Alaska: Part 2

Our last day in Alaska, we decided to drive into Girdwood and go to Alyeska Resort to catch a cable car to the top of a mountain...this picture was taken on the way along the Seward Highway, a nice lady saw us struggling to take a picture of ourselves so she offered to take a picture of us. We obviously obliged. We asked if she wanted us to take a picture of her and her husband, and she responded with ''Nah, we've been married long enough'' Her husband was sitting in the car enjoying the view alone.

This is the 'Exit Glacier' in Seward, Alaska. It is between 2 mountain peaks, and there is a trail that will let you hike within about 15-20 feet from it, its enormity was amazing. It was like standing beside an air conditioning vent and was VERY cold. There are pictures further down in this blog that shows you where the glacier formerly stood. Global warming has contributed to it's recession...sad.
See the small stream in the middle of the glacial silt (looks like gravel)? That is where the glacier above once stood. (Sometime around 1926-about a half mile out from where the glacier stands today, it carved out the spot that I took a picture of. Amazing.
Who could resist a sunset picture at 2am?
Uriah trying to hike up to the top of that mountain, in the melting snow, on a steep incline (doesn't appear to be as steep as it really was) in tennis shoes...I said it's too dangerous, he says, it's fun. That's as far as he made it. HA! I was right.
Along the Seward Highway, breathtaking view I had to get a pic of. I can just picture my log cabin snuggled up to those trees by the bank...

And this begins the dog sled portion of our trip. We were stopped here in Glacier Canyon to get a picture of the dogs pulling our 'sleds' more like carts instead.


(this is a bit jumbled, but you can see the exit glacier in the top right portion of this picture and from where I was standing was where the glacier before it receeded once stood)

along seward highway
the dogs kennels, there were about 100 dogs in this grove of trees...each with their own 50 gallon drums to take shelter in, tie out and water bucket.
Their newest litter of husky puppies. We named him Waffle. It just seemed appropriate at the time, don't ask why.

The canyon where we had our dog sled tour, the creek was glacier water fed (melting off the glacier)

So we're waiting to be escorted to the area where the dogs are kept, and we were told that they were 100 yards away, but couldn't see them due to the trees/brush, but supposedly someone that they associate FUN with walked through and, well, you can figure out the rest by pushing play. They were very excited!

The videos are a little annoying after awhile due to the dogs constantly barking, but they quieted down a LOT once they were doing their job that they were so eager and happy to do. It was so fun. You can see the last 2 dogs in the harness (the one closest to the cart) had all of the work since they basically had to be the ones to turn the cart and not let it go straight...they would counteract and would pull the opposite way that we were going. Our cart by the way weighed 300 pounds, and had 6 people in it. There were only 16 dogs weighing no more than 60 pounds. But they were all muscle. That just gives you an idea of how strong they were. They were all so sweet and each one got individual attention every day. In one of the videos I was supposed to be taking a picture of Uriah, but it was set on video, so sorry about the distraction, but I got a nice view of the dogs taking off in the cart, I can't imagine how fast they would be in a light weight sled meant for racing! I am sure they FLY. The groups of dogs that took us on our ride were the ones that competed in the actual Iditarod. Cool Huh?

Here's the last video I have, it's of The moose and the baby, it's atleast better than a simple photo, atleast you can see them move, although, nothing TOO exciting.

Anyway, so i'm officially done posting about Alaska, there are TONS of more pictures, so maybe if you guys want to see them, I can show them to you when I come home. I'll bring 'em all! Love you guys and miss you tons.

Lindsay