Alaska, The Final Chapter

The final chapter in Alaska is the wilderness in Wrangell St. Elias National Park.  When I say wilderness, I mean off the grid!  Wrangell St. Elias is definitely one of the least visited national parks for good reason.  It is off the beaten path.  The dirt road into the park comes with a warning sign, warding off weaker cars.  It is a former railroad bed,  somewhat narrow and you are warned that there may be railroad spikes along the way.  Who wouldn't want to visit? When driving 60 miles...one way...on a dirt road...is advertised to take 3 hours, one has to plan accordingly.  The limited lodging at the end of the road was already booked when we began planning.  We stayed in a lodge in Lake Louise, not THAT Lake Louise, which is about an hour and a half drive to the McCarthy Road.  The plan was to stay there one night, drive into the park, explore, spend one night at mile 30 in the park and then stay again at Lake Louise on our 3rd night.  Hours of driving were involved in this exploration!  120 miles of it on the dirt road in the park. 

We had high hopes on our drive!  
Had we only known then what we know now, we would have driven the extra 40 miles that day!

I must share our "most memorable" lodging experience of the trip.  Not the best, or the nicest or even the most interesting, but definitely memorable.  Our two nights in Lake Louise were spent at the Lake Louise Lodge.  To get there we had to drive 17 miles down possibly the worst road ever made...and it was paved.  We drove down many dirt roads on this trip and I would choose any one of them over this road.  I do believe at one point, the ice chest in the back of the Suburban hit the ceiling as we went over one of the bumps.  

Just imagine 17 miles of this...four times!

To get here.

Since we began making plans a little later than other people, many of the rooms were already booked at the lodge, leaving us one room in the lodge and another cabin outside the lodge.  We decided each couple would take a turn in the cabin.  Also...the cabin was defined as a "dry" cabin.  I quickly assessed that meant no water...no sink, toilet or shower!  When we checked in the first night I asked the host if there were any rooms available in the lodge that night.  She checked her spiral notebook/reservation record and said "yes" but is costs more than the cabin.  She could have said it was a hundred dollars more and I would not have blinked!  $30 for a room with indoor plumbing....SOLD!  She apologized because it was a room with a double bed and a twin bed...no problem...indoor plumbing trumps sleeping in the same bed in my book!  I asked if there was a room available "inside" on our return in a day and she said "no".  I asked to be put first on the standby list!  The lodge was definitely a fishing camp.  We were obviously from away!  The bar was more like Cheers with its regulars lined up telling fish stories!  The restaurant was fine, we watched the Olympics opening ceremonies on the tv and sat outside and watched the boats come in and enjoyed the beautiful view.  I had a feeling it was "the" night....the night I would finally get my sunset...if I could only stay awake!

I enjoyed my room and bathroom and spent some time sorting through my hundreds of photos on my computer that night while checking periodically for the golden hour.  I did not dare go outside too often because along with water in a wooded, remote area comes swarms of mosquitos!  Up until this point in the trip we had counted our blessings as far as mosquitos were concerned.  Sunset was around 11:20 that night... I looked out of my window at one point and noticed the orange shadows!  I put on my shoes, my jacket and strapped on my camera and headed out to the pier.  It was the night!  Aside from the trillion mosquitoes, it was perfection.  I sat on that pier with my two bird friends who did not seem to notice me and soaked in the sunset I had been looking for.  I finally stayed up late enough!

Looks like the perfect place to watch the show.

It was lovely and peaceful.

The next morning we drove back up that 17 mile roller coaster and headed to Wrangell St. Elias National Park hoping to see that beautiful mountain again.  It was not to be.  Once again, the fine weather we had upon entry was gone by morning and the view was quite different upon departure.  At least we had yesterday.

The main attraction, other than the spectacular mountains and wilderness, in Wrangell St. Elias is the copper mine at the end of the road in Kennicott.  It is where many a miner hoped to get rich in the day.  The stories about the mine were great!  I just could not help but wonder who in their right mind would get all the way here hoping to get rich mining copper or even gold and how did they get all the way out here???  We flew in a plane and drove a modern car, think of the 1910's..it had to take weeks to get out here!  I guess there wasn't much else to do back then, why not go to Alaska...or what would become Alaska...and do some copper mining in the middle of nowhere?!

