Delali back to Anchorage - 2nd last day

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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. Both viewing points were spectacular because we had a sunny day and clouds were almost non existent. The South site was interesting because we were high up on a cliff overlooking a vast wide river system that was almost dry. On the other side of this was a large spruce forest and then way out 40 miles away was magnificent Mt McKinley. So we shot off some great photos. We met a travelling photographer at this site and he had a long talk with us (he did most of the talking). He loved Aust so that’s what he mostly spoke about..
Then by accident driving down the Parks Hwy we saw a big black bear crossing a lake on a temporary dam about 100 m from where we were. This guy was big for a black bear, which are usually smaller. As we took our first picture, he disappeared down the banking away from us. We also stopped at another stop to see Mt McKinley beside the raod and it was also a nice place.
The poplar or paperbark trees on the way down the park Hwy outside the Federal Nat Park were more advanced than those in the park. Their leaves were all about ¾ out, so even though we hadn’t travelled too far, once we were out of the mountain range and the temp was warmer, vegetation was already well in spring. As we drove back to Anchorage, the forest became more dense and more poplar tress became evident. We arrived back at Anchorage about 5.00pm seven hours after leaving earlier today but it included several stops including lunch at Trapper Creek (had clam chowder soup - good) and bought some gas at $4.28 gal still very expensive. Back in Anchorage we saw it at $3.99 - $4.08.Now to get something to eat and find something else to do before flying out.

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