Tag: anchorage

More Moose in Anchorage!

September 25, 2025

After my daytrip to Hatcher Pass I decided to revisit some of the overlooks north of the airport in Anchorage (where I had seen a moose yesterday), hoping lightning might strike twice.

This is looking out at the soon-to-set sun (still up in the clouds). It was taken from one of the overlooks which is right at the end of the main runway at the airport (but located downhill near the water), and every few minutes a jet would come roaring overhead.

I stayed at the overlook a little while longer to watch the planes and then started driving back towards downtown Anchorage, planning to stop at a few other parking areas. When I got to an access road for the airport I spotted 3 moose, not far off the road. I pulled off right next to the road I was on and got out with my smartphone.

Two cows and a bull (one of the cows is in the lower left, next to the orange marker) were on or near a little hill. It looks like they were penned in by fences but the area to the left is wide open as you will see shortly. They really liked the little hill, and moved around a good bit. I stayed near my car but on the side opposite the road so I didn’t get hit by someone else who might be distracted by the sighting. The moose were on the other side of the fence so I didn’t worry about being so close.

Soon the bull came down to the corner and the two cows were on top on the hill.

One of the cows started making a move toward the gate where vehicular traffic can enter or exit the airport (not the main entrance, but probably for workers), and where the moose could “escape” to the side of the fence I was on.

She stopped because she saw something yummy to eat.

She finally made her move for “freedom”

Meanwhile the bull was following her. He would stop (to eat) before he got out and would eventually go back to the hill.

The cow came around the end of the fence and I had moved back to the “street side” of my car. You can still see the bull’s legs inside the fence on the other side of her.

I had already warned the woman in the photo below to keep back and she was now running for cover (and there wasn’t much distance separating them).

Then here came cow #2, making her escape. She had evidently walked right past the bull and why he didn’t follow her I don’t know.

Both of the cows went off to an area just out of view to munch on vegetation on a nearby hillside.

Meanwhile, the bull had retreated to the fence side of the hill, but could see the two cows who had gotten out.

He climbed the hill…

and came toward me. I thought he was going to go right back to the corner…

but he turned around and I thought he was going to go out the gate…

but then he changed his mind and went back towards the corner.

He finally made his way to the gate (perhaps because there were no longer cars and people hanging out close to it).

And he was out!

He soon trotted over to where the 2 cows had gone.

I THOUGHT I had started taking video after taking the photo above but was sadly mistaken. When I realized my phone wasn’t recording he had already reached where the 2 cows were.

According to the time stamps on the photos, the whole process took about 8 minutes.

Hatcher Pass – Part 4 of 4

September 25, 2025

Here are some of the things I saw as I completed my exit from Hatcher Pass.

This post is kind of short, as I decided not to include some of the photos I had prepared because they were too repetitive.

Below is a photo looking back at the way I had come so far.

And the next photo is looking at the road still ahead.

And another one looking back between some of the hills near the road.

Below is the sign on the gate at the end of the dirt and gravel road which can be closed to block access over the winter months until the road reopens in the summer. It opens inward so people who arrive at other times can see the risks of traveling on the road up to Hatcher Pass. I had read that the road is usually closed from late September (though it was obviously open on September 25 this year) until July 1 of the following year!

It had taken a little under an hour to get to this point from when I started my descent from the apex, though I did stop many places to take photos. I didn’t measure the distance.

I still had a 40 minute drive on a very rural paved road to get out to Hwy 3 in Willow, and from there it would take an hour and 20 minutes to get back to Anchorage.

That is the view from an intersection on the west side of downtown Anchorage looking out at Cook Inlet. From here I would turn left and go south a short distance to work my way out to the overlooks near the airport. I was hoping I might get lucky and see some more moose, as the area around the airport seems to be a “hot spot,” and I still had some more daylight. As you will see in the next post, my thinking paid off.

My day in Anchorage

September 24, 2025

I would spend the day in Anchorage and spent most of my time out by their International Airport which is located west of downtown, adjacent to Cook Inlet.

I am adding some more text here to try and get the map below to show up a little bigger in the post!

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

Cook Inlet is on to the left on the map and is a large body of water which comes up from the ocean. North of town it curves to the east and is called the Knik Arm (and there is a Knik River which the highway crossed as I drove in to town).

