We were up until midnight packing last night. It has been so nice to be able to spread out and live in our motor home for a week. It was very challenging to cram it all back into suitcases! We emptied and rinsed tanks, cleaned the inside, and ate a big breakfast to finish as many refrigerator groceries as possible. We left our campground at 9:00 on our way to hike the Bodenburg Butte Trail. 
The trail's description in the AllTrails app described it as steep. It lied--it was VERY steep. But the good news is that we quickly got high enough for views of the mountains around us.
The AllTrails app said that this trail is just a half-mile to the top. It lied again. It was almost a whole mile hike to get the 360-degree views from the rocks at the very top.
From our perch at the top of Bodenburg Butte we could see mountains on three sides, and views all the way down Knik River to the ocean on the fourth side.
Another fun view from this trail was looking down on the Reindeer Farm. Like the Musk Ox Farm, they give tours to paying customers. But they have another source of income because we've seen reindeer meat sold all over Alaska.
Our next stop was to fill up with gas at Fred Meyer's, because they gave us a coupon good for 20 cents off per gallon of fuel. That gave us the cheapest gas of the trip at $3.06 per gallon. It was good timing to use that coupon to fill up that big RV tank. Then we dropped off the motor home at Amazing Accommodations in Wasilla. Renting an RV from the owner, Sabine, was a great decision! She drove us the hour's drive back to the Anchorage airport to rent our next form of transportation--a car. We were so prompt that our car wasn't ready, so we hung out at the airport visitor center, writing postcards home. The visitor center inside the airport offers free cards, and even puts the stamp on and mails them for visitors.
We picked up our red Chevy Cruz and headed out of town south toward the Kenai Peninsula. We drove beside the water to Beluga Point for views of Turnagain Arm.
Beluga Point is also a good place to watch for beluga whales. These all-white small whales chase the fish into the arm and can sometimes be spotted here. We've stopped several times during the last couple weeks, and have never spotted a beluga yet. The parking lot has some good statues that represent what you should be looking for. Most usually, you might see a white rounded back like the piece on the left. If you were really lucky, you might see a beluga's head out of the water like on the right.
Then we turned off of Seward Highway for a side trip to the little town of Girdwood. We are here because we got advice to stop in at "The Bake Shop" for cinnamon rolls. We never let advice like that go unheeded. These cinnamon rolls were huge!
Besides cinnamon rolls, Girdwood is famous for being the best place to go downhill skiing in Alaska. Aleyeska Ski Resort's chair lifts are right beside The Bake Shop. We also know that there are trails that leave from here and go high into these mountains. But the last report we have is they are still covered with snow up top.
It's a beautiful drive past Turnagain Arm and on to the Kenai Peninsula, towards our overnight stop at Midnight Sun Cabins in Moose Pass. We camped in this town a couple weeks ago in our camper van, but this is Connie and Steven's first time to see this scenery. We checked in at our cabin and fixed supper.
Then we headed out for an evening hike. The 3.5-mile hike to Ptarmigan Lake gets 5 stars out of 5 in our AllTrails review because it has a crystal clear creek running beside the trail . . .
a lush canopy of green over the trail . . .
with occasional views of the tall mountains around us. It's at this point that Connie decided that her knees needed to head back to the car.
But the best part of this hike is at the end, a beautiful mountain lake. So while Connie and Steven headed back slowly, Denisa and Mark took off at a very fast pace to get to Ptarmigan Lake.
The water was as clear as we had read about in the description. We could see the rocks at the bottom all across the water.
Mark took a panorama of Ptarmigan lake with Denisa on the left, and the mountains reflected in the still lake. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!
But wouldn't it be cool to take a picture with Mark standing on that log in the water? So sure-footed Mark headed out towards the end of that log.
Then it happened. That log was smaller and wetter and more slippery than he planned, Whoopsy!
Can he recover with a backward stab of that hiking stick? Whoopsy!
Nope! But he still has a smile on his face as he walked out of the lake.
He had two wet feet for our unusually fast 3.5-mile hike back to the car where Connie and Steven were waiting for us. We started this 7-mile hike at 7:35 p.m. and finished it at 11:00 p.m. We have been doing some crazy night-time hikes as the hours of daylight continue to get longer! After showers and snacks, we're in bed after midnight again! We started Day 18 with a hike, and ended with a hike, with lots of God's wonderous scenery in between!
No comments:
Post a Comment