Looking for Gold…White Gold

we were up and about at 6-30 a.m. ready to pack up, and move on again – the sky was clear and blue, with great early morning sunshine.. as we packed and were having Breakfast Ryan returned from the river, telling us to ‘go and have a look’..so we did, to be greeted by Mt McKinley/Denali http://www.summitpost.org/mount-mckinley-denali/150199 crystal clear,

in all it’s beauty in the distance as we looked over the River.. it looked great from my new binoculars, and worth the money !

Eventually though, we had to leave, with these great memories, and set off on our travels again, firstly stopping for another view up the road , then a  coffee and a blueberry bagel with cream cheese (next to the ‘Post Office’)  making for a bumpy dirt road over Hatcher Pass   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatcher_Pass where as we almost reached the summit we stopped to climb up onto a ridge overlooking the pass, and looking down at various abandoned gold mines in the area, to the left and right . a shower on the top had me running back down to the van, parked at the front of the one working gold mine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_mining_in_Alaska 

we carried on, up and over the top, after a brief lunch stop at the top of the pass overlooking a lake, and then continued to the Musk Ox farm http://www.muskoxfarm.org/ where the others went in, whilst I, preferring the mountain views ,walked to a nearby viewpoint overlooking the River delta,and mountains in the distance – although I did see the musk ox in the distance (and for free!)  - returning to the others we continued, for brief views over the Matanuska glacier http://matanuska-glacier.com/  before continuing to Sheep mountain lodge http://sheepmountain.com/Home.php our campsite for the night, with lovely hot showers (that cost $5 !) ,great views of the mountains around and a nice hot meal of chicken and asparagus, and…early bed, Goodnight