw carvings. We stopped and I found a friend.  We bought this little guy and named him Happy.  Take a look: 

Happy

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is also located off the Seward Highway to Anchorage.  The center provides spacious enclosures and also quality care for injured and orphaned animals in its 200-acre park.  When injuries heal for adult animals, they are placed back into the wild.  However, if an orphaned animal is brought in due to the death of the mother, the orphan will remain at the center for life. Not having learned the survival skills normally taught by the mother, the orphans would not be able to survive in the wild.

We visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center where native Indian culture abounds.  The center is a premier cultural center which shares the rich heritage of Alaska’s eleven major cultural groups.  There, we were introduced to Native traditions and were allowed to participate firsthand in authentic native song and dance.  We interacted with the artists while they worked on their wares. 

Totem Poles have special meaning
 to the natives Indians

I bought a pair of earrings
 from this Indian lady.

An explanation
of the totem pole above.

                                                                                                                                                

As we toured the grounds of the heritage center, we noticed the fire weed plants.  They’ve lost all their blooms except for the top of the plant.  This is a sign to the community that the short summer everyone has enjoyed is about to end and that colder seasons are approaching.

Seward, AK - An All American City

Saturday, August 1 we traveled to Seward, AK for a four-night stay.  Seward is a small coastal town 127 miles south of Anchorage.  It is one of Alaska’s oldest and most scenic communities.  The population of 2,700 people lives in a beautiful area surrounded by mountain slopes, glaciers, and beautiful seas.

Tourism, shipping, and fishing are the mainstay of Seward’s economy.  Many outdoor activities are enjoyed here including boating, kayaking, fishing, and canoeing.  Seward was voted an All American City in 1963, 1965, and 2005.  

Our SMART caravan spent a whole day on a catamaran in the Kenai Fjords.  We saw sea life as shown in the pictures below:

A sea otter playing in the ocean

Orcas are the largest members of the dolphin family.

Steller Sea Lion sunning on the rocks on the shore.

Our ultimate destination on the catamaran tour of the Kenai Fjords was the Northwestern Glacier, a massive collection of ice fields on mountain ranges and slopes.  As we neared the glacier, we passed by chucks of ice that had fallen from the glacier in the warmth of the days prior to our visit.  We hoped to see that happen on the day of our visit.  I was able to capture some of that action in the picture below. 

Look at the two sections on the left. 

The process is called calving, and is also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving.  It is the breaking off of chunks of ice at the edge of a glacier. It is a form of ice ablation.  I had never heard the term before. 

The Northwestern Glacier was certainly a sight to behold. 

Homer - the Halibut Fishing Capital of Alaska

 Homer is at the “End of the Road.” It’s 225 miles south of Anchorage on the Sterling Highway and on the shores of Kachemak Bay.  It is surrounded by glaciers and mountains and is used as a base for fishing, kayaking, bear viewing, and hiking by Alaskans and visitors. 

Homer was named for Homer Pennock, a gold miner who established the first development on the Homer Spit in 1896.  It is a thriving community of approximately 5,400 residents.  Across the Kachemak Bay, the rugged Kenai Mountains surround Homer and the bay.  Soaring snow capped peaks overlook massive glaciers.  Along the coastline, the steep mountain valleys form narrow fjords.  (A fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial erosion.)  Homer is one of the few places in the world, where several glaciers and active volcanoes can be viewed at once.

Find the sea gull in the picture?

Homer has the distinction of having the second longest “Spit” in the world.  The Spit is a natural geological phenomenon formed from an accumulation of rock and soil from previous glaciers. Homer’s Spit juts 5 miles out into the bay. 

The Homer Port and harbor is where vessels of all shapes, sizes, and uses can be seen.  The “Time Bandit,” made famous on the TV show, “The Deadliest Catch, “calls this harbor home and can be seen whenever it is in port. 

This is the fishing boat for the chartered fishing trip.  She is called "Sandy."

The guys enjoying their catch

Buck and some of the guys and gals signed up for a chartered halibut fishing trip.  The limit was two halibut each.   He enjoyed the trip and did not get sea sick.  We had the halibut fileted and sent home in a freeze-packed shipping box.  It was delivered to our address on Tuesday, 4 days after the catch. When we return home, our family will have a great halibut meal together.

Our campground was on the beach at Homer.  An eagle family nested nearby.  Buck shot a picture of the eagle guarding the nest. 

We enjoyed an evening meal in downtown Homer with caravan friends.  Also, a caravan get-together for an Italian dinner was held at the group canopy at the campground. Everyone enjoyed the fellowship.

After three nights at Homer, we’re set to leave for Seward, another seaport town.  

Denali National Park Part 3 of 3

This is the last part of the Denali National Park blogs. Our activities

Our caravan enjoyed a dinner theater the first night in  Denali.  The rib dinner was served country-style.  Servers performed the show after the meal.  A combination of music, comedy and drama made for a great entertainment.  It was a relaxing activity after a long day’s ride.

Entry to Husky Homestead

 The next day we all jumped on a bus for a Husky Homestead tour.  Jeff King is the owner of the Husky Homestead and is a Musher.  A Musher is someone who guides the team of sled dogs over the snow.  Jeff owns a team of sled dogs and is recognized as the “Winningest Musher in the World.” His victories include not only the 1,049 mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 1993, 1996, 1998, and 2006, but also over two dozen first place finishes in races all across Alaska.  Jeff gave a presentation to our group about the dogs and a demonstration of how the dog team works. Below are some pictures taken at the homestead.

There's no snow, so they use a four-wheeler
for demonstration..

Jeff King giving a presentation.

The next day Buck and I joined some of our caravan for a jeep ride. The jeeps hold four people and each person supposedly gets to drive ¼ of the time if they choose.  We were the odd men out, so we rode with the owner who served as the tail-gunner.  The trip was very interesting.  We crossed big mud puddles, went through narrow passages and enjoyed a meal prepared by a wilderness cook.  The cook has a camp where he stays 6 days a week and his only job is to prepare 3 meals per day for the jeep tours that come by. He loves his job.  He is a recent graduate of a university in Philadelphia and just needed to get some fresh air, he said. You can see him making sourdough bread which he served with the stew for lunch.

Christopher McCandless was also tired of the busy and frustrating role as a college student, so after graduation from Emory University in the eastern part of the US, he, too, left and came to Alaska to get the fresh air.  He had no experience in the wild and did not prepare himself for the journey on which he was about to embark.   He just wondered around for several months and ended up on Stampede Road (the road that Buck and I took for the jeep ride.)  By this time it was winter and he crossed a river that was completely covered with ice.  He didn’t know the area or have a map, so he was unaware that he had crossed it.  He found an old abandoned bus and made that his home.  When Spring came, the ice melted on the river and that presented a new problem for him.  He could not get back across the river.  He didn’t know where he was and he had very little to eat.  He found berries, probably red ones, and ate those.  Unfortunately the red berries made him sick and he began to lose weight.  When hunters found him dead in the bus, he weighed only 60 pounds.  It was estimated that he had been dead for around two weeks. 

The story of this young man is captured in Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild. Buck has this book.  Our son, Jason, gave it to him for Christmas several years ago.  A movie has also been made of this experience.   Below is a picture of the bus that was used in the movie.  Also, there’s a picture of an article in the “49^th “State Journal.”

Just in case you can’t read the last sentence on the picture above, I’ve written it here.  “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord.  Goodbye and may God bless all."   

 Chris McCandless Journal from Alaska.