Anchorage, again

Left Hope on Sunday morning, we are “hope less” now, at least that’s what people say when you leave this quaint village on the Cook Inlet.  Heading towards Anchorage we arrived at Bird Creek Campground.  This small park was completely re-built 2 years ago, it’s the closest Alaska State Park to Anchorage, located on Turnagain Arm overlooking the railroad tracks and the Arm.  After setting up we went into the “big” city looking for a tire dealer.  The trailer had two bad tires we didn’t want to drive on anymore.  Course it was a cloudy, rainy day, perfectly yucky.  On the way back we stopped at Potters Marsh.  This is an area created by the railroad, accidently, when they built up the track bed.  There is now a board walkway part way thru the marsh which is home to spawning salmon, gulls, geese and many other shore birds and Eagles (which I saw) as well as moose and bears (both grizzly and black).  Just as we reached the first view point the rain started again, quite heavy so we beat feet back to the truck and the campsite.  Sorry folks, no photos at all.

Monday morning we were back in Anchorage, this time with the trailer, got two new tires and we were good to go.  We looked over Centennial Campground, an Anchorage city park, but decided against staying there, too many homeless or undesirable looking people for our comfort. Headed to the Passport America park in Wasilla, OK so it’s not the nicest place, but it does have full hookups, laundry and free wifi, and it’s only $13.50 per nite!  What more could a sane person ask for?! By mid afternoon it was raining again, so we hunkered down for the rest of the day.

Tuesday dawned beautiful!  Sunny clear blue skies.  We packed a picnic lunch and set off to explore the old Glenn Highway.  First stop was Old town Palmer where Jon found an old truck to examine while I went into the Quilt Shop, of course I bought more fabric!  What else do you do in a Quilt Shop?!

Heading out of town we passed a park where I spied Whooping Cranes snacking on the vegetation.

Further along the road we crossed the Knick River then the Matanuska.  One of the side roads we traveled on took us by a Reindeer farm, we didn’t stop since two busses pulled in just ahead of us.  We couldn’t see the animals from where we were so we continued on.  Lots of farming along this road and lots of “Keep Out, Private” signs too.  Found a lovely gravel bar next to the bridge over the Matanuska where we stopped for lunch.

Wednesday again dawned beautiful and sunny so we decided to go to Anchorage one more time.  This time we drove by the Eagle River Campground, very nice park!  If we are ever this way again, we will stay here for sure, course it’s dry camping, but they do have a dump station.

This is beautiful Mirror Lake, not far from Eagle River.

We drove all the way thru Anchorage to Woronzof Point Park which is located off the end of the runway at Anchorage International Airport.  First thing we see is the Alaska Range to the south.

 

Then as I’m turning to look North West, this Eagle flies right by.

Isn’t it a beauty!

We got to talking to a lady there and she explained the different mountains we were looking at.  In the photo above, the locals call that one Sleeping Woman.  Below is Mount McKinley on the right at 20,320 foot elevation, to the left is Mt Foraker at a mere 17,400.  They are 135 miles from where we are as the crow flies.  Jon got a good close-up.

After lunch we found the Sea Plane Base located on Hood Lake, these were taken from the back of the Millennium Hotel.

 

This is a lovely spot to watch the planes take off and land.  On the other side of the lake, we spotted this strange truck. Jon says it is used to move small float planes from the water onto land, to change from floats to wheels or anything else that needs to be done including storage.  That was once a 4 wheel drive truck.

And so ends another great day in Alaska.