Alaska Pictures

Our trip to Alaska was fantastic! On June 16 we flew from Chicago to Anchorage.
June 17, Day 1 we rented a car and the first day drove north 237 miles to Denali National Park. We went on a whitewater raft trip that had #3 & 4 rapids. The water was 35 degrees. We wore dry suits but because we were in the front of the raft we really got soaked with the cold water.


Day 2 took us on a full day bus tour of Denali National Park with views of Mt McKinley (Denali).













Day 3 we headed north 124 miles to Fairbanks where we went on an afternoon tour to El Dorado Gold Mine. The next morning (Day 4) we enjoyed a riverboat cruise. We then drove 234 miles to McKinley Princess Lodge. That day we had a spectacular view of Mt. McKinley in all of its glory.

Day 5 we took a two hour horse drawn wagon ride, made 'smores over an open fire, saw reindeer, etc. We then drove 173 miles to Girdwood where we stayed overnight at the Alyeska Prince Hotel. There we enjoyed the pool.

Day 6 we enjoyed a ride up Mt. Alyeska on the Tram. Brenden was able to do some hiking up the mountain in the snow. We then drove 95 miles to Seward. We stopped in Whittier enroute and enjoyed going through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It is a one way tunnel - cars are allowed to go through every half hour (on the hour going one way and on the half hour going the other way). Cars share the tunnel with the train from Anchorage. When the train goes through the tunnel all vehicle traffic is stopped.

Day 7 we took a spectacular cruise into Kenai Fjords National Park. We saw the mile long Aialik Glacier - it is over 300 feet tall and icebergs. We had lunch on the boat and then a grilled salmon dinner on Fox Island at night before returning to the Seward harbor.














Day 8 we enjoyed the Alaska Sealife Center and then drove 127 miles back to Anchorage.

Day 9 we enjoyed the day touring Anchorage. We enjoyed the museum and then went to Flat Top Mountain to do some climbing or hiking. After that it was to the beach to throw rocks.

Day 10 our flight left at 2:30am in the morning and we arrived back in Chicago about 6pm in the evening. We were supposed to arrive earlier but we had to be diverted to Milwaukee (after circling over O'Hare for over an hour) because of strong wind shears in Chicago. They weren't allowing any planes to land and we were running low on fuel. So we sat on the plane in Milwaukee until it was safe to fly into O'Hare.

While in Alaska we:
--saw beautiful flowers, wildlife (bears, moose, reindeer, puffins, harbor seals, whales, colorful fish, etc.), mountains and other scenery.
--went river rafting, mountain hiking, took the Discovery Paddle Wheel to see Susan Butcher's ididarod dog team, saw where the glacier waters and the ocean waters met, went to an Athabaskan village, panned for gold, and rode a train through a permafrost tunnel.
--took an all day boat trip to the Aialik Glacier by the Harding Icefields in the Kenai Fjord National Park.
--fed reindeer and became reindeer.
--saw glaciers and icebergs.
--relaxed and used the hotel pools.
--took an all day bus tour to Denali National Park. On the way home we were caught in a rock slide and had to wait until a plow could push the rock over the side of the mountain before we could continue on.
--were fortunate that we saw Mt. McKinley in ALL of its glory. Only 20% get to see some of the mountain and 10% get to see all of it. We were in the 10%!!!
--saw the Alaska pipe line.
--watched salmon swim up river to spawn. We also ate lots of fresh fish. The salmon and halibut were delicious.
It was truly a trip of a life time. Our grandson, Brenden, went with us. It was his graduation gift for graduating in the top 5% of his HS class.