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.