The final days in Anchorage Alaska

From Denali we went back to Talkeetna  where we took the train back to Anchorage Alaska for our last day in Alaska.  This is the picture of the sunset over the bay in Anchorage Alaska taken from the 8th floor of our hotel room.  An inspirational ending for a day of beauty that one wants to be able to hold a lifetime.

The next morning we toured Anchorage.  I took the walking history tour of Anchorage and learned about Captain James Cook, a British explorer who explored Alaska and Antarctica. 

 We spent our afternoon at the Cultural Center.  We wished we had gone out earlier in the morning.  We wanted to go through all of the exhibits, all the presentations, dances and the Native American games.  What an amazing center.  If anyone goes to Anchorage, be SURE to spend an entire day here!  The Native Americans have been able to retain their way of life and values.  Here is a group who danced and sang for us.  All the time they danced their hands were covered with gloves.

 The elder in this picture is the one who remembered the dances and taught the other women. 

 At night we went the the famous Sourdough Mining Co. restaurant.  It usually has a show that happens "spontaneously" during the tourist season, but we were there on a Monday evening, so we had a great dinner and enjoyed the "wild environment"!

 A reindeer, bear, moose antlers and many wonderful antiques  from the mining days.   

 Outside the restaurant was an outdoor theater that was surrounded by beautiful flower gardens.  These are pictures of just a few  of them.

We went back to the hotel and early the next morning I took a cab to the airport and flew back to MN.  Heart grateful for the beauty, the time with wonderful friends and for a trip of a lifetime.

If you are ever able to go to Alaska...be sure you GO!!!

Thanks for reading and enjoying these blogs!  S. Sharon



I didn't get this picture in the last blog...the caribou are here.  We also saw dall sheep on the mountainside.  They looked like little white dots moving up the mountain.  We had fun looking through the binoculars and watching them climb.

These are the beautiful pictures we took of Denali from the park and on the way down from the park. As we left the park we saw two moose standing in a lake...what a reflection of beauty...natural...no one can plan that...all one can say is that it is God at work in this beautiful creation.  The only thing that one's heart could do is praise God for the beauty!

Denali National Park

Coming into Denali National Park began with this amazing sight of mountains with shadows of clouds over them...what an amazing sight!  The tour guide and the bus driver were so excited because the park was glowing with fire weed red, yellows and greens.  We went through the visitor center, had a quick lunch of caribou stew and off we went for a guided tour of the park.  There are no businesses in the park.  It is pristine with the beauty of nature, wild animals and the great respect of the rangers that make rounds through the park, patrolling and protecting the intent that this park stay in it's most natural environment. Our tour guide loved the nature, the beauty, the quiet, and the vision to keep this park as it wa intended for generations to come.

We came to a rangers cabin that they use when they are out patrolling the park. There are parts of the park that only the park buses are allowed in.  When you come into the park to camp you have to check in with the park officials and they will drop you off in the area you intend to hike and camp.  They ask you not to come out the way you go in as they do not to make any human trails through the park. 

They even have houses for the dogs who pull the sleds for winter patrolling.  There are no "snow machines" allowed in the park.  In the winter the dogs sleep in the house, in the summer they sleep on top of the roof to keep cool.

I had no idea what a "braided river" was until we crossed this one in the park.  In Talkeetna we took the jet boat over the river because it was where 3 braided rivers met.  This shows a braided river...one that has not specific water bed...it depends on the amount of the water...and will change directions as the soil in the bed moves.

Here you can see some of the caribou that we saw feeding on the hillside. 

Talkeetna Alaska

About 100 miles north of Anchorage is the little town of Talkeetna.  Many people are proud to be those who "live off the grid".  This means they have no wired in electricity, power, or telephone.  They try to live a "subsitence" life style.  The people who run these "jet boat" rides moved from a very busy life in California to living off the land...and alternative electric/heat/phone source. I went on a jet boat ride that took us up the "braided river" where 3 rivers join together near Talkeetna.  Talkeetna is the town where climbers come to prepart to climb Mt. McKinley.  The cemetery  has memorials of those who died on the mountain...on their climb.  They also have a number of pilots whose head stones are their propellers.

Mount MckInley amidst some of the clouds 

 This is a summer camp for an Athabastan natives who wold hunt and fish and preserve their food and berries for the winter months.  The frost does not go out of the ground...so they can dig 3 feet down, line the whole with branches and put their food to keep cool.  They will cover it so that it deters the animals...especially the bears!

This is a cabin that was the size of the gold rush miners and trappers.  They built them small and short so that they did not need as much to heat it over the winter.  The door opens to the outside as a protectin against bears who instinctively try to push in.  The added door frame saved many lives.

This is the "cash house" that trappers/miners would buid to put their food, furs and other valuables in for safe keeping.  The poles at the top are lined with tin or a material that will prevent bears getting a grip and climbing up.  They would hide the ladder and things would stay safe and sound.