Go South! We Are Heading Home

Since our last post on Valdez, we have visited Seward, including Kenia Fjords National Park, and Homer. Seward was fun and our boat tour of Kenai Fjords was amazing. We have so much to share from our time there that this deserves focused post. We hiked, camped on a river sand bar, saw sea otters, eagles, puffins and orcas and glaciers.

From Seward we headed to Homer where we were prepared for fun by the many great tips and suggestions from friends who had lived there. We initially camped on the Spit, next to the Marina, where we walked the beaches, played in the dunes, paddled every day and cycled to museums and cafes. (This is by far Lori’s happy place on this trip reminding her in many ways of her hometown in Kennebunkport, Maine.) Then our friend Randy rolled out the red carpet for us, taking us on some of the classic hikes in the area. We really enjoyed both Seward and Homer and we want to share those experiences with you soon in a separate note. However, we wanted to get a post up to share that it is finally time for us to Go South. We are heading home.

We left Homer and actually drove north back to Denali National Park. We had so much fun riding our bikes on the park road that we wanted do it three more times before leaving Alaska. It was snowing the day we arrived in the park which created some logistical problems (park road closed, bridges washing out), but the cool weather also brought out the Autumn colors. Perfect!

Now the weather continues to be cool and sometimes rainy. From Denali National Park we will drive the Denali Highway again (too beautiful to pass up!) and then on to Whitehorse and points south. We will add more details soon. We hope! 🙂

Update from Lori: Unintentionally, I took a month off from the blog and just soaked up the beauty all around me. So now, back at it, I am enjoying reliving the memories add want to a few notes. The late August chilly storm as we prepared to hit Denali National Park really set us up for a different experience than our earlier trip. More layers of down and new waterproof wellies for me, we arrived at Tek Campground just as the leaves were starting to turn. It was a quiet symphony of color. All around us, animals scurried to stock pile nutrition. Squirrels were ferreting away large chunks of mushrooms which Maddie marveled at how industrious they were all the while announcing each critters trip to their nest. And, the bears, well, they were mowing their way up hills devouring foliage as they went.