Alaska Road Trip

Since I do not know if I will be here next summer, I want try to see as much of Alaska as possible while I can.  As such, I took off on a little(?) road trip with Jackson that started in Anchorage on the May19th and lasted about a week.  Although I didn't have to do the driving, it was a long stretch from place to place.  The trip went something like this:

Day 1:  Anchorage to Seward

We took the scenic Seward highway from Anchorage to Seward, stopping at various view points along the way.  Unfortunately weather wasn't on our side, and it was mostly overcast with some rains at times.  We wanted to do a walk somewhere, but it was quite windy in Turnagain Arm so we skipped that.  The drive South took us across a mountain path, and it was still winter up there.  At lower elevations trees are just starting to show leaves.  Up there, the trees are still bare.  We did a side trip to a town called Hope and saw our first of many mooses.  We also stopped in Kenai Fjords National Park to see the Exit Glacier.  By the time we made it to Seward, it was already dinner time.  We ate halibut and then walked around town a bit for photos.  We stayed the night in Seward.


Day 2: Whittier and Glacier Cruise

We headed out of Seward with plans to catch the 1030 "tunnel" going to Whittier.  You see, to get to the town of Whittier, you have to take North American's longest and most inconvenient tunnel.  The tunnel is one-way, and shared with the trains.  A 15-minute slot an hour is alloted for vehicles to get into Whittier.  If you miss that slot, you have to wait for the next one.  We had a cruise booked that departed at 1230, so we wanted to be sure we had one other opportunity to take the tunnel if we missed the first.  We made our first.

The cruise that we took was Phillip's 26 Glacier Cruise around Prince William Sound.  Again, the weather that day was shit :(  Still, since it was early in season, the cruise was only half full, and the boat was really nice and comfortable.  We saw tons of otters, few whales, and lots of birds.  We didn't really see 26 glaciers, but we saw enough of them.  Not a great day for photos, but it was a nice 5 hour ride nonetheless.  I would do this cruise again if I was in the area. 

Once done with the cruise, we headed back to Anchorage for the night.

Day 3: Anchorage to Denali

We had a roughly 4.5 hour drive to Denali, but we took a side trip to Eklutna Lake and the Independence Mine on the way.  The drive up to Hatchers Pass, which was still snow-covered and closed, was very beautiful.  We passed some nice creeks going up, and saw some ground squirrels once there.  The mine was actually a bit further in there where our car could go though, and snow was too soft to walk on.  We had to look at it from a distance. 

Once back on the Parks highway, we found an view point where you can see Mt. McKinley (or Denali as they call it).  We saw the base of the mountain, but the summit was cloud covered.  Shortly afterward, we arrived in Denali, checked into our hotel, and drove into the park.  The park only lets you drive the first 15 miles into the park.  Still, that was enough for us to see caribous, moose, and a wolf. 

Day 4: Denali National Park



Today we took the park service shuttle to mile 53, or Toklat River.  The shuttle, which looks like a school bus, will stop when there are wildlife around for viewing.  Our driver was also very good at commentating and giving us lots of information.  There were also stops for bathroom breaks and view points.  Initially we though we might get off in places to more time off the bus, but we found it just easier to stick with the same bus.  We were also doing really well with the wildlife sightings.  Caribous, moose, Dall sheep, and grizzlies!  The highlight of the trip was a sow and 2 cubs.  The cubs were so tiny (and cute) - they had just been born this past winter.  They came down a mountain, crossed the road in front of us, and continued down.  We also saw another, lone grizzly later on the trip.

Our shuttle trip was done by 2:30, so we headed back into the park again afterward with our car.  We were hoping to see that wolf again, but no luck.  We drove as far as we could, to the Savage river, and did the 2 mile loop around.  I really enjoyed this particular walk.  If you're looking do hikes in Denali though, there aren't too many options.  There are some trails near the park entrance, but none in the park past mile 15.  You pretty much just go where you want.  The park actually encourages people to explore.  Be sure to read up on all of the rules and safety info before venturing out though.

