Hatchery - June 2008

Both Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base have salmon hatcheries. They are free and open to the public. You do need to show proper ID to get on the base at Fort Richardson when you go to their hatchery. They had millions of fish. Some were indoors and some were outdoors. They had salmon and trout (which, by the way, are the same family of fish). We even saw them "vacuuming" fish from an outside tank into a truck (via a very large hose). The truck would then go to a lake and stock it with the fish.

If you look closely, you can see the "rainbow" in these rainbow trout.

Audrey loved the fishies!

Cynthia and Matt in the rain at the hatchery.

Hatcher Pass & Iditarod HQ-- June 2008

Family picture at Hatcher Pass

Iditarod Headquarters

Audrey and Cynthia touring the parking lot while everyone else is watching the movie.

Future Iditarod hopefuls!

Moose Sightings June 2008

Some people come to Alaska and never see a moose. some who have lived here for years have not seen a moose yet. We saw all of these on the same day. We were at the entrance to Fort Richardson on our way to the fish hatchery on the base. This moose acted like he wanted to cross the road, but there was a lot of traffic from both directions. Thank goodness it was an access road to the base and not the main highway he was trying to cross. The four-lane Glenn Highway was not far away, as we had just exited it to go to the base.

He finally saw his chance and ran across the road in front of us. We were stopped at the time so we could take his picture.

We saw this big guy as we came out of the fish hatchery.
We did not stay very long to try to get a better picture of him, but he was BIG!




Two moose at Potters Marsh along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage.

Portage Glacier June 2008

We took an hour cruise to the terminus of the Portage Glacier. It is called Portage because it is on a portage route between Prince William Sound and Turnagain Arm. We did not have time to stop at the newly remodeled Begich-Boggs Visitors Center near the glacier. If you come to Alaska, do plan time to stop here. It has tons of information about all kinds of things in Alaska, including wildlife, tides, earthquakes, glaciers and SO much more. The boat took us to the glacier and we floated back and forth in front of it in hopes that we might see some of the ice calve from the glacier. No luck with the glacier calving, but we did see some wildlife on shore and ice floes along the way. We did get an up close look at the blue ice and glacier dust stripes in the glacier.

Waterfall coming out of the rocks.

Hiking the Butte June 2008

We hiked up the butte while our kids were here. We didn't make it quite all the way to the top. We did go up far enough to see some great views though!

Doug, Colleen & Audrey

The boys and the babies. Note Elton John on the right!

You can see the summit of the butte behind us. We have learned that everything looks closer than it actually is. So if you think you are getting tired, QUIT. Turn around and go back because you still have to have enough energy to make it back to your starting point. Notice Little Elton John is completely relaxed and taking her afternoon siesta.

Views of the Knik Glacier from the butte.

View of the reindeer farm from the butte.

What goes up, must come down!

Grandpa, Audrey & Dan after the long hike.

Kayaking - July 2008

The Palmer Hay Flats lie along both sides of the Glenn Highway as you come into the Mat-Su Valley. The Hay Flats used to have open hay fields, grazing cattle, sheep and horses in Colony Days prior to the Good Friday 1964 earthquake. The earthquake registered greater than 9.0 on the Richter Scale. As a result of the earthquake, land that was once prime farming land, dropped several feet and became a 45 square mile complex of forest, wetlands, tidal sloughs, lakes and tideflats. Here is a link that shows a picture of the "ghost forest" created by the earthquake.

Wikipedia: Palmer Hay Flats

The Friends of the Palmer Hay Flats had an Open House and educational day at the Flats. They offered free canoeing and kayaking on one of the lakes. We took advantage of the opportunity to try kayaking. It's something we would like to do again, although we are not quite ready for the "white water" league.

Chugach mountains in the background, covered with clouds.
Even with the clouds, it was a great view.

The water was so clear that you could see the algae under the water.

The water search and Rescue Team did demonstrations at the lake. They could approach the victim in the water with their special inflatable boat. They paddled straight at the victim until the victim was in the area where you can see the hole at the front end of the boat. then they just reached down and hauled the victim in to the boat. No worries about trying to get the victim into the boat from the side and tipping over the rescuers too.