The Alaskan Adventure

Wendy and I just got back from a fantastic trip to Alaska. We began the trip with a cruise from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seward, Alaska and finished it off with a driving trip to Denali National Park and Preserve. The photo above is the Hubbard Glacier--the largest tidewater glacier in the world. It is 6-miles wide as it ends in Disappointment Bay.

I was able to pick up a cache is each stop that had one. I started by logging Sister Cities--it is an interesting cache. You have to visit a pole in downtown Los Angeles that identifies all of Los Angeles' sister cities and then visit one of the sister cities. I did Vancouver.

We spent a wet Sunday, July 3rd in Ketchikan. It is a nice city, one of the wettest in North America. I quickly found Whale Park in a nice small park across the street from the Discovery Center--a Forest Service information center and museum.

Monday was Independence Day and we visited Sitka. We visited several of the town's highlight, including St. Michael's Cathedral. The original church burnt down in 1966, but was reconstructed according to the original plans. We also watch a local dance group perform Russia dances at the town's convention center. I found Centennial Cache and dropped off a travel bug before the performance.

We stopped in Juneau on Tuesday and I found three caches. First was a cache near the Mendenhall Glacier---Frozen in Pine. I was surprised when I read the cache description--it was written by someone from Simi Valley, Dana of Team Dakiba. I almost gave up because my coordinates were off, but then I spotted a likely spot and then found the cache.

The next one required a 1800-foot assent of Mt. Roberts, luckily by tram, then about a mile walk farther up the mountain. The views along the hike were really something. Father Brown's Cross is a 35-mm film can hidden in the rocks.

In the afternoon, while waiting for a tour of the state capitol to begin, I found Museum Trading Post. Actually, I found some other cachers and we looked together. He did the hard work and found the cache for me.

July 6th was a stop in Haines, a very small town. No caches in the area, but I might log a locationless cache here. We took a jet boat tour of the river and saw quite a few animals.

July 7th was a cruise day. We began the day with a stop at the Hubbard Glacier. It's in the picture at the top of the page. The glacier is huge. The ice is 300 feet above the water line and at least 100 below the water. We were able to see it calf--break off chunks of ice. The sound is like loud thunder.

Friday was the end of the cruise. We took a bus to the Anchorage Airport, rented a car, and drove north to Denali. We made a quick stop in Talkeetna and I found Lama Trash Cache West. Talkeetna is where the climbers register before climbing Denali.

Saturday we did a 13-hour bus tour of Denali National Park and saw lots of animals--grizzly bears, caribou, Dall sheep, moose, a golden eagle, and some others. After dinner, I found Denali Bruin Breath quite close to our motel.

Sunday was the day to go home. On the way out, I stopped for Panorama. It is at a viewpoint for Denali. Unfortunately, we didn't get any clear views of the entire mountain while we were there, but the total experience was awesome.

I'll write more about the trip on my other blog--Random Thoughts. The entire trip was fantastic. We really had a great time.