Gold Rush - Day 12 @ Alaska

Our last day of tour.  It has been an incredible two weeks filled with amazing sights and experiences.  And like all good things, this also comes to an end.

But we still had the final day left.  And set off to cover the one thing that we hadn't looked at during the last two weeks - the Alaskan Gold Rush.

Independence Mine lies off Palmer - around 80 miles away from Anchorage and in the beautiful Hatcher Pass.  The greenery and the view from the top of the hills alone is enough to take that 16 mile ride on Fishhook road.

Hatcher Pass

We went for the 1 hour ranger tour at independence mile.  Ms Joyce Hyatt was the volunteer officer who took us to the tour.  Had an hour of extra-ordinary experience living through the eyes of miners who braved weather and land slides to make their fortune.  The dilapidated mine buildings, the far-sighted ideas of Mr. Stole resulting in a great workplace for the miners and the tale of Dorothy Finch!

Independence Mine

We caught the evening flight back to Dallas.  Two weeks flew by before we realized.  We plan to be back - maybe for a winter visit next time?

Lakes and rivers - Day 11 @ Alaska

Spent another hour at the pool this morning.  And then started on our drive to GlenAllen with a detour to Tok.

We traced our way back to Delta Junction from Chena Hot Springs.  This is where the 1422 mile Alaska Highway ends.  We then took our detour to Tok - the gateway to the Top of the World highway and the nearest we will come to Canadian border this trip.  Canada is around 100 miles away from Tok.

At Lake Louise

We then drove back towards Glenn Highway and drove back to GlennAllen.  We had a room waiting at Lake Louise Lodge.  Lake Louise is around 16 miles off Glenn Highway on the way towards Palmer.  We had a view of the lake from the room and spent a quiet evening at the pier enjoying the sunset.

We wrap up our tour tomorrow.  Off to Anchorage in the morning.

Sunset or sunrise?

Hot Springs! - Day 10 @ Alaska

Woke up late in the day after our long day to Arctic. Turns out most of the restaurants were closed as it was independence day.  But found a small Thai restaurant - Siam Thai - nearby that had surprisingly great and fresh food.  Fairbanks most likely has the most number of Thai restaurants in a city outside of Thailand - found at least 5 of them in the two streets that we walked through.

At the ice museum

And then had a great evening at the pool and hot springs.  We drove down an hour to Chena Hot Springs resort.  A rustic setting but gave a nice break post the hectic couple of days of travel.  We spent an hour at the nearby Aurora ice museum  that had fantastic ice sculptures.  And then had a great evening at the pool and hot springs.

Santa and Arctic Circle - Day 9 @ Alaska

We woke up to an overcast sky and intermittent drizzles.  Guess the weather had to catch up on our plan some day. 

Drove two hours up Park Highway on our way to Fairbanks.  Couldnt see anything much outside due to heavy fog that settled in soon.  We reached Fairbanks in a couple of hours and drove on to the nearby city of North Pole.  My son was thrilled about our trip to Santa House. He got more excited at the sight of the large Santa cut-out outside the building and the  enclosure with four reindeers!  We went inside to see a shopping area filled with Christmas goodies and souvenirs.  And Santa himself was patient enough to answer all my son's questions and requests for the next few minutes.  We also sent out few post cards - they will have the North Pole postage seal of course! Well worth the hour we spent there - my son was never so happy last few days.

House of Santa , North Pole, Alaska

The rain still didnt let up and we were worried about our next trip getting cancelled.  We were scheduled to go on an Arctic fly/drive adventure.  Luckily enough, the flight took off as scheduled even though the overcast clouds meant that we couldn't see much outside during the initial 30 minutes.  We flew from Fairbanks to Coldfoot  - a distance of close to 500 miles.  It was an incredible sight to watch Yukon river tracing its path from Canada, Brooks ranges outlining the horizon and the Dalton Highway lying alongside the shiny trans-alaskan pipeline. 

