Over Cooke Inlet, Anchorage, Alaska

     Overnight the weather turned cloudy and our planned flight to Denali was cancelled.  We were told that it was too cloudy there to see anything.  We were offered an alternate trip to the Alaska Range across the Cooke Inlet where there are some active volcanoes.  We got a discount flight for taking the alternative.
     We shared the small plane with two guys from Las Vegas.  Rick got the co-pilot seat since he was the birthday boy.  We took off from the Seaplane airport on Lake Hood just outside downtown Anchorage.  Our flight first took us out over the Turnagain Arm and we saw several pods of Beluga whales.  They are white and fairly small, but easy to spot from our low altitude of 500'.  We continued flying west across the Alaska tundra and rivers to the Alaska range.  Denali - further north - is the highest mountain in this range.  The range is part of the "Pacific Ring of Fire" which includes many volcanoes and which is responsible for many earthquakes. The range creates a barrier to moist air from the Gulf of Alaska which causes heavy snowfall and the development of many large glaciers.
     We flew up several valleys created by glaciers - up to the ice fields on the top of the mountains at about 5000'.  The sun came out and was shining on the blue ice and the rocky peaks - just beautiful.  We flew back to one of the small, very cloudy blue lakes, Beluga Lake, and landed.  We had a chance to get out, stretch our legs and walk around on the gravelly shore which was covered in blooming fire weed.
   On the way back we saw several moose crossing the tundra and some summer "fish camps" where Alaska  Natives live in the summer as they practice "subsistence living" and maintain their cultural heritage.  We saw demonstrations of the use of the fish wheel and smoking salmon when we took our tour in Fairbanks.


    Rick had a really great time (I did too) and was delighted with his birthday gift.   We missed being at the cabin for the usual 4th of July celebration, but had a good day anyway.  With the long long Alaskan days and the cloudy weather we did not stay up to watch fireworks!