Back to Anchorage & Beyond

On our way up from Homer,  we stopped at the old Russian Orthodox community of Ninilchik. Not much to see except the old church.

We stopped at Clam Gulch to eat & spent the night in Anchorage.

The next day we went to Eklutna.
The guide at this State Historic Park was actually Russian Orthodox.  This area is where the Russian Fur traders & their families first settled.

These are pics of the old church & the newer one.

 The bottom line of paintings are bible stories.  The next line up are the 12 apostles.  They believe in the original church (sound familiar) not as the Catholics & protestants have turned it into.  Their missionaries turned a lot of natives into Orthodox all over Alaska.

These next pics are "spirit houses" which the native Alaskans believed housed the spirit for 1 year. They would put a blanket & food & drink into them.This was a native tradition not Orthodox. Orthodox had the crosses.

A couple of pics of older houses in the area.

Our next stop was Matanuska Glacier.
We took a mile nature walk which went a little closer to the area.

We ended this day in Glenallen.