On our fourth full day in Alaska we sadly had to leave Denali National Park.  Looking back on our entire trip, this would likely be my favorite destination that we visited.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to leave the park without seeing Mt. McKinley in its full glory.  As we were driving out of the park, we were treated with great views of the mountain.  The skies continued to stay clear for our entire drive and we were able to see the mountain from a variety of viewpoints. We also spotted a coyote, which we first thought was a lone wolf. After looking at the photos closer, I can tell it is indeed a rare coyote inside of Denali.

After leaving the park, we drove south back towards Anchorage. Along the way there were many great views of McKinley that we took advantage of. Somehow we still made it back to Anchorage earlier than I had originally thought. My tentative itinerary had us stopping for the night in Anchorage, but we soon decided to continue driving all the way down to the small coastal town of Seward. Before leaving Anchorage we did stop for lunch at Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse. Kim got her first fish fix of the trip, which she thoroughly enjoyed. My chicken sandwich was not so good, though the beers more than made up for it.

The drive down to Seward is incredible. It starts of by following the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. There are large mountains on the left side of the road and the sea is directly to the right. There are a number of pullouts along the highway where you can stop to see beluga whales, and possibly other wildlife. On our first stop we immediately spotted some belugas, and we continued to see them the entire length of the drive along the water.

We eventually made it down to Seward around sunset and found our way to the city campground which is right on the water and near the harbor where we would be heading the following morning. It was a long day of driving, but we had lots of great scenery along the drive and great weather throughout. I was also happy to have another day to add to the itinerary for the Kenai Peninsula.

Anchorage on Dwellable