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

Nikolaevsk, Alaska

These pictures were not included in the last blog. read on to get the story.




This cafe was only one room with a sun porch for additional seating and Nina prepared food in a small kitchen behind her.

Nikolaevsk, Alaska

In Nikolaevsk we experienced something very unusual and fun at the same time. We were on one of the scenic drives around Homer. We drove what seemed to be miles of wilderness and we were dying for a nice cup of hot coffee. Suddenly a settlement appears - Nikolaevsk. We see a church, stopped, took a picture. On a post nearby was a hand painted sign- cafe. Oh!! we could smell the coffee already. Off we drove down a little dirt road to a house which housed the cafe- in we went. The place was full of unique gifts, pictures and vintage clothing. We soon discovered that the hostess, Nina Fefelov prepares only authentic Russian food and by reservation only. As it turned out that someone cancelled their reservation and we were convinced to stay . Stew insisted on having coffee and Nina tried to convince him to have tea instead. In the end stew won and received his coffee. The meal was tasty. Before we left, Nina insisted we dress up in Russian clothing and have our picture taken. Nikolaevsk's population is 304- a settlement of "Russian Old Believers". Nikolaevsk is one of the settlements near Homer. The other settlement you can only get to by foot or boat. Traditional clothing are worn, Russian is the first language, and the church dictates that males do not shave. The Old Believers in this area lead a family -oriented, self-sufficient life-style. They use modern utilities, and food sources are from gardening, small livestock, fishing and hunting. Families are typically very large (8 to 12 children).

Additional picture taken in Nikolaevsk. Do we pass as "Russian old Believers" ?

Homer, Alaska

On our scenic drive we seen these large, long legged birds similar to our blue heron but larger. These birds are called Sand Cranes and they are everywhere.

Homer, Alaska

Kachemak Bay and surrounding mountains (behind the clouds) provide a specular backdrop for Homer Spit. Homer Spit juts out for nearly 5 miles, a long , narrow bar of gravel, from Homer shore. The spit is a center of activity- restaurants, small shops and galleries.


The rest of the pictures were taken from scenic drives around Homer. The road whined up one of the mountains in the area.






When we were in Homer it was drizzling rain for 3 days but the scenery was still beautiful.

Homer, Alaska

A view behind our 5th wheel at Homer- a bald head Eagle.

mountain scenes around Seward

Some of the mountains in the Seward area.

Mount Marathon race-Seward, Alaska

every 4th of July, the hardy run the Mount Marathon race up this mountain. You can see the path on the right hand side.

Rescurrection Bay- Seward, Alaska

We camped right on the shores of the bay and the view was breath taking. Cruise ships arrived daily , as well as the charter boats . Also where the sea otters loved to play.

Fishing Charters - Seward, Alaska

Fishing charters are very popular in all of Alaska. While we were in Seward we would walk to the wharf in the evening around 5:30 pm to watch as the boats came in with their catch. Every charter would weigh their catch. The bid white looking fish is halibut and the largest we seen weighted 289 lbs. Of course that fish was weighted alone,at that time the battery on our camera dies and we were not able to get a picture.








One thing we learned about halibut is that they are a flat fish with one eye . the white side is the underside with no eye and the darker side has the eye. halibut is born with both eyes but one dies.

the catch included halibut, salmon, lingcod, & rockfish



It was very interesting watching the people who went on the charter and listening their stories of how they struggled when they were reeling in their big catch. There is a derby throughout the summer to see who catches the biggest halibut.