Saturday July 7 Anchorage and move to Chugach State Park

Got up this morning and drove the Jeep to the Chugach State Park (Eagle River Campground) which was about 20 minutes away. Found a campsite and went back to our Anchorage campground and checked out (got a refund for the second night that we paid for). What a relief! This is a great campground! Got all moved and then went back into Anchorage for an afternoon at their downtown area.

The Anchorage downtown is fairly nice and we could tell that there must be a very short tourist season as it was fairly sparse on the touristy type stuff. Still a nice area. They had a market for local crafts that was interesting. One thing to notice in Anchorage is the ever-present Alaskan Railroad. It seems like all the prime real estate is taken up by this railroad. They actually have a lot of shoreline along the various rivers and bays, but it is all designated as private property by the Alaskan Railway.

Went for a drive in the evening down the Seward Highway, which runs south of Anchorage along the Turnagain Arm, which is a large bay off the ocean. Beautiful drive, but it was low tide. At high tide, you can expect to see beluga whales. Also, it turned very windy in the area this evening and stepping out of the car was a fight against some crazy winds. Anyhow, we expect to drive this same route in a couple of days when we head south to Homer. The other thing to note was that the Alaskan Railroad was always between us and the water. We had nice views but always past railroad tracks designated as private property.

Temps were cooler today being in the mid-60's. Stayed that way thru the night.