JuddandErika

We are now beginning our new adventure starting today. For the next eleven days we will be touring Alaska and the Yukon Territory with a tour group of about 45 people (with about 38 of them being seniors). We met up with Judd's parents, another couple they are friends with, their two children and their parents as well back in Anchorage yesterday. Today we boarded the McKinley Explorer headed toward Denali National Park. We started out with an ice breaker game where we each received someone else's nametag and had to find out something personal about that person before they could get their nametag back. We met two sweet girls from New York, Beatrice and Christine, who you will see in some later photos. They were touring with their parents for their 30th wedding anniversary and ... read more

Lazy Mountain, as we quickly found out, is not so lazy. In fact, it is rather challenging and steep pretty much the entire hike to the peak. The first section was particularly exhausting because the trail didn't even bother with switch-backs. It did tend to level off a bit on the last half of the hike, which made it a bit less rough the further along we went. From the parking lot at the base, the trail ascended through somewhat dense foliage. Then, the trail headed strait up the mountain for a ways, with occasional steps built right into the path. About a third of the way up, we reached a bench for a short break. At this point we had thought we were at the top of the mountain and began celebrating. We quickly found ... read more

The Seward Highway is a highway in Alaska that extends 127 miles from Seward to Anchorage. It is a National Forest Scenic Byway and one of the 15 roads in the U.S. that has been designated as an "All-American Road." The 45 minute drive from Anchorage to Girdwood along the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet is one of the world's greatest drives. From beginning to end there are dramatic views of mountain scenery and the inlet. There are several turnoffs along the way where waterfalls seem to just appear from the mountainside. Beluga Point offers dramatic views of the inlet and even some beluga whale sightings at times. The highway passes Indian Creek where there is a waterfall (see the pictures) and a steep hike up the side of the mountain, during which you are walking ... read more

We arrived to our lovely campground that will be our home for the next week. Called Fox Run Lodge, it is located in Palmer and sits on the Matanuska Lake. Our tent site overlooks the lake with beautiful mountains in the backdrop. We decided to take out the kayak at midnight, just as it was becoming dusk. The pictures you see are from the kayak out in the lake. Only in Alaska can you do this! ... read more

Hello everyone! We arrived in Anchorage on Friday morning, June 24 at 1:30am. It was a surreal moment to watch the sky get lighter the closer we were getting to our destination. The sun had just set a little while before we landed in Anchorage, so the sky still had a pinkish purplish tint to it. The next day we went into the city and rented bikes from a local bike shop. We then biked on the Coastal Trail for 22 miles roundtrip. It was a beautiful trail that ran along the coast but also had mountains in the background on the opposite side. We even encountered a bull moose eating in the bushes just off the trail. Our butts were very sore that evening! After our bike ride we hung out in downtown Anchorage doing ... read more