Pictures by Kirk Fratzke (August 2008) 

Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska
Denali National Park & Preserve, Alaska
Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve, Alaska
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Bird Point Turnagain Arm	Bird Point Turnagain Arm	Sea Life Center Seward, AK	Iditarod Trail Seward, AK
Resurrection Bay Seward, AK	Resurrection Bay Seward, AK	Sea Otter Kenai Fjords NP	Bear Glacier Kenai Fjords NP
Resurrection Bay Kenai Fjords NP	Sea Lions Kenai Fjords NP	Aialik Cape Kenai Fjords NP	Sea Lions Kenai Fjords NP
Puffin Kenai Fjords NP	Sea Lions Kenai Fjords NP	Snow Melt Kenai Fjords NP	Holgate Glacier Kenai Fjords NP
Holgate Glacier Kenai Fjords NP	Holgate Glacier Kenai Fjords NP	Holgate Glacier Kenai Fjords NP	Holgate Glacier Kenai Fjords NP
44 °F in July Kenai Fjords NP	Holgate Glacier Kenai Fjords NP	Chiswell Islands Kenai Fjords NP	Chiswell Islands Kenai Fjords NP
Exit Glacier Kenai Fjords NP	Exit Glacier Kenai Fjords NP	Exit Glacier Kenai Fjords NP	Outwash Plain Exit Glacier
Bird Point Turnagain Arm	Bird Point Turnagain Arm	Broad Pass Parks Highway	Savage River Trail Denali NP
Savage River Trail Denali NP	Savage River Denali NP	Sled Dog Kennel Denali NP	Sled Dog Kennel Denali NP
Horseshoe Lake Denali NP	Moose Denali NP	Hines Creek Denali NP	Mount McKinley Denali NP
Park Road Denali NP	Teklanika River Denali NP	Sable Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP
Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP
Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Toklat Denali NP
Highway Pass Denali NP	Highway Pass Denali NP	Highway Pass Denali NP	Stoney Hill Denali NP
Stoney Hill Denali NP	Thorofare Pass Denali NP	Glacier Creek Denali NP	Mount McKinley Denali NP
Mount McKinley Denali NP	Mount McKinley Denali NP	Hawk's Nest Cabin Denali NP	Hawk's Next Cabin Denali NP
Wonder Lake Denali NP	Wonder Lake Denali NP	Hawk's Next Cabin Denali NP	Alaska Range Denali NP
Alaska Range Denali NP	Alaska Range Denali NP	Mount McKinley Denali NP	Alaska Range Denali NP
CaribouvDenali NP	Caribou Denali NP	Caribou Denali NP	Ranger Station Denali NP
Wonder Lake Denali NP	Wonder Lake Denali NP	Hawk's Nest Cabin Denali NP	Wild Flower Denali NP
Alaska Range Denali NP	Alaska Range Denali NP	Alaska Range Denali NP	Hawk's Nest Cabin Denali NP
Wonder Lake Denali NP	Wonder Lake Denali NP	Ranger Station Denali NP	Wonder Lake Denali NP
Alaska Range Denali NP	Wonder Lake Denali NP	Wonder Lake Denali NP	Wonder Lake Denali NP
Park Road Denali NP	Eielson Visitors Center Denali NP	Eielson Visitors Center Denali NP	Bear Denali NP
Highway Pass Denali NP	Bear Denali NP	Bear & Cub Denali NP	Mountain Goats Denali NP
Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP	Polychrome Pass Denali NP
Sable Pass Denali NP	Sable Pass Denali NP	Alpine Tundra Denali NP	Alpine Tundra Denali NP
Chugach Mountains Glenn Highway	McCarthy Road Wrangell St Elias NP	McCarthy Road Wrangell St Elias NP	Gilahina Trestle McCarthy Road
Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP
Root Glacier Trail Wrangell St Elias NP	Root Glacier Trail Wrangell St Elias NP	Root Glacier Trail Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP
Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP
Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennicott Glacier Moraine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennicott Glacier Wrangell St Elias NP
Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP
Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	McCarthy/Kennicott Wrangell St Elias NP
Chugach Mountains Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP
Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Kennecott Mine Wrangell St Elias NP	Chitina River McCarthy Road
Copper River Wrangell St Elias NP	Chugach Mountains Glenn Highway	Chugach Mountains Glenn Highway	Matanuska Glacier Glenn Highway
Matanuska Glacier Glenn Highway	Matanuska River Glenn Highway

Helpful Links
Kenai Peninsula
Seward, Alaska
Sea Life Center
Kenai Fjords National Park - NPS
Denali, Alaska
Denali Park Resorts
Denali National Park & Preserve - NPS
Camp Denali
Copper Center, Alaska
Prciness Lodges
Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve - NPS
Kennicott Glacier Lodge

• Left work early and drove to Madison, WI to meet Amy
• Arrived in time to resign paperwork and make first payment on my new car that was due while I would be gone
• Had a quiet diner with Amy at Bostons

