ANCHORAGE

The weather for the last couple days has been pretty nice, a really welcome change. Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska. Even so, it's pretty easy to get around in. Elmendorf AFB sits right at the north side of the city, and it shares many facilities with the neighboring Army Fort Richardson. The campground here on base is okay at $16 a night. It's got pretty old facilities, mostly 20 amp service, but looks like there are a few 30 amps around. The water tastes awful because of the chlorine the base adds. E finally got my attention today, and I put on a solid charcoal water filter which made all the difference! Haven't seen an on-site sewer hook up since early in Canada.

We accidentally found our way into the Eagle River Nature Center, where 5 bucks got you the clearance to hike their trails. We chose a shorter one of around 3 miles loop. As we were returning on the last leg, a hiker pointed to the "Northern Saw-Whet" owl in the picture. The hiker didn't know what it was, Eloise was able to find it on-line later. No matter how long we watched it, it wouldn't fly away, just look around. The other hiker had a dog with him, but it still didn't leave. The WWW said that that was a defensive trait of this particular owl, that it will just sit still until danger passes. That seems sort of risky to me! It was a good easy-moderate level hike, but it was pretty muddy from earlier rains. We didn't see any other wildlife, but it was a beautiful setting.

Yesterday we went into the city and visited the Ulu Factory (a unique Alaskan cutting device), took a hike up a newly created and really well done walk/bike path the parallels the river where salmon make their run up stream. The first bridge we came to we could see two of the king salmon, whose run is largely over by now. We tried to get pictures of them, but they were too elusive for the camera. They were huge! The silver salmon are running at the moment, but they seem to be smaller. That's them in the picture. I don't think I'd want to be fishing in this kind of situation.

We rode the free trolley through its entire route. It only took about 30 minutes. A visit to the Public Lands Information Center which is on 4th street, not 3rd as shown on the downtown map. They have excellent displays and films. A gentleman from the Seward Mammal and Marine Research Center made a presentation about sea-life and mammals in the Seward area. He was a superb speaker! Managed to get audience participation from just about everyone. We located the post office, but our mail wouldn't be in for a couple more days. Also wanted you to see the visitor's center. The log cabin with sod roof.

Today we went back into the city, specifically to see the largest and busiest seaplane area in the world on Lake Hood. The International Airport is there too, which makes it sort of a noisy location. There is an Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum there that was interesting. I've included a shot of a one of a kind sort of ... something. It has both a rotor and a rear facing prop. I've included the data from the sign on it. E is relaxing next to a beauty on static display. There were three main buildings, and a work building. We were allowed into all areas, even the work areas which I found fascinating. It's one thing to see a pristine restoration all shiny and new looking, but quite another to see the condition that they start out in. We had a 2-for-1 ticket for the museum, regular senior price is $9.00 pp. They also had this jeep on the grounds, outside the museum. Who is that driving? GARY?

Later this afternoon we went to the Wildberry Theatre to see a Charleton Heston narrated film about Alaska. It was really well done with some beautiful calving glaciers. Hope we get to see some of those in the next couple of weeks. The film was listed in the 2 for 1 tour saver book as $10 but they gave discounts in addition so it only cost $6. That left enough for one ice cream sundae but we each had one so the afternoon cost a total of $14.

In the morning we head in the direction of Homer, around 300 miles out on the end of a peninsula. On the way is the Portage Glacier in Whittier, Seward, and Hope. It's goodbye Elmendorf AFB and it's C-17 cargo planes that have been flying over all morning, afternoon and evening! Here's a picture of one. They started about 8 a.m. today and it is now almost 11 p.m. and they are still flying. Guess they are trying to get in a lot of flying to make up for the crappy weather they have been having.

ALASKA NATIVE HERITAGE CENTER

Our travels didn't take us very far today. The Alaska Native Heritage Center happens to be just outside the side gate of Elmendorf AFB, which is right outside of Anchorage, where we have settled for a few days. Actually we went by it because they are doing construction in the area and the signs had been removed. We got about a half mile past when we stopped and asked for directions and found that we had missed it.

