GLACIER LANDING

GLACIER LANDING

  

 Alaska offers so many opportunities for exciting things to do and places to explore.  Our country's largest mountain is one of America's popular attractions.  It's common name is Mt McKinley, named for one of our American Presidents.  However, it has been called Mt Denali for many many years by the natives of Alaska.  There is a movement by the people of Alaska to have the mountain officially called Mt Denali.  The family of McKinley, of course, oppose this change, so the battle continues on both sides.

   Denali National Park is also the largest  National Park in our Nation, as well.  I believe it has 14 of the highest mountains in the USA, besides Mt Denali, the highest.  One can fly for many miles seeing nothing but snow covered mountains.  It is quite a sight!
   One of the things I wanted to do from the time I first read about it, was to fly into the mountains and do a Glacier landing.  Thus, Ron Pinkerton and I found ourselves laying $389.00 on the barrelhead for this opportunity.
   Talkeetna is a primary hub for Alaska adventures.  We arrived early for our 11:00 AM flight.  Our destination today will be the Ruth Glacier, a flat, snow covered Glacier a half mile wide and about 4 miles long.
   The flat, glaciated valley approaching the mountain range was mostly uninhabited. There were a handful of private cabins in the lush green tundra, dotted by a myriad of ponds, lakes and streams.  This area is best traveled in the winter when snow and ice covered the vegetation and freezes the water.  ATV's and dog sleds are popular as transportation into this area.  The cabins are primitive with no electricity.
  The tundra began to change to remnants of receding glaciers.  Eight passengers and one Pilot were on board this small single engine prop driven plane.  The landing gear was equipped with a pair of skis designed for landing on snow.  We sailed around varying heights of steep sided peaks and spires.   Flying in and around the mountains is difficult to describe.  It was beautiful.  Photographs failed to truly capture this experience and mere words cannot adequately describe it.
   This was an impressive experience and, I believe, was the high point of my Alaskan experience.

ANCHORAGE

ALASKA - 2015

To ANCHORAGE

Once again the Thomas' begin another adventure. ALASKA is our 50th State!  Yes, I know it's really our 49th State, but this is our 50th state to visit!  
The Pinkerton's arrived last night from Arkansas. They have been fellow traveling companions on many of our adventures.  

We boarded an Alaska Airlines Aztec flight to

Seattle on the first leg of our Alaskan Adventure. (Just FYI in case you rent a car in Anchorage!)

ALASKA - DAY 1:

Our room at the Marriott gave us a great view of the parking lot. The mountains outside of Anchorage were on the other side, though they were partially obscured by a bad case of haze. After the free breakfast at Marriott we hailed a Taxi and 

headed to the Hertz car rental office downtown Anchorage. We had already reserved our sedan for the week at a much cheaper price than if we had rented from Hertz at the airport office. In fact, in a later conversation Debby had with p airport agent, he said, "You got a very good price!" (Just F in case you rent a car in Anchorage!) The downtown office was supposed to open at 0800; we arrived about 0900. The agent was not there. After several phone calls and an hour of waiting around, the man finally showed up and made some lame excuse for not being there at 0800.

A half hour later we had our car loaded and we were on the road. Our first stop was to Walmart where we bought a case of water and other necessary supplies.  

So we headed back to the car. At this point we were about two and one half hours behind schedule. Once behind the wheel, Ron decided he should have made a stop at the bathroom and got out of the car. I decided to go with him. As we walked across the parking lot, I heard Debby and Nancy laughing hysterically. I turn around to comment, "Never pass up a bathroom!" They were still laughing as they also followed us to the bathrooms.

So about 3 hours later than we intended, we set the GPS and headed towards Denali. A half hour down the road we doubted if the GPS was right and so we turned around and headed back towards Anchorage. A half hour later we realized the GPS was smarter than the 4 of us put together, so we turned back around...another half hour wasted. *Sigh.

We decided to stop in Wasilla, home of Sarah Palin, to have lunch. Somehow, along the way we missed the turn. *Sigh.

Towards the end of town, we spied a burger joint and pulled in hoping we picked a good place. I don't believe any of us were impressed but we made it work.

Continuing on Highway 3 towards Highway 1, we watched the woods and meadows, even the ponds of water, expecting to see a lot of wildlife. We saw two birds...a Raven and a Sea Gull, I think. *sigh.

We passed the town of Willow and the Talkeetna turnoff. There was a lot of road construction going on, causing us several delays all the way to Denali. Apparently, Alaska land moves and shifts enough to cause the highways to buckle.

We finally arrived at the Princess Lodge, where we would spend our second night. *Whew!