Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula

Oh dear, I'm running behind 2 or 3 weeks now with my blog... Well, anyhow: 

On our arrival in Anchorage is was raining again. This may have influenced our view of the town but it seemed pretty bland, boring. The funniest thing is actually the main visitor center. It is guarded like Fort Knox, x-ray for Claudia's backpack and metal detector for us humans, all that supervised by 2 officers. Maybe that's the way they welcome visitors in Anchorage ;-) ?

 Cook Inlet on our way back to Anchorage

We had to wait out the weekend to have some tires replaced. The previous owner had put on new tires before selling the RV and apparently had gone for some rel cheapies. One of these had a blow out at Denali so we decided to replace them all with a more trustworthy brand.

 Same location, 2 monkeys in the image

Once this business was finished we headed off to Seward, around 125 miles along Cook Inlet and through the mountains of Kenai Peninsula. This is supposed to be an impressive drive, but on this day the weather was what we learned at the Seward Visitor information: overcast with a few showers. That's obvious their summer weather! When I asked the lady about the photos of a boat trip we wanted to do the next day, all showing blue skies, she just smiled and said:' These people select their photos very, very carefully'. Well , there you go!

 In Resurrection Bay, off Seward

It promptly had started to rain on the way to Seward and kept doing so for the rest of the day. We went to see a creek  where salmon was supposed to be spawning, the place being fitted with a underwater camera. The only fish we saw were some smaller salmons swimming lazily around that camera. Ok....
We found a nice place on a smaller road to stay for the night, close to riverbed. There, the highlight of the day showed up in form of a bald eagle landing on a tree stump in the middle of the river and sitting there for an hour or so, not bothered by our interest.

 Bear Glacier at Resurrection Bay

As the forecast was for more of the same weather we decided to sit out the rain because we definitely wanted to go on a 9 hour boat trip  into Prince William Sound to see glaciers calving into the sea, sea otters and maybe a whale. The next morning, however, against the weather forecast, we woke up to an almost clear blue sky. So we hurried to the ticket office for that boat trip and organized the tickets. After getting rid of Shorty at the public campground in Seward we walked to the boat and the tour would start soon after.

 The coastline at Resurrection Bay

This was absolutely the best boat tour we have ever done, even Milford Sound in New Zealand can't compare to the beauty of Kenai on a clear day. The landscape is just amazing, wildlife all over the place. First we were 'greeted' by a couple of sea otters swimming lazily on their backs in the bay. We also saw huge glaciers , smaller ones calving small icebergs into the sea, a couple of humpback whales, porpoises, sea lions by the dozens, puffins, several kinds of seagulls, more birds than I can remember, some mountain goats on the seashore, it was unbelievable. One of the best days of our whole trip!

 approaching a calving glacier at Aialik Bay

Next morning it was back to rain, so there was no point in staying at Seward. The next destination was Russian River, famous for salmon returning from the sea at this time of the year and grizzlies waiting there for them to eat them. To keep it short: we saw the river, didn't see any salmon and no grizzlies as well. It didn't bother us too much, though, we were still relishing the day on the boat.

 I knew that beanie would come handy

After one night there we decided to call it quits and try our luck at Valdez.After a beautiful drive with wet tundra, mountains and glaciers we stayed for the night at some state park along the road. The weather had cleared  and we hoped to make Thompson Pass in sunny skies  the next morning as there are supposedly some amazing views onto glaciers and the mountains.

Humpback whale going for a dive



On our approach to the pass it started raining again, the pass itself covered in  thick fog, only to revert to proper rain at Valdez.  Apparently it rains a lot in Valdez, the forecast was for a lot more rain, so the next day we were back on the road to Tok to leave Alaska for good.

A puffin

Alaska seems to be very beautiful in  parts, however most of the beautiful parts are accessible only by plane or boat. This makes things slightly expensive. We had considered visiting Katmai National Park, but at a cost of $ 1.500 per person for a 2 night trip this simply was outside our budget. Nevertheless we saw some impressive landscapes, a lot of wildlife, the changes caused to permafrost grounds by rising temperatures.... it was definitely worth the drive!