July 11 to 16, 2015 Talkeetna, Anchorage and Seward Highway

Leaving Talkeetna, we stopped at a birch syrup place. We had never heard of birch syrup, but they tap the trees similar to maple.   Birch trees produce a watery, mild sap that must be boiled down much more than maple. That means they have to start with 3 times more sap to produce the same amount of birch syrup as maple. Taste is different, too. They describe the birch concentrated syrup as 'mineral.' I thought of it almost like a thick, saltless soy sauce. They recommend it to use in Asian fusion cooking. They also produce lightened versions for caramel ice cream topping and pancake syrup, which we bought.  It was delicious. 

We continued south on the Parks Highway to Wasilla, home of Sarah Palin. We checked out their local golf course which looked decent, but nothing special, and decided to play 9 holes. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being outside.  We found a campground just outside of town with hookups and WiFi, and drove back into town for a pizza dinner.

Sunday (July 12) we decided to stay here as all the big stores are here and it will be easier to do errands here than in Anchorage. Also gave us a chance to update the blog about our flightseeing over Denali.

Monday (July 13) we visited the Iditarod dogsled race headquarters. The race's ceremonial start is in Anchorage, but the official start used to be here in Wasilla. Due to multiple years of too little snow, they have moved the official start to Willow. We headed south on Parks Highway and got a campsite just northeast of anchorage. Unfortunately, the tenters next to us decided to talk until 2:30 in the morning – nothing boisterous, but were close enough to our open window that it kept us awake. This is the second time we have had problems – what is it about folks in Alaska not going to bed????? Just because it is light out doesn't mean staying up all night...

Tuesday (July 14) we were going to make a couple of stops in Anchorage, but got a little lost and decided to bag it. City stuff just isn't high on our radar this trip. So, we started down the Seward highway that runs from Anchorage down the Kenai peninsula to the town of Seward. The weather was good and we enjoyed the scenery on one of the 10 best drives in North America. The mountains are on three sides and the road runs next to Turnagain Arm, a long slender body of water south of Anchorage off Cooks Inlet.  

Black and White seems to bring out the sculpted mudflats, mountains and clouds.

We got a campsite near a salmon fishing creek about an hour south of Anchorage. We checked out the fishermen on this opening day of salmon fishing, watching for grizzlies as they like to grab an easy meal – the fish, I mean, not the fishermen.

Cleaning his catch with a hungry bird keeping watch for leftovers

 Later in the afternoon we drove a few miles down the coast to watch the bore tide. There are only a few places in the world where these exist – Nova Scotia and Maine also have it. Instead of the usual in and out of the water gradually bringing in the tide, at the end of low tide, a large wave comes in bringing the start of the high tide. The water does not ebb and flow on the shore, but just comes in steadily, covering the mud flats, many feet at a time (the tides reach up to 40' feet (not in height, but in horizontal coverage). This bore tide used to be 6 high', but the 1964 earthquake deepened the channel so the tide is only a few feet now. We returned to our campsite and had snacks outside, enjoying the nice weather.  

The white pointy wave in center rear is the bore tide coming in and covering the mudflats

Wednesday (July 15) Woke early, packed up the RV and drove back north a few miles to catch some early morning light on the Turnagain Arm.

NOT a photo of rocks or clouds -- check out the white stuff.  It is Mt. McKinley well over 100 miles away!

After Jack woke up, we had breakfast while enjoying the scenery when a man came up and knocked on our door. Beluga whales he yelled and pointed to the water. We ran out and got some photos of the small white wales that do not entirely come out of the water, but mostly look like white blobs. Enjoy my photos of white blobs.... The Beluga population was halved in the 1990s and is only slowly coming back, so we considered ourselves lucky to have seen them.   

We made a quick stop in Girdwood, the major ski town for Anchorage and a few miles later, the small town of Portage. The 1964 earthquake dropped the land here by 10 feet, destroying the town. The tree roots were low enough to be exposed to salt water and the dead trees can be seen all over the area. The town relocated inland a few miles and we drove through it and into the Chugach national Forest.

Jack enjoying a kayak ride in Portage Lake while inside the museum

We stopped at the Begish Boggs visitor center. This is a large modern building right on Portage Lake that contains a great mini-museum about animals, plants and glaciers. The Portage glacier used to be visible from here as the leading edge came down the mountain, with meltwater under the glacier forming the lake. It has receded so much that a ½ hour boat ride is necessary to reach the glacier now.  

Hanging Glacier closeup

One of the hanging glaciers in Chugach

Continuing south on the Seward Highway, we made a quick stop at a stream just north of Seward where we saw quite a few salmon making the last few yards' swim upstream to spawn and die. We drove into Seward and snagged a campsite right on Resurrection Bay with fabulous views of the mountains all around. The low rain clouds started moving in and we watched as at least 50 boats returned to port – mostly smallish charter fishing boats (halibut is big here), along with lots of tour boats and a couple of sailboats. 

I spotted a sea otter right in front of our RV. He would dive, come up and laze around on his back, eating his catch and dive again. Over and over. Too far for my camera, even with the new lens, but Jack got a couple of fuzzy close-ups photos with his digital telephoto.  

Thursday, June 16 – It rained on and off all night long and is supposed to be a steady rain all day. We moved our campsite to another right on the bay, but it has electric. We spent the rainy day doing errands around town.