I woke up at 9:30 after my Denali trip.  And I decided to head down to Seward.

Instead of taking the Parks all the way, what I did is do a different route.  There’s something called the Hatcher Bypass.  This is a cutoff taking you from the Parks to a town called Palmer.  If you want to go to Seward like I did, what you do after that is take the Glenn Highway back to Anchorage, and then follow it down to Seward.

There are some gorgeous views along the Hatcher.  And it turns into a dirt road a few miles into the trip.

You get to see the Little Sustina River cut its way down to Palmer.  And it is impressive.  The views are as well.

Along the way is the former mining town of Independence.  There is a state park set up there.  The mine is now a ghost town except for the now decaying and broken down buildings. 

It is hard to believe that the mine used to have hundreds of employees who required two buildings to house them!

A little further, there is also an active gold mine.  It’s a plaything for the owners.  At $1,000 an ounce, it’s a pretty rewarding hobby!

Speaking of rewarding, the Hatcher isn’t the only road with gorgeous views.

So is the Seward highway, from Anchorage to Seward.

You drive right along the inlet to Anchorage, and you get a gorgeous view of the mountains in the distance with the inlet water right there.  There are people paragliding along the way.

Seward itself is a quaint little town.  I didn’t get a chance to do much exploring because I got in too late, but I’m going to spend a day in Seward and it’s vicinity and then head over to Homer.