From Fairbanks to Coldfoot and back

We started our drive back from Coldfoot - named after prospectors who got cold feet after reaching this far - around 3 PM.  It will be an almost 12 hour drive back through the Dalton Highway and worth every minute of it.  We crossed Arctic Circle -  rather hopped, jumped or danced our way across in a nice "ceremony" - after an hour's drive. Arctic Circle is the southernmost point where one can see the sun at midnight during the summer solstice.  It felt a privelege to be one among the few to cross this imaginary line. 

Arctic Circle - with our guide Chris

We stopped shortly to take a walk across the Tundra. Chris - our guide - cut a portion of the soil out and showed the permafrost lying underneath. It is incredible that the whole expanse was built on a permanent layer of ice with an overlay of a feet of soil along with a symbiotic pool of vegetation.  We stopped for lunch at Yukon river camp. 

View from Dalton Highway

The river and the bridge provided a great background against the late afternoon sun (it was around 6 PM!).  Yukon is the 5th largest river in the world and this is the only bridge across it for the entire 1400 mile span it has in US.  Trans-alaskan pipeline, a near 500 mile engineering miracle built in the 70's, lay alongside the Dalton Hwy through the trip. Intentionally built in a zig-zag manner to account for sharp climate variations and earthquakes, it has been a controversial project due to its possible impact on environment.  Will be interesting to see if it will be dismantled once the oil is exhausted per the original clause.

Trans-Alaskan Pipeline - Blessing or bane?

Our guide - Chris - was an encyclopedia of information and made the journey lively through his stories.  It was funny to hear the story of how a bear made itself home at the Yukon camp restaurant during a winter.  We also heard the story of Joy - a homestead in Alaska - and marveled at the determination and superstitions of miners.

We reached Fairbanks around 3 AM.  The sun had set completely around 1 AM and the darkening sky had gloriously been replaced by the morning sun seamlessly.  We found ourselves looking at early dawn at the time of check-in.  Literally no night at all!!

The "high one" disappoints - Day 8 @ Alaska

Tundra Wilderness Tour was supposed to lead us through the magical world of Denali national forest teeming with wilderness.  And the hope was to cap it off with a beautiful view of Mt. McKinley. 

We did see grizzlies from afar including a bear with two adorable cubs.  We also saw few Caribous and moose.  The trouble was Alaska already has spoiled us - after seeing bears from 25 feet away at Homer, it was a great let down to strain to see grizzlies  a mile away through high power binoculars. An aside - the smaller grizzlies of Denali, the bigger coastal brown bear and the giant kodiak bear area all the same species - what a difference protein content in food makes! 

Tundra Wilderness - Grandeur and Scale

And the day didnt get better as we couldnt see Mt. Mckinley due to the cloud cover.  Probably we should have covered TWT first before going south to Homer.  Having said that, did get a great view of the Tundra during the day.  The vast expanse has sparse vegetation growth and is open only 4 months during the year. 

Also heard about the sad plight of Caribou who lives in eternal fear of insects who have found innovative ways of forcing a parasitic existence during winter at its cost.  It was painful to watch a Caribou stand motionless for minutes on a ridge for fear of alerting insects to its presence.  One should applaud the effort of national parks service and its rangers in ensuring the preservation of this beauty.

Caribou - Patience personified!

Came back from the tour late evening.  And thanks to the long summer, went mountain biking. Well worth the two hours spent driving the ATV up two trails including a glacial valley with huge sand columns and vast braided river bed.  It was a pleasure to brute force our way throught the trail after the slow journey on the gravel road enroute to see Kuskulana river two days back.  Definitely a stress reliever - need to look up options to do this in Dallas as well.

ATV Racing at Dry Creek

We move on from Denali tomorrow.  Off to Fairbanks for the last section of  our Alaska trip.  How time flies when we dont need it to!

The "high one" beckons - Day 7 @ Alaska

Started off late today after the long drive yesterday.  We had a 5 hours drive ahead of us to Denali Bluffs hotel.  Started around noon from Anchorage and took the Glen Hyway and 3 North towards Fairbanks. 