My first stop was Earthquake Park, which is in the upper right portion of the map. This was where much of the deadly damage occurred in the tragic Good Friday Earthquake which struck at 5:36 pm on March 27, 1964. The quake measured 9.2 and was centered about 80 miles east of town. It generated more energy than the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

A swath of land adjacent to where Earthquake Park now sits literally slid into the Knik Arm, taking 75 homes with it. The fact that it occurred late in the afternoon undoubtedly saved countless lives. Signage at the Park stated that parts of town dropped 15 feet, and 9 people died.

Here are some photos that were on signs in the Park.

The photo below was taken in Seward, where I will be going in three days.

When I was in Homer (coming up later in my trip, after Seward) a nice woman in the Visitor Center gave me a book about the earthquake but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. I did learn with a little research online that both Valdez and Seward had considerable damage from the quake and they are even further away. In Seward 13 people died, and there were 40-foot waves which struck the town at an estimated 100 miles per hour. In Valdez, where only 1,200 people lived at the time, there was so much damage that they rebuilt the town 4 miles east of where it once was.

After walking around Earthquake Park for a while I drove further out the small coastal road to another small park with a view of the Knik Arm. There was this view of downtown Anchorage.

And looking north there was a view of the inland mountains near Talkeetna.

When I drove even further out the coastal road there was a sign indicating that on a clear day you could see Mt. Denali (if it was not shrouded in clouds). They had a photo posted as proof.

It shows Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter and Mt. Denali (from left to right). Keep in might that those mountains are angled from southwest to northeast, and Foraker is closer than Denali. The spots in the photo are bugs on the sign!

I drove out the coastal road even further to Point Woronzof Overlook which gave a better view looking west, over Cook Inlet, to some mountains and volcanoes in that direction. I thought I could drive all the way around the airport but came to a gate where the signs indicated that it was restricted so I turned around and started driving back towards town.

As I approached one of the small areas where I had stopped previously I saw a bull moose trotting along the left side of the road away from me. There was a Fed Ex truck behind me and couldn’t stop to get my phone up for a photo, but the moose turned left and went into the woods. I knew there was another place to park not far up the road. I went there and found that there was a paved walking/bicycle path which lead back towards where the moose had entered the woods.

I started walking on the path and came to a group of people who had stopped. Sure enough, the moose was a little further ahead casually munching on some low hanging branches of a tree.

Shortly after that he turned right and walked even deeper in the woods. I could still see him, barely, and but those photos aren’t very good, and I soon lost track of him. I went back to where I had parked and waited a while, as he had been heading in that direction, but I never saw him again.

Next I drove around the airport on the Anchorage side to visit a huge city park (Kincaid Park) located between the airport and Cook Inlet. I had read, and other Airbnb guests had told me, that moose are frequently seen there. I spent quite a bit of time there, moving around to different parking lots and walking on some of the paths, but didn’t have any luck.

Last, I drove back around the airport and went to a large lake located near airport property (shown on the map at the beginning of this post). Most of it is Lake Hood which has a seaplane base they claim hosts more seaplanes than anywhere else in the US.

There were lots more planes but I somehow felt like I was trespassing so I didn’t linger. I went back to where I had driven in because a seaplane had taken off near there as I was arriving. I was hoping I might see another one “taxi” to that spot to take off but it didn’t happen. A few planes came in to land but by the time they touched the water they were out of sight.

There were small planes and seaplanes flying low over Anchorage all the time. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a large town with planes flying that low. Of course there are several small airports scattered around town, too, so perhaps that is why there were so many.

I will make another post about Earthquake Park once I have had a chance to read the book I was given, and have had time to do more research.

Gakona to Anchorage

September 23, 2025

After my daytrip to Valdez I would head back to Anchorage to use it as a base for the next three nights. To get there I will follow the same route as I did when I first arrived in the state. Not many view of mountains, either snow covered or otherwise, today as there was a heavy overcast, low clouds and precipitation in various forms.

There were light showers for the majority of the drive. When I arrived at the portion of the road that went up above 3,000 feet elevation it started to snow, and the already low temperature started to drop. There were light flurries at first but as the temperature dropped to near freezing it started sticking to the vegetation alongside the road and I became concerned about the road, as I had not seen much traffic to keep it warm.

I slowed down, especially when I came to bridges, and just took my time. When I got to where the road started to drop in elevation I still couldn’t see much but got a little more comfortable once the flurries stopped.

When I got out of the mountains as I approached Anchorage the clouds lifted some and the rain stopped.

I decided to stop at a large Cultural Center for Indigenous Tribes which I had seen signs for as I went through the area earlier in my trip. Unfortunately, when I arrived I found a sign out front that said it was closed for two days for a private event.

I did at least see an impressive sculpture out front.

