Wasilla, Alaska

Wasilla is one of the places where we spent sometime touring on foot. As many places in Alaska, Wasilla has many historic buildings. This building was at one time a general store which now is converted into a quaint restaurant. We stopped in for coffee one day and the staff and locals were friendly and had stories and places of interest to tell us

Denali National Park

Denali National Park and Perserve was established in 1917 as Mount Mckinley National Park. In 1980 it was designated a park and perserve and renamed to Denali. You can only drive in about 30 miles into the park after that you need to take a shuttle bus. We took a 8 hour tour into the park and didn't see any wild life which was very unusual. The crown jewel of the park is Mt. mcKinley, North America's highest mountain at 20,320 feet. On a clear day the mountain is clearly visible from Anchorage. In summer it is often difficult to see the mountain because of cloud cover. We were told the best time to see Mt McKinley is in May or June.

Hatcher Pass Road,Alaska

Hatcher Pass Road is a scenic alpine country and the historic Independent Mine, this 49 mile long road loops over Hatcher Pass elev. 3,886 feet. Hatcher Pass Road is both an old-time Alaska road- narrow, bumpy, dirt and gravel-and a modern paved road complete with scenic turnouts. We didn't take the 5th wheel on this drive. We left it in the park where we staying at Palmer, Alaska.






Little Susitna River

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is Alaska's largest city-population 278,241. Anchorage has a daily maximum of 19 hours 22 minutes of daylight in summer and a maximum of 5 hours 27 minutes in the winter. The Good Friday earthquake of March 27, 1964, the worst quake recorded in North America- 8.6 on the Richter scale and caused more than $300 million in damages throughout southcentral Alaska.



Mt McKinley shrouded behind cloud cover.






































Park commemorating the earthquake of 1964

Whittier/Portage Glacier

To get to Whittier you have to travel through 2.5 mile long, 1- lane Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel which handles both cars and trains who have to take turns traveling through. Whittier 's population is 290 and was created by the U.S. Army during WWII as a port and petroleum delivery center. Since military and government activities ceased, the economy of Whittier rests largely on the fishing industry, the port and increasingly on tourism