A beautiful drive that definites provides a contrast to the snowy slopes of Sterling and Seward highways. The roads had long stretches of greenery flanked by pink and white flowers lining the roads.  Moose & caribou sightings and occasional glimpses of Mt. Mckinley (also called Denali or the "high one") adds to the experience. 

View from Parks Hwy - more green than white

However, the scenery changes around Milepost 200.  Vast meadows with large snow capped mountains at their end takes over. The scale of the landscape is astounding.  We were also amazed at the rapid weather changes.  Within an hour we drove through three cycles of pouring rains interspersed with sunny weather. 

Moose view at Denali

Checked into the hotel and immediately went out for rafting at the Nenana river.  Had two hours of exhilarating time rafting down the river.  The brown slit filled glacial rapids were great to raft down.  The coasts also had few breath taking views of surrounding mountains.  Didnt get to see any animals though. 

Definitely hoping to see some animals - maybe a wolf? - tomorrow.  We have a day long trip to Denali National park planned.

The road trip - Day 6 @ Alaska

The longest drive of the tour so far.  We started around 8 from Valdez and drove close to 425 miles to reach Anchorage.  Great drive though with beautiful views of Keystone canyon and multiple glaciers including Worthington glacier and Matanuska glacier.  Could get close to both of them and it was evident that both faced the same effects of climate fluctuation that we saw earlier at Exit glacier.  Worthington is expected to be the last man standing though. 

Kuskulana Bridge - walking the plank

The highlight of the day was the drive to Kuskulana river bridge through Wrangell - St. Elias National Park.  The bridge overlooks a 250 ft canyon.  We had to drive 18 miles post Chitina through a gravel road to reach the bridge.  Well worth the effort and risk though.  And to think that the one lane planked bridge didnt have guard rails till the 90's!! 

View from Glenn Hwy

Crashed as soon as we checked into the hotel.  Should have checked in at an earlier place like Copper Landing or Palmer.  Few miles too many.

Crossing the Sound - Day 5 @ Alaska

Today we travelled back from Homer towards Anchorage.  Crossed Prince William Sound at Whittier and landed at Valdez after a 6 hour ferry journey.

As usual, started of early today around 7.30 post a filling breakfast.  Am beginning to realize why Bed & Breakfast is such a better option for traveling families.  Much more friendly and personal.

We covered the route back from Homer to Whittier within 3 1/2 hours as we had to cross the Whittier tunnel.  Whittier tunnel is the longest in US and offers a single lane for both road and rail traffic.  A great feat of engineeering.  And you get a great view of Portage glacier en-route from Seward Hwy as an added advantage.  Traffic is allowed in 15 minute windows alternating between road vehicles and trains.  So if one misses the slot, there might be a wait time of at least one hour.  Nothing much to see in Whittier though apart from few great photo and fishing spots.

Whittier Tunnel

The ferry ride turned out to be slightly longer than optimal, probably because we had the kenai fjord tour few days back.  Great way to relax though - blue serene sky, snow lined mountains, glimpses of marine life and the gentle waters of the Prince William Sound. 

Waters of Prince William Sound

Landed at Valdez around 7.30 PM.  The city manages to be even smaller than Whittier - a feat I would have deemed impossible few hours back.   Found a good Mexican restaurant and checked in early. 

Land of midnight Sun - Day 4 @ Alaska

It is near mid-night as I type this in.  Incredibly enough, there is still light outside.  Homer Spit stretches out in front of my eyes and the snowcapped mountains eerily reflect the lights of a day that has been falsely threatening to make a withdrawal for few hours now.  Bird songs complete the eerie picture as this looks no different than a dewy early morning in any other part of the country.

