Ahh... Alaska
On this trip I set foot in my 50th
state... a long journey completed.
I landed in Anchorage Alaska on
Sunday July 9, 2006 and the odyssey began!
If all you wanna see are the very
best pictures - the pure highlights - the "money shots" of the trip -
then skip all this and click here for The
Best Of Pix
Some of these should be in
National Geographic if I do say so myself :-)
Now, we did take close to 4300
pictures, so these are the "few" that made the cut! Over 4000
didn't make it...
This trip was my parents and me,
and it was focused on B E A R S...
After getting to Anchorage, went
to go play with the bears for 4 days in Katmai National Park, then back to
Anchorage to get to know the city a bit. From there it was a bus North to
Talkeetna to play a little, then a bus North to Denali to see Mt. McKinley and
Denali National Park. From there, a train South back to Anchorage, and
then a train South down to Seward and Kenai National park, and finally a bus
back to Anchorage and home.
Day 0 - Anchorage
Well, after a long day of travel,
get to the hotel and unpack, then off to dinner.
Our TravelWild tour group
met in the hotel. 18 of us planning to catch sight of a few
bears. After intro's it was off to dinner. Coming out of dinner we
all got real acquainted with the land of the midnight sun. 21.5 hours of
sunrise this time of year. It set 2am-ish and was back up around
5am-ish. Wow..... I never saw the sun set, but I did see it rise - as
Alaska is 4 hours behind the east coast, I woke up early the first few days.
On the walk back we stopped by
Lake Hood. The world's busiest float plane lake, controlled by the
Anchorage Airport Tower. On its peak it can have over 800 flights in a
day off this lake (that's one a minute for over 13 hours - thankfully they have
21+ hrs of daylight!). The actually have multiple
"runways". This is one of the preferred modes of transportation
in Alaska since there are many places where this is literally the only way to
get there - no roads, trains, shoreline, nothing but this. (But sometimes in
winter, Rivers become roads!) Float planes rule!
Day 1 - Anchorage, King
Salmon, Brooks Lodge
Tour group piles over to the
airport where we got on a PenAir (Peninsula Airlines) flight down to King
Salmon
A short shuttle bus over to the
King Salmon Float Airport and Katmai Air. Our first trip on a float
plane, and we were told to expect a rough flight due to high winds
I don't know what they mean
by a rough flight, but this wasn't it. It was a bit noisy but smooth
sailing right onto Brooks Lake. We landed there as opposed to Naknek Lake
due to high winds.
Once on shore we could go more
than 20 paces before we were rounded up and giving out compulsory Bear Briefing
and a pin that we had a wear at all times showing we were briefed. And
while the Bear Briefing was indeed brief it was important stuff like:
There are lots of bears around
Stay 50 yards away from any bear. If they approach,
maintain 50 yards by backing away - but don't turn your back on them, move at
90 degrees from its path
If you run that triggers its attack instinct and you WILL
be attacked and probably killed.
Your "juvenile" males will sometimes "bluff
charge" you. If you are charged, stand your ground, raise your arms
up, and start talking to the bear
Don't ever surprise a bear, so when you are walking along a
path, keep talking. If you run out of things, just say "hey
bear!" or "yo bear!" ever couple of steps.
Never get between a mother and her cub(s) or you will be
attacked
Sometimes bears will wonder on paths, or bridges or
whatever. They have right of way and if they stop, they can create a
"bear jam" where visitors must wait as long as it takes until they
move on their own.
You know... the usual stuff you
expect to hear when you step off an airplane on vacation.
We took a short little 5 minute
bus ride down to "the bridge" and saw our first bear off in the
distance. It was pretty exciting to see one, but that was a teeny tiny
appetizer of what was to come. Then we headed over to bridge to the lodge
to settle in and get some lunch. After lunch most of us heads to
"the falls" where the action is supposed to be. And it was.
That meant a one mile walk across
the bridge, down a road, down a long winding trail through the woods to a
raised boardwalk. Multiple big heavy metal gates on the board walk gave
the visitors the illusion of protection. I say illusion because I learned
the bears (yes, Grizzly) can easily climb, and many are tall enough to stand up
and reach the boardwalk. And plenty strong enough to knock over the
supports of they felt like it. Good thing they didn't. They are
here for the fish to fatten up for their long sleep. Salmon is like Crack
to bears - everything else be damned, gimme that...
