Anchorage

On our way to Anchorage, the clouds started to lift from Mt. McKinley.

Tough trying to smile when you are looking directly into the sun.

This plant is called fireweed. It's said that once the flowers open at the top of the plant, summer is over.

The plant is a weed and grows everywhere.

A boy and his dog!!!!

A closeup of the mountain.

We made it to Anchorage and hooked up. Now it's time to check out the city.

This is where they make the official Alaskan ULU. Pronounced oolooo. Check the link!

The tourist train

The train is painted the Alaskan colors.

Alaska has more people that hold a private pilot licence then any where else.

At the airport these small private plains will average more then 600 take-offs and landings per day during the summer months.

We were on a bus tour that took us to this chocolate factory.

Yup.....that's chocolate.

Large bars of chocolate

Then across the street for lunch.

They had this rock statue made from huge rock s and stands about 15 feet high.

Even the flowers that line the streets are the state colors.

Visitors center.

Mileage sign outside the visitors center.

One of the few remaining original building left in the city after the 1964 quake.

This cool bike was on the sidewalk.

This marks the spot where the dog races start.

The oldest building in the city.

Oh man...I was really hoping to see her during our trip.

Note the sign, reindeer sausage is very popular here in Alaska. I bought some!

We took a ride to Beluga Point and the Bore Tide. These tides can raise the level of the water as much as 35 feet or more. And the wave can be as high as 10 feet. Joyce is getting her water sample.

She also collector some of the mud. This mud is sold in beauty shops for as much as $35 a jar. Joyce collected about $10 worth. The mud is dark gray and the sand is as fine as powder.

While we were there, the tide started to come in.

Those rocks in the water disappeared in about ten minutes.

Time to move on.

As we turned to head back to camp, I thought this washed area was cool.

 

We spent a few day in Anchorage but now it's time to get ready to head out for Homer.

Denali Day 2

The Park use dog sleds to maintain the park during the winter months.

They have 30 working Husky dogs that are very large.

 The sleds require 10 dogs when they are working the park during the winter.

 They breed their dogs here sometimes using dogs from other kennels.

 These pups were bred as working sled dogs and not racing dogs.

 The racing dogs are a lot smaller breed of Husky

 The sled dogs are on their summer break.

 I could not believe how big some of these dogs were. They looked so much like wolves.

 Nap time

 Joyce enjoying the dogs.

 Setting up a sled for a demonstration

 These dogs are fast and they were only running five dogs.

 The dogs love their run.

This video demonstrates how the dogs are moved back to their houses. The dogs must be lifted off their front feet to move them because they are so strong.

Exploring Denali

The town of Denali is about 1/4 mile long and consist of gift shops on one side of the street and hotels on the other side. I have noticed that the majority of the hotels are owned by the cruise lines. The cruise line buses run the tourist around to the points of interest then back to the hotels. Must be tied in with the cruise ships also.

A couple of miles down the road is the Park.

We are going to ride as far as we can to see if we can find some wildlife.

The buses can go all the way to the end of the road which is about 80 miles long.

Car can only go 15 miles then must turn back.

We didn't make the bus tour with our group because Joyce has come down with a cold and she is to tired to make the long trip.

So we took the ladies with us in the car and cruised the road to see what we could find.

A mother Bear and her cub were spotted about a half hour before we passed through.

This is the point where we must turn. We did see an elk but it was too far to get a picture.

How about a road rat!!!

Oh well!!

Then this thing came walking out of the bushes.

Stopped traffic.

Tasted the bushes on this side of the street.

\

Then turned around and went back from where it came.

And that was that!

The scenery was awesome

But time to go. I really wanted to see a Bear!.