2 days in Alaska

My grandparents have been spending their summers in Alaska lately, and my Mark cousin and Uncle Larry were headed up to Anchorage to gear up for a bear hunt and fishing trip.  Mark and I had been talking about me trying to fly up and meet them for some time, and for a change there were actually enough open seats to get me up there!

After working from 4 am- 6pm on Saturday August 1, I quickly changed clothes and hopped on a flight to Seattle.  From there I had about six flights to try and get to Anchorage on.  I gave up on the first one and wisely switched terminals to hop on board another one that departed 30 minutes later.  I was rewarded with an entire exit row all to myself.  With plenty of legroom, power outlets at every seat, and a movie on my laptop I made myself comfortable for the 3 hour flight to Anchorage.

I arrived around 1 am.  I only had 11 hours to kill before Uncle Larry and Mark arrived from Tennessee!  I had actually remembered to pack a pillow and planned on finding a quiet corner to at least sleep for a few hours.  However I discovered that Anchorage is a 24/7 airport.  It doesn't quiet down.  So I was only able to bag 2 hours of fitful sleep before resigning myself to Netflix and plane spotting around the airport.  It is always neat to see the constant stream of 747s in ANC.

Finally Uncle Larry and Mark arrived, and I met up with them at their Delta gate.  Then we all went to baggage claim to get their gear, and Grandpa and Grandma met us, along with my Grandpa's sister and another family friend.  The first order of business was food.  Uncle Larry treated us all to great food at Sourdough Mining Company.

The rest of the afternoon we went around Anchorage visiting some tourist shops, Earthquake Park, and then finally began the 1 hour drive up to Wasilla,   On the way we did stop and do a short hike to Thunderbird Falls, and stopped by an old Russian Orthodox Church.

We were staying in the church Grandpa and Grandma had been working at.  We got settled in, ate some dinner and got ready for our big day the next morning.  We would be doing a lot of traveling.

To start things off, we went to the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla.  They had some nice exhibits, a film to watch, and then got to see some retired sled dogs.

We also stopped off next to Wasilla Lake.  In the winter time, it is where they start the Iditarod race.  We could see Denali far in the distance.

After this stop we began our journey up Hatcher's Pass.  The scenery changed from forest, to scrub brush, to bare tundra.  It was quite the transition.  We stopped several times along the way to take pictures and get out of the van.

We stopped at the top of the pass, and Mark, Uncle Larry, and I did some more quick hiking.  We went up a steep switchback trail to get some better views of the surrounding area.

The real treat, however, was on the East side of Hatcher's Pass.  We arrived at the Independence Mine.  Some of the buildings had been restored, others left where they were built, deteriorating.  It was now an Alaska State Park.

The mine was opened in 1938 and over the course of 5 years almost 6 million dollars worth of gold was removed.  During WW2 it was shut down, and then reopened for a little while until gold mining was deemed unprofitable.  It was officially closed in 1951.

We all ate lunch, and then toured the ruins.  One of the lower water tunnels, dug to connect with the upper level mine shafts.  Cold water runs from the mountain, and out the still intact entrance, although it is gated.  It kept the mine at about 38 degrees.

On the drive back down we were going to go through Palmer, before heading back to Wasilla.  We stopped along the Little Susitna River.  It's fed from glaciers and snow melt above Hatcher's Pass and the surrounding mountains.  The water was a deep glacier blue.  It was beautiful.

Once we were in Palmer, we drove around to see the gorgeous views of the mountains and farmland, and briefly stopped at the Musk Ox Museum.  I can't say I've ever seen a more beautiful landscape to farm in.

We also stopped at an overlook outside Palmer to take some pictures of the Matanuska River.  I was blown away by the gorgeous scenery of the "braided river" and the surrounding mountains.

That night we all went out to eat at the Noisy Goose in Palmer.  It was a great restaurant with plenty of entertaining signs hanging everywhere.

The following morning I was up bright and early, and Uncle Larry drove me back down to Anchorage so that I could catch my flights back to Spokane.  I actually use a Positive Space ticket to get home, so I wouldn't have to stress about getting an open seat.