Takes a certain mindset to live out here!

The beginning of "the road"...
wonder if they know they spelled McCarthy wrong?

One of several trestle bridges in the park.

Another one...out of service.

Peaceful and scenic!

We made it to the end of  McCarthy Road, parked the car, walked across the foot bridge and hiked to the town of McCarthy.  Town is a generous term.  Luckily in the "town" there was a nice place to eat lunch, even though by the time we got there the server was a bit grumpy.  I will say, The Potato had the best curly, crispy rosemary garlic fries ever!  The food was good, the place was very nice and it was exactly what we needed!

We then caught the shuttle to the copper mine in Kennicott.  I still could not fathom people living out here, but they do.  The town of Kennicott has been preserved nicely and gives a good feel for what it was like in the early 1900's.  It is set along a massive glacier bed that now looks like the surface of the moon with a receding glacier.  There is a lovely inn there and had we known then what we know now, we might have booked a room early in our planning.  As it was, we walked around the area, marveled at the copper mine and imagined life in the early 1900's.  Pretty cool place.

Kennicott copper mine, under restoration

Glacier bed

The mercantile

If we had to do it again, ideally, we would have chosen to fly in on a small plane (they are everywhere) and booked a room at the Kennicott Inn, enjoyed a lovely room with indoor plumbing and ended our day with a drink on the veranda and  a nice meal at the Inn.  We could have explored the entire area and not driven 120 miles on a dirt road.  But we did it our way.  We experienced a few things on our excursion we would have missed by taking the easy route.  We would have missed the cabins we stayed in at mile 30 and the chance to use the "cook house" and visit with people who have chosen a life off the grid.  We would have missed the tiny town of Chitina and the helpful ranger who lead us to the fishing community down a side road we would have otherwise overlooked.  She pointed the way and told us there was a nice surprise at the end of the road.  We were so glad we followed her suggestion.  We would have missed watching two men net fish on the river while chasing hungry seagulls away from their fish.  We also would have missed the chance to sleep in a "dry" cabin, which I really would not miss much.  We have many stories to tell by not taking the easy route.  I do wonder though, if there are any easy routes in Alaska.  

Dinner in "the cook house"

The Hunter cabin, complete with bathroom and 
many mounted animals!

The top side of the trestle bridge!

Fighting the seagulls off!

Running water not included.

Part of the surprise at the end of the road.
It took me forever to get them all lined up!😂

Trumpeter Swans 💓

We ended our trip in Anchorage, back to civilization.  We bought our frozen souvenir salmon and halibut to bring home so we fit in with everyone else at the airport with our white box.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch overlooking the water and enjoyed working our way back into reality.  It did not take very long for that reality to hit when we entered the airport and found ourselves standing in a 1 1/2 hour long line to check our bags.  Luggage conveyor belt was broken and all luggage had to be moved by hand.  Real life smack in the face.

Alaska was vast, remote, peaceful, and friendly.  It is full of jagged mountains, pine trees, wildflowers, glaciers, beautiful streams and silt filled rivers.  It is not for the internet addicted!  It felt like we were in a foreign country and I had to keep reminding myself we were still in the USA.  We are so thankful we were able to see our 49th state!

Stay tuned for the Canadian part of the Canadian Chronicles! 

 

Mountains and Glaciers, Part 2

Sometime in March or April of this year, when we all expected the pandemic to be over... but it wasn't, TJ and I made a summer plan. We assumed the border to Canada would not be open before the heat and humidity took over our city so we put together our escape.  I started thinking, "where do we want to go, in the U.S., that we have never been?".  A few minutes later I exclaimed, "Let's go to Alaska!".  We have always been curious about Alaska.  Summer is the only time we would consider going, which previously...BC (Before Covid), made it a tough choice since we usually spend our summers in Canada.  Turns out, we had a lot of time this summer to fit in a trip to Alaska.

