We flew into Anchorage around 8pm at night, which felt like midnight to us.  We stayed in a hotel not too far from the airport.  It was still so bright outside that it seemed like it was still early afternoon.  It seemed like our hotel was situated right on a section of road that people loved to race along in the middle of the night.  It was a Sunday night, so this was a bit surprising to us.  

In the morning we headed to the Kenai Peninsula.  We stopped several times along the highway.  Once we walked a boardwalk looking for birds, then near the water to look for whales, and several other times just to take a picture of the view. Our first real stop was to hike up to this little waterfall just off the road.  It was near the ski resort.  You could feel how cold the water was just standing next to it.

We planned on driving out to Byron Glacier, but as we drove it started raining and we changed our plan to head more down the coast. We stopped at Deep Creek State Park that was right on the water and was also a place to camp.  The road is unbelievably bumpy, so I would park as soon as I could and walk around! I saw an eagle in the field and then we saw several flying around.  Two landed on the beach and one of them was a juvenile.  They were eating the fish carcasses there.  

The next day was my birthday!  I wanted to walk on a glacier for my birthday.  We headed to Exit Glacier.  On the way we saw two loons and a baby on the lake.  We also stopped at a few lakes that had some beautiful reflections. There were a lot of people at Exit Glacier and we hiked up to the area it used to be at in 2005.  I can’t believe how much it has receded in those few years!  It’s pretty sad actually.  

We took a quick detour to Seward where I got my birthday ice cream (huckleberry flavor) and some iced coffee.  Then we headed over to Byron Glacier.  I was looking a reviews online and getting really excited to be able to step on a glacier.  We drove by an empty parking lot and I said, I think that was it.  This was the sign we encountered: 

I was very disappointed, but it is a pretty cool reason to not be able to walk on a glacier.  I read online that they will keep the trail closed for several weeks.  Bears are very possessive of their food sources, so they have to wait until they finish eating or until the bear leaves the area. My husband was ready to duck under the tape and head up the trail, but I put my foot down. Here is the closest we could see Byron Glacier:

We took some more amazing landscape pictures and stopped at a trail called Moose Flats.  We walked through the woods, encouraged by some scat we saw on the ground, thinking we would finally see a moose.  We later learned that the scat was bear.  I’m glad we didn’t see one of them while walking!  

The next day I invited my mom to go souvenir shopping. We stopped at several touristy shops in Soldotna and we saw a fair going on in town, so we stopped to see if there was anything we might want. The food prices were pretty high and we ended up at a fast food place.  My mom needed some Walmart supplies for the camper and that is where I found a nice sweatshirt and my mom found some souvenirs for friends.  It was the same stuff in the stores we visited, just cheaper.  (And later, I found my sweatshirt at the airport for about $10 more.) We were also able to see this mountain, which was covered in clouds when we drove to see the eagles.

That afternoon we headed back toward Anchorage.  We stopped many times to take pictures of the views and look for whales again.  We did see a sheep on the rocks near the road, but it was just a white dot in terms of a picture.  

We went to a park that evening and dinner and these dandelion like pollen was floating through the air for our whole trip, but in this park it looked like snow when it accumulated.

The next day we had a late flight so we decided to check out some things around Anchorage. We drove up to this mountain to walk on the trails, but we didn’t see any animals besides birds.  We drove up another mountain to get some views.  We had a quick lunch and realized my parents were driving near us, so we made a plan to meet at Thunder Bird Falls.  My husband thought the hike was a lot shorter and with fewer hills, so it was fun listening to him grump every time we went down a hill.  The falls were nice, but we couldn’t see all of them due to the overgrowth of the trees. There was a trail to go down next to the falls, but it was so steep we all immediately decided against it. 

We ate at the airport and discovered a delicious blueberry cream soda at the 49 state brewery.  It was a nice treat. 

The last time I visited Alaska was on a cruise. It was a very different trip by car. We did a lot of driving, but we also were able to make stops for pictures and hikes. A friend described Alaska as “Like Maine on steroids” and I totally can see the comparison. The mountains are so beautiful and the forest seems extra green and lush. I spent a lot of my time gaping at all the beauty around me. It was amazing.