Welcome Sandy!

 Hiya Gang,

My special guest has arrived courtesy of Canadian Goose Airways.  Sandy arrived safely and soundly a few days ago.  As you may know, airlines are cutting back on their food service so Sandy was hungry for a home cooked meal.

On today's menu.  Fresh salmon on the grill with birch syrup from Alaska.  

The salmon was delicious.  Too bad there wasn't enough left for the roommates. 

  

Alaska 7 - Exploring Anchorage

 Hiya Gang,
Little Fox here.  Alaska is a pretty cool place.  Lots of wildlife, fresh seafood, glaciers, craft beverages, friendly folks and of course lots of hiking too.  Today's hike is at Bird Creek Falls.  A short hike near Anchorage. 

A little dicey on the last parts of the trail but the falls were amazing. 

Another cool hike near Anchorage was the Gold Mint Trail (Short version).  

This trail was in the Hatcher Pass area north of Anchorage but certainly worth the drive. 

I also got a chance to explore Anchorage.  Local bars and restaurants, unique bakeries and fancy hotels.  The fanciest hotel I explored was the Capt. Cook Hotel in Anchorage. 

For goodness sake, the hotel has its own coat of arms. 

Capt. Cook had quite a few voyages around the world.  His voyage to Alaska was to find the Northwest Passage back to Europe.  No such luck Captain. 

So much cool artwork in the lobby. 

This fox is hungry.  Time to say goodbye to Captain Cook and head out to a little cafe the roommates found called Moose A'la Mode. 

Any restaurant with stuffies hanging out at the door is the kind of place for me. 

All good things come to an end.  I'm fortified with some coffee and it's time for this little fox to head back home. 

Alaska 6 - Welcome to Seward

 I met some cool stuffies at a B and B in Seward, AK.  They were super helpful in pointing me in the direction of many different things to do. 

The first suggestion was to visit the murals around town.  This one really called out to me. 

Seward was the start of the Iditarod Trail (not the race).  The trail was similar to the Pony Express where mushers would travel up and down Alaska delivering mail and goods in the winter.  Seward is mile 0. 

Besides the Iditarod start there are also a lot of glaciers in the area. 

Everyone was so friendly in Seward. 

Just outside of Seward is Kenai Fjords National Park.  

The most popular place to visit in the park is Exit Glacier.  You can't walk on the glacier but it's an easy walk to the viewing platform.

Voila!  Exit Glacier.  Yep, you can probably see how it's receding. 

The walk up to the glacier has a variety of signs with different years on them.  The years represent the location of where the glacier was.  

The next day I decided to book a boat tour to see more glaciers.  The weather is pretty good for Seward today.  I'm patiently waiting my turn to get onto the boat. 

Coming up to a glacier.

This glacier is so pretty. 

The crew was able to get some of the ice floating by and they offered to make margaritas with that ice.  

If Drunk Fox was still actively drinking he would not be impressed with the amount of alcohol in the margarita but for a little fox like me it was perfect!

Onward to my next destination. 

Alaska Post 5 - Crow Creek Mine and Girdwood, AK

 Greetings Gang,
Little Fox here. Today I'm exploring the Crow Creek Mine near Girdwood, Alaska.  There is a lot of mining history and active mining as well in Alaska. Crow Creek Mine was an active hyrdaulic gold mine from about 1900 to about 1969.  

 A family bought the mine in 1969 to live at the mine's main house and also preserve the mine and buildings.   A family still lives at the main houses of the mine but you are able to tour around the buildings as well. 

Quite a few old buildings are still in pretty good shape.  Not bad for buildings 100 years or older.

This building was the mess hall. It was added onto as the mine grew u the 1920s.  The right hand side of the building is the new addition.  The new addition housed a larger cooking and food preparation area. 

Most of the buildings were accessible to visitors.  They pretty much left the decor as it was found when the family bought the mine in the late 60s.

It's cool to see these old boxes with familiar brands.  

The amateur archeologist in me loves exploring these buildings and looking at the old artifacts.

Another awesome expedition.  This fox worked hard, time for something to drink.

And a small snack.

Alaska Post 4 - Wrangell St. Elias National Park, McCarthy, AK and a long long drive

 On the road again.  Leaving Fairbanks going to Copper Center.  The drive is long but the scenery is amazing.

Saw the Alaska Pipeline along the way.  Pretty cool. 

I decided to book a shuttle for the road from Copper Center to McCarthy Alaska.  

 A cool ride and eventually made it to McCarthy, AK.  McCarthy is in Wrangell St. Elias National Park.  This mountain in the background is cool but my destination is on another shuttle to the mining district of Kennecot, AK. 

So much history in this part of Alaska.  Little Fox Archeologist needs to get his team from the University to do some research out here. 

My destination is a place called Root Glacier.  A short hike to a walkable Glacier. 

Made it!

After exploring the glacier there was some time in McCarthy. Saw this cool restaurant but we didn't stop. 

Our driver told us about an  ice cream shop on the way home with homemade ice cream so we had to stop.  By the way, it   was pretty darn good.  

Alaska post 3 - Yipee! I'm at Denali National Park

Goodbye Talkneeta, hello Denali National Park.  I made it to the National Park today.   

After sitting in the car for a few hours decided to take a quick hike.  Looks like I found evidence of beavers.  

Yep, a beaver dam at Horsehoe Lake.  I didn't see any beavers but they were probably too busy working to say hi.

Denali is the only National Park with a working dogsled team.  They don't race the animals but they are used during the winter for taking rangers to cabins in the park to do repairs, break trails for other dog sled teams, and act as ambassadors of goodwill. 

Our next day in Denali involved a bus ride.  The first 15 miles of the park road is open to everyone, the other 65 miles or so is only open to busses, walking, and bikes. 

Being short on time we didn't hike the road or bike it for that matter but took a wilderness tour.  Saw lots of tundra, wilderness and a few animals (brown bear, moose, arctic ground squirrels). 

Mother nature cooperated with us and gave us some rain in the night but it cleared a lot of the smoke from the air.  Got one more hike in Denali at Savage River. 

Not a lot between Denali and Fairbanks (our next stop) but we did find this nice little roadhouse.  Big salads and homemade beer (I recommend the hefeweizen). 

Yipee!  Made it to Fairbanks and checked in with the locals at the hotel.  

They recommended hitting the salmon bake for dinner.  Who can argue with that???

Yep, this is a salad, the salmon was scarfed down before the roommates had a chance to take pictures. 

Alaska Post 2 - Denali State Park, Pie and Talkneeta

Greetings blog world.

What a day! The mountain is out and ready to be explored.  The pink plant is fireweed and it's in abundance up there in the summer.  

Today, this fox is hiking the Curry Ridge Trail at Denali State Park.
A lot of great views along the hike.  The mountain, the river, glaciers.

I was hoping to see some wildlife but no such luck today.

The hike was a 5 star hike for sure.  The park had some nice viewing areas or  the mountain and a cool Veteran's Memorial Area. 

This fox worked hard adventuring and even though I had lunch it only seemed necessary to have some blueberry pie as well.  

Time to explore Talkneetna (moreso).  The historical society put together a nice walk and I came across a few cabins, old foundations and an airstrip. 

I also met the mayor of Talkneetna. The original mayor Stubbs won the election as a write in candidate in the mid 90s and this mayor has been serving since 2017.

A nice meal (poke bowl) and a few beers is a good way for this fox to finish up his day. 

Do I really need to share? 

Where will I go to next?