Going Home....

On our last day, we went rafting on the Nenana River. Two hours of more scenery and class 3 and 4 rapids. No photos, as we could not bring cameras, but it was great fun and a wonderful way to end the vacation. So after 8 terrific days, we boarded the Alaska Railroad one last time in the town of Denali, heading for Anchorage for our flight home the next day. The train travels very slowly so it took about 8 hours for the trip back. We saw more splendid sights.....including a last look at Mt. McKinley. We also saw many rivers filled with Salmon, and lots of tiny cabins along the way where people actually live "on the land", outhouses and all. They hunt for food, lug or pump water, and can only reach their homes by snowmobiles or ATVs. They can flag the train to stop as well....I guess if they have to go to town!!!

I can't say enough about the trip, particularly since I had the wonderful opportunity to be with my Grandson Ian for that amount of time. It is a trip that we will always remember..... and I hope you all enjoyed following us here on the Blog.

Signing off ,

Nancy and Ian

The Alaska Mountain Range

One interesting bit of information about the Alaska Range is how the weather and moisture from the south and east oceans affect the climate there. These two photos were taken within a couple seconds of each other. One out the right side showing the snow and rugged planet and one out the left side showing the greener planet. Apparently the moisture coming in the from oceans can't get over the range (remember the low mountains are 7,000 feet high) so it freezes. On the other side is the warmer climate where in July, the grass is growing. However, there are no snakes anywhere in Alaska, so don't let the green fool you. They also have no rodents to speak of (rats, mice) and the only reptile in the State is a frog that actually freezes solid in the winter and thaws to mate in the Spring!!

I Love these two photos!!!

Getting Out of Denali National Park

When our day ended at the end of the road in Kantishna, we decided we could not take another 7 hour trip by bus back out of the park (with the same views)....so we opted to fly back to the town of Denali where out hotel was. There were 2 seats available, one on each of 2, 5-seater planes. So we split up and off we went. Not only did we get a trip back to the hotel, which should have taken about 30 minutes, we also had a 1.5 hour flightseeing adventure. Since Mt. McKinley was in full view our pilots headed there and were we in for a flight of a lifetime!! These photos came out pretty well, considering they were taken from inside the plane. One the way there were some showers in the low-lands and we captured a rainbow. Then the dramatic shots of the mountains and the glaciers. To keep this in perspective, the lower mountains are 7,000 feet. The mountain with the bid snow slide on it is only 15,000 ft, and Mt. McKinley's highest peak is 20,300 +/- feet. Also keep in mind that there are crazy people down there hiking!!! FYI, that's Ian in the window where the door is on the plane!!

End of the Road in Denali

OK, so at the end of the 95 mile road into Denali, you end up in Kantishna. This isn't really a village but more of a settlement. There is a beautiful lodge and restaurant....but you would not believe how many mosquito's there are there!!! Anyway, we had about a 2 hour break and had the choice of panning for gold or a seminar about dog sledding. We chose the dog sledding event. It was actually very interesting. The young man who made the presentation trains dogs with his father, who won the Iditarod. After the presentation we went outside and he showed us how they spend the summer training the dogs by pulling him on a 4-wheeler. The dogs were so cute...made Ian and I miss our dogs. Interestingly enough, Huskies make the worst sled dogs...they do not like to get wet. I had heard about this before on my last trip to Alaska; that the best dogs are actually "mutts". This family breeds Malmutes with Laboradore Retrievers, and in some cases Irish Setters. He also said that they always use border collies for the front runners, and they are the most intelligent in learning the commands. Incidently, no one says "mush"!!!!

Trip into Denali National Park/Forest

Hello there....

You might say we saw the Denali Park the hard way...on a modified school bus. Hard being the description of the seats!! But actually it is the only way. The only thing modified were the windows..which are slightly larger for viewing. The bus tour consists of a journey of 95 miles in one road, and back out again. The road is mostly compressed gravel, maintained by the park services. They cannot have any pavement, as the perma frost is only 6-9 inches from the surface, so the asphalt will constantly heave. It was crunchy....as bumpy and I was reminded of my childhood, and car-sickness. Yuck. And this was a 7 hour trip...ONE WAY!! We did see lots of wildlife. And the most impressive views were those of Mt. McKinley which was in full view throughout the day.

The first photo above was a view from a rest stop. The brown mountains have copper and iron, but there is no longer any mining allowed. The grizzly photo was taken with my zoom lens, but I needed something more powerful. They are so far away from the road, getting a good shot is difficult. The snow shoe hare has already turned brown for the summer, and the little ranger station was at the base of the Savage river.

Here are some photos of the day.......