Up on the boardwalk we eventually
come to the viewing platform. Its two levels of boardwalk that can hold
perhaps 40 people if you really, really packed them in. And there was park
ranger there (and they were everywhere!) making sure we didn't get too many
people or get too loud.
First time at the falls and a bear
caught a salmon just as we showed up. Lots of cameras firing off and
hushed excitement. Turns out, that particular time, there were not too
many fish around so it was not a common site that day. But there were the
falls, and there were bears, and I was happy.
Back to the lodge for dinner, get
cabin assignment, and go unpack. Cabins slept 4 people (2 bunk beds) same
gender. So dad and I had 2 roomies. One later proved incapable of
handling the basic operation of a 5 foot ladder. It might have been
entertaining had it not been sad and to his own injury. Not once, but
twice.
Then back out to the falls for a
little evening action. They closed the falls from 10p to 7a since the
bears needed a break from us people, and some bears absolutely refused to come
out w/ people around.
Did I mention the wind? It
really showed up on the lake - The first 2 days we were there, there was a
fierce wind. No planes could land on Naknek Lake. I kept calling it
the sea shore by accident because it had 2 foot wind waves crashing on shore
(which, by the way, was a black sand beach from the volcanic ash nearby and had
lots of pumice stones that actually floated!). The wind was good - it
kept the bugs down to zero and it also kept out most of the tourists so we
really did have the place largely unpopulated since no day-trips were
happening. Later when the wind calmed down it got absolutely flat and
presented an amazing sunrise reflection.
Some pictures of Brooks Lodge and
surrounding area
Day 2-4 - Brooks Lodge in
Katmai National Park
And so it was. For the next 3.5
days it was routine to wander the mile out to the falls 2, 3, maybe 4 times a
day. Otherwise, bum around camp, walk down to the lake, etc. And mind
you, there were bears everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Right there in
camp, along the trails, swimming in the lake, playing in the river, playing
with cubs, watching us, sleeping, hanging out in trees they climbed,
everywhere.
Some of the following are the
highlights of that time...
We got to see a number of eagles,
which was equally cool!
We took an afternoon off and went
on a 'flight seeing' tour of the surrounding area focusing on Novarupta.
The largest recorded volcanic eruption. It was about 1912 and it was over
100 times more powerful than Mt. St. Helens. It covered the surrounding
area in seven hundred feet of ash. The ash layer around Brooks was
a good foot thick and buried perhaps 3 inches below the surface today.
Turns out, the bears like the
ash. Since bears are omnivores, the spend time munching on grass and
stuff. That's most of their diet before the salmon show up. So when they
change their diet "over night" to pure fish, well, it goes them
indigestion. To calm their stomach, they dig holes down to the pure ask
and eat a little of that and it makes them feel better as their diet
changes. So they dig "ash holes".
And there was ample evidence,
everywhere you walked, about what the most recent diet of the bears had been.
You could see it in the scat - bear droppings - what they had been
eating. And yes, we determined that they 'do it' in the woods. And on
the trails, in the water, and just about everywhere for that matter...
Day 4 - Last day, Brooks
Lodge
Mom, dad and I decided to go one
last round of watching up at the falls that morning. We were cautioned
that the flight was scheduled for 1p and if we weren't there it would leave
without us, so leave plenty of time to get back in case there was a 'Bear Jam',
which were becoming more frequent with the increasing number of bears we
saw. Indeed, we encountered a few on the way there. We went up
there the fish were jumping like mad, but very few bears - strange. Oh
well, the fish were running their strongest of the trip the night before and
there were bears galore there so maybe most of them were full. It was
cool just watching the fish I think.
Then it was time to return.
