Anchorage to Homer....

Once we were out of the camping area at Denali NP, and we saw Mt McKinley at its best...

we thought we'd take a look at the dog mushing demonstration. These are the only sled dog kennels in the entire National Park Service. The dogs keep the culture and history of dog mushing alive in the north, and their main job is to “patrol” the Denali wilderness. The dogs are here to help preserve and protect the two million acres of designated wilderness in Denali. According to the 1964 Wilderness Act, mechanized forms of transport are prohibited in wilderness. This means no snowmobiles.

DOG MUSHING, DENALI NP, ALASKA
Dog teams are the best means of travel and transport in the  park in terms of preserving wilderness values such as natural quiet, opportunities for solitude, etc. The dog teams also keep alive the long tradition of dog team travel in the north. These days, most sled dogs are bred for long distance or sprint races. They are very different from the original sled dogs in this region. The Denali sled dogs are closer to the ‘old school,’ traditional sled dogs found in Alaska. They still breed for very large dogs (60-90 pounds or more), very thick fur coats for sleeping out in the snow, tough feet and the ability to break trail in all conditions. All Alaskan huskies still share the same deep desire to run and pull a sled...this old girl fits all those criteria....

It was really interesting and they are an integral part of Denali NP.
I also managed to get two blog updates done, and a load of washing...huge achievements in an afternoon.  As it turned out, we didn't leave Denali NP till 9pm...in broad daylight, drove for an hour, pulled over, had tea and went to bed.
The next morning it was raining as we drove through Cantwell, into what we now know as Sarah Palin country.  We stopped at a 2nd hand store...Wal*Mikes (not Wal*Mart)

and would you believe it..there she was!

Next stop was Talkeetna which is off the main road but we decided to head up there (about 30kms one way) to check it out.  It turned out to be one of those tourist towns...full of gift shops...not for us, so we were there for about 10 minutes and left, stopping for lunch off the road and saw these float planes....would have loved to have done it, but way too expensive. Check out the link...
FLOAT PLANE, ALASKA

 While in Alaska, I was keen to see a real life igloo, so was really happy to come across this on the side of the road....I'm thinking it was one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time!" buildings!

and of course we were delighted to come across another moose....not sure about the headgear though! MOOSE, ALASKA

We drove through Wasilla, which is where Sarah Palin went to High School, won the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant in 1984 and in 1996 became Mayor of Wasilla, before becoming Governor of Alaska in 2006.  Like her or loathe her....not a bad achievement to then campaign for Vice President of the USA.
The rain continued as we drove around Anchorage, heading south,

before stopping at a parking bay for the night...it was about 8pm when we stopped...still light...and this was our view.RAINBOW, ALASKA

And being on holiday can be hard work...so a well earned beer for Stu....

Now if you park in a "scenic lookout" in Alaska in summer, and there is an amazing rainbow stretched out across the mountains and water, to the other side, then you have to be prepared for cars to stop.  And the fact that it doesn't get dark at all...then the cars were continuous!  But how can you blame them....

although I was pretty happy to chat with two guys who showed me (I have only been taught this 10 times by the boys and Paul) how to take a panorama photo with my phone....not sure I liked the result though, so am probably doing it wrong...

Anyway, a great camping spot, albeit a little noisy!

The next morning we were heading to Homer, down on the Kenai Peninsula

but decided to stop at a couple of places along the way....first stop...Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre.  The animals in here were rescued from bush fires, abandoned as babies, injured etc.  Fortunately they were behind fences, but I was literally 3 feet away from 2 huge grizzlies....unbelievable. One of these brown bears was found with its paws full of porcupine quills and was rescued.

wood bison and their calves

elk,

and the very strange looking muskox,

There were nice walks overlooking the peninsula

and before we knew it, we'd been there for 4 hours!
So we thought we should push on, but drop in quickly to check out Portage Glacier...

which was lovely, but to really see it you needed to do a boat tour, so we drove 5 minutes from Portage to Byron Glacier and did an hours walk up to it.  It was spectacular....

So when another hiker appeared, we got her to take a photo in front of this magnificent glacier of the two of us and this was the result...really?...not a glacier in sight!!!

Fortunately, Stu has become quite the expert on selfies, so we got this one as well....."I'll have a bit of glacier on the side thanks!".

It's hard to show the size of the glacier in photos, but it is huge...and this sheet of ice that has slid down the mountain, but is nothing compared to the glacier, is also massive...

and there were ice caves forming as well, which are great to see.

We had travelled about 50 kms in 8 hrs, so stopped for lunch

then hit the road again...driving through Sterling

and Soldotna till about 8pm and making camp by Johnson Lake,  near Kasilof.....$10 a night...State Park....

We had a late start this morning, stopping along the way at Ninilchik,

and watched fishing boats coming in..

...they would come into shore really fast, a tractor was waiting for them with a trailer and a guy on the back of the tractor would jump into the water, hook the boat up to the tractor, the tractor would take off up the beach, the guy would detach the boat trailer, and while the boat owner would go and get his car, the tractor would go and grab another trailer and do the same thing to pick up the next boat.  It was amazing to see, and each boat took less than 1 minute to get out of the water.
There were also heaps of bald eagles around looking for scraps

...with this magnificent backdrop!

We finally made it to Homer.....a really picturesque town right down the bottom of the Kenai Peninsula...one road in, one road out...

and found our camp site for the night....not a bad outlook from the RV.

Stu went for a walk this afternoon, while I did the blog, and took some great photos....

 a fishing boat coming in....

 Homer boat harbour....

 and some great shots of some Bald Eagles...amazing birds.

We were planning on going to Mexico after our cruise and had been contacted by a lady who wanted to do a house exchange.  It was all arranged, but we have been having difficulty contacting her, so have decided it is too late and wont be going.  We are now trying to change our Florida dates to just after the cruise and are waiting to hear back from that exchange.  So we have 4 nights left in the RV and are starting to feel a bit sad...we love our independence and space....but we are looking forward to the cruise.