Background....
We began looking at cruises to Alaska a while ago, since most of my family had been at one time or another. The cruise lines allow you to add a land portion to the cruise either before or after. The land portions can be as long or short as you are willing to pay for. We kept adding more things onto the land to the point we didn't really need to do the cruise. We ended up renting a motor home for 25 days. This trip was booked and scheduled for August 2014 but I fell on my bike and shattered my elbow the day before we were to leave. Spent 5 days in the hospital but due to travel insurance rebooked it for the next year. I have have posted some of these pics on the old forum but they're long gone.
So we flew to Anchorage, picked up the 28' motor home. Camped the first night in the Anchorage Cabela's parking lot where we picked up some last minute supplies (fishing licenses, fishing line, lures, etc) and groceries.
Here's what my everyday carry was. Ruger Redhawk 44 mag w/305 gr bear loads. Baofeng multiband ham radio. One for me, one for my wife. These things were tuned to local ham 2 meter freqs as well as GMRS, marine, MURS, business freqs and commerical FM and National Park public safety bands and weather channels. They also have a built in flashlight and siren. Tru Flare flare launcher with flares and bear bangers. Isula neck knife, and a small pocket note book that happened to have facts, figures and stats about Alaska on the back cover. In addition, I always carried a compass, day pack, flashlight, hiking poles, water, rain gear, extra clothes and socks.
The first thing you notice when you drive out of Anchorage north up to Denali is the mountain ranges.
This is Mt. McKinley/Denali from about 70 miles away. Obama changed the name from McKinely to Denali the year we were there. "they" say there is about 50/50 chance of actually seeing the peaks when you were there. 10 minutes after we took these photos it was covered by mist/clouds
Some of the other mountains, not necessarily in order we saw them.
I will say you get sensory overload with all the views. We found ourselves stopping along side the road to take pics often.
Some of those photos were in Denali state park, some were in Denali National Park. Many were just on the way up to Fairbanks or back down to Valdez.
At one point we took a boat ride out to see the glaciers. That wall of ice is 400' tall.
Speaking of glaciers, there are plenty of them all over...
Here's another closer view. Notice me standing in the lower left corner. Kind of gives you a sense of scale. Also a sense of how glaciers carve up of the landscape, easily moving huge boulders, rocks etc.
And then there's this...
And this...
And these....
Of course there is wildlife often along side the road...
Near the end of the trip we hiked up a mountain outside of Anchorage. Those two lines near the sound are the the highway and the rail line.
The view into the interior on the way up
They actually have an annual run up that mountain. A few weeks after we were there a 14 year old boy was attacked and killed by a black bear when he was running up. They also use it for para gliding. Two guys passed us on the way up and soon were sailing over us on the way down
One of the valleys we hiked through. You can see the waterfall in the distance and the river bed that the snow runoff follows in the spring.
Prince William Sound
I have lots more pics but these are some of the best ones