When I got into town I went to the library to use my laptop for checking the weather for the coming days as well as planning my next two stops which will be south of Anchorage.

Fairbanks Loop

September 18, 2025

I referenced this “loop” in my previous post and thought it might be wise to post a picture of map and explain my thinking:

(Photo credit: AAA.com Alaska Map)

The two biggest towns in Alaska are Anchorage and Fairbanks. There are major highways (1,2,3 and 4) which connect them in a loop fashion. I will use smaller towns along them to illustrate my overview.

A small town fairly close to Anchorage (lower left corner of the map) is called Wasilla. From there north to Fairbanks is 316 driving miles on Hwy 3 and according to Google Maps takes 5 hours 22 minutes to drive. Coming down the east side of the loop, Fairbanks to Glennallen is in two parts – Fairbanks southeast to Delta Junction on Hwy 2, then Delta Junction south to Glennallen on Hwy 4. Total distance of those two parts is 247 miles and drive time is 4 hours 20 minutes. Then from Glennallen roughly west to Wasilla is on Hwy 1. Distance is 148 miles and drive time is 2 hours 38 minutes.

To do the whole loop covers 711 miles and takes 12 hours and 20 minutes (without stops). Hence the need to break it up into bite-sized pieces.

This first lap I am stopping in Talkeetna, Fairbanks, Gakona (near Glennallen) and eventually back to Anchorage. I was originally going to do a second loop in the opposite direction later in the trip because I often see things driving the opposite direction on some roads than I saw going the other way. It turned out that I would do both loops in the same direction for reasons which I will explain when I get to that point in my trip.

My first loop is to visit those towns and get a feel for road conditions and elevation changes. This is my first time in Alaska and I have no idea what to expect. My first big lesson was that Talkeetna is a LONG way from Denali National Park, and the Alaska Range where the Denali Mountains are located is also a LONG way from Denali National Park. On my second loop I will stay in Healy, about 20 miles north of the Park entrance, and visit the Park for 3 1/2 days with much less driving!

My first full day in Anchorage

September 15, 2025

My first day in Anchorage was not terribly productive from a photo standpoint. I had some personal business to attend to, and of course I went to both the Visitor Center (back to the American spelling!) and the Public Library.

The Visitor Center downtown was very interesting:

From the grass on the roof to the abundance of flowers, it was unlike most others I have been to. Unfortunately this building wasn’t open the first time I went and I had to go in a regular office building behind it. I stocked up on maps and brochures, and asked my questions about mountain and glacier identification. This building would be open the second time I went downtown. Not sure why they alternate between the two…

The second place I went was a Walmart in town. I was unable to renew my various prescriptions in Canada because pharmacy’s there will not fill US prescriptions. I kind of screwed up my 90 days from when I left Durham and had to stagger my meds towards the end until I got to Alaska. I had to go and advise them to expect the information from my doctors in Durham, and give them my insurance information. I then reached out to my doctors here in Durham and requested that they send my refill requests to Anchorage. I have one mail order source and I had them sent that (lower priority) refill to my brother in Arizona. They had filled 2 90-day prescriptions with 100 pills each, so I had some of those pills to keep using.

After that I went to the library! My Airbnb didn’t really have a good workspace to use my laptop and I use it quite a bit in the evening when I am on the road. I actually went to the library every day I was in Anchorage (if I wasn’t on the road somewhere). I noticed this sign in the lobby as I was going downstairs to the exit on my first visit there:

I wanted to study the information I had picked up at the Visitor Center and start forming a plan for my days both here and elsewhere. I had been told that many touristy things in Alaska (and Canada, for that matter) shut down after Labor Day. Some restaurants and touristy things in coastal towns that host cruise ships would be open a little longer, but by mid-September they were starting to wind down, too. Several times I would show up somewhere only to learn that the establishment was closed for the season.

I would be in town 4 nights initially and then return for 3 more nights later in my trip. I didn’t actually do that many things in Anchorage but it was a strategic location to operate from.

I will try to break the mountain monotony and entertain you with some oddball photos of things in town that I found interesting (in my own JohnBoy way)…

When I went to McDonalds for coffee this was my order number:

666 – Sign of the devil….

My Airbnb for the first two nights was in a part of town called Spenard (in fact my hostess called her home the “Weathered Den of Spenard” and even had her business license in that name).

That is a sign, evidently an art project, modeled after a Spam can (and with a fake crow).

This is a burger joint who’s parking lot I used to take the photo above so I felt obligated to have lunch there later in the day.

