I haven't posted in quite a while mostly because I have been on vacation in the great state of Alaska. It was a phenomenal trip where each day we found something new, beautiful and exciting. It is hard to put into word all that I have seen. I got some great pictures and some cool stories to tell. Although you have probable seen some of the many national geographic specials or reality shows about Alaska until you visit the state you can't appreciate how beautiful, bazaar and different this state really is. Alaska is a place of extremes its very seismically active with extreme weather (Much like New Jersey this past week). This will be a long post of my trip if you don't want to read the full details just check out the pictures HERE and you will get an idea of what a great trip this was.
Alaska is 1/3 the size of the continental US with only a population of about 750,000. You see the words "The Last Frontier" on Alaska's licences and they are not kidding. Go a little over 100 miles away from the major cities like Anchorage or Fairbanks and there is no power, roads or any service what so ever. Unless you have survival training going out to the rural parts is almost a certain death sentence. Towns like Juneau, and Ketchikan which are in the warmer parts of the state can't even be reach by car because the terrain is too rugged to create a road.
Although I shy away from organized tours it is probably the best way to explore this state. We tour a 12 day cruise/tour which started with a 5 day land tour to see the interior of the state followed by a 7 day tour through the glaciers and south east part of the state.
Day 1 - Our tour started in Anchorage which took us the entire previous day to get to from NJ. We spent the morning in Anchorage walking around the small center part of town. 40% of the population of Alaska lives in and around Anchorage because of its relatively mild climate and access to easy transportation by land, sea and air. One surprising thing about Anchorage is that the food here is pretty dam good with a lot of variety.
During the afternoon we took a tour to the portage glacier which is about an hour outside the city. On the way we learned the history of area and how the glaciers carved out the mountains and valleys around here as well as how all the silt deposits clog most of the bays and harbors and make the bottom like quick sand. In fact if you step off the rocks on to what looks like a dark sandy beach you will sink up to your knees and not be able to get out and die when the 20 - 30 foot tide comes in. This is just one of the many ways to die in Alaska.
The main purpose of our day trip to the glacier was to take boat ride up to it's face and get a close look at it. We ended up about 100 feet away and even though it was one of the smaller glaciers it was still impressive. It was a little overcast which made it appear a little bluer than normal. You can see the pictures HERE
Besides visiting the glacier we also made a couple of side trips. One to see the salmon starting to swim upstream to spawn and another to visit a ski resort. At the ski resort we took a tram to the top of the mountain to get a better view of the bays. Because of its northern latitude Alaska has some very large tides shifts 20-30 feet. There are also some strange currents in the water which causes a vortide in the bays when the conditions are just right. A vortide is a 5 - 10 foot wave that slowly rolls down the bay from the ocean to the end. We were actually lucky enough to see one from the top of the mountain.
Day2 - We headed from Anchorage to Mt McKinley. On the way we passed through the town of Wasila and saw Sara Palin's house. One nice thing to note is that most Alaskans I talked to seem to have the same contempt for her that we have here although they know enough tourist like her so every gift shop has cardboard cut outs of her and her 2012 calendars and other crap to buy.
It took about 3 hours to get to the lodge at McKinley and as we got there the clouds were just clearing and we saw our first view of McKinley. Because the mountain range has a lot of high peaks and creates it's own weather McKinley is only visible 30% of the time. As our bus driver said we were blessed because for the pass two weeks they had not seem the mountain at all.
After a quick lunch at the lodge we headed to the town of Talkeetna. Talkeetna is basically a train stop with one semi paved street with a couple of gift shops and places to eat. This is a place where a lot of people start hunting or fishing trips out to the wilderness. There is also a small airport here which is the main place all the climber start their ascent of McKinley.
During the afternoon we took a scheduled sightseeing flight around McKinley. The flight was amazing and was like living inside an IMAX movie. I got to ride in the co-pilots seat of a small 8 seat DeHavilland Otter. I got some of the best pictures I have ever taken but they don't capture the feeling of being at 12,000 feet and looking up at the 20,320 top of Mt McKinley. You can see my best pictures HERE
Day3 - We took a jet boat ride on the Talkeetna and Susitna (silt) river and again were blessed with cloudless skys. This only happens 10% of the time here so I got some great views of the mountains again. We also saw some wildlife along the way. Eagles are almost as common as Turkey Vultures in NJ so you can't help but see a few every time you go out. We also actually saw a small black bear along the river. Included in our boat tour was a stop at model of a native fishing shack used by the natives to catch salmon in the summer season. In this part of the state and north there are still a good number of people who live off the land. After the boat ride we boarded a bus and headed further north to Denali state park.
