Day 5 - 6/6/08

The McKinley Wilderness Resort is a place I'd like to visit again. There are hiking trails around the resort. One of the trails was closed because a mother moose (cow?) and her calf had bee spotted near the trail. They closed it to protect hikers and leave the moose family undisturbed. Moose can be very dangerou when provoked. Our bus driver said they often wandered onto the grounds.

Here's something you don't see in Central Illinois.
So many people come to the Lodge to view Denali, they have rows of chairs inside and outside for people to just sit and watch.
We left the Wilderness Lodge to travel--again by train--to Anchorage. The trip was rather uneventful, but we saw lots of beautiful landscape.
We passed the official starting point for the Iditarod. We noticed as we traveled south, the trees became more broad-leafed.

The earthquake in 1964 resulted in salt water flooding far inland. Although the water receded, the land was saturated by salt. This killed the trees--literally petrified them from the inside out. New trees are growing now, but the "bones" of the petrified trees remain.
When the tide goes out, it leaves behind bogs that are like quicksand and actually can be dangerous. If someone get "bogged down" and cannot get out before the tide comes in, they would drown.

We stayed at the Hotel Captain Cook in downtown Anchorage. It was large and posh, with beautiful rooms, but we were not impressed by the staff.

Cheryl and I took a taxi to Earthquake Park and found our first Alaska letterbox. It was 11 pm Alaska time (2 am CDT).
It was still quite light outside and the park was very busy with bicyclists and walkers--just as though it had been mid-afternoon. Mosquitoes swarmed all around and we were glad we had repellent with us.