And that is an original 1957 poster they had inside. It was an interesting place!

The word buckaroo has always appealed to me and this club was also across the street from where I had parked, so of course I added it to my collection..

And the political sign on the side of the club also meant something to me, especially when I read the “fine print”. I used to volunteer at a college radio station when I lived in Pennsylvania (while I was still in high school) and one of the radio serials we aired was called Nick Danger, Third Eye – about a fictional detective. Sure enough, here was a Nicholas Danger running for office…

And I will leave you with this beer ad on the side of another building.

As you can probably tell, I gravitate towards strange things sometimes….

Tomorrow – my first trip to Mount Denali!!

Tok to Anchorage – Part 3 of 3

September 14, 2025

As I continue my drive beyond Eureka Roadhouse I will start to see more mountains partially obscured by clouds at their peaks. I strongly suspect they have snow, and possibly glaciers, on them, and in some cases I could barely make out the presence of something in the clouds. My original plan would have had me traversing this section of road 2 or 3 more times, so I was hoping I would get another “bite at the apple” and come back, hopefully armed with maps which might help explain what I was seeing. That did not work out, as I would only pass this way one more time, and it would be heavily overcast and snowing in places! I will explain in more detail what I get to that point.

So let me show you the rest of the pictures I took today:

There was significant cloud cover over the peak shown above, and I could see quite a bit of snow at the base of the clouds, so I believe there is a substantial mountaintop hiding behind those clouds.

That is a different snow-covered mountain than I showed you in the previous post, and the icefield at the base continued a considerable distance. You will see it at the bottom of most of the following pictures.

I was now past the snow-covered “hidden mountains” and was getting into another part of the day’s trip. I was keeping an eye on my GPS unit and realized I still had two hours of driving to get to Anchorage and check in at my Airbnb. The road had gotten narrower and I was in more traffic. Not knowing what was ahead of me I decided it was probably best to stop taking pictures for the day and just focus on driving.

There were of course more mountains along the way, although the road did open up again later, and I passed through at least two medium sized towns. As I approached Anchorage the highway went to 4-lanes, and in some places 6-lanes, so evidently there is enough traffic to warrant that. Getting to downtown Anchorage was easy and it is a very well laid out city.

I regret that I couldn’t retrace my route and show you more, and perhaps better, photos, but I did the best I could. I saw lots of things on my first full day in the state, and believe me – there is lots more to come. I started this as a 4-part post but decided to cut it down to three. I am trying to break down my posts into manageable pieces and not overwhelm people with too much at a time.

Texas XX2.2L

They say everything’s bigger in Texas. That may be true until you start talking about Alaska , which in land mass alone, is 2.19 times larger. It’s a big place. And I have only been traveling in a small portion of it. The main roads are all in the southeast corner of the state and there is much, much more land to the north and west.

This is a sign I saw in Earthquake Park, north of Anchorage, a few days ago.

It talks about comparable areas of wetlands between the two. which is a whole nother matter.

There are 4 major highways in Alaska, not surprisingly numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Yes, there are other, smaller ones I’ll talk about in a minute.

1 – Runs from Tok, southwest through Glennallen, west through Anchorage and south to Homer. 538 miles, 9 hrs 38 min (per Google).

2 – Runs from the Canadian border with Yukon, northwest through Tok, Delta Junction, and Fairbanks plus a few more miles to Livengood. 624 miles, 7 hrs 34 min.

3 – Runs from Palmer north to Fairbanks. 327 miles, 5 hrs 36 min.

4 – Runs from Delta Junction, south through Glennallen to Valdez. 268 miles, 4 hrs 37 min.

Yes, there are shorter stretches of highway with different numbers:

11 – The “Dalton Highway” north from Livengood to Prudhoe Bay, a dangerous stretch of road not for the faint of heart, and not considered a major highway.

9 – Which branches off from 1 to run south to Seward.

5 – Which branches off from 2 to run northeast to Chicken.

7 & 98, in the Alaskan Panhandle which run south to Haines and Skagway respectively, though I will drive through much more of the Yukon Territory and extreme northwest British Columbia to actually get to them than I will while I am in Alaska.

This is part of the reason I am so far behind posting photos here on the blog. It takes me a long time to get from Point A to Point B, plus the time to stop and take photos. My 2 hr 22 min trip to Valdez took over 6 hours because I stopped every 4 minutes to take pictures! So please be patient with me. Believe me, I am seeing many amazing things EVERY DAY and I am banking lots of photos. I will get caught up eventually.