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Bird's Nest along AK 1 headed toward Seward. The bore tide comes in everyday - some days it is large enough to surf on! |
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have the Inlet to your left, and the mountains to your right.
The Dall sheep frequent the higher places in the mountains and you can
often see them higher up. It was our great pleasure to find 4 of
them roaming right alongside the road! And they even sat in on a
picture.
The Alaska Dept of Fish and Game say this about Dall sheep: Dall Sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) inhabit the mountain ranges of Alaska. Dall sheep are found in relatively dry country and frequent a special combination of open alpine ridges, meadows, and steep slopes with extremely rugged "escape terrain" in the immediate vicinity. They use the ridges, meadows, and steep slopes for feeding and resting. When danger approaches they flee to the rocks and crags to elude pursuers. They are generally high country animals but sometimes occur in rocky gorges below timberline in Alaska. |
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| Beluga Point is one of the
best places to watch for the Beluga Whales. You can see them 2 hours
before or after high tide - if you're their early on in the tourist
season. We looked for them, but they were not there.
However, there is more to do than look for whales! The point has several large rocky areas that you can crawl around and explore - all the while taking in the most magnificent scenery. The passenger train from Anchorage to Seward also runs on the tracks right there. You can visit their website at www.akrr.com If you've got the time and the money, this is a fantastic way to view Alaska. |
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| Flat Top Mountain is a short
1/2 hour out of the city and the best view of the Anchorage Bowl.
Looking at the picture to the right, you'll understand why they call it
Flat Top! You can hike to the top of it as well.
The picture below looks badly shot. Well the haze is actually smoke over Anchorage. Close to 5 million acres of forest have burned in fires around the Fairbanks area this summer (2004) and on this day we were downwind. Now see the brown dot in the picture beside Anchorage? That was my first wild moose siting! The picture was taken from the lookout at Flat Top. |
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| Every visit to Alaska should
include a visit to Eklutna. There is a cemetary there with Spirit
Houses built over the graves. This custom comes from the melding of
the Russian Orthodox and the Athabascan tribes. From the website: www.alaskaone.com/eklutna Dating back to 1650, Eklutna is the oldest continually inhabited Athabascan site in the Anchorage vicinity. It is located at the junction of several traditional Indian trails. The Dena'ina people first encountered the white man in the late 18th century with the explorations of Vitus Bering and Captain James Cook. The Russian Orthodox missionaries came in the early 1800's, bringing religion and western influences. Today several families live in Eklutna, where they maintain as much of a traditional lifestyle as possible in such close proximity to Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. |
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| Mount
McKinley is the highest peak in North America. It is a huge snowy mass,
flanked by five giant glaciers and countless icefalls. It dominates the
horizon from as far south as Cook Inlet, 200 miles away, and as far north
as Fairbanks, 150 miles away. Its steep unbroken south slope rises 17,000
feet in twelve miles. Five major ridges extend from the summit, and many
spurs and buttresses extend from these.
The mountain is increasingly known by its native name, Denali, which means The Great One in the Athabaskan language.
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| The drive from Anchorage to
Fairbanks is about 360 miles. Two and 1/2 hours South of Fairbanks
you've just passed Denali and will pass through Healy and out of the
tundra and into the mountains. These pictures were all taken along
that last 2 1/2 hour drive into Fairbanks.
The vistas are grand and the scenery is spectacular. If you don't believe in God, go to Alaska and you'll know only God could create this magic. |
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| The Alaska State Fair is
held in Palmer, AK - about a 40 minute drive North of Anchorage.
This years theme was Hearty Garden Party.
It's your typical state fair with lots of food, rides, booths, blue ribbon winners, live entertainment, local entertainment, drinks and fun. I was a little overdressed, but did manage to find some great ribs to eat and there are picnic tables scattered around to eat at. There were all kinds of tshirts for sale. The two pictures below were three of my favorites. Doggy tshirts and Valley trash. Palmer is located in Matanuska-Susitna Valley (fondly called the Mat-Su Valley). State Sen. Ben Stevens made his “Valley Trash,” comment in an e-mail to a Mat-Su resident in a heated political race. Now most of the residents adopted the valley trash moniker! And what kind of fair doesn't have blue ribbon winner vegetables? This cabbage was huge! It took up 1/2 the table it was on. All those hours of sunlight I guess. |
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