Sharp's Travels

It is a cloudy day, only about 54 degrees. We left the park at 10:30am and headed south on the Seward Highway. We drove along Cook Inlet and hoped we’d spot a Beluga Whale at Beluga Point. No luck there, but we looked up on the cliffs on the other side of the road and spotted 2 Dall sheep high up on the peaks.

We all packed a lunch and we pulled into a shopping complex that had a bakery in it so we all topped our sandwich off with a pastry or cookie from the bakery before heading out.

At Indian, Alaska we stopped at Indian Valley Meats. They are a custom processor of fish and exotic meats, including reindeer, venison, buffalo and all of Alaska’s wild game animals. They had samples out for us to try. Everyone bought something to take home.

We continued down Turnagain Arm, which is the narrow area of Cook Inlet on the north coast of Kenai Peninsula, to Portage. At one time many buildings existed here, but in 1964 the earthquake caused the land to drop between 6 to 12 feet along Turnagain Arm. The Portage area flooded forcing people to move. Remnants of buildings and trees destroyed by saltwater are all that remain of the original site.

We drove past Byron Glacier and by the Portage Glacier. The Portage Glacier is Alaska’s most visited natural attraction. The blue-green hues in the icebergs were beautiful. We stopped at the Begich Boggs Visitors Center and watched the film “Voices from the Ice”. It gives you a spatula view of many glaciers. Gay got pictures of small pieces of the iceberg floating down the inlet. Griffin even fished a piece of the glacier ice out of the water.

At Portage we also visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. They take in injured and orphaned animals year-round and provide spacious enclosures. Animals that cannot be released into the wild have a permanent home there. The shots of all the wild life today are all in this enclosure. We saw brown bear, black bear, bison, caribou, moose elk and an eagle.

We have also included pictures from Spike’s birthday party last night. Enjoy!

For pictures of the day see album: Anchorage 7-21-08