This was another coupon in the Tour Saver Book we had purchased so it was a 2 for 1 again. The price was $23.50 but we spent most of the day, watching their dance programs, having a guided tour around the buildings and grounds and watching films in the theatre. We had an excellent guide. He had actually been born in Germany so his knowledge was learned rather than having been lived. He was well spoken and did a great job. Most of the Native Alaskans were gatherers but along the coast fish, seals and whales were a big part of their life. The Natives that lived inland were also gatherers but depended on things like the moose, bear and carabou for their livelihood.

There were 22 languages in Alaska with over 200 dialects which made it a difficult process to communicate. There was no written language until missionaries visited in the 19th century. We have included a picture of the performers dancing. The man by the microphone was doing most of the singing which is more of a chant. He also holds one of their drums. A very different drum from any we had ever seen. They not only played the top of the drum but also the edges from below.

Because of a cultural exchange program they also had guest dancers from Mexico. Their costumes were very colorful.

A beautiful scaled down model of a canoe hangs from the ceiling. It is made of walrus hide, sewn and tarred at the seams.

The next picture is our guide. Behind him was the community building and the carvers building. The supports for the building were all taken from one tree. The open building was the carvers shed.

Following that is a whale skeleton followed by the jaw bones of a whale. They used these in this kind of formation at the entrance of their village to enable the people to find their way home. From the next picture you can see why they were needed. The openings into their homes were very small. Most of the home was underground with only a small mound above. He told us that they set snares around their skylight to stop bears from trying to enter through them. The skylight was covered with some part of the seal, either the bladder or the stomach. We don't remember which.

The last three items were not old items but were in the crafts section. The bowl is made of birch bark, the one with diamond shapes was made from bark, split willow, spruce and thread. The final one is a ceremonial mask.

Today's weather sort of cooperated. It didn't rain until we were through with the outside tour. We ate lunch at the facility...we shared a lunch special of halibut.

DENALI - FINAL THOUGHTS

We spent a total of 10 days in the beautiful Denali National Park. Our 1st day we had some sunshine, then rain/cold the remainder of the time. Good for the animals I suppose, not good for pictures or our attitudes. We got to see almost all of the animals we wanted to see in the wilds. What we missed seeing were the lynx and the wolves. Others reported seeing them though, so we know they're there somewhere.

In the picture, Eloise has climbed up on a neighbor's RV to get a picture of Denali.

Alaska has taken the step to officially call the 20,320' Mount McKinley by the name Denali, the original native name for the mountain. It is the highest peak in North America, and even during the time we've been traveling, two climbers died trying to climb it. They happened to be Japanese. An estimated 50% of those who attempt it will get to the top. During one of the educational programs we attended in the park concentrated on health issues. We were given scenarios and a chart. From the point system we were to decide if this person should continue to the top of the mountain, whether they should wait and see if their bodies adjusted to the altitude or if they should be returned to the base of the mountain for medical assistance. It was a real eye opener and you can see how people who have come here to climb might be too stubborn to quit at that point.

The shuttle bus system is really good. A continuous cycle from early to late will take you without charge to anyplace on the paved section you need to go. You can catch one of the Princess buses at the visitor center for a free ride to the small berg that is outside the park bounds. Not much there except hotels and other lodging, but there are restaurants and shops too. One of the things we did was to go to the attraction called "40 Below". You can experience what it is like to be in 40 degrees below zero weather in their refrigerated room. The parkas they provide kept us pretty toasty, but we were only in there for a few minutes. The escort showed us that throwing boiling water into the air evaporated before it could hit the floor. She also blew soap bubbles into the air, and we could catch them. They freeze as soon as blown, when you catch them, they melt into a blob. There is a display area outside the room that has interesting facts about living in that kind of temperature. It costs $10 pp. (The optional picture taken under the thermometer is $10 too.) Gary couldn't believe how warm he was so I suggested he pull his hood back. That was a blast that made him realize just how cold it really was.

