We made it to the last frontier, Alaska! For those of you who have been to Glacier National Park, Mom Julie put it best… "it’s like Glacier on steroids."
Before we landed in Anchorage we spent a few days visiting Ryan’s family friends the Matskos and meeting their newest addition to their family, baby Luke. We had a good time relaxing on the lake, wakeboarding, and especially the daily cocktail hour cruise on the pontoon boat!
We used our newly acquired long driving tolerance and drove a record 14 hours from Seeley Lake to Denver in a day. Necessary but not so fun. We were greeted in Denver by our Colorado parents Meg and Mel Pitts and their family for yet another awesome dinner/sendoff party.
We arrived in Anchorage to gray clouds and rain, but thankfully we awoke to sunshine. We hiked Flattop Mountain just outside of Anchorage for sweeping views of Cook Inlet.
We have enjoyed many wonderful meals of seafood and Alaska brews this trip, including the “bucket of butt” (butt=Halibut) in Seward.
From Anchorage we drove to the Kenai Peninsula and the southern end of Resurrection Pass Trail, then hiked 13 miles to the Swan Lake cabin. This first day felt a lot like some of our east coast hiking: gray, rain, mud and trees. We added the sounds of our bear bell and Lisa singing way out of tune. We arrived to our rustic Swan Lake forest service cabin and were thankful for four walls, a roof over our heads and a wood burning stove. We spent the next day resting our tired feet (13 miles + heavy packs is probably our new limit). The clouds parted and gave way to a pleasant afternoon, so we took the row boat out in the lake to admire the salmon (they were not interested in Ryan’s spinner). We were also visited by a mama black bear with her cub up on the hillside – they did keep their distance. Our hike out felt easier as our spirits were lifted with the sunshine.
From Resurrection Pass, we drove to our next campground a few miles north of Seward, which would be our home base for the next two days. We walked along the cost and around the small town of Seward taking in the majestic mountains that seem to rise up out of the sea. We went on an Alaska marine tour to get a closer look at Kenai Fjords National Park, with an added bonus of an all-you-can eat salmon and prime rib dinner. We saw lots of marine life including two pods of orcas, humpback whales, Steller sea lions, otters, and puffins. The ship took us to Holgate and Aialik tide water glaciers; both were spectacular, like nothing we have seen before. The sound of the Holgate glacier calving sounded like a thunder clap. We hiked around the Exit glacier, which is the only part of the national park accessible by road. It was incredible to see how much the glacier has receded in just 14 years.
Ryan took his internal medicine board exam yesterday (done.. yahoo!) while Lisa took advantage of some sunshine and biked the Coastal trail. She was fortunate to get a clear glimpse of Mt McKinley.
We are headed to Fairbanks today and will start our Gates of the Artic adventure midweek!
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