Glaciers

High on the list of things to do in Alaska is glacier viewing, and there are many opportunities to do so within close range of Anchorage. We took two glacier cruises during our stay.

Our first excursion was a one-hour boat cruise to the Portage Glacier, located on the Kenai Peninsula in the Chugach National Forest. The 50 mile drive from Anchorage to the town of Portage on the Seward Highway was spectacular, one of the most scenic highways I’ve ever traveled on. We took our time getting there, stopping often to take in the view, or drive through small towns located off the highway. We boarded the boat on Portage Lake, and during our 60-minute ride, we were taken to within 300 feet of the glacier amidst iceberg-dotted waters. It was remarkable listening to the unmistakable rumbling of a calving glacier as huge blocks of ice crashed into the lake.

Our second excursion was more involved; first we took a 2.5 hour train ride to Whittier (a slow ride to enjoy the scenery covering only 60 miles – again, along the Seward Highway). From Whittier we boarded a small boat that took us out for five hours in Blackstone Bay (a fjord that is part of Prince William Sound) where we viewed many glaciers of different sizes and shapes. The most stunning was the Blackstone Glacier, and we spent a significant amount of time bobbing around the ice-chunk filled water surrounding this glacier. The deep aqua color of the ice, the waterfalls tumbling off the glaciers, the sea otters playing nearby, all helped to create memorable experience.

Again, pictures can never quite capture everything, but I’ve attached a few shots that come as close as possible!

Lake Eklutna & Flat Top Hikes

Dan and I both really enjoy hiking, and one of the first things we do when we get to a new location is scope out the nearby hiking opportunities. Anchorage and the surrounding area offer plenty of hikes, and we’ve taken advantage of two outstanding trails since we arrived here: Twin Peaks at Lake Eklutna and Flat Top at Glen Alps. Both of these hikes are in the half million acre Chugach State Park, the third largest state park in America. These were both hefty hikes, meaning that there was fairly serious elevation gain over fairly short distances. The twin peaks trail gained 1800 feet in elevation over 2.5 miles, and the Flat Top Hike gained 1350 feet over 1.5 miles. But the work was well worth it, as the views both on the trails, and from the tops of the peaks were unrivaled. Words like breathtaking, gorgeous, magnificent, and stunning come to mind. I have never seen as many wildflowers as I did on the Twin Peak hikes - and what made that even more fun, was being able to identify them using an illustrated pamphlet of local wildflowers. Both days we hiked were threatening rain, and it seemed we were hiking in the clouds and the mists, but I think this only added to the ambience; it seemed both mystical and ancient, like something out of Lord of the Rings or The Land that Time Forgot. Of course pictures can’t begin to capture the essence of these places, but I’ve attached some snapshots just the same!

Anchorage, Alaska

After our brief visit to Denali, we continued on to Anchorage, our next scheduled destination in Alaska. We arrived on June 27 for a one month stay, enough time to explore this part of the state. We both suffered minor culture shock at first after our bucolic stay at the Creamer’s Refuge. While at Creamer’s, we were parked in our own private RV space, with our windows looking out to a beautiful green field with a boreal forest beyond that. The evenings and nights were very quiet, good for sleeping! Welcome back to RV’ing in the summer along with all the other travelers! Our RV park in Anchorage is crowded (I don’t think they could get us any closer together); noisy (right next to the railroad – the trains going by literally rattle our 5th wheel); and the scenery is, well, other RV’s! But enough complaining, not every place we park is going to be the stuff of calendars and postcards. That’s one of the great advantages of this kind of living – if you don’t like where you’re parked, you probably won’t be there very long, and if it’s really bad, you can leave whenever you want. On the plus side, we are within walking distance to a great running/biking trail, downtown, the museum, and many other attractions. A big plus with the cost of fuel now-a-days!

