Vacation. This is very long. There are no pics (yet) and the writing is a little too
um . . .well, tis rather poor. But, for those who are bored . . .this is part 1 of 2.
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Alaska. 2005
Tuesday 6/14 - Arrive
We flew in to Anchorage on Tuesday June 14th, arriving at about 11:10 pm.
During the last part of the flight many mountains and glaciers were visible
from the plane. At the risk of sounding uneducated, I never really thought
of a glacier as a land mass before – in my mind I'd mixed them with icebergs
and always pictured them in or near the water. But the glaciers we saw from
above were massive walls of ice – snaking through the mountains like
gigantic frozen rivers, cutting and shoving through the rock. I thought
about some of the plans we'd made for this trip and couldn't wait to land.
As we were approaching the runway I saw a moose standing in a pond, drinking
water. The silhouette almost looked too perfect to be true.
Mark's cousin Kerry and her boyfriend Ben met us at the airport.
Right away we became obvious tourists, gawking at the daylight. To give you
an idea of what it's like in Alaska between 11:00 pm and midnight - imagine
the amount of light in Chicago around 8:00 pm at the height of summer. It
was lovely. One of my favorite parts of this trip was the freaky, unending
daylight.
We went to Kerry and Ben's apartment and talked and drank until about 3:00
am Alaska time (which is -3 hours Chicago time, so about 6:00 am to us).
Many of the drinks were "spodka"'s which is a combination of Sprite and
vodka. Many more of these were consumed during the trip.
We also played with Robert Redbird – a bobbing science experiment type game
nesting on their coffee table. Then – off to bed.
Wednesday 6/15 - Anchorage
Wednesday Kerry and Ben both had to work, so we showed ourselves around
Anchorage. I've heard differing descriptions of Anchorage – the tourist
books refer to it as Alaska's largest city and make it sound like a
metropolis. Folks I know who have visited Anchorage have referred to it with
terms like "nothing much" or "a pit." If you want my opinion, this is how I
think of Anchorage – it fits the needs of those who live there. Folks who
move to Alaska seem to either move there for 1) the land and Alaska's unique
recreational opportunities or 2) a job. (Of course Alaska, as a state, is a
lot younger than most of it fellow states, which means that, as Kerry put
it, "nobody who lives in Alaska is from Alaska." Obviously this isn't
entirely true, and there are non-native families who by now have lived in
Alaska for several generations, but many of the people you meet in Alaska
will tell you they moved there from somewhere else. In that way the state is
`young' in its population). And even folks, like Kerry, who moved there for
a job, probably targeted Alaska as a new home knowing the distinct terrain
our largest state offers. Therefore Anchorage, in my mind, is mostly a base
camp where people live when they are not in some other part of Alaska
camping, hiking, climbing, rafting, fishing, skiing, or wildlife watching
via boat, small plane, or some other mode of transport. Alaska's attractions
are mountains and forests and glaciers left over from the last ice age – not
5 star hotels and a club hopping scene worthy of a socialite. So if you
arrive in Anchorage expecting all the comforts of a city such as New York,
Chicago, LA, San Fran, or even Boston, Portland, or St. Louis – you are
going to be disappointed. Think more along the lines of Boulder, but without
Denver right next door.
Focus on the fact that Anchorage is exotic for its mountains, glaciers,
ocean, and wacky amounts of light and darkness which, in the summer, cause
the flowers and gardens to be much larger and more bountiful than yours at
home and ignore the lack of skyscrapers. (As an aside - Anchorage also seems
to have as many tourist shops per square foot as your average international
airport, so I suggest comparison shopping before you buy that hematite ring,
package of dried smoked salmon, or ulu knife.)
