Awesome Adventures in Alaska: 9/4/11

In September, K&D came to visit. I had to work for the first couple days they were here, but after that I was able to join them as they explored around the area. I’m going to try to fit it all into one blog post, so I might as well jump right in.

Our first adventure was to take the shuttle bus through Denali National Park. This marks my 3^rd time through the park in less than a year. When I was there the first time, in the middle of September of 2010, I thought it was beautiful with all the fall colors. A park ranger told us that it was past prime, and we should have seen it a couple weeks earlier. Well, what we saw on this trip is (I think) what that park ranger was saying we should see. The colors were awesome!

This isn't the only part of the park road that is like this... but it isn't for the faint of heart! Good thing the speed limit is slow...

We got to see a bunch of wildlife… with the highlight being several Dall sheep that were right next to the road. They are rarely that low in elevation, so it was very cool to see them so close!

Some other awesome sights throughout the park...

A panoramic of Polychrome Pass.

Looking back at where we saw the Dall sheep along the road.

Had to capture the view from the bus... the mountain looks so close, doesn't it? It was still many miles away.

Denali in all its glory. And almost completely "out"! What a treat, especially on an otherwise cloudy day.

Next up... experiencing the Alaska State Fair on a chilly, windy day. It was a neat fair… with lumberjack games, contests, food (It was the healthiest fair I’ve been to… there was a vegetable stand and you could get a veggie pack and dip! Awesome!), and of course humongous vegetables (What the AK State Fair is known for). The day we went there also happened to be a “Meet the Mushers” session where you could meet and talk to your favorite Iditarod mushers. That was pretty cool! Unfortunately I didn't really take any photos at the fair... so we might as well move on. :)

The next adventure was a trip along Turnagain Arm to Portage. It wasn’t the sunniest week that they were here visiting, but we still did some great things anyway. We decided to drive along Turnagain Arm and see the views, check out the Wildlife Conservation Center, and see the town of Portage. The rain was on and off this day, but we managed to see some fun stuff. The bears were out playing at the Wildlife Conservation Center, and they were fun to watch (and photograph).

A typical summer/early fall view along Turnagain Arm

It was fun to photograph the grizzly bears!!

Meanwhile, there was an eagle (not part of the conservation center) sitting in a tree nearby.

As we continued on to Portage, we ended up seeing a moose right by the road. She clearly wasn't worried about us. :)

The last of our adventures that I'll highlight here is a trip to Seward. It was another rainy day, but we still had so much fun! We first stopped at Exit Glacier and hiked to the edge of the glacier. It was raining pretty steadily, but I was impressed how many people were there also going to see the glacier! It's not a very long hike, and it was still very neat to see the glacier up close. Even with low clouds around, we could still basically see to the top of the glacier (where it meets the Harding Ice Field) so it worked out great. I didn't bring my good camera since it was so rainy. But we then continued on to the Sea Life Center in Seward, and I did bring my camera in there, and was glad I did! We got to see puffins up close both above and below the ground/water (and be in the same room as them above ground) and see sea lions and otters too. Not to mention several different kinds of fish and other underwater creatures.