July 4th, we spent eight hours in Denali National Park. We took the green school bus, the only way you can see the Park, in 66 miles to the Eielson Visitor center. Our bus driver would stop whenever anyone saw an animal and we saw a lot. Caribou, golden eagles, arctic ground squirrels, Dall's sheep and a red fox that we watched trot down a ridge towards our bus and cross behind it.
The highlight was three sightings of grizzly bears. One, a mother and two cubs was right near the road. We watched them eating for quite a while, then one of the cubs decided to eat where the mother was and she got mad and cuffed the cub who made quite a noise in protest. It was just great to see it so close. And of course the scenery was beautiful.


Today we drove into Fairbanks and went to the museum at the Fairbanks University then we headed back south to Tok. On the way we saw a moose having lunch in a pond right next to the road.

This is our last night in Alaska. Tomorrow we head into the Yukon and then down into the Canadian Rockies. Hard to believe that we have been in Alaska over a month. What an adventure.

We came here to Talkeetna to fly around Mount McKinley, 20,320 feet. We were suppose to fly at 8:00AM and after two delays due to poor visibility we flew at 6:30 in the evening. I don't think there are words to tell how amazing the two and a half hour flight was. we flew along the rivers and into the Alaskan Mountain range and when we were over 10,000 feet there was the Mountain in the sun. We flew all around it and got in very close. There were 10 of us in the plane and we had earphones. The pilot gave us lots of information on the different peaks, on climbing, flying, and on the many glaciers we could see. Later we landed on a glacier, over 5000 feet thick with ice. The snow on top though was soft. We got to walk around and spent about a half hour on Ruth Glacier then we flew down the glacier back to the airport. It was the highlight of our trip so far. Just awesome.

This morning at breakfast we sat with two climbers from Vermont and it was fascinating to here them talk about their climb. They made it to about 17,000 feet after two weeks. They said it was tough, carrying 60 pounds for over 20 miles tying not to fall in any crevasses and with half the oxygen they are used to. Does not sound like fun to me! Not my adventure; but wow what a day!

We have been in Talkeetna since Wednesday afternoon. A town of about 900, it was established as a mining and railroad town. We did the self-guided historical walk and most of the log cabins were here in the early 1900's. They are gift shops now. The Fairview Inn was built in 1923 and the RoadHouse built in 1914 has had very little done to it and it is still

A restaurant and lodging. Nagley's Store, the only general store was built in 1917. It is an amazing place and is jam packed to the ceiling, the clerks climb on boxes and counters to get things for the customers.
You had to get here by bush plane or train until 1964 when they put in a road. Now it is where anyone that wants to climb Mount McKinley has to come. The bush pilots fly them into base camp on a glacier 7500 ft up to start the climb. While we were there there were about 200 on the Mountain. We met a couple from Alton Bay, NH staying in the same motel we were in. First New Englanders we have seen.

Today we drove down along the Turnagain Arm Fjord to the Kenai Peninsular. I know I am sounding like a broken record but again it was an amazing drive. Lots of lakes , rivers, snowcapped mountains and glaciers. There are more than 50 glaciers in the Anchorage area. We hiked two mile into Byron Glacier in the rain but it was well worth it because we got to stand on the Glacier. Pretty neat!
A little further on we saw Exit Glacier from a distance. That was a much longer hike and we were already very wet so we decided not to go in. We really like going to the visiting centers at these Glaciers because they are so interesting with lots of information. Dave is collecting stamps from all the National Parks in his Parks Portfolio. We drove into Seward, a town of just over 2000. It was named after Secretary of State, William Seward who engineered the sale of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The town was founded in 1903 when the railroad ended there and a port was built to move goods up to the interior. the Iditarod trail starts here and goes 1049 miles to Nome. We had dinner here, Dave had salmon and I had snow crab, very good.

ANCHORAGE, Monday we headed into the city We stopped at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Here we learned all about all 10 Native cultures that make up all Native Alaskans. We took a guided tour of model village sites of the different tribes and saw the type of houses they built. There was dancing and story telling as well as Native People working on their crafts. We really enjoyed the dancing.
Next we spent almost four hours at the Alaska Museum. There was a gallery with art by local Alaskan artists which was very interesting and a new exhibit hall built especially to house 600 Alaskan Native artifacts that the Smithsonian has had and have been returned to Alaska. This exhibit was wonderful. We had a yummy grilled salmon dinner. I think we have had our omega 3's for a lifetime.

Friday we drove 151 miles from Haines on the coast to Haines Junction in the Yukon, Canada along the old Chilkat trading trail for the Natives, now a road. It was a very pretty drive, lots of lakes and this beautiful falls called Million Dollar Falls that we walked into. Haines Junction was a camp for the road crew building the Alaskan-Canadian Highway in the 40's. It is now a small town for the maintenance road workers with a post office, one store and two churches. The Catholic church took over an old quonset hut.
Saturday we drove 290 miles back into Alaska to Tok. This was not such a pretty drive. It was mostly permafrost, where only about 10 to 8 inches of ground melts in spring. The trees are stunted and the land very soggy. The permafrost also causes lots of potholes, pits and sunken road. Not fun to drive.

Sunday we headed south to Palmer near Anchorage, on the Glenn

Highway, 276 miles. This was a lovely drive even though it was a gray day. We drove down a wide valley between the Chugach and Talkeetna mountains. We say 3 glaciers. The one here was the largest, Matanuska Glacier. We are in Palmer three nights. It was established by the railroad and to house miners digging coal which was shipped to the coast on the railroad for ships during the war.

SKAGWAY. We took the fast ferry over from Haines for the day. It was a fun town to visit. Historic Skagway saw tens of thousands of gold seekers poor into take White Pass up to the Klondike. It had 80 saloons, places to gamble and "ladies" to keep them happy before the arduous trip up the pass. Today the town of just under 900 is a cruise ship destination. There are many picturesque false-fronted buildings preserved as a National Historic Park. We also went to the museum that gave lots of information about the town. We took a tour up to the Yukon (see below) and had a great day heading back to Haines at 8:00.