Alaska proved to be a great time- filled with memories of old and with plans for the future. For the first leg of the journey we headed south and east from Tok Junction, to Anchorage after a less than friendly border-crossing experience. Passing the Wrangell-St Elias range was awe inspiring to say the least and the Matanuska Glacier was a specifically memorable highlight of the trip into Anchorage. Apparently there is constructions EVERYWHERE in AK and that can get a little wearisome when its all stop and go, but at least the roads are nice unlike that festering dunghill known as [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday August 19 - Thursday August 21 After a short ride to the Railroad Depot we boarded the luxurious McKinley Explorer for the 8-hour trip to Denali. The weather Gods are with us! The sun is warm and with only a few clouds we have fantastic views of Mt. McKinley starting from 200 miles away as we take in the spectacular scenery along the rails. A plane flight later in the day brings Sylvan to within a half mile of the majestic peak. The next day we were up at five am to meet the bus that took us on the [View Full Entry]

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We left Seattle to head for Alaska. After a fairly uneventful flight we arrived in Anchorage in the middle of the night. As usual the hire car company did not have our small compact car and we ended up with an oh so practical Mustang. Gary was in his element! We arrived at our hotel to discover they did not have a room for us. They had overbooked (even though we had booked and paid in March) and shoved us off to a smaller, shabbier hotel for the night. We were so tired we did not care much. Anchorage seems to [View Full Entry]

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In Search of the Midnight Sun - Chapter 4 August 6, 2008 Denali This day apparently had more sun than they had seen in a month here. We went to the Information Center in the Park to book our bus pass for the next day to drive into the Park. They only allow private vehicles to drive to the 15 mile mark. But, there are many options for bus tours. We opted for the most popular and cheapest using the regular green school bus type transportation. You can also book for how many miles or hours you want to travel into [View Full Entry]

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Alaska was sold to US by Russia in the 19th century at a few cents per acre! Russian empire which had sovereignty over present day Alaska, thought of Alaska as a huge wasteland. It surely is huge with most of its area untouched by civilization. With the discovery of gold in late 19th century, prospectors began to arrive. Later oil was found along Arctic coast. More than a century later, it still continues to be a wilderness that it used to be. Having gotten a taste of its wilderness and beauty in TV documentaries, I had set Alaska on my tourism [View Full Entry]

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Saturday 31st May 2008 - Denali Nationa Park Good wram weather. Up at 6am and off to Denali National Park, Our only stop was a loo with a view at mile 384 and the Alaskan State war memorial. Arrived at Denali at 11am. Booked on the 12.30 bus that would drive us on a 5.5hr trip into the park and back ($22.50 each). Hungry drove to the Visitors Centre. Joined the National Parks $80 for entry into all the parks in the USA for a year. Had ok food. Drove the mile back to W.A.F to catch the bus. Took water [View Full Entry]

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Denali National Park is one of the greatest places in this country to see. The scenery and wildlife is so spectacular. As Dave and I walked up to the Wilderness Center for our bus tour, a moose was standing just feet from us on the path. I quietly took her photo and she quietly scratched her head on a branch. Once at the center we boarded our 7:30 am bus to Fish Creek. It was a partly cloudy day and our expectations of seeing Mount McKinley (Mount Denali) were slim. Our bus driver/narrator John Nelson was very well seasoned at his [View Full Entry]

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Happy Birthday being sung by grandsons, is how Grampy started his day. Michelle called at 7 am to wish her Dad a Happy Birthday along with the boys. The Old Man turns 60 today. He looks pretty good to me for an old coot. It was great to sleep-in this morning. After breakfast we hiked to the Visitor’s Center and took a short bus ride to the Dog Sled Demonstration that the rangers put on. We were able to walk through the open kennels and pat any dog that wanted us to. The demonstration was interesting, the dogs were eager to [View Full Entry]

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This morning was brilliant sunshine. Today’s aim was to drive the long trip back to Anchorage including some stops of interest before flying out late tonite and overnite for Denver then immediately onto Los Angeles where we are stationed for a whole day before the really long flight home. Today’s features included two wayside stops to see Mt McKinley and a chance black bear sighting. Both Denali viewing points were at either end of the Denali State Park which is another special area but run by the state of Alaska as opposed to the national park run by the federal government. [View Full Entry]

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Today’s critter sightings- we finally caught up with some Snowshoe hares near one of the currently unused winter ranger stations, this one was not far from Savage River and the Parks Road in the Denali Wilderness. This is a log cabin in the bush. Outside there are half a dozen wood dog kennels. The outside window battens of the cabin have long nails protruding thru to the outside to stop nosy grizzlies from taking a further interest. It was near here, amongst the very soft under foot, sphagnum moss undergrowth that we saw a few of our hares and got some [View Full Entry]

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