Pictures from Denali

Our Final Days in Alaska

Well I couldn't access blogger yesterday or the day before, so no update until tonight. I have a few photos to post but will post more tomorrow when we get home!!! Since our last post we spent one day in Talkeenkna. Here our hotel looked out directly to Mt. McKinley, which was hidden by clouds....which is the case 70% of the time. We took a flight out to the mountain range, but couldn;t get up into the see the big One!! So that was a failure... a non-refundable one.
We then took another bus North again to Denali. The most impressive event was the all day trip into Denali national Park (in a modified school bus), and saw 7 Grizzly bears and lots of other animals. Really great. We opted to fly out of the park (about 100 miles), but the flight took us all around the Alaska range and right up to Mt McKinley. It was incredible...pictures can't capture it, but we tried. Then today we did a 20 mile run of Class 3 and 4 rapids on the Nanena River. It was great, although we were both a little nervous when they briefed us before, and all they talked about was flipping over and falling out of the raft, and how to swim and assume a position so your legs don't get broken on the rocks under the water. It wasn't that bad, and it was 2 hours on the river, through the most beautiful canyons. We did get wet...me more than Ian of course, and it was cold 33 degree water. So obviously I don't have any photos, but they did take one of our boat, which I bought. It was a great experience.

We have had beautiful weather every day. In the high 60's and clear.....while you are all suffering back home....sorry. In any evnt it was perfect for these activities. The only place we had sprinkles was at the glacier in Kenai.

Nancy & Ian

At the Glacier

There are 100's of Glaciers in the Kenai Park... We only stopped at one. Thought I'd include these 2 photos...proving we WERE there. Ignore the rain drops on the lens!

YES it was cold.

A few More photos....

So, we saw: Sea Lions, Harbour Seals, Humpback Whale (his name is Picasso...identified by the book the Park Ranger had with him), Dall Sheep (on the cliffs), Dolphins, Puffins, Tufted Puffins, Sea Otters and lots of seagulls and poop!!!!

Next up in about 2 hours...a flight in Denali to Mount McKinley..which is under the clouds right now, but the flight is a "go". Updates later!!!!

Ian and Nancy

Kenai National Park - Fiord Cruise

Ok, here are the photos from the cruise...at the Glacier we stopped for about 1/2 hour to listen and watch. Sounds like thunder and gunfire. We saw about 10 calvings. Harbour seals swim around the small icebergs. Lots of kayakers everywhere. Can wait to show you all the photos. We took video and 150 pictures just today!!

Seward Alaska

Good morning.....now where did I leave off?? We had arrived by train in Seward. The Seward Windsong Lodge was nice.....quite rustic with about 15 buildings with 8 or 10 units in each. Lots of walking. We couldn't check in, so we went to "town" and visited the Sea Life center which was just as nice as the Boston Aquarium....and part of the same parent organization. We had a great lunch. The town is famous for the Mount Marathon run that was held on July 4th. I saw the results on the news this morning. It's quite a tradition. Started with a bet in a bar...figures.

Here are 2 photos....one of the lodge's front area and on of the scenery across the street from the entrance.

The town only has 2500 residents.....very "Alaska". 7 streets wide and 15 streets long. The only downside to our hotel was that it was 4 miles out of town, so it required a shuttle ride to get there, and too much time between shuttles. It would have been much better to be in the town itself. it also restricted out choice for meals....1 restaurant.

I already sent photos of the town....next post will be photos of the Fiord Cruise. let me just say the seas were very rough and we had a lot of green people on board. The catamaran actually caught air a couple times. There were some quite areas where we could pull in and get a break from the rough seas. Ian and I got close to being sick, but but we had taken Dramamine just in case. I think it saved us!!!

Nancy & Ian

Train Photos

Anchorage to Seward

Having trouble with the wifi signal here....too weak to send photos. I'll post them later.

We left Anchorage early this morning....and took the Alaska Railroad to Seward, arriving 5 hours later. All we can say is WOW. There was so much to see, and with every curve of the rails there was another sight to behold. It was Marvelous!!! We saw Bald Eagles and mommy moose and her baby. Seward is a very small town of 5000 people that swells to 40,000 for the 4th of July. This is mainly due to the Marathon Mountain road race....3.2 miles up and then down again. Begun in the early 1900's on a bet in a bar (see the 1st photo) that no one could do it in an hour. Now there are 900 runners....needless to say they are nuts, as most of the course is a 30% grade. There are hundreds of RV's here....and no fireworks. Probably because it never gets dark here.....we were told that Alaskans just use their guns!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words...so here are some from the train after the bar photo showing Marathon mountain in the background.

Tomorrow a cruise on the fiords....until then.

Nancy & Ian

Some Facts About Alaska

Just in case you needed a reference for size of the flowers.....Here's an example. These are hanging EVERYWHERE.

Also, Ian picked up some information at the visitor center about Alaska and we found some interesting facts:

- Alaska has the only state capital not accessible by road: Juno

- Alaska's state flower...the forget-me-not

- Alaska's state bird is the willow ptarmigan. Its feathers turn from brown in the summer to white in the winter.