There is only one 90 mile road through the park. The first 15 miles are paved, and those are the only miles that visitors can drive their own vehicles on. The other miles are for the tour buses that run out of the Wilderness Access Center. Various prices take you to locations along that one highway. My personal recommendation is to just hunker down in the Riley Creek campground, and take the buses everywhere. They're nothing more than school buses, and some are a little "rattly", but most of the drivers are extremely friendly, and willing to stop anytime as long as it's safe to do so. Although we took the bus that went to the end of the line in Kantishna, I'd recommend, to anybody who asked, to only buy a ride on the bus to Eielson's new visitor center. We didn't see any animals after that stop all the way to the end of the line. The only interesting thing to me was the restored home of Annie Quigley. Whoop-de-do. Save some money. It was $43 pp to take the bus we did. Our driver was experienced and stopped for and pointed out all the animals that were out. Aramark offers another one for $150 that goes to the same place but it has a naturalist on board and they give you a box lunch. Another no brainer.

I was surprised at how few marked trails there were. Their idea is that the fewer trails, the less impact on the environment. They want hikers to take routes thru the tundra that hasn't been tramped down, walking side by side instead of following each other. A good idea I suppose, but I am prone to get lost without a trail, so we didn't do that kind of hike.

The weather as I said was rainy and cold and never dark (it did get darker after sunset, just not dark). It was beginning to bother us both...only imagine what it's like to have month after month of really cold, and really dark.

Denali is a must-see. Thoroughly enjoyed, even with my stated negative comments. It's also touristy with train loads and bus loads of visitors coming up daily from Anchorage off the cruise ships. They usually only have a few hours or an overnight to appreciate Denali. It takes longer!

HIKES

Skipping some of the more mundane days, we hiked to Horseshoe Lake. There we got an up close and personal look at the beaver dams and the beaver lodge. We didn't get to see the beaver though. In that same area we saw lots of burls. Notice the one in the picture that has a lot of them up its trunk. The pine cones are really small here. That's my little finger in the photo next to one.

Each night in the campground amphitheater a ranger would provide a talk/discussion on various topics. Some rangers are better than others at presentation, but they were all informative and we learned something at each one. At the Visitor Center, there were a few ranger led hikes. We took the one that circled around to the original park entrance where a fellow named Marino had a roadhouse and brothel in the early days. She was into flowers and gave the people in the group a different picture of a flower to identify during the walk. As they were found, she would stop and discuss the flower and how it is important to the park. An interesting one was the dwarf dogwood you can see in the picture. Since we had lived in North Carolina we had seen lots of dogwoods. These plants were only a few inches high and the bloom wasn't more than 1" across...but did resemble dogwood blossom.

The campground was pretty nice, and affordable at $10 a night with Eloise's Golden Age card. None of the sites have any hook-ups of course. We were told by somebody before we arrived that there were plenty of empty sites, so no need to make reservations. When we went to check in at about noon, all sites were gone. Because of the RV parks outside of the park, we had to drive quite a ways to get past the pull-outs that didn't say "no overnight parking".

We now leave Denali, and on our way south on highway 3 we stopped to take a last picture of Mt McKinley. You still can't see all of the mountain's 20,320 feet, but it's as good as we got!

GARY SEZ: I may have said before that we didn't come to Alaska to save money, but golly gee I almost feel violated. $8.50 bought two one scoop ice cream cones outside the gates. Inside the gate, at the small mercantile store, they sold us a loaf of bread for $5.99. We bought a bottle of water up at the visitor center for $2. Then later I paid $4.79 for a HALF gallon of milk. This park is on a major corridor between the two largest cities in Alaska. Shipping costs should be more than normal, but that can't be the sole reason for the prices. It seems to me that the concession is out of control! Aramark is the concessionaire, and they have a strangle hold on everything here. They run the shuttles, the stores and the outlets, and run the excursion buses operating out of the wilderness access center. I'm all for out-sourcing where another can do a better job, but somebody needs to pay attention to what's going on in our really precious National Park!!

KANTISHNA

Thursday we took a bus trip to Kantishna. That is the end of the road, 90 miles into the park. It was listed as a 12 to 13 hour trip. The day started out great. Before we even loaded onto the bus a mother moose and her calf walked across the road just a few yards from where we were waiting. It took us by surprise and of course we didn't have our cameras ready.

There was a stop at Polychrome Mountain, with its 4 glaciers. Beautiful. Some nice person offered to take our picture there, one of the few of us together.

