Advertisement
Published: July 20th 2015
Edit Blog Post
We left the Historic Anchorage hotel today. Of course the kids had to check out the souvenir shop next door, and came out with Alaska t-shirts, an antler slingshot and other assorted souvenirs.
We drove along the Turnagain Arm, a long, narrow bay that Captain Cook traveled up in another attempt to find a northwestern passage. He reached the end and had to turn around. Again. So that's what he named it and the name stuck. Along the way we stopped at Beluga Point to try our luck with whales. No luck, but boy was it windy! Ethan's new slingshot was tested with pebbles. They go pretty far out to sea, but I still think it would be best to hang it up as a display in his room when we get home.
A little further on we stopped for a short walk at Falls Creek Trail in Chugach National Park. We walked up the hill in the forest, just enjoying the silence and solitude.
We continued on our way to Seward, but we noticed a sign for the AWCC – the Alaska Wilderness Conservation Center. On a whim we stopped to see. The admission wasn't free but
not too expensive, and we were glad we went in! All the animals we didn't get to see yet in Canada were here. Right at the start we met a couple of large, horned and very friendly moose. We all were very excited and the kids had fun feeding them with weeds. We walked on and saw baby moose (calves? Fawns?), a herd of elk with some females and fawns and a majestic bull with magnificent antlers. We saw musk ox, wood bison and caribou with totally outlandish and oversized antlers, even a bald eagle and a horned owl. And a bachelor herd of elk. But best of all we saw grizzlys. Great big bears having a good time and showing off for us tourists. Of course we spent more time there than we planned, but that was ok, it was well worth it.
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the place and headed on towards Exit Glacier, just outside of Seward. We visited at the park center there, got our map and walked up to the glacier. You can't get all the way to the glacier itself, which was a bit of a disappointment, but the walk was
very nice and the views in all directions were amazing! We also learned how a glacier is created, and how this one, like most, is receding very quickly. There are signs with years – indicating where the glacier reached on that year, and the distances are quite astounding. Exit glacier is disappearing fast.
By now evening had come so we headed to our hotel, the Camelot Cottages. Turns out the 'hotel' is a group of four old, run down wood cabins that the owner of the place fixes up when he has some money. A funny place, great for young backpackers low on cash, but not quite what we've gotten used to. Gilat was a bit shocked but the kids like it. Still, no mice, electricity works and we have a washer/dryer. We got the 'Chalet', the biggest cabin! The owner is an elderly welshman who traveled around the world for years working on ships, and decided to retire here. He set us up with wood for a fire outside as well as a clean cabin, and showed me how to tell buffalo berries (poisonous) from watermelon berries (edible).
Check out our day:
Tired as we
were, we slept well in that creaky old place. Tomorrow we get up early for a full day on the water.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0724s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb