49th State - One More to Go

The city of Anchorage has not deterred me as almost every city I've stepped foot in prior had. The clean streets and active community have been tugging at the typical "let's just stay here" conversation of a trip.

On Ship Creek you can fish for salmon... in the middle of the city. A casual 30 minute drive out to wilderness. It's different from most larger US cities I've been to.

The pride the state and it's residents seem to have when they make sure to separate themselves from the rest of us barbarians as they echo, "the lower 48" during conversation; and for good reason. AK is gorgeous whether in the city or wilderness.

This is our last day here in Alaska and it has been phenomenal. You can explore the state by land, air, and water and be blown away by any choice.

A recap of the last few days. We made our way back from Fairbanks in one 400ish mile road grind. We got a hotel for the last two nights and explored the city more so than a couple of weeks ago. Cross Northern Lights off the bucket list. Light in color but spanning across the sky, pulsing between visible and not, a wonderful sight.

Argo

Our first full day in Fairbanks we went to check out an ice sculpture museum and ended up talking to a local for a while, skipping the museum. We looked around a local co op where handcrafted items amongst other things were being sold. We questioned one of the shop employees about things to do, she suggested to check out Pioneer Park.

We obliged, Pioneer Park had peculiar cabins. These cabin’s had been relocated from downtown, which reminded me of kitchen kettle from Lancaster, Pa. The cabins were filled with all sorts of shops like museums, food, and adventure. We peeked around the Pioneer museum and really enjoyed the diaramas. We left Pioneer Park for some lunch. 

After a nice lunch and cozy nap we took advice from another local and went to the Fountainhead Automotive museum which housed unique vehicles I’ve never laid my eyes on. Near some of the vehicles were manicans on display with time period specific clothing making it a bit easier to put yourself in their shoes. Some being the last claimed in models left. The model T snowmobile was especially memorable as it was adapted for the Alaskan winters with ski's instead of tires!

No northern lights so far, but the weather should be clearing up.

Sweet & Sour

Made it to Fairbanks in hope to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern lights. Bucket list item for sure and occurs this time of year. Nothing is guaranteed but a claimed 240ish days of the year they are visible near Fairbanks. We will probably be staying in the city for a few days to give us the best chance. It’s been raining and overcast so far.

The landscape has changed from mountainous Seward/Anchorage to less towering mountains and more of an open/ rolling mountain feel. Closer to the city are vast overlooks that dip your eyes into the fall colors of yellow, green, and orange. Winter is spoken about by the locals and prepared for as we’ve seen sleds for kids in shopping areas waiting to be sold.

Off of topic - many of the streams/rivers we’ve seen are grey in color. The sand and mud have also been grey, interestingly.

We spoke to a local resident and found out a few things. One of which is why a lot of people have cracked windshields. Due to the temperatures they don’t use salt for the roads, they use gravel. This gravel gets kicked up putting cracks in cars.

We made a pit stop at a local Chinese restaurant for food and ordered too much for our stomachs to hold.

Side by side

September 4th

We stayed at Riley Creek campground within the Denali Park. The overcast weather lasted the entire day. Starting off we went to the visitor center to finish exploring the exhibits. At 1pm we hopped on a bus that transported us to an old coal mining area, which was cut out from the park, to drive a side by side ATV. We were looking forward to this excursion when we were in the planning stages of this trip.

The ATV adventure was enjoyable way to spend 2.5 hours. Crawling up hills to overlook the town of Healy and rolling through a broken river left some mud on us. I attempted to take some footage with the go pro but keeping it steady was difficult.

After bussing back we ate lunch and went into the park. We decided to drive along the main drag until forced to stop around the 15 mile mark. During the drive we spotted a couple snowshoe hares and moose. We even climbed a rock along a trail near the Savage river to get a better view.

Denali - the tall one

After staying at Nancy Lake campground we backtracked to Independence Mine. A camp that was set up, in 1936, to extract gold. Roughly 150,000 oz of gold was mined between 1936 - 1943. The  geography made this a difficult ordeal. The surrounding land was just shy of magical.

Returning to the pavement we began making our way to Denali National Park. Along the way to Denali we came across Byers Lake campground. We stopped to check it out. The campground was packed making us extremely nervous that no more spots would be available at Denali considering sites 50+ miles away were full.

 We continued to venture through tundra and found an abandoned igloo structure  near the side of the highway. I had seen pictures posted online before and knew that it was built as a hotel. Unfortunately it was never finished, left abandoned for quite some time. We peeked around and found graffiti plentiful. We peeked to see the inside; dilapidated. Perfect place for an under age party. After skulking around for a bit we decided to continue.

A while later we arrived at Denali National Park and Preserve and read a sign stating all campgrounds were full. We inquired inside and found out that we got there at a good time and tenting sites were opened up. We bought two days...and considered a third.