Day 4 - We took a 5 hour wildlife tour through Denali park. Except for a few Dall sheep on top of the mountains we did not see much wildlife but it was another cloudless day and the scenery was great. We got yet another view of McKinley. In the afternoon we visited the kennel for the sled dogs used in the winter by the rangers in Denali and got a demonstration of the dogs pulling a sled. We also saw some two week old puppies.
Day 5 - We took a 9 hour train ride in a glass covered train car. This was to get us from Denali to our cruise ship. The weather had turned cloudy with a little rain but train was comfortable with some nice views along the way. I even managed to spot a couple of moose. It was nice getting to our cruise ship in Whitter which meant that we would not have to be moving our suite cases for the next 7 days.
Day 6 & 7 - The first two days of the cruise were spent heading south east along the coast and visiting a few glaciers along the way. The first day we stopped at Hubbard Glacier for a few hours then on the second day we entered Glacier Bay national park and cruised passed 5 or 6 glaciers. The two main ones being the Margerie and Lamplugh. No matter how many glaciers you see each one is different and cool. It never gets boring. It is hard to convey the size and imposing mass of these things most of them dwarfed our 1000 ft long cruise ship. It is just something that has to be experienced. The weather was overcast with some light rain but it didn't hurt our view or enjoyment in any way. You can see some more pictures of them HERE
Day 8 - We docked at the town of Skagway which was the launching point for the gold rush of 1898 where over 100,000 people headed to the Yukon to try and get rich by finding gold. Of course the only people that made any money were the people selling the supplies. The town looks much the same as it did then except that it is now mostly a shopping meca for the cruise ships. We spent the morning walking around the town then in the afternoon took a jeep tour that got us over the famous White Pass and about 60 miles into the Yukon basically tracing the path of the prospectors. We went through a number of different valleys and each one was a little different from the next. It was pretty now in August but I would imagine in the winter even this well maintained road would be dangerous to drive. In town I saw an old train that was used to keep the train tracks over the pass clear and it looked like a large drill bit that would be used to drill a tunnel to the center of the earth.
Day 9 - Docked in Juneau the capital of Alaska. We didn't have much time to see the town because we took an all day tour to see the Mendenhall glacier and then a whale watch. At this point I'm like yea great another glacier but this one was as cool as all the other and different enough to be glad I saw it. Besides the glacier I also got with in a few feet of a black bear. I was walking down to the beach and spotted what I though was a dog in the woods. After a closer look I realized it was a black bear so I backed away a little and got a picture or two. The bus driver had said that we might see some bears here and said they were use to people and harmless as long as you didn't approach them. I figured I was safe because the bear was headed the other way, besides there were 15 other people near me including a few small kids who I knew I could out run if the bear charged.
The whale watch was a transformational experience. Not only did we get to see killer and humpback whales but we got to see a whole pod of the killer whales just playing around in the water and breaching left and right.
The humpback whales were all around the boat and at one point we saw 12 of them perform what is called bubble net feeding. This is where one whale goes down and creates a stream of bubbles around a school of fish then the other whales come up through the net and gobble up all the fish. This is something I have only seen on TV and when you see it live it is powerful and strangely emotional. Even the tour guide on the boat was awe struck and at a lost for words. At one point the 12 humpbacks were about 50 feet from the boat and you could feel and hear them breathing as they dove under the boat. It was defiantly one of the highlights of the trip. You can see some of the pictures of the killer and humpback whales HERE
Day 10 - Docked in Ketchikan, the southern most town in Alaska. This is one of the best places to do salmon fishing and most of the non tourist economy is based on fishing of sort or the other. At this time of year the salmon were heading upstream to spawn so we walked around town and along a stream to watch all the salmon try to make it upstream. These fish are powerful swimmers we watch them head up rapids and small waterfalls and have no idea how they can make it up river in the fast currents.
In the afternoon we headed out on the Deadliest Catch tour. If you have ever seen the show you would love this tour. They took an old crab boat the Aleutian Ballad and added a bunch of seating to it so they can take about 100 people out on the boat and show them how they fish for crab and salmon and other fish. We got to see them haul fish on long lines, king and opillio crab pots, as well as an octopus. The best thing was all the stories they had about fishing and few insights to the Deadliest Catch show.
Day 11 - We spent this day at sea going through the inside passage toward Vancouver. The scenery was nice and the weather was also getting warmer. We also spotted some more killer and humpback whales from our balcony.
Day 12 - Arrived early in the morning in Vancouver and got off the ship. We took a tour of the city which included a trip to Lynn Canyon where we walked over a suspension bridge as well as a visit to a salmon hatchery. At night we found a cool little part of town called Granville island where we had a nice dinner.
All in all this was a great trip and much different from anything we have done before. Alaska is a place that is hard to understand until experienced so I highly recommend you put this on your list of vacations because you won't be disappointed.