- Average snowfall for the season for Anchorage is only 69 inches.

- Anchorage average temperature in January is 15. In July it is 58. It will be 64 all week this week,

- This week there is 21+ hours of daylight.

- In January there is 5 hours of daylight

- Alaska is 570,374 sq. miles in area....that is equal to:

17 Maines

69 Massachusetts'

470 Rhode Islands

14 Ohios

59 Vermonts

- Only 0.001 percent of Alaska's land area is developed into cities

- Alaska has 100,00 glaciers covering 28,000 square miles

- There are 1,800 named islands and 13 major volcanoes, mostly along the Aleutian Chain

- Alaska has the largest Bald Eagle population, 3,500 alone that come to the Chilkat River in the fall and winter to feed on the late salmon runs.

- Alaska has:

northern lights

40 foot tides

frequent earthquakes

3 million lakes

half of the worlds glaciers

tundra

totem poles

potlatches

rainforests

cabin fever

muklaks

migratory whales

fish wheels and 27 species of mosquitoes

- Alaska also has the longest salmon run; 2000 miles up the Yukon river

- Western most islands of the Aleutian Chain are on the other side of the 180th meridian, putting them in the Eastern Hemisphere, and they are closer to Tokyo than Anchorage!!

-And finally, its 6,640 mile coastline is 50% longer than the combined east and west coasts of the United States combined.

And, oh yes, the Alaska flag consists of 8 gold stars (the big dipper and the North Star) on a field of blue. It was designed by Benny Benson when he was in the seventh grade in 1926!!

That's it, until tomorrow....

Ian & Nancy

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The Anchorage Zoo

This was a fun stop. Very small zoo with some great animals to see. We took lots of photos and thought we would share some of the best!! The Snow Leopard, Check out the huge tail, the Polar bear, the Porcupine (who gladly posed for us...too funny and showed us his red teeth???).

Off tomorrow At 6:45 for the train to Seward....

Until Then,

Nancy & Ian

Exploring Anhorage

Well we spent our first day exploring Anchorage. hat a beautiful city...and so very clean!! I think this is the first thing we both noticed. It's a nice small city and about half of the people who live in Alaska live here..About 300,000. And the FLOWERS here at unbelievable!! All it takes is 24 hours of sunlight this time of year along with lots of rain fall. You would not believe what it does for the color and the SIZE of all the flowers...even the Queen Ann's lace in the fields near the highway is 4-5 feet tall!! Since I cannot possible do justice to them with an explanation, here are some photos we took today.... Check out these Cosmos. the blooms are over 2" in diameter. And the visitor center in town is a small log cabin-like building...and the plantings were outstanding. There was also a city worker there deadheading the flowers on her hands and knees...unreal.

Next Stop....The Anchorage Zoo

Nancy & Ian

Travel day to Anchorage

Well, we made it. The approach into Anchorage was beautiful!!! We took this picture with a cell phone....so the quality is "so-so". It was a long day. 3 hours to Minneapolis and then 5 hours to Anchorage. With a 4 hour layover. Everything went great, except for the frantic run for the flight in Minneapolis...you may wonder "why?" with such a long delay, but there was a gate change at the very last minute that we didn't see until the last minute....so we had a nice little jog through the airport.

We are settled into the Comfort Inn in Anchorage for 2 nights...and dealing with the 4 hour time difference as well as the sunlight all night long. They are fishing for salmon in front of the hotel this morning..there were anglers in the parking lot putting waders on at 5:am.

Today is a free day in the city, so we will probably do a a city tour and acclimate a bit longer.

Tomorrow we start with a train trip from Anchorage to Seward, about 3 hours. we are in the upper class domed cars so there should be great photo ops... scenic and relaxing

Love to everyone at home!!! More later!!

Nancy & Ian

24 Hours and Counting

It just occurred to me that we will be gone for the 4th of July celebration, so I thought I would post this photo of Kylie in Boston on Memorial Day. 20,000 flags were set into the ground for that holiday. Getting excited. Scott and Ian are due from Maine tonight. Our flight from Boston is tomorrow is at 11:30 eastern time, and we land in Anchorage at 6:45 Pacific time (3 hours difference). From what I have been told, it will be light out all night while we are there. Thursday is a free day in Anchorage, so we can be City tourists andn unwind a bit before the land travels begin begin on Friday with a scenic train trip south to Seward. Stay tuned......

Getting Ready to Go

On Wednesday my grandson Ian and I are leaving for Alaksa. I can't believe we are going on this incredible trip.. We are leaving June 30 and will return home on July 8. Each day has been planned for us by "AlaskaTravel.com". We hope this blog enables our family and friends to tune in each day to see what we have experienced. This is definitely a once in a lifetime adventure, and we hope the weather cooperates so we can experience it all!