Anchorage itself is much like any medium sized city, with all the expected amenities that come with a population base of around 300,000. It is the state’s largest city (about the size of Delaware), with 42% of the population residing here. Each summer, Anchorage comes alive with big, bright flowers that paint the landscape in bold hues. The city plants 461 flowerbeds and hanging baskets at 81 sights, and it is nothing short of spectacular to see! It is a very bicycle friendly town, with miles and miles of trails, both scenic and commuter. Anchorage is a good staging area for many nearby destinations and activities – outstanding hikes, visits to glaciers, wildlife viewing, kayaking, and camping, to name some. We have been doing our best to enjoy as much of the area as possible, which I will describe in the next couple of posts.

Here I have included pictures that capture some of the local flavor of Anchorage.

Denali National Park & Preserve

Denali National Park and Preserve is accessible along the Parks between Fairbanks and Anchorage. We decided to spend a few days at Denali before our month long stay in Anchorage. We left Fairbanks the morning of June 25, and arrived at Denali about 3 hours later, on a beautiful clear day. A little on the cool side, but nothing that a light jacket or sweater couldn’t handle. We got settled in at the Riley Creek campground, and decided to take off on foot exploring our immediate surroundings. That turned into a four mile hike, with a stop at one of the park’s Visitor Centers along the way. Some fun facts we learned about the park and surrounding areas:

** Mt. McKinley is the highest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet.
** Mt. McKinley was originally named Denali (“The High One”) by the native Athabascan Indians, but was changed to Mt. McKinley in the early 1900’s. There is an effort under way to have the official name changed back to Denali. (Most Alaskans refer to the mountain as “Denali”.)
** Denali National Park covers 6 million acres, but there is only one 100-mile road running through it.
**The road through Denali is only accessible by foot, bicycle, special permit, or tour bus.

We decided we would take a tour bus into the heart of the park so we could see as much as possible during our stay. We booked a tour on the Eielson Visitor Center bus, which takes you 60 miles down the 100 mile road. The round trip takes 8 hours as the bus travels very slow, makes numerous stops, and there is a lunch break at the visitor center. As many signs around the park attested to, “the animals in Denali can do whatever they want”. Because they are so protected by the structure of the park, we were able to observe a moose cow and her calf (right in the middle of the road); several grizzly bear sightings, including one mother with two cubs; many caribou (reindeer); a fox. Some of these sightings were really only observable through binoculars, but still an awesome experience. Again, it was another clear and beautiful day, and we were able to see Denali clearly all along the way. The views from the visitor center were nothing short of spectacular, and we were told this was a very lucky occurrence, days like this only happening about 20%-30% of the time. (Do you think they say that to all the tourists?) Either way, we were thrilled to see the mountain, and took many pictures, some of which are attached here.

Everywhere we go, Dan and I keep saying, “Wow, this is a once in a lifetime experience!” But it seems the most true since we’ve been in Alaska, as we likely will never pass this way again. Sometimes it’s only in retrospect that you are able to really appreciate how fortunate you are to experience something, but the spectacular beauty, remoteness, and rugged wild landscape of Alaska makes it hard to miss!

Next Stop: Anchorage, Alaska

Fairwell to Fairbanks

We are just about to the end of our visit in Fairbanks, Alaska. It’s amazing how quickly these six weeks flew by! Our time at Creamer’s Field as volunteer Refuge Hosts was a very positive experience; we got to know so much more about the people, the area, and the wildlife than we would have otherwise. Being here for six weeks gave us enough time to explore the area on our non-working days, and we were able to do almost everything on our list.

We were lucky enough to be here before the Fairbanks “green-up” which is when everything turns from winter brown to lush green. When we arrived in mid-May, all the hills were brown, and there were no leaves on the trees. In a matter of two weeks, everything was green, and you would never have known it was the same place. I feel fortunate to have witnessed that transformation.

We were also lucky to be here for Solstice, which is a very big event in Fairbanks. There were weekend long festivities, culminating in a Midnight Sun Run (10K) at 10:00 p.m. June 21st. It was a fun run, with lots of people in costume, street parties along the route, and the sun up and shining the entire time! I thought I would have a hard time running this time of day, usually I am going to sleep about that time, but to my amazement, I ran it a couple minutes faster than my previous best!

Wednesday June 25 is departure day. As always, we leave here with mixed feelings – ready to move on to our next adventure, but sad to leave behind new friends and somewhere we called home, no matter how briefly. But so it goes when you live life on the road.