In Anchorage we went to the Art and History museum and saw displays on
Shamans, Alaska's first families, a general history of settlers, and of
course the Good Friday earthquake in 1964. We also hit several tourist
shops, spent some time in the town square park, and walked out to Elderberry
park which is right off the ocean (well, right off the mud flats, but the
effect is almost the same). We met Kerry for lunch at Humpy's (it took me
until the end of the trip to realize the place was referencing a whale, not
a sexual encounter) (and then Mark proofread this write-up and informed me
that it referred to a type of salmon, and not a whale) had halibut in
various forms – yum! Later that evening we met Kerry and Ben for drinks at a
martini bar. Double yum!!!! We then went out to view Flattop Mountain, which
was incredible. I admit I am quite jealous of folks who can drive 30 minutes
to a mountain (although the people who live near/on the side of the mountain
in million dollar homes strike me as a little bit crazy, given that in
Alaska, you can be pretty sure of a tough, snowy winter). Many pictures were
taken. For dinner (and I promise, this is the only day for which I'll
chronicle all our meals) we had king crab legs, which Kerry - a marine
biologist – had bought from fisherman pretty much right off of their boat. I
could have died a happy woman then and there – crab legs 3x the size (well,
length anyway) of your head!!!!. Yes, we took pictures of the crab legs but,
I tell ya, we could both chow down crab until we burst. More spodka was consumed.
Thursday 6/16 - to Denali
Thursday we woke up bright and early so we could head out to Talkeetna, then
on to our ultimate destination of Denali National Park. Talkeetna is a
couple hours drive from Anchorage – it's a speck on the map tourist town and
home to several flight-seeing establishments. That's one thing I forgot to
mention about Anchorage – on a clear day, small planes flying overhead are
about as common as birds. Mark, a private pilot, was in awe of the sheer
amount of small planes. It's funny how you can barely notice jets when you
are in Chicago, but constantly turn your head every time you hear a
propeller or single or twin engine in Alaska.
On the way to Talkeetna we stopped and took photos of Denali/Mt.
McKinley. Mt. McKinley, which rises straight up from sea level, is the
highest vertical rise of any of the mountains (Everest sits atop a plateau
and therefore does not have as much of a vertical rise, although yes, it
does have a higher peak). The peak of McKinley rose above the clouds and
looked very much like a cloud itself, and we were told how lucky we were to
be able to see the top clearly, as often cloud cover obscures it. Many more
pictures were taken. We then continued on to Talkeetna and had some time to
kill in town (more food, more shops, met Stubbs, the town cat) before taking
our flight seeing tour. On the tour we flew over the base camp for Denali
climbers, and ultimately landed on Ruth Glacier. All four of us went on the
flight tour and Mark, being the pilot, sat up in front and I, being the
lightest (an event which happens even more rarely than a prime photo op of
McKinley/Denali) sat in the very rear.
While I think I had the coldest seat in the plane, I also had the only view
out of both sides of the aircraft, which was a treat. (For those who might
be curious, we flew on Hudson Air. Our pilot was named Chuck and said he
stopped counting once he earned more than 1300 hours flight time. I highly,
highly, highly recommend doing a flight seeing tour of Denali and landing on
a glacier. Yes, it is expensive but it is worth every penny).
Our original intention had been to do the "grand tour" package, which offers
you a view of both sides of the mountain. However, weather (gathering
clouds) prohibited us from flying so close to the mountain, so instead we
flew over base camp. We saw 2 planes deliver more climbers at base camp and
I don't think any of us in the plane felt even remotely jealous we were not
among them. Mountain summit- ors earn my respect, but certainly not my envy.
(I don't consider myself a total princess, but the outdoor living for 15-20
days alone would kill me, never mind the weather). We then flew by a series
of mountains known as Moose's Tooth, Bear Tooth, and Broken Tooth and
through a narrow pass known as the Root Canal (get it?), which was
spectacular. I say again, if you are in Alaska, and can tolerate a small
plane, you must do the flight seeing tour into Denali – it is breathtaking
and one of the best experiences of your life. My eyes could hardly stop
looking at the enormous ice and rocks, the glacier forests and melted
aquamarine lakes. The glacial lakes look unreal, as though someone spilled
bright berry blue kool-aid on top of vanilla ice cream. I know that's a
terrible simile, but it I'm running out of words to describe the absolute
perfection of this tour. Someday I will be boring my grandkids to tears with
stories about what we saw on this flight. What a spectacular experience.