We checked out pieces of the visitor center, bought some memorabilia, watched a sled dog demonstration, and left the park to celebrated our adventure at 49th State brewery.

On the way to the brewery we spotted a train hugging the mountains adjacent to us. Ahead we spotted a bridge that the train would pass. We raced to overlook, hurriedly exited the Escape, grabbing cameras, and grabbed a few pictures as the train crossed over bridge with a water flowing underneath, with the sun shining the mountain from the background.

Once we arrived at the brewing company we immediately spotted a beaten up bus. I jokingly mentioned to Liz that it may be the bus from Into the Wild ( book then later movie). To my excitement IT WAS the bus prop from the movie! Liz took an appropriate picture of me sitting next to it. The bus was opened to walk around within, which we did.

So far we’ve spotted a porcupine and a moose with antlers. Still keeping an eye out for a grizzly. We’ve been sleeping for 8+ hours a day, and just taking it slow. The slow approach method of travel is the best way, in my opinion.

”roads are not maintained”

The first of September. We didn’t get moving until noon due to getting great sleep. About 5 days without a shower is not a pleasant sight or odor. We’ve been using body wipes sparingly, so finding a shower topped the to do list. We decided to head back to Anchorage, along the Seward highway, to a hostel.

Neither of us had ever been to a hostel and were anxious about the event. We arrived, followed the instructions on the door, and next on the phone. The hostel seemed like a place to exchange information and stories between travelers. We stayed long enough to take a shower (5 bucks each) and went on our way. Well worth the money.

Earlier in Seward while looking through our traveling guide , "Independence Mine Historic State Park" stood out, which is located about an hour and a half North of Anchorage.  We fueled up the vehicle ($3.17/gal ; surprisingly cheap) and arrived just before the park closed. We didn’t have enough time to explore so we decided to drive around and to venture back in the morning.

We stumbled upon another state park right beside the mining town and lost the next 2 hours to exploring. At close to 4000 feet we found parasailers jumping from the crests, families picking blueberries in the mountains, and absolutely unbelievable views. We couldn’t stop driving our curiosity telling us to press on. ATV and side by sides were everywhere in the mixed forest /subalpine level of the mountains. This area is known as Hatcher’s Pass. Ending up an hour away as we found a campground at Nancy Lake, camping spot #20.

We set up camp and I, depressingly, spilled our dinner all over the ground. I specifically saved that rehydrated meal for last, since it was the best. Liz is giggling as I’m writing this. I tagged Liz in to take over to became the chef of our next option, the pasta side.

First natural sighting!

 After I awfully attempted backwoods shower (roughly 36 degrees), we grabbed our food out of the campground food storage bin. Blasting the heat and eating the Seward highway curves our morning trip lasted a few hours.

To our delight driving around a bend at the base of a hill we saw our first wild creature. A female moose trudging through a few feet of water. Liz was extremely excited. We watched as she submerged her entire head for several seconds then came up as she was chewing. Truly a wonderful sight. She was approximately 80 yards out. We watched, hazardly, sitting on the shoulder of a highway. A few others joined us and one even gave us a non friendly honk, whoops.

The morning sun with the mountains towering above us is surreal. Mountains blocking out the sun casting shadows like a cloud. Early morning we arrived at the Kenai National Park. The portion of the park accessible by road is small in size. So small, in fact, that a fee was not required. We walked on two trails to get a view of the Glacier. We went out onto the half dry riverbed to gaze at the glacier.

After snow lays and persists for a year, it compresses and becomes known as a firn. If a firn lasts  4-10 years, due to compression, it is considered glacier as a metamorphic rock. As snow is 90% air; glacier is only 10%.

I wrongly thought we could get a few days out of the area, but the only way to view other parts of the park were to kayak or obtain a ride on a boat. Both options expensive for what they are. Some places charging $250 a person for 5 or so hours. We decided against it and drove around the town of Seward. Right now we found a lovely campsite in the city of Seward. We’re within a short distance of resurrection bay in spot 302. Witnessing the ecosystem of a fjord is unique. Having a mountain range backdrop, with a glacier (Godwin), salmon jumping from the water (900 ft deep) is a landscape we’ve been marveling at. According to signage only several fjords exist on earth.

Cell data has been limited within the last 24 hours...

Bloody Antlers

On August 30th we started off the day by visiting an information center in Anchorage on 4th Avenue. The street was pleasantly different from the other modern business style parts of the city. Although different smaller non-chain stores. The building just so happened to be a federal building with some park rangers about. We grabbed a few pamphlets and went on our way.