Next stop: Denali National Park!

North Pole, Alaska

Fifteen miles from Fairbanks is the town of North Pole (population ~ 1700), “Where the Spirit of Christmas Lives Year Round”. (Despite the name, the city is about 1700 miles south of the Earth’s geographic North Pole.) The town has really capitalized on the Holiday theme, with streets named Claus Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, Snowman Lane, and Kris Kringle Drive. Street lights in the city are decorated in a candy cane motif, and many local businesses have similar decorations. The city's fire trucks and ambulances are all red, while the police cars are all green. Prior to Christmas each year, the USPS post office in North Pole receives hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa Claus, and thousands more from people wanting the town's postmark on their holiday greeting cards to their families. It advertises the zip code 99705 as the ZIP code of Santa.

No visit to North Pole would be complete without a stop at the world famous Santa Claus House. Santa and Mrs. Claus are year round residents here, and one can visit with them every day. In addition to the usual tourist oriented merchandise you would expect to see in a place like this, there is a section of the house where many of the thousands of letters sent to Santa are posted on the walls. To me, seeing these letters was the most worthwhile part of the visit. Reading what children from all over the world wrote to Santa was very poignant. Volunteers from the local senior center as well as the junior high and high schools attempt to answer as many letters as possible each year, but of course, an impossible task to respond to all of them. I’ve included a picture of the “wall of letters” – if you can enlarge it enough, you will be able to read some of the letters, too.

Arctic Circle (Coldfoot)

Having come this far north, we decided we could not leave the area without crossing the line into the Arctic Circle, which is 200 miles North of Fairbanks. Since that would be a bit long for a one-day round-trip drive, we decided we would find the town nearest the Arctic Circle and stay overnight. That town turned out to be Coldfoot (population 13), which is 60 miles further north. Another 238 miles further north is Deadhorse, Alaska, where the Dalton Highway ends at the Arctic Ocean, but we didn’t want to go quite that far!

We didn’t leave in much of hurry to get there, figuring 260 miles would be about 5 hours, and there wouldn’t be much to do once we got to Coldfoot anyway, as it is basically a way station for travelers going further north. What we didn’t count on was the condition of the roads. The Dalton Highway which takes you to Coldfoot and beyond is mostly unpaved. That can mean anything from hardpan dirt road, to muddy road (if it’s been raining), to gravel road with lots of ruts. Even the paved portions were nothing to brag about, so let’s just say, it was slow going. Adding to that, we made several stops along the way, so even though we left at 10:00, we didn’t arrive until after 5:00.

Our first stop was the Alyeska Pipe Line visitor center where we learned how the pipeline came about, how it was constructed, and how long it is (800 miles). We saw the pipeline alongside the highway for most of our journey to Coldfoot. The lodge where we stayed in Coldfoot was actually converted housing for pipe line workers back in the 1970’s. It is still sort of set up bunk style with single beds in the rooms, and many without private bathrooms or showers. We were fortunate enough to get a room with both, although the day we went wasn’t that busy. There is only one place to eat in Coldfoot, which is part of the lodge. It is buffet style until 9:00 to accommodate all the tour buses that come through, so we ate buffet, and it was actually pretty good! After dinner we toured the visitor center, and that was about it for our stay. But, hey, when in our lives again will we be able to set foot inside the Arctic Circle? It’s too bad we won’t be there on June 21 when the sun is up for 24 hours, without any dusk. (In Fairbanks there will be just over 2 hours of dusk on that day, and we will be celebrating at The Midnight Sun festival downtown – including a 10K for me that starts at 10:00 p.m.!)