Our ski plane landed (uphill!) on Ruth glacier, on an ice runway marked by
brightly colored plastic sleds. Higher on the glacier is a cabin referred to
as "Mountain House," which can be rented for a week at a time (not that we
booked reservations or anything). The current residents had made many
snowboard trails on the hill leading down from their house to the runway. It
was about 65 degrees on the glacier, so in our pictures we are wearing
shorts and ti-shirts and looking quite comfortable. I am the only wuss
wearing fleece, but as I said I think I had the coldest – or at least
draftiest – seat on the plane and started shivering halfway through the
flight, so I put on my pullover. On the glacier we threw snowballs, Kerry
made a snow angel, and we took many more photos of ourselves, the ice, the
mountains, our plane, and of course the great peak of Denali. We spent about
a half an hour on Ruth glacier before departing (downhill! On pure ice!) for
Talkeetna. On the return trip we saw more forests, moose, and a cavern known
by the pilots as "star wars" because even though it looks tiny from above, it is wide enough to fly through
(although unfortunately not with passengers. We would have gladly bribed Chuck, had he been willing to accept).
After we landed in Talkeetna we headed north to Denali National Park, where
we camped for the evening. I haven't camped since I was a girl scout so this
was almost as big of an adventure for me as the flight seeing tour. I helped set up tents - Ben split up the duties by saying "one person should start a fire, one should cook, and two should set up tents." Since I have no faith in my fire starting abilities and I can't/don't cook, I decided tents was the best option for making myself useful. True, I'd never set up a tent before but I figured I could follow directions well enough. No one's tent collapsed - probably more thanks to Ben than to me - but I still did my part to contribute to the overall camping experience.
Although we heard lots of thunder and had driven through rain on our way to the park the weather stayed clear all night. I should mention that, while in
Anchorage we had about 3 hours of dusk each night (from about 1:00 am to
4:00 am) in Denali it never ever got dark, and we were able to take our very
own midnight sun photograph around the camp fire. I consumed an entire
bottle of wine, which others later joked was why I enjoyed camping so much.
We roasted marshmallows around the campfire, and could not have asked for a
more perfect end to the day.
Friday 6/17 – Denali
After about four or five hours of sleep we dragged ourselves out of our
tents (Kerry commented that since it was still light out we really should
continue sleeping) and took a 6 hour bus tour of the park. We saw a blonde
grizzly bear cross a mountainside and approach a caribou resting in the snow
- the caribou ran off. We saw other caribou as well, including a pair
sitting under a viaduct where we stopped for a picnic lunch, and yet another
ran down the road in front of the bus preceding us, and then sat down on the
side of the road to rest. We saw Dall sheep and bald eagles as well. Since
this was turning out to be the trip with the best weather ever, we were able
to get even more pictures of the mountain. The driving was interspersed with
brief periods of being able to walk on small trails, although we did not get
an opportunity to do any serious hiking. Denali National Park is beautiful,
peaceful, and gigantic - we enjoyed the tour muchly. The crime of Alaska is
that it's so darn huge, and the six days we allotted for our trip really was
not enough time. You could easily spend two or three days (or even weeks)
simply hiking through Denali or exploring different sections of the park,
but since we had more of the state to see the bus tour was definitely a good
way to get an overview of the park. In addition to campsites, Denali also
has several lodges, cabins, and hotels both in and around the park, so you
can easily vacation just in this single location if that's your choice.
After the tour we headed back to Talkeetna, where we spent the night at a
B&B. Mark heard a couple mountaineers exchange stories about their summiting
Kilimanjaro, McKinley, and other peaks. I met a deaf puppy dog being trained
to obey hand signals. Kerry made friends with the cat that liked to hang out
on the tin roof of the B&B (this was not Stubbs, the town cat without a
tail, who we spotted and photographed the preceding day). The B&B was very
quaint and comfortable, even with the four of us sharing a room intended for
three.
I need to make one more comment about food. While most of the food we ate –
especially the fish – was delicious, the food prices in Alaska make the food
prices in Chicago look not only reasonable, but downright cheap. In
Talkeetna we went to a pizza place across the street from our B&B where we
spent $75 on a pizza, salad, and two rounds of drinks for the four of us. I
suppose that Alaska has to import some of its food (for example, Kerry was
sure wheat is not native-grown) and the tourist season is only a few months long
and local pizza joints need to make their living too. But for those who may be
traveling to Alaska be forewarned – food will be a significant expense for
you, even if you do not eat at "fancy" establishments.
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part 2 to follow
Posted by acr at July 21, 2005 07:07 PM | TrackBack