Alaska Trip

August 14, 2024

August 15, 2024

Next we did a short bus tour around the city.  Not much history in anchorage except for the big earthquake back in the 60’s.   We did go by a cool little lake with a bunch of airplanes tied up on the shore.   Alaska version of a marina harbor I guess.

August 16, 2024

Today we drive from Anchorage to Glennallen to take a walk on the Matinewsca glacier.  Never seen a glacier up close like this.  Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable young fellow and really enjoyed his work.  But before we got there we wanted to go to Hatcher Pass to check out the scenery   It is at 9000 feet so we thought it would be a good view.  Unfortunately, it started to rain as we climbed up in elevation, so the pictures were not great   Oh well.  Win some and loose some.

Off to the Vrbo.  This was quite the experience.  We stayed in Glennallen.   Had some trouble with navigation.  Ended up going down a path off the main road thinking it led to our cabin.  Went a couple hundred yards and the path ended.  Teresa wanted to keep going.  She knew we were on the right track.  You can guess what I said.  There were 5 or 6 burned out cars along the path.  I would have taken pictures but I was busy being scared.  We backed out of there and finally found the right road.  Not sure it was much better though.  It was a long drive getting here and there are no places to eat so supper consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for me and cheese puffs for Teresa.  Along with a Bourbon or two.  You can see Teresa refusing to come in the cabin she was so distraught!

August 17, 2024

 Today we head to McCarthy/Kennecott.  The drive along the way was amazing.  60 miles and took more than 2 hours.  The road was not great but we also stopped for pictures along the way.   This is a very interesting couple of towns.  The road ends just before you get to McCarthy.  You park and walk over a bridge to get to the town.  It’s about a mile or so.   Then you can go another 5 miles to Kennecott.  Either walk or take a shuttle.  Kennecott is where we took the copper mine tour.  It was very cool.  Both towns are more a cluster of 10 or 20 buildings though.  You wouldn’t consider it a real town.  Kennecott was were the work was done.  The partying was done in McCarthy.

Dinner tonight in McCarthy.  There are 2 restaurants.  We planned on going to the potato.  However, we stopped by an upscale restaurant (and very small) called salmon and bear.  Prefix menu, either chicken or copper lake salmon. Of course we wanted the salmon. Ended up choosing this place. It turned out great. Waiter worked at French laundry and at 5 star restaurants in NYC.  We had a wonderful evening chatting him up.  We walked by the potato after our dinner and it was a madhouse of campers eating and drinking.  We made the right choice.  We will go to the potato for lunch tomorrow after our plane ride.  I’m sure the atmosphere will be better. 

August 18, 2024

Today we take an airplane ride over the glaciers before we head out to Valdez.  It is a beautiful day today just like yesterday.  Locals say we are lucky because August is normally rainy.  I have way too many pictures to share.  I would highly recommend a tour like this to anyone.  It was fabulous.  I could have stayed up there all day!  We flew all over St Elias national park where 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the USA are.  The glaciers are really quite complicated I have discovered.  Need to learn more about them.

I have to show you our accommodation for the next few days.  Will add more pictures tomorrow but this place is cool.  We emailed the company that makes them.  Maybe we should buy land on a lake and plop one down on the shoreline.  We arrived around supper time tonight and it is raining heavily so we will eat in.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bourbon for us both tonight.

August 19, 2024

Thought I would share additional pictures of our rental unit.  Originally thought it was a container but it is actually a pre-fab tiny house.  You buy them already built.  Just have it delivered. It is small but well furnished.

We went on an amazing adventure today.  A 6 hour cruise to Columbia Glacier.  This was truly amazing and unexpected.  The cruise ship came out of the port of Valdez.  Traveled through the Valdez Arm into the Prince William Sound , then through Colombia Bay.  The water was completely calm the entire way.  Not like that all the time.  We went right by the area affected by the oil spill.  They say 95% of the area is back to normal.  You really have to know where to look to find hints of leftover oil today.  That is great news!  on the way to the glacier we saw lots of wildlife.  Let me list them.  Bald eagles (more than a dozen). Otters, mountain goats, Stellar Sea Lions (hundreds it seemed), horned puffins (very pretty),  Pelagic Cormorant.  And that is all before we get to the glacier.  Our captain said we were able to get closer to the glacier face than any other tour this year because of the weather.  We have reason to believe he has said that before.  Just seeing all the ice bergs floating in the water was really cool.  Could not get pics of all the wildlife because it was too far away.  This is what I got.

