Halibut Cove

Gull Island and a cool sea cave. There were many, many gulls, puffins, cormorants and terns all living on this small island and because of all the birds, it really smelled BAD but was fun to see on our way to Halibut Cove.

Just a pretty picture!

The homes here in Halibut Cove are just so unique. Halibut Cove is surrounded by the Kenai Mountains and Katchemak Bay. You can only get there by boat or float plane.

Some of the homes, shops in Halibut Cove. I just loved this place - my favorite so far!

Another home that I liked.

As you enter the harbor at Halibut Cove. Did I mention I loved this place??!!!

Saltry's restaurant in Halibut Cove. Our lunch was just super here - great place to eat, their chowder was super, salmon wonderful and homemade bread - yum, yum!

Outside of Saltry's and I have too much stuff in my pouch - water bottle, keys, tissues, etc.

The Danny J, our boat for the trip to Halibut Cove.

Homer Alaska

At the end of the Homer Spit looking across at the Kenai Mountains.

The inside of the Salty Dawg Saloon on the Homer Spit. Those are all dollar bills handing all over the place. Fun place to visit!

Mel getting ready to go into the Salty Dawg Saloon. We were told to go here and they made a great Bloody Mary.

Mel in front of our rig at the Oceanview RV Park in Homer. Great view - you can see the mountains in the background and his dipole antenna for ham radio!

Mel, Kenai and Mickie on the beach at Homer at low tide. Great place to walk - the tide differences are 20"+.

Quick picture while traveling of the Kenai River. We traveled down this on a raft the first trip we came to Alaska.

Picture traveling out of Anchorage towards Homer along the Turnagain Arm by Beluga Point.

Hatcher Pass

The stream coming down from Hatcher Pass into Palmer.
Sorry these were posted after the others, the machine would not let me upload more pictures for some reason!!

Looking back up the stream toward Hatcher Pass.

Cross country skiing trails - wanna ski here Mary & Dobe?

The old mine at Independence Mine, Hatcher Pass. There is a stream on the right side that you can just make out. It was a neat place to visit.

Hatcher Pass mining area.

Info on the school at Hatcher Pass.

The stream just meanders through the valley on the Willow side of Hatcher Pass.

Summit Lake at Hatcher Pass with the clouds rolling in!

On the left side you can see the road we took going up from Willow to Hatcher Pass. It was a beautiful ride up although very bumpy roadLittle ground squirrel was not afraid of us at all, just made alot of noise.

We had dinner last night at Donna's and it was great. Keith makes super chicken, Donna taught me that Old Bay Seasoning on corn on the cob is really good, Mary made a great tasting cobbler and Mike and Mel made some good fun!

Denali State Park and Mt McKinley

We started out our first full day in Denali State Park with a 5 mile hike around Byers Lake. At the upper end is a suspension bridge that you have to cross. Mel, Kenai & Flora were just fine with that - Mickie and Pat were not too thrilled but we did make it across. It was a great hike and took us 3 1/2 hours but is was worth it as you can see from the next pictures.

We were so excited when we noticed that "the mountain" was OUT. Denali or Mt. McKinley does not appear very often in the summer. It creates it's own weather system since it is so high and most of the time it is shrouded with clouds.

I think this is my favorite picture of Denali. I must have taken 50 or more as we walked around the lake, it is just so magnificant!!!!!!!!

Byers Lake and the mountains on the south side.

Byers Lake in Denali State Park - a great place to stay, kayak and hike. Thanks to Donna Quante for suggesting this to us. We so enjoyed it that we stayed for 3 nights without electric, water or sewer. We were joined on our third night by Donna and her handsome dog Spirit for dinner and good company. Donna is now working as an interpretive ranger at this state park.

Loon and her baby. It was so fun watching her teach the baby to fish, diving, etc. I don't think that the baby got that much on her own because the mom was feeding her fish.

The baby loon, so cute and neither mom or baby were afraid of us in the kayaks.

Oops, another loon and baby picture - well we really liked watching them

Denali National Park

Avalanche Creek - on day 1 in Denali we drove back the 15 miles that you are allowed to and this is the turn around spot. Quite beautiful and the dogs got out to make friends in the parking lot with everyone except this one gull who kept swooping down on them. Kenai and Mickie were really watching this bird!

More pretty mountains and a great day to take pictures.

Meandering stream along the mountains.

The start of one of the hikes back into the bush. Unfortunately dogs are not allowed so we had a good look and turned around.

Day 2 in Denali National Park:

A very pretty mountain stream on our way back to Toklat in the park.

As always I am intriqued by the mountains and can't resist all the different pictures.

What else to say but WOW - the beautiful goldlen eagle swooped by our bus and was just the most spectacular sight of our trip. Wing spans on these eagles average 7 feet. We were so lucky to be able to watch it soar over the park.

This poor caribou was so disturbed by the bugs that it ran right down the road in front of our bus and then off into the bush.

See that speck in the middle of the picture - that's a grizzly mom and her year old cub was somewhere behind her. We were lucky to be able to watch her and the cub for quite awhile.

Us in Denali with the beautiful backdrop of mountains. This was taken from Polychrome Pass.

This beaver was along the banks of the Chena River right by our campsite. He/she would swim out, get some weeds, come back to the bank and eat them very methodically them swim out again and come back. It was quite entertaining and the first time I was around a beaver that was not shy of people.

Cabins at Rivers Edge on the Chena River in Fairbanks.

Our RV is in the center of the picture at Rivers Edge. It was a great place to stay, we kayaked on the Chena River and had a great time.

Mel on the Chena River.

And below are pictures that we took while on our riverboat tour. I forgot to get a picture of the riverboat - it was a paddle wheeler and the same family had these tours for 40+ years.

This house was along the Chena River and the logs coming out the side of the house is for hanging animals so that bears did not get them.

A typical alaskan cache to store meats, etc. so that critters don't get their goodies!

One of the girls modeling a beautiful fur coat.

Mel with the pelts - check out the size of that wolf pelt! And below is a birch bark canoe.

A replica of the Athabascan fish wheel. We did a tour on the Riverboat Discovery and they took us to a replicated Athabascan village.

Susan Butcher's home on the Chena River in Fairbanks. David Monson, her husband, gave a very nice presentation then did a loop around with the dog team.