I resolved my Internet dilemma. A park set aside for recreational vehicles sits just downhill from us although out of our line of site. Apparently there’s a company that specializes in providing Internet access to RV parks, allowing visitors to rent by the day, week or month. I’m close enough to tap into that so I’m quite happy to purchase some temporary access. Call me addicted.
I wasn’t expecting Gilligan’s Island (e.g., no phones, no lights, no motor car, not a single luxury) but I’m pleasantly surprised to find that the place is totally wired down along the Kenai Peninsula. I guess the highway with direct access from Anchorage, Alaska takes care of that.
This will be the usual format I follow when I’m on vacation. I’ll provide little snippets here and eventually I’ll develop complete write-ups on my permanent travel website. I have a little twist today — all the remaining “images” are short YouTube videos.
Flattop Mountain
The first site isn’t actually the Kenai Peninsula. It’s Flattop Mountain in Anchorage. We had plans for the day but the weather was gorgeous. Everyone kept telling us that we had to go to Flattop Mountain on such a perfect day or we’d hate ourselves. So we canceled our previous plans. Those people were right — it was magnificent.
Flattop is a 3,150 foot summit high above the City of Anchorage. The trail itself rises 1,280 feet over 1.5 miles. The first two-thirds are moderately easy. However the last portion includes sections that require both hands and feet to climb. We all made it to the top including the 4-year-old.
Russian River Falls
The Russian River Falls are located just outside of Cooper Landing on the northern end of the Kenai Peninsula. It’s famous for bears and salmon. We arrived at the falls after a fairly easy hike of about 2.3 miles. We didn’t see any bears but we did see a few salmon as they jumped up the falls. It’s incredible to imagine how these creatures can swim their way up these rapids.
Flightseeing
Next we took an airplane ride over the Harding Icefield, west and southwest of Seward. The icefield blankets a large section of the Kenai Mountains. Miles and miles of packed ice radiate from the icefield and spawn numerous glaciers, including some that extend all the way down to the sea.
Leave a Reply