Day 5: Denali to Fairbanks

Another long day of driving....  The ride to Fairbanks was actually only couple hours and a bit, but it was the hour or so to Chena Hot Springs that made the day long.  I wanted to see what that place was like since I was planning to go this past winter (only to have my flight and trip cancelled due to weather).  Can't say I was overly impressed with the place, but I can see how it'd be a charming getaway in the winter.  We did the ice museum tour, a 3 mile walk mainly for the exercise, and checked out the hot springs (tho we didn't go in).  Back in Fairbanks, we stopped at the Gold Dredge No.8 and crashed some tour that was going on.  It wasn't quite clear if it was open to the general public yet since we kept getting ushered around with the other tourists. 

Day 6: Barrow

We didn't expect there would be much to do in Fairbanks, and the drive to the Arctic Circle seemed like a really long way.  So we planned a day trip to Barrow, the Northern most town in North America.  Well, planning meant we had our flights that would get us there around 10:30am, and leave at 8pm.  We weren't exactly sure how we'd get around though since we couldn't get a hold of any car rental or tour companies.  Once there though, we somehow bumped into a guy looking for someone who had a car reserved.  Although we weren't that person, we needed a car so we went with him and got us an SUV for the day.  Definitely much better than cabbing it everywhere like we thought we might have to do.  We took the car and drove as North as we could go, and all around town.  We wouldn't get too far on foot either, and it was quite cold up there (it was ~32F but wind chill made it colder) as you would expect.  We saw the Arctic Sea and the whale bone arch you see in all adverts on Barrow.  We also went the Inupiat Cultural Heritage Center where we learned more about whaling and saw some traditional dances of the natives there.  What I really wanted to see in Barrow though were the polar bears.  We drove all around looking for them but had no luck. About the only thing I left with were bragging rights for having been there.


Day 7: Richardson Highway



We had a very long drive today from Fairbanks to Copper Center on Richardson Highway.  We got some nice views of the Alaska Pipeline on the way down, as well as of the surrounding mountains and lakes.  Man... I was really exhausted by this day.  I didn't want to do anything by the time we got to the hotel.

Day 8: Wrangell-St.Elias National Park

Today we visited our largest National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias.  It's not a very accessible park though with only like 2 roads going into the park.  It took us nearly 4 hours just to get to a footbridge near McCarthy, 60 miles of it on gravel road.  At the footbridge, a shuttle ran every hour to Kennecott.  We didn't realize we had to take the shuttle there, since we couldn't drive past this point.  Luckily, we just happenned to arrive 10 minutes before the next shuttle.  Once in town we signed up for the 1:30 tour of the old Kennecott Copper Mine.  It was very interesting to see and hear about the history and operations of this quite impressive mine.  We had hoped to do some walks, like to Root Glacier, but we didn't plan anywhere near enough time for that.  Since we had a long drive back, we took the next shuttle out of Kennecott and went back to Copper Center for the night.

Day 9: Back to Anchorage

The trip back to Anchorage took us over many mountain passes, which made our trip a lot longer than expected.  The weather was quite crappy this day too, so that didn't really help.  I was so exhausted I slept half the way back.  The only notable view on this trip was the Matanuska Glacier.  It was quite an impressive one that you can see from a view point on the road.  We did arrive in Anchorage relatively early compared to the other days, but we were pretty spent from the drive back.  The last evening was a fairly relaxed night.

Overall, it was a good trip, but it could have been better in many ways.  For one thing, we could've hit better weather.  We were also on the shoulder season, so not as much greenery in some areas, and too much snow prevented us from doing some of the things we had planned to do.  If I do this trip again, I think I'll try the shoulder season at the end of the summer, instead of the beginning.  Or, suck up the crowd and try to hit it in season.  I would like to go back and do some things again, like all of the national parks, and see more of Chugach State Park.  If I'm still around Alaska next year, I may go back to one or two of those areas and spend more time ther.  If not, well, I've at least got a taste of it all.