“North to Alaska” was a tune many years ago and we have always wanted to go there. Recently, the Carson City Chamber of Commerce offered a trip that was just right for us. No big ship cruise for us…we wanted to spend most of our time on land, save for a 6 hour cruise. Perfect!
We landed in Anchorage and took the Alaska Railway train to Denali National Park. Sitting in the Dome Car and eating a good breakfast on board were a real treat. The journey was about 6 hours long with many good sights to see. We were told to watch for moose, bears and other critters. Jerri and I saw only 2 tundra swans. We are on Hurricane Bridge that is 918′ long and 296′ above Hurricane Gulch that feeds into the Chulitna River. The Gulch is named for the speedy winds that roar through the area. As you can see, it’s rainingThe Goose Creek House, aka, The Dr. Seuss House. Still unfinished, the owner wanted a house from which he could have an observation deck that had to be above the trees. It’s now 185′ tall and unoccupied. It takes all kinds, eh? (copied from another photo)Finally here in Denali National Park. This is a huge place – established in 1917, 9,492 sq. miles (a bit larger than New Hampshire). We weren’t in an area to see Denali until a day later and then it was covered with clouds. Ironically, we did get to see it from the Anchorage airport the day we left.Fooling around by the Nenana River, right in back of our hotel room complex. Along the line, folks began to recognize us as sisters. So, “The Sisters” became our moniker for the trip.We took a park bus 43 miles into the park in search of critters, fauna and other wonders. I believe this is the Teklanika River, a braided river due to meandering caused by silt and debris from glaciers.Our first critter, a ptarmigan, sort of like a grouse. The bus was equipped with a camera that zoomed in on the animal we were all trying to see. It was a good thing because then all of us got a chance to see something when standing bodies were blocking us. Shortly after that, we saw a fox kits playing in bushes, but they never slowed down to pose. Sometimes the bus camera wasn’t available and I took a photo. But this is a caribou afar.We did see grizzly bears as well as Dall sheep, but even the bus camera couldn’t get a good photo of them when they were high on a mountain and all we could see were moving brown or white spots.We never saw a live moose, but I really liked this post card. We were told they were all around us, but I don’t think anyone saw one except when we toured a wildlife center. Even then, Jerri and I missed them. That’s the bummer about being on a tour. One has to leave when the leader says so. 🙂Jerri and I with cloudy Denali in the background.This really amused us. Someone paid $300 for 2 signs telling the tour buses to stop for 10 minutes because this area is a Dall sheep crossing. Apparently they do cross the road on occasion but they were in the high country when we were there.Dall sheep from a photo in the hotel lobby. Wish we had have seen one up close and personal.Fireweed lines many road, dirt or paved. It appears after fires and then keeps reseeding that makes the roadsides very pretty. Honey and jam are made from this plant.Turnagain Turnout. This background almost looks fake, doesn’t it? It really did look like that and we found out later that Dall sheep were on the mountain behind us.It’s amazing that after all the snow and really cold weather, these beautiful ferns pop up as if they never had any cold trauma.Alaskan bears are BIG!A bald eagle near its nestThe eagle getting ready to fly to the above nest with a fish. Its mate is in the distance.We visited a dog sled camp and observed a demonstration of an Iditarod sled and all the gear. The family that owns this camp has won the Iditarod several times, which is a huge accomplishment. “Iditarod” means “distant or distant place” from the Athabascan people of interior Alaska. Jerri with a 3 week old future dog sled champion. Being held is part of the pups socialization process and we get to enjoy their little puppy noises and warmth.Dogs taking folks for their mile and a half ride. They love to do this and are very eager to run.What are ya doin’ Bro??? The dogs stop a couple of times on the trail for photos…and, generally, they do what male dogs love to do. This summer camp was all male because the girls tend to distract the boys while training.Godwin, on the right, is only 11 months old and learning the ropes, so to speak. His partner, Rotini, is trying to teach Godwin personal space and nipped at him a couple of times. Notice that these dogs aren’t the traditional huskies. They are bred for endurance and strength and are basically mutts.Godwin didn’t get the message and joined Rotini on the last leg of the journey. Rotini was not amused.Emma, our Alaska Gulf and Kenai Fjords National Park cruise captain, took us on a marvelous 6 hour cruise. Man! They come young these days!Jerri took this photo in the rain near Seward at the beginning of our cruise.Those black bumps you see out there are humpback whales doing a “bubble feed.” They dive down as a team, swim around a bit, exhale bubbles that force the fish up to the surface where they will eat them. The white things you see are gulls taking advantage of the fish coming to the surface. The captain told us where they were coming up because the birds sense the bubbles and flock over to the right area. An amazing experience! I think we must have spent at least half an hour watching this happen. I finally put my phone down and just watched the spectacle. Jerri’s photo as I never got a good one.Resting Steller seals. Jerri’s photo. We also saw many puffins and gulls, but they were too small for good photos.Holgate Glacier. Part of this glacier is a mile thick. Aialik Glacier, more approachable than Holgate was, but still a mile wide.Harbor seals on the ice that has caved off of Aialik Glacier. We did get to see and hear some calving. The noise was deafening and sometimes scary because it echoed off the glacier walls. What we saw was relatively small compared to what you see in spectacular videos of glacier calvingYou can see it was cold (at least for us wimpy warm climate folks)Exit Glacier, near Seward, AK. It is so called because Seward has been in the path of several tsunamis (one of which virtually destroyed the town in 1964). The planned evacuation path at one point was this glacier. I was quite proud of us because we had to hike uphill a bit over a mile to the best viewpoint and we zipped up there ahead of the pack and not out of breath.Exit Glacier is receding as this chart shows. The white blob to the far left is where the glacier was in 1815. It has since retreated to farther back than the 2007 line shows.Jerri with Resurrection River from the glacier in back of her.Seward Port on our last night in Alaska. We really enjoyed being there. Harbor seals, sea otters and many birds abounded here.A black bear at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. This was our last tour before going back to Anchorage.Don’t pet the fluffy cows! Bison are native to Alaska and naturalists are “growing” a herd to reinstate them to their historically natural Alaskan areas.Musk Ox occur in some regions of AlaskaAngie, our intrepid tour director and Kjersten, our super bus driver. They kept us on task and got us to the best placesNot the greatest photo, but here is proof that we did see Denali from the Anchorage Airport.
buzzardnotes 
What a FANTASTIC trip! All the wildlife too……awesome!!
Barbara Allen barblallen@mac.com cell: 714.329.8131
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