Christmas in July...A pretty sweet summer part 2 - Alaska!

    The Hills are Alive in Alaska! 

[Note: the majority of this post sat in my draft box for 4 months! Time to dust off the 'ole blog!]

 This summer's big trip was a "Christmas in July" adventure in Alaska. This was our third trip there and I just felt like I was drinking it all in more than ever - the vastness, the quiet, the alive-ness, the adventurousness. America at its wildest and finest.  I can see why so many people never want to leave. Hopefully some day we'll brave it up there in the winter!

EAGLE RIVER 

 Our first outing was a hike at the Nature Center just a few miles from Grandma & Grandpa's house in Eagle River. We got to see the yurts along the river where people can camp overnight.

Lilly of the valley and arctic dogwood

We found the cutest little family of bears in this tree!

And this one didn't want to come out - maybe he found some honey!

Heaven is...throwing rocks into rivers!

Keeping an eye out for bears along the nature center trail

Cotton from the cottonwood trees...we could have made a pillow with all that we found!

RESURRECTION BAY

 Our first getaway was south to Seward at the mouth of Resurrection Bay, known for it's deep sea halibut fishing. Peter accompanied us on a charter run by the Army at Seward Resort, which had incredible facilities. The boat left early in the morning and was quite a rocky ride. I had a little motion sickness along the way (4 months pregnant didn't help). We stopped after about 4 hours and found our fishing spot - then it was bliss. We used huge weights to catch the halibut at the bottom of the ocean and then reeled those babies up with all our might!

Sweethearts in Seward

The flat bodied halibut are a lot tastier than they look!

 I was soooo excited to get some close up views of the adorable puffins! The kids and I had read about them last year and I find them fascinating. They had fun diving for the fish we threw out to them.

 These were some loud, lazy seals.

We met all kinds of interesting people on our charter. Most people caught their limit of 2 halibut (except those too experienced to settle for the smallish ones that were out that day!)

 The cutting & packing facilities at Seward resort made clean up and packaging so easy and fast. We were very grateful for Peter's expertise in this area.

Some of the beautiful scenery on our drive back from Seward.

 A bald eagle's nest!

DENALI NATIONAL PARK

Nate and I got to take a little getaway for 3 days to one of the worlds' most scenic national parks - Denali national park which is the home of Denali, or Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. It was the most peaceful, restful vacation I've ever had!

 

We started out with an incredible flightseeing trip into Kantishna. Both of us were in heaven being in a little airplane. Doesn't Nate look like a born pilot?

We loved the variety of colors in the surrounding mountain ranges

 Denali is so huge - 20,320 ft - that it makes it's own weather, which can change at any time. Visitors to the park have a 30% chance of seeing it...we got so lucky. The day we were in the park was the best visibility that they had had all summer.

Our first glimpse of Denali!!

Silty glacial river flows

We left our mark with some rock sculptures.

Notice how much of Denali is obscured now by the clouds.

 Technically, Denali has the highest vertical rise of any mountain in the world. Measured from base to peak it is taller than Everest!

View from Denali behind Wonder Lake

Black spruce don't grow very tall here, they dot the landscape

Nate scouted out the best way to hike down

Peter generously let us borrow his amazing camera

Beautiful bluebell

Arctic dogwood

I loved the soft cushiony feel of tundra beneath our feet

Fireweed was just beginning to bloom

And don't forget the Forget-me-nots...the state flower of Alaska

 

 We hiked and hiked to our hearts' content and then were the last two people to board the 91-mile bus ride back to the park entrance. A six hour adventure where we literally saw every kind of wildlife we could have dreamed of...moose, caribou, brown bears, wolves, dall sheep, porcupines, snowshoe hares. The bus driver kept telling us that most people didn't see half of what we were able to see, and definitely not as close up. We felt so lucky!!

This moose was digging for grubs in the water and showing off his mighty antler racks for us.

A wolf ran down the hill as we were driving by.

 A whole group of dall sheep came marching down the mountain in front of us.

A mama Grizzly bear and her cub romping on the hillside

This was my favorite wild animal of the trip.

 And to top it all off...at the very last two miles of our trip we saw an incredible rainbow and sunset...at around 11 pm!

Back on the ranch...what the kids did while we were away

Tearin' up the town on the tractor!

Sleigh ride in July, anyone?

The kids got to explore the church cannery and farm on all kinds of fun equipment!

Hanging out with Rudolph at the Reindeer farm!

Check out the size of those Rhubarb leaves!

The bigger kids climbed with grandpa to the top of the peak behind their house

Tub time was a big splash!

Riding in Grandpa's plane...talking to eachother over the the headsets were the highlight for the kids...until all of a sudden it got really quiet!

Elijah took a special liking to 'Bada' - he is definitely a grandpa's boy!

The kids "marched" in a parade at the Bear Paw festival for Lora Reinbold (standing behind the stroller) who was running for state senate.

Elijah the little campaigner!