Alaska Summer

We left Seward, Wednesday, Aug. 23, and headed to Whittier.  It was only about 85 miles so there was no hurry and, as it was not raining, we were able to enjoy the scenery.  We camped at Williwaw Campground, a Chugach National Forest Service campground.  We took a hike after setting up and went to the visitors center about a mile from the campground.  The visitors center sits right on the end of Portage Lake coming from the Portage Glacier.  We also made the short walk to Williwaw Creek viewing platforms to watch salmon in their spawning beds.  Quite amazing to see dozens of salmon appearing to idle while going upstream just in such a small area. Remember the "Find It: puzzles in "Highlights Magazine" for kids? Williwaw Creek Salmon (Highlight's finding picture - how many Salmon) We were looking forward to the Phillips Glacier Cruise the next morning and the trip through the shared tunnel.  It rained all night and was still raining and windy the next morning.  A

We arrived in Seward yesterday afternoon.  We were able to get into Miller's Landing CG with a site backed right up to Resurrection Bay.  With mountains in front of us and across the bay, we have some spectacular views. Camped on Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska We were in Soldotna a week and were able  to use that campsite as a base for seeing the places on the west side of Kenai Peninsula.  We made the trip down to Homer two different days.  The first trip down, we took a fast ferry to a small village, Seldovia.  We had about four hours to see the area until the ferry returned to Homer, so we did some hiking.  There is a trail from town to the north end beach through the forest and over some bog area.  Sparky enjoyed the trip in the backpack. Old hitch hiker The second trip was to see the things in Homer.  We had a nice sunny day for that trip and spent some time hiking on the beach as well as visiting the Islands and Oceans Center.  It had a lot of information about th

After four days without internet and a day in transit to Soldotna, we have limited internet so will not be able to include pictures. We left Talkeetna a week ago and stopped first in Wasilla.  The campground there left much to be desired.  Since it was only about 50 miles, we were able to go visit the Independence Mine in the mountains east of Willow.  It was 30 miles back in the mountains and over Hatcher Pass, 3850 ft elevation.  The first 16 miles were paved, then mostly maintained gravel the rest of the way.  As we approached the pass, the road was just wide enough for vehicles to pass, and then with caution as one side was looking down into the valley.  No guard rails.  The views were terrific but as the driver, my concentration was not on the scenery.  We were surprised to find dozens of vehicles parked at the pass and people hiking the trails or picking blueberries.  The berries were about half the size of peas.  Because of the attraction of a beautiful day and summer coming

Yesterday we left Denali NP with light rain and completely overcast.  We had 150 miles to drive to Talkeetna where we are staying two nights.  One of two things we had hoped for when we left Ohio was to take a flightseeing tour around Mt. Denali.  We were watching the forecast and hoping that today would be a sunny day to do that. Well, today has been a different day than we have ever experienced before.  When we got up, the sun was shining and there were only a few high thin clouds, but we could not see the mountain from the campground.  We had scheduled an 8:30 am flight and we arrived just before 8 for check in.  The desk people were excited about the day as the mountain was clear.  Once in the air, we could see the splendor of Denali immediately.  It only got better Approaching Denali from the south, about 20 miles out. .The mountains around Denali are very rugged and there are many glaciers.  The Ruth Glacier is a prominent one and is in a valley 1-3 miles wide and 3900 feet