We left around 10am and started walking back. We found a bear passed out
about 20 feet off the trial. After a little discussion we decided to make
some noise and walk on by. There were a couple other folks with us and
ultimately they didn't want to get that close so they held back. But we
passed without incident and carried on our little trail passing the time with
conversation (to let the bears know we were coming!). So, as we are
walking along this winding path we see a little motion up ahead. A few
seconds later we see a bear on the trail walking towards us. And I'm
talking a big ol' bull. We estimate about 5.5' at the shoulder and
probably close to 4' wide. Guessing perhaps 1300 pounds. A Big
Boy. And he is walking towards us and perhaps only 30 or 40 feet
away. Well, no time to think twice, since he isn't stopping, we high tail
it 90 degrees off angle straight into the woods, talking as we go. He
passes by the trail we left and a breath a sigh of relief. Ah... wait a
second - he is walking back right to the spot we broke trail. And then he
starts walking right at us again. Not good. He moves faster in the
woods than we do.
So we take another 90' turn and
head parallel to the path in the direction we were originally headed.
Great, we make about 20-30 feet by the time he gets to where we were standing
before. And sure as the sun was shining he turned towards us again and
started approaching us one more time. Seemed like a little faster this
time. Not good... not good at all! No accidents here, he was coming
after us, no doubt about it. OK... Time to make another turn and head back to
the path where we can move a little easier. Let's face it, one step for
him moved him forward 4 feet and our little human legs didn't go that fast
without running, and that's a real no-no. So we get back on the path and
headed the same direction we were before - opposite the direction he was
going. Meanwhile this tank following us cut the corner and headed
straight towards us. So we accelerated a little more now that we were on
the path and were back to like 30 feet away when he emerged on the path again
and moved toward us. That's when dad got off the single picture. A
moment later he stood up on his hind legs, a good 10+ feet high. That's
when you realize you are not at the top of the food chain! He then backed
up into a tree and started scratching his back for a little bit before he
dropped down and walked the other way.... O...M...G... I don't experience
that sitting around at home!!!
Then back towards camp. Walking
around a corner only to find a mom and her cubs asleep right there by the
trail. Like really, right on the trail. Full stop, back up around
the bend. Wait. Wait. Glance at watch. Wonder when the plane is
really taking off. Wait. Consider trekking through the woods to go
around her. Hmm... I ducked into the woods only to discover that I
was probably 15 feet away from a big sleeping male. Ahem... quietly back
out. Crud. Wait... Wait.... Eventually a ranger came along on
a bicycle and scoped the situation. He too thought the best way to deal
with this was to break a trail around. After duly informing him of the
big male, he started doing a little recon to find a clear path for us (now
about 10 of us waiting). About mid-arc around the momma bear, she woke up
and starting walking into the woods right toward him. A little gratuitous
yelling to the range brought him back to the trail in fine shape. And,
with the sow gonzo we could continue back to the lodge, to find we had just
enough time for a quick lunch and go. Another float plane ride and we
were back in King Salmon with a short hop back to Anchorage for a final meal
with the whole tour.
And just a couple of other in-flight
photos
Day 5 - Anchorage
Back in Anchorage we took a walk
over the Anchorage Museum of Art and History. It had a great exhibit on
raptors going on. Some wonderful stuff on trains, local art, and lots of
history. And of course, a great little café. I've been to a bunch
of museum, and I'll tell you - this was a really good one... Excellent in
fact.
Then we took a little tour to the
Alaskan Native Heritage Center. That was another excellent place.
Apparently all staffed my the native Alaskan 'Indian' population from the 7
major tribal areas. They did a lot of re-enactment, dancing, drumming,
sports, built native dwelling, all kinds of stuff. Neat and informative
place. Very friendly people too!
Back in town that night we ended
up dropping in on the performing art's exhibit on Auroras. Some fantastic
art, and a 'show' that was really sort of a documentary with some great footage
and history and a soundtrack that was quite relaxing indeed.
Pix below
Day 6 - Anchorage
and Talkeetna
We took a bus tour of the
city. We had a bus driver who was a professional radio DJ in the mornings
and had the 'perfect' voice for announcing and all. He was very well
spoken, knowledgeable, and entertaining. He took us all over and filled
us in on all kinds of facts and tidbits like:
Anchorage has the second highest tidal change in the world
at over 38 feet. Incoming tide produces wave 1 to 6 feet high.
The mud flats left in low tide are made from glacier mud
which has triangular crystals and acts like quick sand killing people every
year
Anchorage has a population of just over 300,000, while the
entire state has a population of just about 600,000.
