1999 Trip to Alaska -- Day 11

Day 11 in Alaska
(Tim's Last Day)
(Mark's Day 7)

June 6th, 1999
Text added to the images to enhance your viewing pleasure.

      Woke up pretty early today. Tim was already up and getting things ready to leave. The sun was shining brightly through the window. Another beautiful day. My foggy mind made its way to consciousness, just in time to see Sidra come prancing over and making an eye on my pants and bag. I saved them just in time. I grinned and said "Got you, you little sneak". The morning went like that for a while until time for breakfast. Sasha made a wonderful breakfast which we took our time eating. Tim didn't look really happy to have to leave, and packed slowly. Meanwhile Monty and I unloaded the minivan. Tom wanted some chairs to be taken to Wolf Song, so we decided we would do that after dropping Tim off at airport.

      Tim didn't look too happy about leaving. I can't say I would blame him. Back to the real world. Hmm.. What does that mean anyway? What is the real world? Looking at today's society where most people hide behind the tv set, or a computer. Their own little virtual world. Living in big cities, we have tiny parks to make up for the lost wilderness. That's not the real world to me. It's a relatively new world humans have created whereby we no longer have to interact with the real world. To me, being out here is the real world and a lot nicer than the one Tim has to go back to, and for many others too. The modern world turned its back on what the "real" world had to offer. Uhoh, this is starting to sound like the plot to Matrix.

      After dropping Tim and the chairs off, we headed out towards Palmer. I was driving since Monty was feeling the effects of some cold medicine. Just the other side of Palmer, we turned off onto a smaller back road. Following a windy road up into the mountains, we eventually arrived at the 3198ft park. Some of the views on the way up were quite impressive mountains all around and an overlook of the flat valley of the Palmer area. The road itself was mostly dirt, and on the final stretch uphill it became really rough with some huge potholes. On and on the road went, snaking its way up the mountain. Finally we saw a swiss chalet looking building, which turned out to be Hatchers Pass.lodge. Just up from that there is a parking lot and then about a 3/4 mile walk up a slope to the mine itself. With the temperature in the 70's, the walk became quite a task. Admittedly I am out of shape, so that does not help.

Just to give this section a different look, I thought it would be fun to sepia tone these images to give them that 'old time' look ;-)
-- Monty

The Independence Mine - the newer buildings

...and the older buildings, not in good shape here at all.

The mine has been there during the early part of this century. Some of newer buildings were built in the 40's. Many of the other buildings were in bad shape. There seemed to be buildings scattered all around the area, nestled away in this high up valley surrounded by the towering mountains. The abandoned rail car system, for moving the rocks looked just like a set from an Indiana Jones movie, or some western. It was neat to see it all. Monty and walked all over the site, trudging through deep snow at times, sliding down slopes at others and all the while, shooting film like crazy. Our new polarizer filters were paying off. The rich colors of the sky and mountains looked so good. It seems that the vegetation has greened over the past few days. The mountains were starting to gain an emerald green velvety looking cover, with lichens and young trees slowly growing up the slopes. Amazing how, in a few days, the seasons can change. In Denali it was snowing a few days ago, and the temperature was in the 5o's. Today, the weather is great and in the 7o's. As we climbed to some of the higher points, we couldn't resist the view behind of the valley. Spectacular. I just hope we can catch some of the sights we saw effectively on film.

After a good hike around the trail, I was beginning to get tired and thirsty. We made our way back to the car, and then to the Hatchers Pass lodge. A neat looking building, it was a tall triangular shape. Inside there was a small restaurant and bar, overlooking the valley we had driven through. We sat by the window and ordered some sandwiches, followed by a Wild Berry pie. The food was great, and the pie. The pie was delicious. Still not sure what the berries were, but they were yummy.

Inside the lodge Outside the lodge

The view from the lodge's dining area       The lodge looks as if it is used as a skiing area during the winter. There are small little cabins for rent too, and a couple of snow machines that belong to the park rangers for patrolling the area.

      Heading back down the mountain, we stopped off at a lower parking area to take some pictures of the river. The water looked cold, as it carried the leftovers of the melting snow from the high peaks. We headed off the main trail and made our way down to the river.

The river valley

Jumping across a couple of rocks we positioned ourselves to get a few pictures up the river valley, with some nice snow capped mountains in the distance. It was very peaceful. The warm sun, cool breeze and sound of the river. I could have stayed, maybe taken a nap. And to think, I used to hate taking naps as a young child. If only I had known how great they are back then. We didn't stay long, and ended up heading back about 6 P.M..

      Once back on the highway Monty pointed out some couches by the side of the road. Monty said that native americans used them to sit on and watch the traffic. He also wondered what they would smell like after being rained on. Mine would probably smell like a wet dog, after all the hair on it. Not sure what we are going to do tonight, though Tom mentioned something about watching a movie. Monty and Tim rebuked me for not having seen Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles. That may be so, but Tim doesn't know much Monty Python either. Speaking of weird, we are listening to one of Monty's tapes as we drive. It consists of dogs barking, cats meowing, pigs grunting, people crying, waves lapping, and much much more. Bizarre.

      Arriving back we found Tom and Sasha enjoying the nice evening. They sat outside in garden chairs. Monty and I unloaded then sat outside for a while and chatted and told of our adventures. We finished up the day with a movie, What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams.