Alaska - Denali and Whittier

We spent three nights near Denali National Park. On Sunday, August 7,2005 we took a bus into the park. It left at 5:30 a.m. So, we were up really early that day. The bus traveled into the park for approximately 60 miles. It was a beautiful ride that included seeing several cariboo, moose and kid, showshoe rabbit, ptarmigan, ground squirrels, and 6 grizzly bear (but not much of the mountain). The last grizzly that we saw was very close to the bus. After leaving Denali we drove south to Anchorage. We had some very beautiful sights on Mt. McKinley that day.

We spent two nights in Anchorage. We went downtown to Anchorage one day and went shopping with the grandkids. We were also able to load up on supplies at Elmendorf Air Force base.

We then proceeded south to near Portage Glacier. We spent two nights at Willawaw campground about 1 mile north of the Portage Glacier visitor center. This was an wonderful Forest Service campground with outstanding views of several glaciers. From there we drove through the tunnel to Whittier and took a boat cruise. It was a 5 hour trip that included a nice prime rib/salmon all you can you eat meal. The grandkids enjoyed the trip and captured several great pictures.

The next day we spent the day near Portage and did a short hike and rode our bikes around a 3 mile trail several times. The coho salmon were spawning in the creek near the campground.

On Friday, August 12th we drove to Kenai and handed off the grandkids to their grandfather, Mike, so that they could spend a couple of days with him and their two brothers. We then headed south to Homer. More on Homer in the next blog.