There are no taxes in the state of Alaska - just the
opposite, the government pays every man, woman, child an annual share from the
oil revenue
The circumference of the planet is about 25,000 miles while
Alaska has almost 24,000 miles of coastline
One third of the planet's glaciers are in Alaska
1 in 60 Alaskans have a pilot's license
Alaska has more running water than the entire rest of the
United Stated combined
Alaska thinks Texas is a "cute little state"
Annual temperature lows in Anchorage are around 20F degrees
dropping to the teens a couple times, in Barrow, AK is more like -60F (wind
chill to -120F!)
Annual snowfall in Anchorage is about 70 inches, over in
Valdez it peaks out around 1000 inches (84 feet!)
Annual high temperatures across the state hover in the 50F
to 70F range
The 1964 Good Friday earthquake erased the town Portage,
dropped it 12 feet into the sea and raised up other sections of land 6
feet. It lasted 5 minutes and was 9.2 on the scale.
Alaska is very much geologically alive!
That was time well spent, a great
tour!
Then we picked up a bus and headed
north to Talkeetna. They have a fantastic lodge there
We went into "town" that
night to poke around. Ahem... "town"... yeah right.
It was more like an accidental ink spot. Quaint, no doubt, but really
very small. I mean, where else would you see people use old hiking boots
for planters.
Talkeetna pix below
Day 7 - Talkeetna and
Denali
The started early with a trip on
the local river in a big old 1000+ HP jet boat. The trip on the river was
OK. But we took a stop half way thru the trip to visit an authentic
trapper's lodge that was really built and used by somebody. We got to
look around, learned a little about the whole 'trapping' thing, and a bit about
the original natives in the area. Definitely cool.
Then we headed into town and had
lunch at a local pub which served up Musk Ox and Reindeer burgers and Ice Axe
Ale (a mere 9.2%). All were quite yummy.
We were supposed to take a
flight-seeing tour and have the plane land on a glacier. *sigh*....
weather dictated that it was not to happen. And so, I missed my chance to
stand on a glacier (it's been on my list of cool things to do for a while now -
guess I'll have to go back)
Then we boarded another bus and
went north to Denali. A pretty neat hotel there on the side of a
hill. And again, a very small town indeed. I went straight up the
hill (forget about the roads, too slow!) and got a fantastic view. That
was very much my exercise for the day!
Talkeetna Pictures and trip to Denali
Day 8 - Denali
We got up nice and early and
hopped on what looked like an old school bus and headed into Denali National
Park on the single road that when in there. One road, that's it, and it
would take us over 6 hours to drive in. It was long, slow, bumpy, very
steep drop offs, beautiful scenery and wildlife. Of course, we had to
stop anytime we saw something - lots of little critters as well as bear and
reindeer etc. Did I mention it a bumpy trip? oohh.....
Then we got to Kantishna Lodge at
the end of the road. We had a nice little lunch and then attended a talk
by a professional musher. Someone who runs sled dogs teams in races like
the Iditarod. There we met a fellow whose dad redefined the sport.
Traditionally the Iditarod took about 20 days to run. Then his dad comes
along and finishes it in 8 days. He really redefined how it was
done. He had some great stories to listen to. He then gave us a
little demo of his sled team.
Rather than take the bus back
again (did I mention it was long and bumpy?) we decided to see if we could take
a flight back. We could. We picked up a small airplane at this
postage-stamp airport and took a flight back. This proved to be one of
the really good memories of the trip. Since we missed the flight seeing
tour from before this was something we could easily justify. We were
given a fantastic go-round the whole chain of mountains around
Denali/McKinley. It was absolutely spectacular. It was actually a
little depressing to land. One of those times you don't really want to
talk in fear of spoiling the moment. Wow...
Well, back home we had some food
while going to the Denali Cabin Nite Dinner Theater. A very fun, funny,
and informative event with great people and surprisingly good food.
A Day in Denali and Flying Home
Day 9 - Denali and
Anchorage
A leisurely day, we went down to
the train station and hopped on a "dome" car of the Alaska Rail Road
and headed south back to Anchorage. What a fantastic trip that was.
Really amazing views. A great way to travel. It reminded me of
traveling through the Swiss and Austrian Alps by train, but I admit, I thought
this was better.
Since we took another train trip
later on, I will put all the train pictures together later on.