View at 1 AM from our room

Earlier, the day began on a great note as we woke up to see a dry - though initially overcast - day.  We had an 8 AM start with the Bear Adventures team.  We set off on our way after a great breakfast from our hostess Maria. She makes delicious blueberry pancakes that I gracefully decided to partake in citing my son's taste as an excuse.  We took off in a Cessna six seater at 8.30 AM after getting into Alaskan hipwaders.  The one hour flight to Katmai National park was a great experience.  Aerial view of Homer Spit was quite cool.  The sight of Mt. Mckinley standing tall amidst clouds was even better.  But these were nothing compared to the feeling of awe one experiences at the sight of Douglas Volcano - imagine an aquamarine pool letting off steam amidst a vast expanse of snow. Sun broke out as we entered the national park and it was incredible to see bears roaming around the expanse flanked by Bering Sea and the snowy mountain ranges. Jared - our pilot and guide - landed in a beach and we started out on our hike across a vast meadow. 

Douglas Volcano - Aerial view

The next three hours were one of the best experiences of my life.    The initial fear at seeing a huge brown bear with puffed up shoulders - Jared mentioned that they were due to the protien rich grass and fish diet they were on (my new diet?) - soon gave way to mirth as we saw a male "cat walk" as part of a courting exercise.  Imagine having lunch in a meadow with half a dozen bears barely 20 feet from you and engaged in a variety of activities including napping, mating, back scratching and grazing!  We saw bears walking by as if we didn't exist. The utter humiliation of being ignored brought home the fact that we are not the dominant species out here.  We were dragged back into the plane for the return flight and were treated to another set of nature's awe inspring spectacles on the way back.  The sheer richness of landscape covered with green meadows, mountain ranges in various shades of green & brown and huge craters hiding lava capable of destroying all of these in a moment was almost too much to take in. 

Bear Adventures

We took the rest of the day easy with a short visit to the Ocean & Wild life center and a walk across Beluga Slough Trail.  Very difficult to get inspired with anything else on a day after the sights we saw in the morning. 

Off to Valdez tomorrow.  Have a long drive ahead of us to Whittier and then a 5 hour ferry ride across the gulf.

Close encounters - Day 3 @ Alaska

Today we traveled from Seward to Homer.  From one beautiful coastal city to another. 

Started off at 8 AM as we had to travel around 170 miles.  Took us closer to 200 miles by end of day due to couple of detours that we made enroute.

The route primarily encompassess two highways - Seward Highway for around 35 miles and Sterling Highway for the rest of the journey. Our trip down Seward Hwy couple of days back was awe inspiring.  Sterling Hwy turned out even better in terms of scenic beauty despite intermittent showers.

 

View from Sterling Hwy

Our first detour was at Skilak Lake road around 22 miles into Sterling Hwy.  18 miles of gravel road between forest that offers one beautiful glimpses into lakes and valleys.  Skilak Lake trail lies half way into the road and offers an easy to moderate route to Skilak Lake through the forest offering great views through the path.  And imagine our surprise when we ran into two black bears!  Luckily for us, they were less surprised than us and moved out of our way immediately thereafter.

Skilak Lake Road view

Our next detour took us through the city of Kenai. We took the Kenai Spur Hwy all the way till Captain Cook recreation area.  Slightly disappointed as there are very few public access routes to the beach though - did finally manage to find one at the end.  On the way back, we took the Kalifornsky beach Road via the Bridge Access Road and re-joined Sterling Hwy.

Lot of beautiful stop-over points enroute including Anchor point, but all were dwarfed by the view from Homer itself.

Homer Spit

We had a room at Majestic Bed and Breakfast up the hill and had an amazing view of Homer and Homer Spit from up there.  The view of the blue seas with the spit stretching out amidst alone made this trip worthwhile. 

Glaciers, glaciers - Day 2 @ Alaska

We had an early start today.  Drove down to the bakery at downtown Seward at 7 AM and had a fairly heavy breakfast.  We then made our way to Exit Glacier Nature Center and started the hike on the Edge of Glacier (1.2 miles) trail.  Took a detour to Glacier View (0.4 miles).  No rains this morning.  And no people either.  Saw all of 4 people during our 90 minutes stretch at the trail.  Trail is fairly easy, especially after the bird ridge trail from yesterday.  Mosquito repellant spray will definitely help though.

