Travelogue

About 35 miles north of Anchorage, we found a pleasant campground overlooking the Matanuska Valley. The views were lovely, even at 10 o'clock at night, as the sun didn't set until well after midnight. In fact, during out entire trip, I can count the times we saw darkness on one hand.

Boy's running in valleyHerb and I strolled a short distance to a picnic area overlooking the valley and had a glass of wine. As I watched a freight train pass below us through the picturesque valley, I felt quite peaceful and relaxed, despite our long day. I knew I was going to love Alaska.

The next morning before departing for Denali, the boys and I decided to go for a run. Herb, my usual trusty running partner, was still suffering from a pulled hamstring, so I had to go it alone--the boys were just too fast for me. Finding places to run was going to be a challenge for us this trip. Both boys are training for their cross country season and have to get lots of mileage in each day. The problem was that bears are very common in Alaska and they tend to view running mammals as prey. This decision of where and when to run would be the source of some tension during this trip as Andrew wanted to run no matter where he was and Tom, always the more prudent one, often felt it just wasn't worth the risk. Herb and I weren't about to put them in any danger, so we always tried to gain some local knowledge about if and where it would be safe to run. Tom, however, still questioned our parenting and Andrew's sanity.

In any case, the campground manager assured us that this area was not one frequented by bears. The boys and I initially set out together and found ourselves down in that valley that Herb and I had looked down upon the night before. In fact, we could see Herb up above in the picnic area with his tripod and camera pointing down at us. He got some good shots of the boys running together with me huffing and puffing about 100 yards behind.

Before leaving, we took advantage of what the campground manager claimed to be "the cleanest campground showers in Alaska." I think he was right.

Description

64-site Good Sam campground in a beautiful, wooded setting overlooking the scenic Matanuska Valley. Has the "cleanest bathrooms in Alaska," showers, laundry, and jogging trails.