Travelogue: Alaska Part Four

This has been a long time coming.  Life has a way of speeding up and catching me in the present with little time to reminisce on the extraordinary experiences I've had so far.  This is both good and bad in that I definitely want to live in the present and value life as it comes, however, I also want to appreciate and value everything I've been lucky enough to do.  Unfortunately as well, my present has mostly been full of work, as it's the busy season in the world of employee benefits insurance.

It's been nice to look back through these pictures and remember my last few days in Alaska.

Tour of mulit Iditarod champion Jeff King.  His dogs are incredible.

The dogs coming back from a run with the ATV.

Puppies!

Hiking.

Walking along the ridge line at about 9000 feet.

Bus ride into the park to see some wildlife.

Dall sheep.

The Iconic park photo.

Mama grizzly.  There is a little dark brown blog down to the left from her a bit.  That's one of two babies born this spring.

Second mama bear we saw.

Her two cubs chasing across the mountain to catch up.  They were born the spring prior.

Seeing grizzly bears in the wild was a dream come true.  Denali National Park does not disappoint.  

-Leah

Why I Travel

I can't express very well in my own words how much I value travel and the experience and knowledge it brings to me.  I feel that until I moved abroad, I was missing part of myself.  Travel is now an essential piece of who I am.

These quotes say it best.  

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."
- Augustine of Hippo

"Ones destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things."
- Henry Miller

“It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Such are the melancolies du voyage: perhaps they are one of the most rewarding things about traveling.” 
- Gustave Flaubert

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views on men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the earth all one’s lifetime” 
- Mark Twain

“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life” 
- Michael Palin

"Travel makes one modest.  You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world."
- Gustave Flaubert

“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.” 
- Anthony Bourdain

“See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask for no guarantees, ask for no security.” 
- Ray Bradbury

“It’s funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, ‘I want to go home.’ But then you come home, and of course it’s not the same. You can’t live with it, you can’t live away from it. And it seems like from then on there’s always this yearning for some place that doesn’t exist. I felt that. Still do. I’m never completely at home anywhere.” 
- Danzy Senna

Travelogue: Alaska Part Three

Denali.  At first I was planning on only one post for Denali.  Then I realized, Denali is way too incredible to limit to one post.  So there will most likely be three more.

This one is all mountains.  I took a helicopter ride where we landed on a glacier to view the mountains from above.  Best. Purchase.  This was beyond incredible to be flying over this relatively untouched wilderness and seeing the grandeur of the area from the best vantage point.  This post is almost entirely of mountains - you're welcome.

Views from the train ride there.

First full view of Mt. McKinley or Denali.

 This is passing over the canyon on a bridge while riding the train. Straight out of a movie.

 These next ones are all from the helicopter.

 Avalanche

 I know this is a terrible picture (I was sitting on the wrong side of the helicopter), but that's Denali Mountain off in the distance there.  This helps give some perspective to it's IMMENSITY when you realize the peaks right in the front are around 8-9 thousand feet tall.

 Go to Denali.  Don't ever skip it on your Alaska trip.  And take a helicopter ride.  It's worth the hefty price.
-Leah

Travelogue: Alaska Part Two

The beauty never gets old.  I decided to drive across the Kenai Peninsula where I stayed for two nights on a hostel/farm owned by this famous local family, the Kilchers in Homer.  I was able to work on the farm for a free room.  I love being a money savvy traveler so that was right up my alley.

I headed back to Seward after my time in Homer to go ice climbing on Exit Glacier.  I highly highly recommend ice climbing. Strenuous, beautiful, tremendous, challenging, and rewarding.

 View on my four hour drive across the peninsula.

  Back at the Harbor watching a sea lion in the bay before catching my bus to Anchorage.

Next up: Denali.

-Leah

Travelogue: Alaska Part One

Travelogue: Alaska Part One

First things first, I loved Alaska.  Vast, extreme, epic, unforgettable. My advice on traveling to Alaska: GO.

All found on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in Anchorage.

On the train ride from Anchorage to Seward.

At the SeaLife Center

 Seward Small Boat Harbor

 Sea otter

 Rare Harbor Seal - they are usually very shy of boats.

 Sea Lions

 Aialick Glacier

More to come.  Alaska's beauty and wildness is too much to contain in one post, two posts, a whole blog, or the whole internet.  

-Leah