August 6

In and around Anchorage

Here's some pictures from the flight to Anchorage from Seattle.  We had some truly awesome scenery on the way--all kinds of glaciers and mountains.


We went to the Anchorage museum first.  Just outside there were some ornamental cabbages, ones that normally grow about half the size of this one.  All that sunshine in the summer really makes them huge!


My dad, in front of the museum.Earthquake park, west of the city of Anchorage, is where you can really see the signs of the serious 1964 earthquake.  There were also some very nice looking (but poisonous) fly agarica mushrooms.


The Chugach State Park is one of the largest state parks in the country.  We went to the Eagle River Visitor Center north of Anchorage, and took some walks from that area.  Great views of the Chugach mountains from there.  One huge pond had been created by a beaver dam


They call this flower Butter and Eggs, for obvious reasons.


This was the biggest field of cow parsnip I've ever seen.Later we drove to Ship Creek, right in the middle of downtown.  It's a big salmon creek, not because there's necessarily a huge amount of salmon in it, but it's so convenient that lots of people fish there.


Late in the evening, we drove up to another location in Chugach State Park were you get a great view of Anchorage.  The view in the other direction was better, though, kind of like a moonscape.