I wondered if we had made a huge mistake when I started looking for accommodations, way back in the spring, and found out many places were already fully booked.  I also had this suspicion when we boarded our very full flight from Salt Lake City to Anchorage.  We were obviously not the only travelers desperate to get out and see Alaska this summer.  However, we may have been the only travelers on our flight not going to Alaska to fish.  It was high fishing season in Alaska when we visited!  I am sure many people were shocked to find out fishing was not on our agenda.  Maybe next time.  We did bring frozen fish home with us because it would have looked very weird to be the only people leaving Alaska without fish! 😂

The view from the window on the plane made my
heart go pitter patter!

Our first stop, after an overnight in Anchorage, was Denali National Park.  There was high anticipation.  As we drove along we saw mountains in the distance.  Actually, there are mountains EVERYWHERE!  We had heard only 30% of people who visit Denali ever see "the" mountain.  We pulled over at the first "lookout" we came to because we were just so excited to be there and wanted to see everything.  Together we had been discussing the "cloud" over the set of mountains ahead of us.  Imagine our surprise and delight when we discovered those clouds were actually Mt. Denali aka Mt. McKinley!  We were now part of the 30%!  We might as well have turned around and gone home after this moment because we never saw it again after that day.  But...we saw it!  And I took lots of photos!

What a nice lookout point!
Denali makes those other mountains look so small.

That is not a cloud over those dark mountains,
that is Mt. Denali!

Counting ourselves among the 30%

There is one road into Denali NP.  Cars are only allowed to drive to mile 15.  A special pass is required to drive from mile 15 to mile 30.  Beyond mile 30, the only way in or out is by bus, plane or helicopter.  We rode no planes or helicopters but we did do it all!  Day 1, we drove to mile 15.  Hiked along the river at the end.  Day 2, we acquired one of the 25 daily driving passes, well before we got to Alaska, to mile 30.  Day 3, we took the 60 mile, 6 hour, bus ride in and out of the park.  I feel fairly certain, short of free hiking and camping, we did Denali.  I would have to say my favorite day was the day we drove to mile 30.  Having the ability to pull over whenever the urge hits to walk, see, explore, take tons of photos and just soak it all in was a real luxury.  Considering there are only 25 passes given out, and aside from buses, they are the only car traffic on the road.  We really enjoyed seeing as much of the park as we could, again...without going too far into the wilderness, which seems endless!  If we were younger people, we might have ventured a lot farther off the beaten path.  

The bus ride to mile 60 stands out because of the wildlife sightings.  The road is a dirt road with steep climbs, no guard rails, and very narrow with the occasional turnout for bus passing. We rode the bus all 60 miles and I still sometimes wonder how they do it!  TJ chose to look out at the mountain side of the bus and was the wildlife spotter for our bus.  We saw grizzly bears, caribou, moose, eagles, hares, ptarmigan (the national bird), and more caribou on our drive.  For TJ, it sure beat looking over sheer drop offs!  I kinda liked the cliff views!

Denali definitely did not disappoint!  We loved the lodge we stayed in and probably every mile we rode on that one and only road in the park.  I, for one, loved the fact that the sun set after 11:30 p.m.  I hate to admit it, but it took almost a week before I was able to stay up late enough, and have the perfect conditions for a worthy sunset.  I am not sure I ever saw a dark sky.  I loved it...and I did not have any trouble falling asleep at night or staying asleep because I was very tired at the end of every well spent day.  I am ready for Iceland now!

You just have to love it when it looks like this at 9 p.m.!

I could go on and post about 20 more pictures of Denali but...the blog must go on.  From Denali we drove down to the Kenai Peninsula and Seward.  Seward (population 2,800) is now famous for being the hometown of Lydia Jacoby, the women's 100 meter breast stroke gold medal winner.  There were signs all over the town when we visited, cheering her to victory...guess they worked!

It seemed on our trip that every time we drove to a new location the drive in was scenic with perfect weather only to be followed by a couple of not perfect weather days.  At least we knew what was behind all of those clouds while we were there!

