The Decision We hadn’t decided what to do today but we had driven past a sign on the highway into Seward that pointed to the trailhead for Lost Lake. This was a hike that Arlene had noticed months ago when we were planning how long we would stay in Seward and what we might do…
Seward
The Arrival After our flight back from the Arctic Circle we drove from Anchorage to our new AirBnB just outside of Seward. The drive was a bit over two hours and we found the AirBnb at about 9:45pm local time which is about 10:45 PDT which is 45 minutes past bedtime. And that’s how it…
Utqiaġvik
The Flight Arlene and I had mostly packed on Friday night and on Saturday morning we finished that process and left the dry cabin near Denali at about 6:40am. The first 90 minutes of the drive were the same route that we had taken the previous Saturday to see spectacular views of moutains all the…
Our Last Full Day at Denali
Healy Overlook Trail After breakfast and erging we took on the Healy Overlook Trail again. (See https://traveljournal.cakewood.org/2025/06/19/little-dudes/) The first time we were still breaking in our hiking legs and the descent was a little difficult so today was a fun little experiment. We climbed up a bit farther on the un-maintained trail than last time…
Last Day at Savage River
First Things First I was looking at some pictures that I took yesterday on the Canon SLR. I found this and was very excited. I believe that it is a Hermit Thrush and this is the first time I’ve ever captured a photo. The app on my phone, Merlin, gave me other possible options such…
A Rainy and Quiet Day
This Morning Last night Arlene said, “if it’s raining in the morning then I want to go out for coffee.” It was rainy; we went out for coffee. I think the place is called The Black Bear. We’d been there before and I thought it was disappointing but Arlene had liked it so we gave…
Day 9
Plans And What Happened Instead We decided to rush into the park and try to hop on a green bus that would take us past Savage River at mile 15. We arrived at the bus terminal at about 7:45 hoping to get on the 8:00 bus but the next bus that was available was at…
Lakes and Clouds and Bears, Oh My
Last night as we were settling down the evening, a large plume of smoke from a fire north of Healy engulfed our little home away from home. Fortunately, we woke up this morning to clear air. The sky was overcast and we were a little tired from our off trail excursion so we spent a…
Hiking to Primrose Ridge
Preparation We started the day with a bowls of cereal. I had drip coffee and Arlene had espresso made with her Nespresso machine. Then we followed the end of stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse which was an individual time trial. (There is a website, https://www.procyclingstats.com/, which has pretty good webby-coverage of all of…
Driving down an Alaskan highway listening to ABBA
Taking An Easy Day Saturday after multiple days of hiking on tired and sore legs, Arlene and I decided to take an easy day. Arlene had found what was supposed to be a good place to see Denali. So in the morning we set off on a drive to the South Viewpoint of Denali State…