Our next sighting that day was the red fox. It was loping down the road behind the bus. Next was the ptarmigins, snow shoe hare, a herd of caribou and a huge bull moose. We saw an arctic ground squirrel (in Alaska they call them a "Texas Grizzlies". The bus driver told us "if you cut Alaska in half and make 2 states, Texas is then the 3rd largest State in the US." We did see a Grizzley, eating plants, near the road. We also saw two young grizzlies, they had found some "roadkill" and were sharing it. When we first saw them they were right in front of the bus, in the road. They took their roadkill off the road, into the bushes but stayed where we could all get our pictures. Just past the two grizzlies we came across several ptarmigin with their chicks. Everyone was very quiet while we had the windows down for photos and you could hear the mother calling her chicks to her. At the very end of the road at Kantishna and the mine, is the house of Annie Quigley, a "colorful" woman. She wasn't 5 feet tall, so all of the cabinets in her house were very short. Wore men's clothes usually, and could swear as good as any! She made pies that were famous all over the area. Her recipe for blueberry pie starts out:
1. Kill a bear, render the lard.
2. Pick 5 gallons of blueberries.
3. Hook up the sled and mush 125 miles into Fairbanks for flour and sugar.

The bus we took was a shuttle bus but the bus driver was very knowledgeable and alert for photo opportunities. There were other trips called "Experience" which are narrated by a Naturalist. They cost about 3 or 4 times as much. Maybe we were just lucky but we had all the information you could want. Our recommendation to anyone coming though would be to take the trip to the new Eielson Visitors Center. Maybe it was because it started to rain as we were leaving Eielson but it seemed to us that up to that point was the most interesting part of the trip. We didn't see any animals past that point. The new Eielson Visitors Center is fully powered by Solar and a small turbine in a creek nearby. It was built into the hillside and they used much of the material reclaimed from the previous buildings. It is a beautiful setting but also has very interesting displays. They have guest artists coming into the park that are required to donate one of their art works. Some great art has been acquired that way. They had a beautiful framed quilt piece. I haven't looked at the pictures yet but hope it turned out good enough to post.

Denali

We had a pretty nice day traveling from Fairbanks to Denali. Instead of going on into the park that evening we decided to spend the evening at a dinner theatre. The food was great and served family style. We had BBQ ribs, salmon, potatoes, bisquits, corn on the cob and finished up with blueberry cobbler. All the waiters & waitresses were the actors in the show after dinner. They all had good voices, (it was a musical) some played guitars and one played the piano and he could really play. We enjoyed the program very much as well as the dinner. It was one of the 2-for-1 coupons in our Tour Saver book. ($59 each, regular price.)

The next day we went into Denali National Park to get a campsite. Whoops, should have made a reservation. They were full. Oh well, got a site starting the next day for 7 days. Parked in the parking lot and took the bus to Savage River. This is the furthest point that you can drive to, about 15 miles into the park. The buses that far are free and you can ride them as often as you want. That day was a beautiful day, in fact the bus driver told us it was their 4th summer day (July 14th). They had 3 over the July 4th weekend and this was their 4th. As there is not much parking at Savage River I would highly recommend that anyone visiting the park should ride the bus. They are great to stop if anyone sees animals. They will wait until everyone gets their photos before moving on. Although we ended up staying 9 days this first day was the only day we even saw the Mt McKinley. We will include a photo of what we saw that day. We began to think that was going to be the only view we had of it but fortunately we did see if after we left the park. That day we saw the arctic ground squirrel, the snowshoe hare, a caribou and some Dall sheep. We took the loop trail from the Savage River bridge. It is a 1.8 mile loop trail. The flowers were lovely and some so tiny you had to stop and bend over to even see them. The Dall sheep were beyond the end of the trail. We had to do a little climbing in order to get a better view. They were still hardly more than moving dots. The trail followed the river down one side, across the foot bridge, and back up the other side of the river. It was well maintained, in fact we met young employees that had finished their shift for the day. They were improving some spots in the trail, putting rocks across so the water could drain away. There were quite a few people on the trail but most were quiet and the major sound was the running water.

The next day we returned to the campground and settled in, viewing some of the films available in the Visitors Center and at the Wilderness Access Center. We also spent some time that day trying to get caught up with the blog.