Blogs from Denali, Alaska, United States, North America - page 10

Now I know why my parents have not put much on the travel blog. We arrived in Anchorage May 30th around 8:30p.m. and haven't stopped since! Alaska is beautiful. May 31st was Dad's birthday. We spent the day at the Anchorage Historical Society learning about native life in this area. No heated swimming pool for them! They say they stayed warm in thier comfy one room homes built for 30-40 people. Yeah, right. This is the smallest world I've ever been in! Before going to the museum, a man saw our Georgia tag and asked what part we were from. Come to find out they were from Folkston...Ronnie Murray and his wife (Becky Murray's in-laws)! After the museum, we went downtown to the Ship Creek bridge where we saw people along the banks and in ... read more

UntitledAfter another fabulous breakfast with Mary, who now has 9 other guests. We head off to the airport with Jim and Lisa. Our expected tour over the Artic Circle and onto Coldfoot has to be abandoned explains Robert from the North Alaskan Tour Company on account of its snowing and visibility is down to 200 feet - a bit low for flying. Instead of going home our alternative destination could be a native village at Beaver on the Yukon River followed by a flight slightly north so we can cross the imaginary Artic Circle line and therefore attain our official certificates. We all agree, that included another couple from Utah and pilot Pete. Little planes can be a little daunting, we sit in the back seats so that our view is unobstructed by the wings, Lisa ... read more

I know most of you know that I am no longer in Alaska but I couldn't move on without a blog on Denali National Park. My sister, Sherry, my neice, Natalie, nephew, Brennen, Morgan and I visited Denali in July. Denali, "High One" named by the local Athabascan native Alaskans was formerly named McKinley National Park. It was renamed Denali by Carter in 1980. It is a 6 million acre sub-arctic park, larger than the state of Massachusetts. It remains mostly wild and unspoiled. Most surprising is how small the trees are. According to the park guides, the permafrost (the thin layer of topsoil that thaws each summer) leaves the spruce trees small and spindly. While the mountains are large the fauna is minature and dwarfed. Mt. McKinley is usually cloud-covered and rarely able to be ... read more

A travelling day - from Denali National Park to Anchorage by bus. We then hired a car to drive down to Seward, a small-ish city (not even close to a city by our standards) by the sea in Resurrection Bay, on the Kenai Peninsula We did not turn up till about 6, so we got some food, pitched the tent and that was pretty much the day!... read more

Today was a discovery day, with again an early bus out to mile 55.3 (the whole length of the one road in and out is 95 miles), where 11 of us were going to be dropped off. We had signed up for a hike with a Park ranger to get to learn more about Deanli, the surrounding area and the importance of the park. We met Cass, our ranger, who knew so much about the animals, flora and fauna, and history that we all were soon asking many questions just to tap into some of the knowledge. It did however impede on our progress and we only went up one ridge and pretty much back again in little over 4 hours - but what a ridge. From the top we had the most 'AWESOME' (Cass's word ... read more