August 20, 2024

Today we planned to relax a bit.  Going to go to a museum to learn more about the oil spill and about the earthquake.   Then all hell broke loose.   Got up early and headed to a salmon hatchery.  Had no idea what to expect.  Let me lay it out for you.  First time there we saw salmon swimming upstream where they were stopped by a man-made dam.   The hatchery built this to basically corral the salmon or force them to swim into the hatchery.  Let me finish the story then I will bombard with cool pictures.  This hatchery is coho salmon.  Did you know salmon swim back to where they came from in order to spawn?  Did you know they die right after spawning?  Did you know coho salmon are 3-year fish, which means they spawn during their third year then die but they have to get to their original home first.  So all these salmon are born, get released to the world, travel more than 1000 miles to get to the ocean but on year 3 they swim upstream to get home.  I never knew this.

So back to the story, we arrive in the morning to see all these salmon trying to get home.  What we wanted was to see bear eating salmon, so we left for a few hours and came back.  Now the tide was high, and a bunch of sea lions were feasting on the salmon.  Sea lions are disgusting but this was cool to watch.  No bear so we leave and come back when the tide is out hoping for bears.  No such luck.  Now the seagulls are feasting on salmon.  What a day!!

We heard there was a bear sighting down the road from the fish hatchery so we go scope that out.

I can’t find the pictures but will add them if I do but this stream was the most disgusting thing ever.   It is a stream where some fish that are able to bypass the dam go to die ind I would say 90%of the fish in the stream are dead.  And there are thousands.  The smell would make you sick.  But hay, if bear like we are staying to see the bear.   We left after a couple of hours and did not see any bears.  We did get to the museum though and learned about the earthquake of 1964 and above the oil spill.  After the earthquake they had to move the entire town because it was too dangerous.  Here are some photos taken while walking around town.

Check this out. 2 pictures of the same boat.  One at low tide one at high tide.  Pay attention to the pylon.

August 21, 2024

Left Valdez this morning and drove 8 hours to Danali.  It was a very scenic drive but we limited stops just because we didn’t want it to turn into a 12 hour drive.  The drive is on a gravel road with a speed limit of 35-50 the entire way.  We did however see some moose along the way.  Interesting thing about Alaska, they have very few roads compared to states in the lower 48.  And, many of the roads they do have are dirt or gravel.  There are many parts of Alaska that you simply can’t get to without flying in.  Once we got to Danali we took a drive through and got pictures of a couple Caribou.  We would see more before the trip ends.  

August 22, 2024

First full day at the park.  We were supposed to go whitewater rafting today.  However, it was 40 and raining so we canceled that trip.  We ended up taking a non-narrated bus tour into the park.  You can drive a car in the first 15 miles; you have to take the bus to get into the 49-mile marker.  The road actually goes 90 miles but because of a landslide a few years ago you cannot finish the drive.  Repairs are scheduled to be done by 2027.  When that happens the bus ride is 12 hours instead of the 5 it took us.  I don’t even think I would go on that bus.

We stayed at a nice little cabin right on a creek.  Hoping to spot bear there but didn’t.

August 23, 2024

This was our second day at the park.  We took the narrated bus tour which is 6 hours long.  Figured we would find lots of wildlife.  We did find some but to be honest we were a bit disappointed.  At the end of the trip I intend to provide a list of wildlife and I think you will see we did ok.  Our expectations were a bit high I think.  The park is a nice NP but it ranks in the bottom quartile for the parks we visited so far.  We saw no signs of Denali mountain.  We’re not really sure which way to look.   Don’t be sad though, our luck is going to change.  The landscape is beautiful at Denali so we got some nice pictures.  Including a few wildlife photos too.

