50th Anniversary Adventure

  Having morning tea and coffee in the coffee shop at our inn   Nice view.  I always think I won’t take many pics but we had another beautiful drive back to Anchorage so… Saying goodbye to Denali.  Stopped at the Denali State Park veterans memorial .  We turned off at Willow to drive through Hatcher’s Pass. It was an amazing drive! There was about 20 miles of dirt road following this creek for part of the drive.  Kim was impressed with this rig.  The valley was so green and beautiful. Reminded me of Ireland in many ways.  The car we’ve been renting the last 4 days. You can see it’s a bit small for Kim. We picked up Matthew (the car’s owner) at his house and since we still had plenty of time before our flight, he drove us around for awhile before dropping us at the airport. He actually filled in for his pastor preaching at his church this morning. He promised us we would see a moose because they’re everywhere. We didn’t. Didn’t see a bear. Didn’t s...

Woke up to another beautiful day but it is warm! I didn’t think I would have many pics today because we had no specific plans. We drove in to Denali Park. Stopped at the visitor center and a 2 hour walking tour was about to begin so we tagged along on that. We learned all about the flora of Denali Park. Siberian Astor  White spruce Quaking aspen Willow Silverweed   Lichens   Dwarf Canadian dogwood  Poplar  Soapberry Old man’s beard. It’s the Spanish Moss looking stuff on the branches.  Hines Creek Weird tree roots  Dwarf fireweed Fireweed Woodland horsetail fern Alder Boulder left by glacier Ranger Bill  Wooden bridge 2nd tallest railroad trestle bridge in Alaska From the wooden bridge  Just love the sound of the water. So peaceful! Discussing the type of birch (white or Kenai) A suspension bridge From the bridge Crazy cables anchoring the bridge It was quite bouncy. Especially when Kim was trying to make it bounce.  So this is the view ...