• Up early to get to the airport
• Flight to ANC via MSP
• Got upgraded to first-class on the ANC leg
• Arrived in ANC on time
• Got rental car (actually a four wheel drive pickup truck)
• Found HGI hotel and got checked in (only smoking room we would have in Alaska)
• Went to Walmart for some supplies
• Dinner at TGI Fridays
• Were in bed by 9 pm

• First real day of vacation
• Had breakfast at the hotel
• Found our way out of town and headed south towards Seward
• Made a few stops along the Turnagain arm/inlet to take photos, weather was cloudy
• Found out people tend to drive slower in Alaska
• Arrived in Seward in late morning and visited Sea Life Center
• Nice place, but not as extravagant as expected so were done in an hour
• Had some time to kill because we couldn't check hotel until 4 so walked around a bit
• Had lunch at a local place
• Since weather was colder than expected bought a windbreaker jacket
• Went down to the area around the small boat harbor to check things out
• Visited grocery story to pick up some things
• Got checked into hotel and took a short nap
• Weather was starting to clear so took a short walk along the bay past the campgrounds
• Had a lovely diner at the Crab Pot
• With weather clearing got some sunset pictures of the mountains

• Got a chance to sleep in (its vacation after all)
• Headed down to the small boat harbor for our cruise through Kenai Fjords NP
• Surprise, Major Marine still allowed smoking in a small corner of their boat
• Ran into same couple we meet previous day at Bird Point while driving down to Seward
• Cruise started off cold with wind chill of 44 F
• Got some good photos along the way of some seals on rocks
• Just as meal was being served a whale was spotted and all the people trying to see it made the boat tip and we had to hang onto our drinks to keep them from spilling
• After good dinner arrived at glacier in Holgate arm
• Cloudy weather made the blue of the glacier ice better
• Spent about an hour in front of the glacier got to catch a few pieces splashing into the water
• After glacier checked out some island with lots of birds and then headed back to Seward
• Hung out on the back of the boat for the hour trip back and enjoyed the sights
• No dinner since food during cruise was enough, although Amy went to Subway and I got a hot fudge sundae
• Watched a little TV, smoked outside, and got to bed early

• Visited Exit Glacier area of NP
• Got to walk right up to edge of glacier
• Good weather so actually got pictures with blue sky in them
• Had lunch at Subway before leaving Seward
• Headed back to ANC
• Took a few pictures along the way
• Waited for tide to come in at Bird Point but never saw it
• Arrived early and checked into hotel
• Went to movie Step Brothers
• Had dinner at Lone Star

• Headed north for a few days in Denali
• Stopped in Wasilla for lunch at Arby's
• Drove a little faster this time, people space out pretty good on the highways due to windshield damage from rocks
• Got in a few RV jams
• Stopped at the viewpoints in Denali State Park, too cloudy to see anything
• Started to rain
• Arrived at Denali and found McKinley Chalet hotel
• Got checked into our 1970's vintage room
• Visited park to get oriented and stopped by visitors center
• Back to the hotel for dinner, didn't have reservations so waited in the bar and then got ignored by the hostess for a half hour
• Had a great dinner, food was excellent

• Rain, rain, rain
• Smoked in the truck after we got up
• Headed over to NP to get road permit, had to come back later
• Drove park road to Sanctuary area and took short hike along Savage River trail, no people around due to rain
• Back to front for lunch, had to eat outside in the cold
• Got on bus to go to dog kennels for sledding demo, got to visit with dogs a little
• Finally got road permit for next day
• Went on wet hike to Horseshoe Lake, didn't know had separate trail head so left from visitor center
• Needed supplies for our weekend at the cabin so tried camp store which was expensive so drove up to Healy to pick up some food and gas
• Back to hotel for dinner, this time tried the buffet in the Café
• Watched a little TV and went to bed

• Happy 5-year anniversary Amy (too bad it didn't work out as planned)
• Checked out of hotel
• And started our adventure along the park road
• Weather was better and cleared as the day went on
• Got checked through the Savage River checkpoint and started my picture taking adventure
• The gravel road was a little bumpy (but nothing like what the future had in store for us later in the vacation)
• Took a couple of hundred pictures even some great shots of Mt McKinley
• Arrived at Camp Denali right on schedule after 4.5 hours and 90 miles of gravel
• They took us over to the cabin and got us oriented
• Enjoyed a few cigarettes on the cabin porch and climbed up small ridge right next to cabin to check out the panoramic view
• Back to Camp Denali for dinner
• With first awesome weather on our trip picture taking opportunities of the Alaska Range and Mt McKinley were perfect at sunset
• Bathed in mosquito spray and walked the mile to the north end of Wonder Lake
• Back at the cabin enjoy some time on the porch watching the glow of sunset
• At 10:30 pm headed back to wonder lake to get more photos
• Were up late as it never really gets dark, just apenglow