Exit Glacier - Up close

It was our first sight of a glacier. An awesome sight to behold.  Did you know that glaciers are blue in color?  Has to do with thick ice not being able to absorb blue color.  But it was also sobering to see how fast it is receding each year.  Apparently, Exit Glacier has lost more ground in the last 10 years than it had in 50 years before that.  Global warming isnt a theoretical concept after all. 

Had to hurry back a bit to join our Kenai fjords tour group - courtesy Major Marine Tours - for a 9.30 AM start.  Were treated to multiple tidal water glaciers during the day.  Could get as close as 100 feet near them.  The sounds of ice cracking (local speak is calving) and that of multiple waterfalls within the glacier were enthralling.  The tour also gave a great view of the natural beauty of the islands and fjords.  Got to see a lot of wild and marine life as well.  We saw orcas, sea otters, sea lions, humpback whales, bears and coastal goats apart from numerous birds.  It was also fun to fish glacial ice and then have an "glacial iced" drink.  All in all, a great spend of 6 hours.

Holgate Glacier - View from the fjord

Barely managed to haul ourselves back into the room after the long trip.  Off to Homer tomorrow.

Journey begins - Day 1 of our Alaska vacation

We landed in Anchorage late last night.  Over the next two weeks, we will be covering most of the heartland.  Plan is to cover the south during week 1 and then to work our way up to Fairbanks and Arctic Circle during the second week.

Weather threatens to play spoil sport though.  The prediction is for rains through the week! 

We travelled around 150 miles today from Anchorage to Seward.  The Seward Highway lived up to its promise.  It is an 127 mile highway that stretches from Anchorage to Seward and is strewn with memorable stop-over spots.  The Alaskan rail line also runs parallel till Whittier and is a serious option for travelers not comfortable with long distance drives. 

View from Potter Marsh

We started around 8 AM.  The initial stop was Potter Marsh (Mile 117).  The boardwalk offered a good view of the landscape.  More importantly, it progressively explained how marshes were formed, its evolutionary life cycle and why wetlands were critical.  And all in a simple format that my 7 year old son could understand.  The impact of visual media coupled with direct observation is indeed powerful.

We then made few quick stops at Turnagain Arm (Mile 115) - one of the two spots in US with bore tides, Beluga Point (Mile 110) and Windy Point (Mile 106).  No whales at Beluga point but we did get to see few Dall Sheep at the Windy Point.

Went up the Bird Ridge Trail (Mile 102).  Roughly 1 mile hike up the hill with the second half fairly tough to negotiate.  However, well worth the view of the Turnagain Arm that one gets to see from the top.  Also came across few thought inspiring sign posts around the native stories (they are called Sukdu) and poems.  It was inspiring to see how they befriended the nature in such a tough terrain. 

Sukdu found in Bird Ridge Trail

We then had a long non-stop driving stretch with a detour to Hope (Mile 56).  A 17 mile drive through green hilly terrain brought us to a quaint been-there village from gold-rush days.  They do have a mean Strawberry Milkshake available from the Discovery Cafe at the entry to the village though. 

Hope - still lives on

Didnt stop long elsewhere for the rest of our journey as it started raining.  Did have a look-in at Moose Creek (Mile 32) and a lotus pool (Mile 15).

Reached Seward Windsong lodge - off Exit Glacier turn-off - around 3.15 PM.  Slightly more than 7 hours drive including a 30 minute lunch break.

Post check-in, did a quick drive through of Seward downtown area that was around 5 miles away. 

Stopped at the Alaska Sea Life Center.  My son loved the two hours we spent there.  The displays were beautifully arranged.  The underwater and above ground views of Steller Sea Lions and Sea Otters were fascinating.

At Alaska Sea Life Center

Did you know that Steller discovered six species of which 2 are now extinct and 3 are endangered?  Talk about Midas touch!

We have a Fjords tour planned tomorrow.  Also hoping to see more of Exit Glacier. 
Had a good first day.  Bit tired after the long drive and slightly hampered by the rain during the later portion of the day.