Gridwood Tram

The Tram at Gridwood and the slope below the tram is one of the advanced ski areas. This is the largest ski area in N America and only 50 miles from Anchorage. During the summer they get a lot of hikers and bicycles up on slopes. Even dogs come and they can get a free ride in a cage back down in the tram. They get up to 1000" inches of snow (that is not a typo) and a 15' base.

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Diane got this picture with the airplane flying by. This is 2 of the 7 glaciers to the west.

Alaska Size

Here's one comparison which shows that Alaska would extend from the Georgia coast to San Francisco. Alaska is 2.1 times the size of Texas and T shirts showing both are common up here and sometimes refer to Texas as our little sister.

Rumor has it that there is a effort to split Alaska and make Texas the third largest state!

But not a lot of roads in Alaska as this AAA map shows. There are about 5,000 miles of paved roads which is about 1/3 of the total public roads. As you can see from this map we will travel in just a small portion of Alaska.

Deep Creek Beach

 The beaches along Cook Inlet have a lot of coal which comes from the cliffs. This picture across Deep Creek shows coal that has fallen from the cliffs. Some of these pieces are 15' long. We put a few smaller pieces on the campfire and they were still warm the next afternoon. Some locals collect the coal and use it for heat during the winter. It has lots of smoke and is not very clean burning.

This is a fish weir on Deep Creek. At this location they capture and retain previously released King salmon, wild Kings and all others are released. The captured fish are used to raise more Kings and are distributed to a number of hatcheries on the Kenai Peninsula. This is the third year with very low King salmon runs and all fishing for them is banned. The reason(s) for the low runs are unknown but the theories are: They've been eaten, over fishing, low water (the creek is about half it's normal height, they are just not ready and the water is to warm.

Another popular idea is that they are byproduct of the commercial fishing with nets. Many don't believe that they are thrown back into the ocean but rather offloaded into smaller boats as a large King could be worth $1,000. That way the large boats are not over quota when checked.

We saw at one time 6 eagles. What beautiful birds as they soar and play. There are meadows and creeks nearby but at this time they are not hunting. There are likely nests nearby. It's totally amazing how much distance they can travel on the wind with no flaps of the wings. As they approach each other one will do a 180 degree flip in the blink of a eye and then on back to level flight. Something man will never duplicate with our aluminum tubes boring through the sky!

Commercial fishing: There are quite a few commercial fishing charters in the Ninilchik area and they launch here at Deep Creek Beach. The boats are 25' or longer with 6 or more fisherman and are towed as oversized vehicles. They unhitch the boat above the beach climb into the boat via ladders and the tractor operator launches the boat and takes it and out for $55. This picture was taken at low tide. Notice the white marker buoy that marks the rock - There is about a 28' tide at this location and the commercial tractor operator has 4 tractors. They handled about 80 boats one day. Launching comes in waves - fish are on let's go - we're done pull us out. They hang a yellow sign on each trailer, the captain calls in to be taken out and the boat is driven up on the trailer and a second person tightens the strap and up the beach they go - quite a show! These pictures are of a launch at low tide.

The beach is very shallow and the tires which are almost submerged are 5' in diameter. At high tide the beach curves up and the tractor doesn't get in the water. Very few private boats use this service but come to a launch area near the campground. One guy failed to latch the boat to the trailer and it slid off as he drove up the beach - he was not a happy boater. Another ran his boat up on the beach with a loud crunch of aluminum on rocks. He was completely out of the water. Backed the trailer down and winched the boat up on the trailer. This was a very large and heavy aluminum boat that was probably 28' long.

Redoubt Volcano

This is Redoubt Volcano taken from across Cook Inlet at Deep Creek Beach. 

The Perfect Day on the Homer Spit

This was the end of the Perfect Day. Just spectacular with the full moon rising over the glaciers!

This was one fantastic day! Sun all day, light winds, 72 degrees, beautiful sunset and moon rise. In addition Augustine Volcano below was visible all day from Homer Spit and the locals say this doesn't happen very often.

Here's a map of the volcanoes. This is at the beginning of the Aleutian Islands which extend 1200 miles into the ocean.

Homer Spit

One of the many glaciers around Homer. This is part of the Harding Icefield which extends to Seward

This bar is known all over the world

Low tide

Back to Seward

Actually this is on the road to Whitter

Sealife Center in Seward

Our daughter and family joined us from the lower 48. This is Mike, Nolan and Avery

What is this?

We went to the Le Barn Appetit restaurant. The owner was a diver and this working helmet weighs 68 pounds. And that's Michelle.

Mile went fishing and he caught the biggest Silver Salmon on the boat

 Cleaning the fish

More Alaska Signs

Well the sign is clear... This is the railroad for passenger trains and BIG coal car trains just north of Seward. For RVers this is the road to the turnoff for the Stoney Creek campground. 

Signs in the Chair 5 restaurant in Girdwood

The double diamond sign indicates the most difficult ski run

ie The Puffin bird

Valdez Eagles

Our neighbors Fred and Judy in Seward were able to take these eagle pictures in Valdez. Pretty amazing! We've certainly seen a number of eagles but haven't been able to take any pictures like these.

His color indicates he's an immature eagle, less than 5 years old. These younger eagles are actually bigger than the adults due to their larger feathers.