Nathan had wanted to see Mt. McKinley (the highest mountain in North America) but we didn’t want to go all the way north to Denali Park so we drove to Talkeetna and hoped for a clear day to see the mountain. Talkeetna, itself is a pure tourist trap but we were able to get a good shot of Mt. McKinley.
There was a small museum which had a great room size topical map showing all of the peeks and how they people try to climb Mt. McKinley. Not something I would care to do but it seems like a lot of people like that kind of thing. While talking, the quide told us about a site seeing plane that had tried to fly over Mt. McKinley and the weather turned bad. The plane had to land and the tourists had to stay in the base camp for several days. Scary.
On the walk down to the river to take the picture. There were flowers everywhere. Going back to Anchorage we stopped and ate dinner. No problems, several hours later we got back to the hotel and found I didn’t have my purse. Kind of panicked me. No wallet, phone, ID. We backtracked in our minds and could only come up with the restaurant, luckily Glenn had the receipt and they had found it! Yeah, for honest people. Glenn and Nathan turned around and went back and retrieved it. My hero’s. The next day we headed back south to pick up our fish. It was our last day and our plane didn’t leave until 12:30 a.m. We wanted to put as much into it as we could and arrive very tired at the airport so that we could sleep on the way home. So much for our plans – but that is later. We headed down to Girdwood, which is a small skiing area. Very pretty and I would imagine very expensive. We rode a tram up to the top of the Alyeska mountain. It was beautiful and very peaceful. On the way up we saw beautiful mountains all around us.
Seen from the air – a mother moose and her baby resting by a pond.
While we were up there, helicopters were everywhere. They were removing/replacing chairs lifts and so we had to have pictures, of course.
The Aleskya Lodge. That is one beautiful building. I felt like I was in a very, formal English hunting lodge. 
The tram from above.
A glacier from the top. It was a well worth going up to seeing the surrounding mountains. Next, we went to see Exit Glacier. Interesting as it is the same glacier that Asia and Kathie and Glenn and I went to see 13 years ago.
The glacier is really a blue color. It has to do with the minerals it picks up as it kind of slowly crashes down the mountain. 
As we came out from the walk to the glacier there was huge rock. What do boys do, when they see rocks? Climb them, of course!
down he
COMES!
The last place we visited before we headed to the airport was the Alaska Conservation Center. I really forget how young Alaska is. So many of the centers and museums are new or still in progress. The Center was the same way. As we rode around there were plaques of things that were planned. They take orphaned or injured animals and try to rehabilitate and then release. They also try to educate the public. They are the only place in the United States that have Wood Bison. This type of bison was considered very endangered, in fact they were thought to be extinct and several were found and since then the wood bison are doing well here. I don’t think there are any wild ones anywhere. 
The herd with little ones. 
A close up of one of the babies.
They also had musk oxen. Which we had never seen. It is summer and so they are losing their winter coats. 
They had several large brown bears that had been orphaned and are being raised here. They are separated into large, electrified areas. Reminded me a little of Jurassic Park.
They also had some fabulous elk and a eagle that was shot by a farmer and lost his wing.
Thus ended our Alaskan vacation. We drove back to Anchorage, dropped off our rental car and checked in. The flight went ok, except that instead of being a nonstop flight, we stopped in Seattle. Everyone had to get off the plane even though we got right back on the same plane and flew to Houston. We had a great time and would love to go back.
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