Episode 38: Alaska / Vancouver / Seattle, Summer 2008
This summer we decided to spoil ourselves with a long (two and a half week) vacation to Alaska. We started the trip in Anchorage. A relatively modern city, Anchorage’s beauty was in its natural surroundings of snow-capped mountains and pristine water. We explored the city on foot for the first two days of our trip, enjoying the summer flowers and wild salmon sculptures that decorated the streets. We came across a number of quaint little stores, ate some great food (yes, including reindeer), and got ready for the real adventure that was about to begin. The one striking thing about Alaska at this time of year that we noticed right away was the amount of daylight. It was surreal to walk out of a restaurant at 11 pm to find it completely sunny outside! During the trip, we regularly got 20+ hours of sunlight per day.
Given everything that we wanted to see in Alaska, we decided that the best way to get it all in was to do an organized tour. We chose to do a land and sea cruise with Holland America. The cruise/tour started in Anchorage where we boarded a scenic train for an eight-hour trip north to beautiful Denali national park. The train itself was awesome – very comfortable and equipped with wall-to-ceiling windows so that passengers can watch the scenery go by. The train traveled through the picturesque Matanuska-Susitna valley, and we saw sights such as the starting point for the famous Iditarod dog sled race. Upon arriving at Denali, we took a helicopter ride over a part of the park and then landed on a field of ice glaciers where we took a hike around before taking the helicopter back to base camp. The scenery was amazing…the mountains were still capped with snow and the valleys were a lush color of green. We even saw a fox dashing across the ground during the helicopter trip back from the glacier. Walking across the glaciers was very much like walking on snow and ice and the shades of blue created by the pure ice in the glaciers were spectacular.
The next day, we boarded a bus (much like an American school bus) that took us on a six-hour ride through Denali National Park. The park is enormous – about 600 million acres – and we were surprised to hear that the park is very sparsely populated with wildlife. In hindsight, I guess it is not that surprising given how harsh the living conditions are in this part of the world, particularly in the winter months. For our tour, we were truly fortunate from a wildlife sighting perspective. We saw nearly all the major species – fox, hares, moose, caribou, eagles, and bears – only missing the very elusive wolf. The most impressive sighting by far was that of a mother grizzly bear and her two baby bear cubs. On our drive out of the park, we found these three bears literally walking along the same road. Our driver stopped the bus and we waited as the bears walked to the side of our bus and stopped at a wooden sign at the side of the road. There, they furiously scratched themselves on the wood for the next ten minutes, while all the people in our bus madly took hundreds of pictures. Finally, the bears lost interest in the sign and continued walking down the road, into the wilderness. It was a magical sight.
The scenery in the park was gorgeous -- beautiful colors, rolling mountains, and plenty of types of vegetation. The prettiest part of the ride was through the Polychrome mountain range – named so because of the vast array of colors present in the mountain range from red rock to deep green grasses. Unfortunately, we were not able to view the namesake of the park, Denali (literally translated as “the Great One” and also known as Mount McKinley) as the clouds were too low. Apparently, the mountain is only in view approximately 25 days throughout the year. Mount McKinley is the highest mountain peak in North America at 20,320 feet (nearly 6,200 meters). Although the peak of Mount McKinley is not the highest in the world (that award goes to Mount Everest), it does have the highest vertical rise from its base at about 18,000 feet. Hard to imagine, but we did get a glimpse of Mount McKinley on one of our days in Anchorage, which is eight hours away from the mountain!
Our final adventure in Denali took us to Stampede Road, which was made famous by the movie “Into the Wild.” For those who have not seen it, “Into the Wild” (directed by Sean Penn) is the story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who decided to leave his entire life behind and “rough it” in Alaska. He started his journey just off of Stampede Road and, about four months later, was found dead of starvation (I guess there’s no point in you renting the movie now). The movie tracks his adventures in getting to Alaska as well as his four months in the wild.
Our journey near Stampede Road was also rough…but in a different way. We took ATVs! We took a tour with a company that offers off-road ATV trips into the bush…and they did not sugarcoat the trip for us visitors! We ran our ATV along a narrow track and through some decent mud and water puddles. At the half-way point, we stopped for a nice campfire dinner with our tour guides and the other tour participants before switching drivers and driving back to our starting point. It was really fun (and a little treacherous at times!). Needless to say, we had quite a bit of mud to wash out of our clothes when we got back to the hotel.
