Alaska Part 4

(Text begins below pictures)

A view of downtown Anchorage and the Cook Inlet from a nearby mountain:

The drive south from Anchorage:

An overlook at Beluga Point:

The Bake Shop in Alyeska. Our apartment was above the Bake Shop. Note the amazing ferns!A creek right next to the apartment where we stayed:The trail over to the ski mountain: Alyeska Ski Resort. It was the last week of skiing... Memorial Day weekend!

We hiked several miles on this famous Winner Creek Trail at the base of the ski mountain:

Anchorage is situated right on the Cook Inlet which is an arm of the Pacific Ocean. South of Anchorage a large peninsula juts into the sea called the Kenai Peninsula. The drive south from Anchorage down the the Kenai is hands down the prettiest drive I've ever taken. And it doesn't get pretty towards the end only, the entire path is spectacular. The reason for this is quite apparent by the geography. The only way possible to create a road south of Anchorage is to find a flat spot. This is impossible because all of southern Alaska is mountainous. However, the one tiny spot to put a road is squeezed in between the mountains and the sea. If you were to lose control of your car on the Seward Highway you would literally crash into either the Cook Inlet or the Chugach mountains. And even though we were there the end of May and beginning of June, there was no shortage of snow on the mountain tops. Also the Cook Inlet south of Anchorage branches into the Turnagain Arm which is a very narrow body of water, probably a mile or less across. On the other side of the Arm lie more picturesque snow-capped peaks.

There is also abundant wildlife on the Seward Highway. The pictures of Christin and I with the Cook Inlet behind us are taken at Beluga Point which is apparently a great spot to see the rare Beluga whales (however we struck out in our effort). On another trip down this highway, we were lucky enough to spot a herd of Dall Sheep descending the rocky mountainside looking for food. There are hundreds of creeks flowing down the mountains running into the Cook Inlet that have their source as the melting snow. Many of these streams are healthy salmon fisheries which in turn attract fairly good numbers of Grizzly bears. For an avid fly fisherman, crossing over these streams without stopping and wetting a fly line was torture, however the timing was way wrong for salmon fishing. I missed the early runs by a couple of weeks.

Also included in the Part 4 picture set are some more pictures from our outing to Alyeska. The Bake Shop pictured is a famous little place serving a great breakfast and some famous sweet rolls. There were also more snow melt creeks located throughout the town that were beautiful. As I mentioned previously, we did lots of walking in Alyeska. I generally frown on the practice of walking when driving would suit the same purpose. However, in that environment, all I wanted to do was explore every creek and trail I came across. Exploring in Alaska is one of the more rewarding experiences imaginable. My favorite hike was on a little trail we found called Winner Creek trail that came recommended by the shuttle driver – that guy obviously knew what he was talking about.

The next post will cover our cruise on Prince William Sound. See you then.