Also we had a great meal tonight  sound a Serbian restaurant ranked #8 in the country for casual dinning  it was called Moose Aka’s.

August 24, 2024

Travel to Talkeetna and spend the day walking around.  Today we see Denali!!!  Talkeetna is actually the town where you go if you intend to scale Denali.  It is a neat little town.  I’m just going to post the pictures in the order they were taken.  Before we get to Talkeetna we stop by our b and b to see what it is like.  Too early to check in.  Low and behold Denali is out in the open waiting for us.  Then we go to Talkeetna and wonder.  The next day we wake up and the skies are even clearer so we get more pictures of the place and of the mountain.  It was really cool.

August 25, 2024

Today we went to Seward.  A fishing community much like Valdez.  We just wonder and take pictures today.  We did stop by and see one glacier while on a short hike.  Very pretty.  We will do another wildlife sightseeing tour tomorrow just like we did in Valdez.  We have high hopes for this tour.  

Before I show you pictures, a little about our b and b accommodation.  We have a small room in someone’s house.  A young couple with a small toddler and an older son.  They just purchased the property and have been running it since march.  It is clean but not really very inviting.  It does back up to a lake that would be wonderful if it were 70 instead of 50.  They serve breakfast which is not really very good.  We only met the wife.  She runs the place.  The dad is a small plane pilot so he does sightseeing tours and such.  The woman is a sweet young girl.  I’m hoping this all turns out ok for them.  They bought the place from a 70 something couple who sold to them and moved to Anchorage, so she is really on her own.  I tell you this because I took no pictures of the house.  It was really not worth documenting.  However, be sure to ask Teresa about the property we mistakenly pulled up to thinking it was our b and b.

Had a great dinner tonight at Ray’s seafood.  Highly recommend it.  We had snow crab legs, wedge salad (can’t believe Teresa eats this) and black cod or sablefish.  Outstanding!

August 26, 2024

Second day in Seward.  Today we track down wildlife from a boat.  It was a nice trip, don’t get me wrong.  It won’t sound like it by the time I finish this post but it was.  It was not as nice as the Valdez cruise.  And, it was cold and rainy, the trip lasted 7.5 hours and we did not see as much as we hoped to.  Most of what we saw we already saw in Valdez, which is why I didn’t take as many wildlife photos.  We did see two whales which was important but not enough of them to allow me to take a picture.  Honestly the best part was we went back to Ray’s for dinner and had some wonderful salmon and chowder.  Oh, I forgot, we did go to a glacier and saw some ice calving or breaking off the glacier.  That was exciting.  I have a video of one in action but don’t know how to post it in this blog even though you should be able to.   I will keep trying.

August 27, 2024

Back to Anchorage.  Today we arrived back in Anchorage.  Turned in our rental, filthy but still running.  Our b and b is wonderful.  I will be sure to take pictures tomorrow and post our last day.  On the way we stopped by a stream looking for bear but only found salmon trying to swim home.  I enjoy watching them though.  They are real fighters.

We stayed at a B&B in Anchorage.  It was less expensive than the hotel we stayed at when we arrived here in Anchorage.  We were a bit tentative driving to the place.  Did not know what to expect.  What we got was a very nice B&B with a great view and wonderful accommodations.  If you are ever going to Anchorage and want to rent a reasonably priced room this one will not disappoint.  See some pictures below.

August 28, 2024

Rainy today.  To top it off our flight was canceled due to mechanical issues.  Will try again tomorrow morning at 6:09am. 

Animals we saw along the way

• Moose female 

• Moose calf 

• Bull Moose

• Caribou

• Caribou with red antlers velvet off (ask me what that’s about if you don’t know)

• Dall Sheep 

• Mountain Goats 

• Red fox

• Wolf

• Horned Puffin 

• Bald Eagle 

• Sea Lion 

• Sea Otter 

• Harbor Seal 

• Salmon 

• Whale 

• Doll’s porpoise 

• Pelagic cormorant

• Arctic Ground Squirrel 

• Willow Ptarmigan

August 28, 2024