Monday, June 23 - Beluga Point & Turnagain Arm (Palmer, Alaska)

 

Just south of Anchorage, the Seward Highway hugs the dramatic shorelines of Turnagain Arm, called one of the most beautiful stretches of highway in America. Chugach State Park's 3000-foot on your left. Unfortunately today was cloudy and light showers. These pictures would have been much better if there was SUN.

On the right, the sprawling, shores of Cook Inlet. Each turn reveals another scene.

One of the pullouts is called Beluga Point.

It’s named for the white whales that are often spotted from this location as they make their way up and down the inlet. Belugas are often seen from mid-July through August (so we saw NONE today) when salmon are running where their numbers have hovered between 300 to 375 whales since 2000.

Beluga whales are relatively small, often measuring less than 16 feet. Younger whales look blue-gray in color and then turn white by age five or six. Belugas are the only all-white whale.

We continued to drive the shoreline and turned off to an area that turned out to be really beautiful with nice homes. Surprisingly there was a nice resort that had a tram. We had a coupon in our tour saver book so we took the tram.

As we walked up to the tram entrance we saw a lush rain forest type of greenery.

 

The Alyeska Aerial Tram is a seven minute scenic ride from The Hotel Alyeska to 2,300 feet in elevation and the top of Mt. Alyeska. From the Tram, you can see miles in all directions

including views of the Turnagain Arm, up to seven “hanging” glaciers and endless peaks deep into the Chugach Mountain range.

When we were heading back to town we stopped in Subway to get a sandwich.

And then the highlight of our day, we saw this along the road.

We stopped at the ULU Factory

We then strolled to the waters edge so the guys could see the guys that were fishing.

It stared to rain hard on the way home, but by the time we got to the campground it was sunny.

I had made potato salad, baked beans, and BBQ pulled pork in the crock pot, served with onion rolls and called it dinner.