Clarine and I returned from our trip to Alaska on 10 September 2010. We left on 31 August. We didn't actually board the ship until 3 September in Seward, Alaska. On 31 August we left Salt Lake around 2:00 PM on Frontier Airlines flying first to Denver. Leaving Denver about 6:00 PM we flew on Frontier to Anchorage, Alaska arriving at midnight
in Salt Lake (10:00 PM in Anchorage). Anchorage is a much larger city now than it was about sixty years ago. (For the information of my children and grandchildren, that was where I met your mother and grandmother, Carol, who was in Anchorage teaching school. I was there in the army.) Clarine and I and the Solomons left a day earlier than the rest of the cruisers because we wanted to visit Denali National Park. Consequently, we rented a car at the airport in Anchorage and left the next morning for the park. We drove there in a little over four hours. As we drove the scenery around us was mountainous, rustic and beautiful. The highway bypasses Denali National Park - access to the park being on a side road from the north-south highway. Perhaps an hour from the park there was a view point for Mt. McKinley. My guess that it was some eighty miles away. There were quite a few clouds, but we could pick it out. When we got to the park, we checked in to our hotel to sleep and leave early the next morning for a bus tour of the park - about six hours. We saw lots of wild life - dall sheep, moose, bears, foxes, eagles - many of each. The tour ended at the last of the improved road with Mt. McKinley still some thirty miles in the distance. You have to be really be roughing it to go further. The "Tall One" as the Indians call it, is the Highest peak in North America at over 20,000 feet elevation from a base that is not a lot above sea level; it makes a very tall mountain. I have included a few photos that are representative of the park. Some of them show Mt. McKinley about thirty miles away. When one talks to people about visiting the park and seeing the mountain, the response is something like,"You'll be lucky if you can see it for the clouds." We were lucky; the day was crystal clear. In fact the entire trip seemed to be somewhat charmed. I will write further about the vacation in a subsequent posting. gwh
in Salt Lake (10:00 PM in Anchorage). Anchorage is a much larger city now than it was about sixty years ago. (For the information of my children and grandchildren, that was where I met your mother and grandmother, Carol, who was in Anchorage teaching school. I was there in the army.) Clarine and I and the Solomons left a day earlier than the rest of the cruisers because we wanted to visit Denali National Park. Consequently, we rented a car at the airport in Anchorage and left the next morning for the park. We drove there in a little over four hours. As we drove the scenery around us was mountainous, rustic and beautiful. The highway bypasses Denali National Park - access to the park being on a side road from the north-south highway. Perhaps an hour from the park there was a view point for Mt. McKinley. My guess that it was some eighty miles away. There were quite a few clouds, but we could pick it out. When we got to the park, we checked in to our hotel to sleep and leave early the next morning for a bus tour of the park - about six hours. We saw lots of wild life - dall sheep, moose, bears, foxes, eagles - many of each. The tour ended at the last of the improved road with Mt. McKinley still some thirty miles in the distance. You have to be really be roughing it to go further. The "Tall One" as the Indians call it, is the Highest peak in North America at over 20,000 feet elevation from a base that is not a lot above sea level; it makes a very tall mountain. I have included a few photos that are representative of the park. Some of them show Mt. McKinley about thirty miles away. When one talks to people about visiting the park and seeing the mountain, the response is something like,"You'll be lucky if you can see it for the clouds." We were lucky; the day was crystal clear. In fact the entire trip seemed to be somewhat charmed. I will write further about the vacation in a subsequent posting. gwh
2 comments:
It's wonderful to have you back home! Your photos are great! Except, aren't you too close to those bears? Errol has always wanted to visit Alaska, but I'm not partial of anything North of Cache Valley! (It always seems tooo cold!)
Beautiful photos! I want to go to Alaska!
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