The following morning, we packed up and boarded a bus to head south to Seward (south of Anchorage) where we were to board our cruise ship. The bus ride was majestic – the coastal road along the Cook Inlet is lined with mountains and made for a very pretty drive. One of the stops along the way was at a natural wildlife park that had an open air zoo full of Alaska’s finest wildlife, including deer, elk, an eagle, and bears. This gave us an up-close view of the animals that we had seen from a distance in Denali.
Our home for the next seven days was on board the Zaandam , our Holland America cruise ship. This was our first cruise and we had no idea what to expect. The facilities on the ship, including our room, were fabulous. The first two days of the cruise were spent at sea, cruising through Glacier Bay National Park. Glacier Bay was our primary reason for choosing Alaska for our summer vacation, and it did not disappoint. The enormous glaciers were a spectacular sight, and to be able to witness them calving (when their ice breaks off and falls into the ocean) was really amazing. The bay surrounding the glaciers was full of floating icebergs and home to hoards of sea lions and whales. During dinner one night we even saw a humpback whale breach (when the whale flings its body completely out of the water) a few hundred meters from the back of the boat.
Day three of the cruise marked our first stop on land in the town of Haines. After exploring the quaint little town, which is home to many Alaskan artisans, we chose our very own four-foot totem pole to purchase and send back home. As we continued to walk along the bay, we became intrigued by some Canadian fisherman who had docked in the bay and were cleaning some fish. We ventured closer and watched them clean their (substantial) catch of salmon. After a bit more exploring, we headed off on our own adventure: a sea kayak trip on Chilkoot (meaning Land of Big Fish) lake. After an invigorating and thoroughly enjoyable few hours on the pristine glacier-fed lake, we headed back to the cruise ship. As it seems is frequently the case in Alaska, our ride back was interrupted by some wildlife, this time a local bear named Stockings. Since the bear was a few feet away from the road (and clearly not interested in the tourists taking its picture) we willingly jumped out of the van and took multiple photos of Stockings going about his own business.
Back onto the cruise ship and the next day we arrived in Juneau, Alaska’s capital city. (An interesting fact: Juneau is completely surrounded by sea, so the only way in and out is by boat or plane.) Our day trip for this leg of our trip was a four-hour guided hike along the Perseverance Trail. Once again, the scenery was magical. The views reminded us very much of Switzerland – tall mountains, lush greenery, raging glacier-fed rivers, and traces of snow everywhere. The hike was very informative and a whole lot of fun. Before getting back on the ship, we walked around the city for a little more exploring of the stores and even managed to take a peek inside the Capitol building.
Our final land stop was at the town of Ketchikan. Another interesting fact: Ketchikan is technically located in a rainforest. It rains a tremendous amount there and, not surprisingly, it rained while we were there. Knowing this ahead of time, it was during this stop that we decided to take a cultural adventure rather than one that involved a lot of outdoor time. We took in the antics of four local lumberjacks who put on a very well choreographed lumberjack competition/show and then toured Totem Bight National Park – home to over 25 totem poles and a preserved historic site for Alaska’s native people.
Finally, after a wonderful cruise experience, we docked in Vancouver. Not ready to head home yet, we arranged to spend a few days in Vancouver and Seattle. We spent the next two days exploring the sights of Vancouver, including several areas of the city such as the Gastown neighborhood, Chinatown, Granville Island, and Stanley Park. It was not the first time there for either of us, but the first time together. It is a great city – the locals love the outdoors as well as their food and café culture, making it the perfect Shorg getaway.
From Vancouver, we took a three-hour bus trip across the border to Seattle. Our first venture in Seattle was to Pike Place Market, a huge food market in the center of the city (for our Australian readers, it is similar to the food section of Queen Victoria Market). The market is fantastic and we spent time watching the famous fish throwers and taking in the sights, smells, tastes, and sounds of the bustling market. Seattle is also known for its coffee (it is the home of Starbucks) and we made sure to enjoy that aspect of the city as well. In addition to shopping, exploring, and eating, we also took a daytrip to nearby Bainbridge Island where I had some of the best fish and chips I have ever had (a big statement for an Australian!)
Fully relaxed, we traveled back to Michigan, re-energized for the second-half of the year. We had a wonderful time and highly recommend Alaska to all nature and adventure lovers. We hope you enjoy the photos as much as we do! Until our next edition, take care!
