8/29/12 traveling from Denali to south of anchorage

So today was initially going to be a day to hang out in Denali and hike see everything in the visitor centers. Well a couple weeks ago we changed plans to get to the kenai peninsula one day earlier and use this as a moving day. So we went a a easy hike in he morning to horseshoe lake near the park entance. This was a hike that was about 3 miles round trip from campsite to finish. Was good saw some different aspects of the park, beaver dam and some of the larger trees that I have seen here.

Back at the campsite got settled in and took showers as this may be the last place we stay in with great facilities. Showers were 4 dollars a person so we doubled up on the key, one in and let the next in then returned the key. Dumped the rv tanks filled up with fresh water and started driving south. We had no plans on where to stay and were looking for spots in the book milepost and settled in on tenderfoot CG, which is 80 miles south on ANC and on a lake. Hope to get some fishing in today but CG host said it will be difficult on the lake edge, oh well see what happens.

As for scenery on the drive down we stopped at the two viewing points for Denali mountain. We figured we would see it at the north point as we saw it driving down barely through the clouds. Well when we got there it was clouded over so ate lunch. This was great to be in a rv this time, stopped turned on the generator heated up food and looked out. While there was told that the mountain was seen at the south viewing point so we held out hope. Left and about 40 mins later stopped and saw both peaks of Denali. The mountain is huge, you see the smaller ones the Denali in the background and it towers above. Our viewing point was 43 miles away and still was impressive. After accomplishing that proceeded to pound the pavement and get some miles down. Filled up the rv in anchorage for another 132 dollars and onto Seward highway.

This highway wraps around Turnagain arm which is a big inlet. From what I can tell seems to be a large tidal region but high tide must have been up due the water almost at the road. Then all of a sudden people were stopping everywhere and couldn't figure it out staring at the water and sun. Well while looking there was a breach in the water so we found the next stopping point to look as well. We had a breach close to shore an it appeared to be Beluga wales. Pretty neat considering we were not expecting that. After that decided to get on the road again as we only had about hour left to the CG which we accomplished. Got a good site lakeside for 18$ and crashed for the night. Out of movies and DVD I have sucks so looked at photos and down for the count soon.