Across Alaska Part III- Exploring the Seward Peninsula

As hard as it was to leave our personal beach at the Moon Mountains, the stunning and ever changing coastline was a great distraction. It wasn’t long before we were swept into the excitement of a fresh day of exploring.

The first town we flew over was Teller, with its beautiful spit running out into the water and all but touching the spit reaching across from the other side. Last summer Teller had been the destination of a day trip for two friends & I that had traveled to Nome to see my sister. We had begrudgingly left beautiful weather in Anchorage and had been greeted by fog and wind in Nome. On our 70 mile drive to Teller we hardly saw any landscape because of the fog, but as we rounded the corner to Teller blue sky and sun broke through. It was a magical day of skinny dipping and picnicking on the spit before driving back to Nome.

Now that I have been to Teller twice and had sunny weather on both occasions, I’m beginning to believe it’s always like this here.

This time, we didn’t stop to swim. We were heading for another X on the map.

Next, we flew over Brevig Mission just across from Teller

Again the shoreline changed and became dotted with sand bars and shallow water.

As we flew along the coast we spotted a heard a Musk-Ox and decided to land and see if they had left any Musk-Ox hair known as Qivuit for us to collect off the bushes and tundra.

As we picked we watched them watch us.

We quickly found trails of Qivuit in the brush.

And even stumbled upon these carpets of Qivuit every now and then. Jack Pot!

Woodsen found a birds nest made of twigs and soft Qivuit. Lucky birds

After getting our fill of picking, we left the muskox behind and headed up the coast. It wasn’t long before we noticed the coast had a purple hue to it. We were curious so we landed.

Tiny flowers blanketed the rocky ground.

Next up were some old mining sites Will had pointed out to us on a map.

We circled a few times and ended up landing next to this old relic.

Initially, we thought it might be an old Alaska Airlines plane, back when their colors were red and black. When we got back we talked to Will and decided it probably wasn’t an Alaska Air plane, but we still had fun checking it out.

Off again up the coast!

I’m not certain, but it looks like a coral reef to me!

 

Next, we hit Tin city, an old mining site that now is the home of a Long Range Radar Station (LARS station).

Finally arriving at Whales this was the furthest North we planned on going. Next, we would turn East and head to Serpentine Hot Springs for the night.

The Runway at Whales.

The weather cooperated and we were able to easily see Russia off the coast from Whales. Both Little Diomede and Big Diomede were visible.

Heading East.

The land of Serpentine Hot Springs! Jagged rocks jutting up from the ground made for a stark contrast next to the flat rolling planes we had been flying over.

There it was amidst the rocks, we landed and ended our journey for the day.