Day 10 - Anchorage,
fishing
Today, we parted ways. Mom
when into town to do her own thing and dad and I hopped on yet another float
plane and headed out to do some fly fishing, hoping to score a salmon or two to
bring home! We got flew into a nice little lodge and found that we were
paired up with the owner of the lodge. A neat fellow, former F14 pilot
who did stuff like Top Gun and air shows and stuff, and also was the former aid
to the secretary of the Navy. Well, he took us out trout fishing in a
couple places. What spectacular weather we had that day. No bugs,
bright sunlight, very relaxing, and warm enough to allow dad to dry out quickly
:-)
Then back to the lodge for
lunch. And what a lunch! Who would have thought!? This little
place was once ranked among the top 5 restaurants in North America by Esquire
magazine and boasted a 5 star chef. No faking it - this was good
food. Then out for some salmon fishing in the afternoon to just sit back
in a boat and let the bobbers float. Ah... this is the life....
A float plane back home and a
chance to relax. Our pilot was a hoot. Standing around in a
Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and sandals. He would just walk right into the
water hip deep (which was like 45 degrees) in his jeans. Turns out he is
one of the only 'bush' pilots who will fly year round, regardless of weather or
sanity.
Then Mom got to tell us all about
her day including a 3 hour conversation with a most interesting local named Old
Jack. This fellow was a furrier. Perhaps one of the world's
best. He had made fur coats for 3 US presidents and one Russian
president. And he had the pictures to prove it. He has been to over
130 countries and speaks 7 languages. Not bad for someone from a village
of 20 who never left until he was drafted and sent to Georgia. We all
ended up meeting him later that day on the way to dinner and ultimately he flat
out gave mom a full beaver pelt.
Dinner as the Glacier Brew
house. Yum.
This is the fishing lodge sign
post. These crazy trees were all over the place. Pretty neat.
Day 11 - Anchorage and
Seward
Hop on the Alaskan Rail Road south
to Seward and Kenai National Park. OK - so, if I thought the train ride
from Denali to Anchorage was fantastic, I clearly didn't know what a fantastic
train ride was. This one was that much better still. The scenery
was stunning. From Dahl sheep and eagles and moose, to mountains and
glaciers, to mud flats and river gorges and lakes. You could see the
remains of Portage that sunk in the earthquake... Wow...
Upon getting into Kenai we were
scheduled to hop on a Kenai Fjords National Park boat cruise/tour. Well
upon arrival we were told that weather was not good and there was a chance it
would not happen, or be cut short. Well, a little waiting around we ended
up going and we would 'figure it out' how far out we would get (and how many
glaciers etc. we would see).
Inside the fjords it was very calm
but outside it did up getting kinda rough out there a few times and crew came
through to make sure everyone was seated and no one got up for any
reason. But outside of those couple of lock-down minutes, we were free to
roam. And they did cut the trip short due to the weather as well they
should have. Mom and I put on the full rain gear and were outside most of
the entire trip. Very windy and raining and by all rights it should have
been freezing but for whatever reason we both stayed mostly warm.
Got to see all kinds of cool critters. Lots of birds, Puffins, seals,
whales, eagles, sea otters, stuff like that. And, of course, some great
geology/geography, glaciers, and what not... The boat captain was also an
excellent speaker and very well versed in the local info he shared over the
loudspeakers.
Then, off to Seward Lodge for the
evening. Looked strikingly similar to the Talkeetna lodge - same
designer. There I had the best salmon meal of the whole trip - Sake
Marinated. Oh - yum!
Day 12 - Seward and
Anchorage
That morning we picked up a bus
and headed back to Anchorage. The bus trip didn't hold a candle to the
train ride. Once back we nabbed dinner at the Sourdough Mining
Company. A quaint little restaurant all decked out with mining/gold rush
gear on the walls. Right next to it was an absolutely huge candy store
which featured a 20 foot high Chocolate Falls.
Well, after that, it was time to
drop Ron off at the airport as I had to head back. Mom and dad stayed for
an extra day, but for me - yeah - I had to go. One of the few trips I
truly wished hadn't ended anywhere near when it did.
And I just had to include this
picture for "the end"... Mom and dad headed home... how very cute...
Comments: Please send your
comments to me by clicking
here