The road between Anchorage and Seward is lovely!  We stopped in the small town of Girdwood for lunch on our way.  We also rode the tram to the top of a mountain while in Girdwood.  I think this would be an awesome place to spend more time!  It was so lovely!

The road to Seward....exactly what I expected Alaska to look like!

Our main events in Seward were hiking to Exit Glacier and going on a 100 mile round trip Kenai Fjords National Park Wildlife Cruise.  The hike to Exit Glacier was a miracle.  We left our lodge in a cloudy fog not sure if we would be able to see anything.  We drove a few miles and the clouds parted and there it was!  Apparently we had climbed above the clouds and it was nice and clear up there.  We hiked to the lookout, which was very nice.  BUT...we could see a path that went higher and closer.  TJ was our scout.  He went ahead and we followed to a second viewing point, definitely better.  We kept going until we were going to have to forge our own path.  It was so much fun!  We are such amateurs when it comes to hiking in National Parks!  As much research as I did, still we did not know the ins and outs of the many hikes.  We could have seen and done so much more!  I think part of me is afraid of biting off more than I can chew only to find out I am pretty sure we could have done so much more.  Next time... bite off more!

Just follow the path...

I love being above the clouds!

Glacier and a bonus waterfall.

Once again, we awoke to gray skies on the morning of a big day.  The weather for the cruise required several layers of clothing.  I was so glad I used valuable luggage space for my jacket and purchased a souvenir knit hat before the cruise.  This is one more day I would like a do-over on a clear sunny day.  As it was, the water was still an amazing color and the whales did not care what the weather was!  We saw three different kinds of whales, stellar seals, puffins, a million seagulls, glaciers and lots of fishing boats.  For a person who does not love boats, I really liked this trip.  I was particularly amazed at how green/blue the water was on such a cloudy day, imagine how beautiful it would be on a sunny day.  Just use your imaginations when looking at the photos!

 

This is just a small part of a very huge glacier!

I want to call him Simba, the king of the stellar seals.

It was surreal.

I did not expect to see water this color when we departed!

I thought 6 hours on a boat would crawl by...but it flew!  I could not get enough of the whales.  We saw a pod of orcas, a fin whale and a couple of humpbacks.  Turns out, whales are pretty cool!  When we booked the cruise I was more excited about glaciers than whales because I thought the chances of seeing whales was small but glaciers move much more slowly so the possibility of seeing them was guaranteed while seeing whales is dependent on the whales, who are undependable.  Two for two! 

After our boat tour there was one more truly Alaskan box to check.  I was not leaving until we ate Alaskan King crab and salmon.  There was a unique place across the street from our Lodge.  When I asked the owner of our lodge about restaurants his quote was, "Food is a nightmare here.".  Seems a town of 2,800 had many restaurants BC (when it was a popular cruise ship port) but some have closed and the ones that are open are running on a skeleton staff.  Help Wanted signs are everywhere.  There were wait times over an hour at many places.  The grocery store looked like one of ours before a hurricane....empty shelves and low inventory.  

We committed to having dinner at The Salmon Bake, no matter how long we had to wait.  With our names on the list and drinks in hand, we joined the rest of the hungry patrons in the "waiting room".  We had more fun waiting to be called for dinner that night than we did almost any other night of our trip.  What a fun communal experience!  The food was definitely worth waiting for and TJ ate one of the biggest King crab legs I've ever seen.  So glad we hung in there and waited.  We quoted our host several times on our trip because sometimes...."food is a nightmare"  but tonight it was a dream!

When you can't go to Nova Scotia for lobster,
Alaskan King crab is a great substitute!

A good time was had by all!

You have to love a place with a sense of humor!

He is pretty pleased with his meal!

A little more than halfway through our Alaska adventure, we really like this place.  The food, the people, the nature, the mountains, the glaciers and the hiking.  Honestly, we could have spent a few more days on the peninsula and had more than enough to see and do.  Maybe we would have even tried fishing...but we had one more park to see.  That story will be another post, because I am tired of writing this one which means you are also probably tired of reading it!  

If the trip had ended here, it would have been a great trip.  So the blog will end here...for now.