Chena Hot Springs

Chena Hot Springs Resort is about 60 miles from Fairbanks, and one of the “local” attractions recommended for visitors. It was cold the day we decided to visit, which made the prospects of emerging myself into a steaming hot bath of natural spring water that much more inviting. The drive was absolutely beautiful, with the highway winding through the Chena River Recreation Area, and we saw trumpet swans and a moose along the way. Once we arrived, we discovered that the resort was very rustic, as many places in Alaska seem to be. A natural hot spring has been channeled into an outdoor pool with a sand bottom and big rocks all around the sides. The water was about 106 degrees, and smelled strongly of sulfur. But since it was only 40 degrees at the Hot Springs that day, it felt very good! The busiest time at the resort is in the winter when the Northern Lights are easily seen. They get a lot of Japanese tourists who fly in just to view the Northern Lights in the Hot Springs setting. We won’t see the Northern Lights over the summer since it never gets dark enough, but we enjoyed the water just the same.

Creamer's Refuge

Dan and I have been in Fairbanks, on the Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, just over three weeks now. When we decided to come to Alaska for Summer 2008, our goal was to try to find a temporary volunteer position somewhere. We knew it would be very expensive to get here, and to stay here (even before fuel prices were this crazy!), and we thought we could help offset these costs by working or volunteering somewhere. Dan did some exploration and found a position for Refuge Host at Creamer’s. We applied and were hired for a six-week position, and that is how we ended up here. Our duties consists of working Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, 10:00-5:00, overseeing the Visitor’s Center and light maintenance on the grounds. In exchange for that, we get a place to park our 5th wheel, electricity and water.

Below is some information from the Creamer’s website (www.creamersfield.org) explaining how a Dairy owned by a family named Creamer became a Wildlife Refuge. I’ve also attached some pictures of the grounds.

“During the gold rush at the turn of the century, Belle and Charles Hinckley brought three cows and some horses from Nome, Alaska, by steamboat and sternwheeler to the small outpost of Fairbanks to operate a dairy. They paid for their passage by selling milk to other passengers. On the last leg of the journey, they met and became friends with the Creamer's, another pioneer family on their way to Fairbanks. In 1928 the Creamers purchased the dairy from the Hinckley's and continued to develop, enlarge, and operate it until 1966. It was the largest and most successful dairy in Interior Alaska. As the dairy grew over the years, migratory waterfowl congregated at Creamer's Field in increasing numbers. The grain and large open fields provided prime habitat. When the dairy went up for sale in 1966, local residents met to plan a way to purchase the property. Along with money raised by the community, the State legislature provided funds (25%) to match with the federal government's Pittman-Robertson funds (75%) to purchase the 250 acre farm. Management was given to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). In 1970 an adjacent 1500 acres of state land was added and the entire parcel designated "Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge" in 1979.

At Creamer's Refuge, a wide variety of different habitats provide homes for a diversity of animals. But the refuge plays a special role in the lives of migratory birds. Even though some birds such as Canada geese, pintails and golden plovers stay for only a short time, they depend on Creamer's Refuge to feed and rest each spring and fall. Other birds such as Sandhill cranes, Shovelers, and mallards may remain the whole summer. Visitors enjoy excellent bird watching spring through fall. Creamer's Refuge also appeals to other types of wildlife as well. Visitors frequently spot moose meandering through the forest, snowshoe hares nibbling on willows, chattering squirrels or a red fox pouncing on voles at field's edge.”

Juneau, Alaska

As you probably all know, one of our goals is to visit every state capital. Visiting Juneau, Alaska, has to qualify as the hardest and most expensive capital visit yet! Since you can’t drive to Juneau, your options are flying or taking the ferry (in our case, from Haines, following the route we were on moving towards Fairbanks). Since we wanted our truck with us in Juneau, we opted for the ferry. The ferry cost $290 round trip, and since the schedule is such that the soonest we could come back was two days after arriving, we had to spend two nights in Juneau. After doing the research, Dan found the best deal possible at The Alaskan Hotel in the heart of downtown Juneau - and that was $90 a night. We didn't think that was much of a deal to begin with, but we were even more convinced after getting there. Downtown consists of only about three blocks, but it is just like any typical downtown anywhere - just smaller! The Alaskan Hotel is the oldest operating hotel in Juneau, established in 1913, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. I honestly don't think they've done much to improve the place since then, either.

