Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Day 9

Picked up our rental car from Avis and before heading out we did a tour of the Anchorage Cultural and Heritage Museum..Just a wonderful display to walk through and step back in time a little to see how tough it was living in Alaska..The Athabascans(Inuits)knew how to do things though and were a tough and hardy race.
Down the Parks Highway and planning to stop at Denali National Park..Only just opened for the season but we were able to drive through to Savage River until the road was closed.The information Ctre was open and full of very helpful Rangers..Decided to go back the next day and drive further in if possible,so headed back to a motel/restaurant/bar for the night called The Totem Inn..Spent the evening in the bar and had pizzas for dinner..Instead of a mechanical bull to ride on they had a grizzly bear..Luckily it wasn't in operation otherwise there could have been some very sore people in our car the next day..The motel room was okay except we couldn't turn the tv off,either at the set/remote or by pulling allthe plugs out of the wall!!!Not a very restful night to say the least!!
Back to Denali in the morning and what a difference..It started to snow and the deeper we went into the park the whole scenery was covered and looked absolutely awesome..Saw caribou and pretty birds about dove size which were snow white on the body with a black head and brilliant red around the eyes.We played around in the snow like silly kids making snowballs and throwing at one another.Great fun!!!!
After we left Denali our next stop was a small town called Talkeetna.Had a really nice lunch at " Pizza Pie" where Leanne & I had the best hot chocolate..Bought some more gifts from shops where everything was made locally and uniquely Alaskan.Great little place..
The famous Mt McKinley had eluded us when we were in the park but about 100 miles south we came to a lookout that gave us great views and we took stacks of photos.The rivers are thawing and are a great sight as huge blocks of ice float downstream.
Onwards to Anchorage and we encounter traffic for the first time..Terry did a great job getting us to the hotel in one piece!!

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