We started by filling up the tank with fuel and began to head south on Seward highway. I’ve been all around the country and this is the most scenic highway I can recall. Mountain after mountain with seemingly endless landscape panaramas. We stopped many times along the way. The day was set to explore the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

We arrived at the conservation center and was greeted with a $15 dollar per person entry. We were provided with close views of native wildlife. From moose, wolves, wood bison, bears; both brown and black, snickers the porcupine,  black tailed dear, and even a lynx. Definitely worth the stop. This area kept us excited for hours. Longing to find our own experiences with observing them within their natural habitat.

We continued down Seward highway to search for our first camping spot. About 30 minutes later we came upon Bethas Creek campground, which lies within Chugach National Forest. We were tense as this was our first time camping in grizzly bear country! Luckily a few others showed up and camped in sites near ours. We cooked, laughed, and kept looking over each other shoulders; keeping an eye on our bear mace. Liz read me a bedtime story about Amy Pohler...

A Day In Anchorage

For our first day we decided to stay in the Anchorage area. Lots to do while we were here. The city is more modern than I anticipated and very clean.

We started off the day by checking out a close by park, Kincaid, where we got a few nice pictures. We had a view of mount Denali. A spectacular sight. By road the mountain is a few hours away.

Then we moved on to the Anchorage museum of natural history. $18 bucks a person and it was very well worth it. Liz and I played around in the discovery section, an area for tactile learning. I did jump and stay in the air for .01 second longer than Liz could do. We were fascinated learning about the native population which is something we’ve never learned through either of our educations. We watched a video of a celebratory dance coined eagle wolf dance, where native populations come together to celebrate, share stories and values, and network.

Feeling hungry we drove up to the Far North Bicentennial park to get closer to the mountain range. We ended up checking out a bunch of housing further up the mountain. It looked like an HGTV episode; million dollar houses with a priceless view of Anchorage. We tested our stove and newly purchased fuel by questioning whether or not we could heat canned food, while still in the original can. Answer is yes it’s warm, but it tastes like metal, so scratch that. While cooking we had a few of Anchorages finest searching for a couple vehicles on the non-motor vehicle part of the trails. Seems they came up empty handed. Liz made her first meal successfully using our portable burner!

During the early evening hours we visited the Eklutna historic park where we spoke to a tour guide about the peculiar area. This was a Russian Orthodox Church mixed with native assimilation. In the flint picture you will see small houses which are spirit houses for the deceased, standing only a few feet high. The ceremony has changed throughout the years taking hints from the Russian and native combination.

We ended the day going to Beach Lake. On our way there we drove around a residential lake that had residential housing with private planes sitting on the water, presumably lifting off and landing within the lake. Pretty bizarre. There are small planes everywhere! Seems like a qualification to live in Alaska is to have a pilot’s license.

Anchorage

At 12:22am on August 29th we’ve made it to Anchorage, AK. We spent an hour or so unpacking into our rental car, a newer Ford Escape. We also made a fast food run where we found out the food pricing is roughly 30% more expensive. Curious to see a grocery stores pricing.

After about 24 hours of traveling we decided to just pull into a cabelas to crash. Our blow up bed fits snugly in the back of the Escape. After 4-5 hours of sleep I feel like a whole new person. Liz is still currently recouping. Plans for the day are to check out Anchorage city.

My cell phone provider does not have enough set up to transmit data, but I can still call/text. An oversight on my part.

Longest Day ever

My sister stayed over our place last night too inform Liz and I how to use her GoPro.  Out of anxiety I got about an hour and a  half of sleep before getting up at 3:15am.  Thanks for the ride to BWI. Being cheap lead us to multiple layovers; 2 on the way to Alaska (about 9 hours worth).

A few minutes after getting out of the car and walking into the airport we encountered our first surprise. Our first flight and the itenerary is wrong. Luckily, airport staff got everything figured out. Hopefully no more issues on the way there.

It's just about 7 am. Waiting to board the first flight. My anxiety is through the roof. Liz calmly supportive of my fear of flying took over for a little while.

Update 1: departure delayed. It's 9:37am and we've been sitting on the runway since 8. Apparently if our plane doesn't "make a deal" (captian said). We're going to be delayed a few hours. Not sure if this has been better than a work day...

Update 2. Well, we "made a deal" still unsure of what that means. Both Liz and I are exhausted. Currently it's 2:55p (time zone change) waiting to board our second of three flights for the day. We ate at Goose brewing company. She opted for a blue moon, and I a wheat ale; absolutely exhausted.

Update 3. We made it to Seattle. Got a tiny bit of sleep. Flight had been delayed too. Sitting here at 9pm west coast time.

Update 4. At 12:22 Alaskan time we’ve officially landed.

THE LAST FRONTIER!

ALASKA!

Alaska was purchased by the USA in 1867 from Russia, and it's 663,268 square miles of mostly wilderness. Liz and I will be exploring parts of this massive state for approximately 15 days.

Check the right hand side of the screen under picture albums and click "The Last Frontier" to see the most up to date pictures.

Here we go!