Mountain tops and hippies

July 3, 2016 Sunday  Start: Anchorage, AK to Girdwood and back to Anchorage

Today we took off in cloudy weather to Girdwood, AK, a little tourist town off of the Seward Highway.  They were having a Forest Festival and I should have figured out from the "flower power" and "all you need is love" signs on the roadside on the way in that we were entering a hippie town.

We bypassed the festival at first to head for the Ayleksa Ski Resort where there was a tram to the top of the mountains.  We took the 10:45 a.m. that included lunch at the deli at the top and spent a couple of hours enjoying the view.

After getting back down the mountain Mike dropped me off at the festival and he went on to check out a nearby gold mining place.  The festival was sort of like being dropped in the middle of Woodstock!  There was loud music, lots of tie-die, henna tatoos, pierced body parts and flower garlands.  The arts and craft selection was local fair that imagine keeps people occupied with creating and making during the long winters.  The gold mining was pricey so we headed back toward Anchorage and stopped at the Indian Mine.  The proprietor was friendly and shared the history of the mine and its owner and gave us a short tour.  Mike panned a bucket of dirt and got some gold bits and I took some pictures of the site.  

Indian Mine entrance

miner wood carving

Alaskan chickens!

small animal traps

We did some grocery shopping for the next week and looked at campgrounds to stay at on the way down to Valdez.  We haven't found any announcement of fireworks for the 4th, what with it not getting dark at night, so we'll have to see what happens.  Happy Fourth of July to everyone!