Anchorage

We stopped in Eagle River on the way from Palmer to Anchorage.  Bypassing the actual town, we went 12 miles up the canyon to the Eagle River Nature Preserve.  Sometimes it is a little challenging to get a 40′ coach, towing a truck into a parking lot designed for automobiles but we managed to squeeze in, with Cathy outside giving the appropriate (sometimes inappropriate) hand signals to guide me . . .

The park ranges warned us that the “berries are ripe”, code that the bears are out.  To add to the drama, the Eagle River runs through the middle of the valley and the salmon are running.  Bears like salmon with their berries!  All of the raised wooden walkways were closed as the grizzly are currently occupying them for their salmon poaching.  We stayed on the trails and made a couple of the loops in the park.  Annie, Barbara’s dog alerted to something in the berry bushes but we could not find anything moving.  We walked on . . .

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We saw several of these cool mushrooms, looking almost like trail markers.

Cathy found a place to keep out of the rain, but it wasn’t raining.  Looks like someone else had been there before us.

After hiking for a mile or so, when we turned the corner to get to the river to see the salmon, this is what greeted us.  We had a caucus and decided to heed the warning as only Myrna brought her bear spray.

When we got back to the coach, we were met with this unhappy animal . . . I believe she is getting tired of us leaving her, but she did manage to find the one spot of sunshine on the dash to sleep . . .

We spent the afternoon and evening in downtown Anchorage, doing the tourist things.  We went to the main terminal of the Alaska Railroad, went to Ship Creek, the downtown salmon fishing creek (yes, there were people fishing, but as the salmon run had not fully begun,  we did not see the famous “combat” fishing). We went to dinner at a great restaurant/brewery downtown and picked up some desserts at a French bakery around the corner from the restaurant.  We were too full to eat the deserts last night, maybe we will splurge and have them this morning.

Today we are heading back to Palmer (about 30 miles) to attend the opening day of the Alaska State Fair.