South Rolly Lake SRA

Pretty Flowers Bird Creek SRA

Campsite @ Bird Creek SRA

     We camped along the Turnagain Arm at Bird Creek SRA after we finished the Upper Winner Creek trail hike. It is nicely located along the Seward Hwy. They had a nice trail along the Turnagain Arm that we walked that evening. The next day we drove thru Anchorage, stopping to resupply, and headed to the Nancy Lakes area west of Wasilla. We camped there 2 or 3 nights and actually experienced an earthquake while eating supper in our camper one night. The truck shook violently for 5 to 10 seconds...amazing.

We hiked a 7 mile RT trail to another nearby lake. We saw a moose off the side of the trail on our way to the lake. We were amazed at no mosquitos bothering us even though the last mile or so was through low wetland type forest. 

South Rolly Lake with storms moving in

 Mr Loon

The lake we hiked to

Hiking Byron Glacier, Girdwood, Upper Winner Creek Gorge

Byron Glacier

     The next morning we headed back to Portage Lake and hiked the Byron Glacier trail which was a nice 4 mile RT trail to an area below the glacier. It was beautiful all around and we nearly had the trail to ourselves until we started back out.

                                  

     We the drove back out to the Seward Hwy. heading north to Girdwood. The Aleaska Ski Resort has a tram that will take you to the top of the ski mountain to enjoy the views. When we arrived we saw the upper half of the mountain was fogged in and decided not to waste the money on the tram. We decided to drive out of town to the Crow Creek Mine. 

Some pretty flowers near the ski resort...notice the fog above

View of the ski lodge with pretty mountain behind it

     We got up to the mine and after looking things over decided it was a tourist trap and chose to skip it. A mile or so down the road was a parking lot for hiking trail into the National Forest that involved a taking a hand operated tram across Upper Winner Creek.

It was a beautiful hike, around 6 or 7 miles round trip, that included a hand tram ride of 80 to 100' across a gorge. It was a popular trail and everyone helped each other with the tram. When we got to the main overlook of the narrow gorge area we met a man who works for Delta Airlines on the ground in Phoenix. He gets to transfer to Anchorage for a couple months during the busy summer season.

His wife flew up to enjoy a few days sightseeing with him.

All in all a very worthwhile hike.

 Everyone helps out with the tram

 Upper Winner Creek Gorge

Whittier Area

 Portage Lake with glacier in background

    We headed to the Whittier road after rafting and found a nice NF campground to stay at right below a glacier. The weather was quite cloudy and threatened rain so our views were limited. With the rain we decided to drive down the road to Portage Lake, just a couple of miles away, to check it out. There was a really nice visitor center/museum right on the lake to tour. It was well worth our time. They even had a nice movie to see for free if you had your senior pass for national parks. After that we decided to drive thru the tunnel to Whittier just to say we did. It is a long tunnel that is one way at a time every half hour I think unless a train is using it. You straddle the train tracks as you spen

d around 8 minutes driving thru. Whittier is a town with a nice port that was developed by the military shortly after WWII due to wanting a military port there during the cold war. Now that the military is gone some cruise ships drop passengers off at the end of their cruise and bus them to Anchorage to fly home. There also some day tours and fishing trips by local boat captains available. 

The tunnel entry from Whittier...single file

 Read this sign that describes the building in the following 2 pics.

This building looks like something you'd see in some of the old Soviet block countries...very dreary looking in such a scenic place

     After we drove around a bit we stopped at a place to buy ice cream treats and the power to the whole town went down. It took an hour plus before we were able to go back thru the tunnel again.

Raft Trip on the Kenai!

      We decided to take a raft trip up the Kenai. The weather was near perfect for our 2 hour relaxing trip down the Kenai. Our river guide did a wonderful job steering us down the river. We saw many fishermen along the way that were catching salmon. 

 Our guide getting the raft ready for us

 We saw dozens of fisherman as we went along

 Before we knew it the trip was over...time well spent

We stopped here for a picnic lunch after our raft trip

      We headed to the Portage Lake area on the Whittier road. I will cover this area next entry.