The problem with The Alaskan Hotel was, well, just about everything!! We didn't get the room we reserved, and had to lug our bags from one floor to another getting that straightened out. No place to park, so we ended up six blocks away with hills like San Francisco to deal with. The room was really hot, with no apparent way to cool it down, other than opening the windows. The TV didn't work, we didn't have enough towels, and everything reeked of cigarette smoke. I could go on, but you probably get the picture. The clientele was…different. We were on the third floor, and our windows opened out into the street. We didn't think that would be so bad once the businesses closed down. Well, we were wrong... things just got started at about 10:00 p.m. and went on until at least 4:00 a.m. - we lost track after a while. Right underneath us was a big street party going on, and on, and on…(police, ambulance, and fire truck came at one point and hauled one woman to the hospital and another to jail after they had it out). Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that night. We checked out the next morning and checked in to the Super 8, nine miles from downtown. A lot less history, but a lot more comfort.

But back to the beginning. We arrived in Juneau on Friday afternoon and drove straight to the Mendenhall Glacier and spent a couple of hours walking around. It was a beautiful day and I was very excited to be seeing a real glacier. In the park, in addition to the glacier, we saw a trumpet swan, mountain goats way up the side of a mountain, and a porcupine. I hope to see more glaciers before leaving Alaska, but this was the first, and will always have special meaning. We figured we would tour the capital on Saturday, but we were foiled again! The capital building is only open Monday through Friday, so we missed our opportunity to see the inside, but got some shots of the exterior. We spent the day walking and driving in and around Juneau and the surrounding areas. We saw several cruise ships arrive and depart while we were there, and Juneau seems to cater to the tourists, and is in fact a big part of their economy.

I’ve included pictures from the glacier and some of downtown Juneau.

Drive Through Canada

On Thursday, May 1st we left Elma, Washington after a wonderful two-week visit with family. My mother lives in Hoquiam, my sister and her husband live in Aberdeen, my daughter and two granddaughters live in Seattle, and I also have a niece and nephew and their families that live in the area. I spent as much time as possible with my loved ones in those two weeks, and then before I knew it, time was upon us, and we were preparing to begin our journey to Fairbanks, Alaska. The first leg of our journey consisted of traveling through Canada, first through British Columbia, then the Yukon Territory, then crossing into Alaska 40 miles from Haines. If anyone is looking at the map, and wondering why we would follow that route to Fairbanks, it is because we wanted to visit Juneau (the capital of Alaska) prior to arriving in Fairbanks. The only way to Juneau is by ferry, and Haines, Alaska, was the most logical place for us to catch the ferry to Juneau on our way to Fairbanks. I will have a separate post on our Juneau trip; this post is to cover the beautiful drive through Canada and most especially the Northern Canadian Rockies.

Since we were traveling in early May, it was still very cold, and there was lots of snow on the ground and in the mountains. The lakes and rivers were still frozen over, and this was quite a treat for me to see. I have never been anywhere that gets cold enough, long enough, to freeze more than just a puddle. The beauty of the frozen lakes nestled in low rolling hills or between towering mountains was impossible to capture in a photograph, but believe me, we tried! Many times we were the only vehicle on the road for miles at a time, and the solitude combined with the winter-like landscape was like something I’ve only seen on calendars or postcards. When I thought things couldn’t get any more spectacular, we found ourselves in the Northern Canadian Rockies. The appearance of the Canadian Rockies is a result of the area being very heavily glaciated, producing sharply pointed mountains separated by wide, U-shaped valleys gouged by glaciers, whereas the American Rockies are more rounded with river-carved V-shaped valleys between them.

Almost just as spectacular was the area between Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, and Haines, Alaska which winds through the Alaskan Mountain range. I don’t know if we were just lucky, but on the day we traveled through this area on our way to Haines, it was bright sunshine and crystal clear blue skies. This afforded us clear views of all the splendor the mountain range had to offer. I feel so fortunate we had such perfect weather, because on our return trip five days later, it was foggy and cloudy with poor visibility. If both days had been like that, we would never have experienced this once in a lifetime opportunity.

I’ve attached one picture of the RV park we stayed in the first day we were in Canada (Hope, B.C.), and several of the Northern Canadian Rockies and the Alaskan Mountain Range.