• Cloudy weather returned
• After showering at the camp decided to take an afternoon hike to McKinley River bar
• After 4 miles on the park road got to the Wonder Lake campground split and it started to rain
• Turned around just short of the bar trailhead
• Had our blinders on as we walked back (jacket hoods up) and nearly walked up on a caribou grazing on the side of the road — one highlight of our 8 mile journey
• Took a nap
• Had our wonderful soup for dinner
• Cold out so built a fire that quickly heated up the cabin to the point we had to open the windows
• Enjoyed quite a few cigarettes out on the porch
• Got to bed pretty late

• Cloudy again, but no rain
• Showed at the camp and hung around the cabin until lunch
• After sandwiches headed back to Wonder Lake to do some hiking as it wasn't raining
• Found an established trail that went up on a ridge and provided some good views
• Weather started getting better as the day went on
• Back at the cabin took another nap then had soup again for dinner
• Clouds began to clear on the Alaska Range as the day progressed so in the evening we repeated our afternoon hike to Wonder Lake and up the ridge so I cold get some photos

• Cloudy again (starting to sense a pattern?)
• Cleaned up the cabin and headed to camp to shower and check out
• Back on the park road for our trip out
• Little light rain as we stopped at the new Eielson visitor center
• Rain stopped but still low clouds as we made our way through polychrome pass and stopped at Tolk for lunch
• Saw some wildlife, momma and baby bear a ways off the road, discovered we stunk at locating wildlife and had to depend of stopped buses to clue us in
• Got Amy some stuff for her itching and an orange soda at the expensive store
• Checked back into Chalet again, got a better room this time
• Had an early dinner at the restaurant
• Watched some TV before going to bed

• More rain
• Decided to alter our travel plans and skip the 130-mile long gravel Denali Highway and instead take the paved roads to the other side of the state
• Stopped in Wasilla for lunch at Wendy's
• Rain stopped in the afternoon
• After road construction got some photos of Matanuska glacier along the Glenn highway
• Stopped and got some gas
• Stopped at the Wrangell-St Elias NP visitors center
• Arrived in Copper Center and checked into the Princess Wilderness Lodge, which was a nice change from the Chalet and cabin experience
• Walked around the grounds which would have had nice views if it hadn't been cloudy
• Had dinner in the restaurant, Amy's meal was less than perfect

• Drove to Chitina and started our adventure on the McCarthy Road
• Still cloudy and some occasional light rain so no great scenery
• McCarthy road is known to be a bumpy ride — the first 10 miles were similar to the Denali Park Road, a pothole dodging adventure
• The middle 20 miles were almost normal for a gravel road
• But once past Long Lake the road was almost impassible, a month of rain had wreaked havoc on it and progress was slow even in a 4-wheel drive pickup truck
• By the time we reached McCarthy we were exhausted
• Parked and caught the hotel van to Kennicott and got checked in
• Took a quick walk through the mill ghost town before dinner
• Enjoyed conversation with a nice greenie couple during the family style dinner

• Not just clouds, but now fog — couldn't see anything beyond 100 feet
• Had breakfast and then walked through the mill ghost town before catching a short park service film on the history of the Kennecott mine
• With nothing else to do decided to hike the Root Glacier trail
• When we got to the glacier couldn't see anything due to fog
• Hung out a smoked a cigarette
• As we started back it started to clear a little
• By the time we reached Kennecott the fog had lifted but there were still clouds obscuring any mountains
• In the afternoon took a guided tour of the Kennecott mill building
• Family style dinner this time was with a nice couple from Washington DC
• Got a brief view of some distant mountains after dinner and walked the ghost town again so I could get some photos

• Guess what still cloudy and morning fog again
• So a total of 4 days in the Wrangell Mountains area a never got to see them
• After breakfast started the long drive back to ANC
• The McCarthy road on the way out was the same bumpy car destroying adventure it was on the way in only in reverse
• Glad we rented a pickup truck, had to feel sorry for people trying to drive normal cars on the road
• Got gas at The Hub in Glenallen
• Stopped at the same roadhouse we got gas at on the way over and had lunch
• Intermittent rain meant no great scenery during the drive but still captured a few scenes on the camera
• Got to ANC just before 6 pm and checked into HGI for our final night in Alaska
• Cleaned out truck and got it washed to eliminate any evidence of our rule breaking use of it on the gravel roads
• Had dinner at the Lone Star again
• Relaxed in the hotel room

• Headed to the airport for the trip home, yep still cloudy with light rain
• Amy got upgraded to first class, lady next to me back in the cattle section let me watch movies with her on her portable DVD player
• Changed planes in MSP and arrived in MSN near midnight
• Drove back to Amy's to meet Gizmo who was waiting for us (Amy had a coworker take her over to her house while we were gone so she would have some people during our two week absence)

• Relaxed a little at Amy's before making the drive back to Winona
• The reality of returning to work awaited the next day

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