Autumn Hiking!

Well, I think the visitors are done for this year.  Might as well get the camera and go do some hiking! : )  

This hike is along Powerline Pass, one of the trails that you can access from Glen Alps trailhead.  Some snow has fallen on the higher elevations (it's called "termination dust" since it signals the termination of summer), but at this point in October we hadn't had any snow in town yet. There were definitely signs that winter was on its way though!


A friend's dog... he loves hikes at least as much as we do!

Next Visitors... Checking out Alaska's Fall Beauty

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. 

 

Colorful fish...

 

And fish that blend in.

If you made it this far, I hope it was worth it!  'Til next time.......

Miracle Grow Has Nothing on Alaska For Making Flowers Grow!

Long days, gentle rain, and moderate temperatures are all great ingredients for making flowers big and strong. Anchorage has them all, and the flowers around here are gorgeous! I've never had much luck planting flowers in pots, at least after the first month or so, despite frequent watering.  But I decided to plant some flowers in a couple pots and see what happens. 

This is after just 2 weeks:

I watered these flowers right after I planted them, and then didn't again for the rest of the summer/fall.  On the deck where I had these flowers, I don't even get that much sun.  So this is nothing amazing for around here... just shows that it doesn't take any human intervention to get some spectacular flowers. Great for someone who doesn't have the greenest of thumbs! :) I wish I had taken some photos of the flowers downtown... but I don't think I did.  Just imagine how these would look with some TLC throughout the summer! 

July 20th...

This is how they looked all summer and into the fall.  Just beautiful, especially knowing my only intervention was to do a little dead-heading. They really brightened up my deck!



Exploring Between Anchorage and Seward... The Kenai Peninsula!

In our race to see as much of the AK road system as possible, our next trip was to Seward, a small town on the east coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Along the way, we stopped at Beluga Point to take in the views and have lunch, and we stopped in Girdwood and saw some great views... and paragliding... at Alyeska Resort.

In Girdwood, we took a tram at Alyeska Resort to the top of a mountain.  There were some paragliders taking off from the tope of the mountain. It was fun to watch them, and I found something to add to my bucket list.  Someday this will be ME!

After we left Girdwood, we continued on toward the Kenai Peninsula and Seward.  Just before getting to Seward, there's a road that goes to a glacier called Exit Glacier.  There is a short trail that goes to the glacier and you can get to within a few feet of the ice.

 You can also go out on the "outwash plain" where there is a lot of glacial silt where the glacier used to be years ago.  It's kind of amazing how fine and soft the silt is! 

After visiting Exit Glacier, we went to Seward.  We camped there and then the following day we went on a glacier/wildlife cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park.  It was a beautiful day, and we got to see a lot of different wildlife as well as some calving of a tidewater glacier!
 

Bald eagles, before we even leave the harbor!

 

View of Resurrection Bay

Otter... so cute! And apparently used to us tourists gawking at him or her. :)

Dall's Porpoise - these guys are very hard to photograph... they're quick!

 

Puffins

Whales!! We didn't see any breach, but at least they showed us some tail as they dove down into deeper water. We saw several of these guys... I find it difficult to understand their size. 

 

Holgate Glacier, in Aialik Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park

Part of Holgate Glacier.  Watching for calving... got to see a couple small ones.

Ice fall!  We were told it would look like a waterfall of ice.  I'd say that's accurate.

 There were beautiful views along the way too... Resurrection Bay is just beautiful!

'Til next time... I hope you enjoyed this adventure!