Back to Anchorage

If we could have driven directly to Alyeska we would have, but because we were looking at a 4 hour drive just to Anchorage, then 2 hours after that, we decided to spend the night in Anchorage. We stayed at what probably was the most dismal hotel of the entire trip. Although it got good reviews on TripAdvisor, The Aptel Studio Hotel was plain and on the far eastern edge of Anchorage.

The location was fine for us since we were heading south the next day, but the little kitchen had no utensils whatsoever. I'm not sure why it even had a kitchen. It had a fullsize refrigerator, a microwave, two burners and a kitchen sink. Not one pan, microwaveable bowl or piece of silverware. I was disappointed because the reason I booked it was so we could save money on meals. As it was I had no way to cook the Easy Mac, so we opted for Dominos pizza. I know, you're probably dying about that given that we were in the heart of fresh seafood country.

All the restaurants, in fact almost everything in Alaska, is very expensive. Alaskan King Crab was about $70/pound in the restaurants. I paid $16/pound at the grocery store yesterday. Go figure? Anyway, we picked up some milk for breakfast and a piece of chocolate cake at the local grocery store. I decided since the hotel had a laundry room that I would do a load of laundry.  Big mistake. I guess it's been a while since I used a laundry mat. I bought the powered soap from the dispenser and then proceeded to follow the directions on the washing machine. Four dollars later I returned to the machine to find all my clothes covered with soap particles. I'm not sure if I should have liquified the soap first or if the machine just wasn't filling with enough water, but the result was that I had to hand rinse every piece and then hang it in the bathroom before I could dry them.

Several hours later they had dripped enough to go into the dryer, but they still required an hour to dry. $10 later I was thinking that we probably could have skipped this experience. There comes a point where you really can be penny wise but dollar foolish. Lesson learned – never do your own laundry on vacation unless you have no other choice.

Back to the fun part. On the drive back from Denali we stopped at a few sights, one of which was the north view of Mt. McKinley. The road to the viewpoint was closed because of snow, but we decided we could walk down the road leading to the view. The sky was clear and the snow was melting so it wasn't a problem, but once we got to the viewing area we realized Mt. McKinley was covered in clouds. Still, it was a nice little walk in the snow.

We had lunch in a campground along the way that was deserted and then drove through Willow and Wassila. Both pretty small towns with just one main road.

Here's some of the majestic mountain ranges we passed along the way.

Eventually we came to Thunderbird Falls and decided to do this hike. According to the website, "Located inside Chugach State Park north of Eagle River and just south of Eklutna, the trail climbs steeply at first, gaining about 100 feet in elevation. Then the route levels out and becomes an easy walk." 

This was an exhausting hike to me even though it was only a mile each way. However, Brian didn't seem to mind the mostly uphill path (both ways!). The falls were lovely and the day had warmed up nicely so it was a good experience.

Once our clothes were dry we re-packed and went to bed, still fighting the daylight that leaked around the curtains in the hotel. The next day we would drive to Whittier for a 26-glacier tour and then spend the night in Alyeska. If I had it to do over we would have pressed on for Alyeska because that hotel was unbelieveably superb!