Introduction: Alaska

In August of 2008, my family headed north to explore the last frontier, the great state of Alaska. This blog is a photo journal of the time we spent there. We (all eight of us) rented an RV and went trolling around to experience as much of Alaska as we could in two weeks. We hiked gigantic glaciers, came face to face with wildlife, swam in glacial waters, stood in the clouds surrounding Mt. McKinley while it snowed and much more. I have attempted to cover our adventures to the best of my ability. Enjoy!

Arrival: Anchorage, Alaska

We landed in Anchorage, Alaska around one in the morning. The few wee hours of the morning are the only hours in the day when it is dark in Anchorage. We slept in a motel for the rest of the night and the next day we took a bus into downtown Anchorage. While waiting for the other half of our RV party to arrive,we got to know Anchorage.

Seaplane Airport

Near the commercial airport, we drove by a lake serving as the busiest seaplane airport. Plane docks surround it on all sides. We were able to view planes landing and taking off from the water.

Small Plane Airport

Across the street from this lake is a small plane runway and tarmac where hundreds of small planes are parked. This area is so congested with airplanes, they even have right of way on nearby roads.

Historical Earthquake Site

We came upon a historical earthquake site and hiked around the area, gaining our first views of the Pacific Ocean from staggering cliffs and bald eagles as plentiful as seagulls in the lower 48. This was also our first encounter with the giant Alaskan mosquitoes who do not make their normal evening appearances but enjoy feasting on tasty travelers at odd times throughout the day.

Sterling HWY

After the rest of our group arrived, we headed west through the abundant wilderness of the Kenai Peninsula pausing to see picturesque lakes and voluminous valleys. We drove by a small wildlife refuge area where many different animals could be seen in their corrals.

Eagle Glacier

We stopped at turnouts along the Turnagain Arm to view the most awesome scenery and at last, saw our first glacier. The Eagle glacier was about 11 miles from the highway. My little cousin, aunt and mom enjoyed sledding on the ancient ice while the rest of us trekked up to the blue ice.

Kalifornsky Beach

We reached Cook Inlet and walked along Kalifornsky Beach at low tide to chat with the many fishermen setting nets and standing on the edge of a river with large hand held circular nets waiting for the salmon to unwittingly swim into their clutches with the coming of the tide.

While waiting for high tide, we drove to Tustumena Lake to hike and swim in the glacier water river exiting the lake.The cloudy pale green water was colder then jumping in a tub of ice cubes! Upon arriving back to the beach the visible tide (at least 30 ft.) difference was phenomenal.

Skilak Lake

We lumbered up the coast heading back towards Seward. We spent an extremely quiet night by a lake and went roaming in the morning. We hiked down to Skilak Lake, passing many strange mushrooms (tiny yellow ones,red with white dots and foot wide dark purple ones to mention a few)and bear warning signs. The lake was impressively beautiful and intensely cold. My brother discovered a large tree trunk, he used as a raft to explore the lake while we followed him along the shore.

Homer

We continued down the Kenai Peninsula to Homer, a fishing village on the tip of the Peninsula. We walked along the beach, around the harbor and through the shops. The docks in the harbor are built to accommodate the great tidal fluctuations in the area. We were explained the game the locals play with halibut fishing, not only does the largest halibut caught by a member of the contest win a prize but a number of halibut are caught at the beginning of the season and tagged with certain numbers that correspond with monetary prizes. These fish are then released back into the ocean and if they are re-caught later in the year by someone who entered the halibut contest the fisherman wins the said prize for his fish.
While walking along one of the beaches, some friendly fishermen let the kids catch a fish with their lines. The shore drops off so close it was possible to hook anything from halibut to poisonous spiny rock fish without getting your feet wet.

A Bear's Lunch

We reached the mouth of a river and rolled a fallen tree across it to create a bridge to the other side. We could see the salmon swimming up stream beneath the log as we crossed. Right when we decided to head back up the trail a bear decided to do some fishing not 10 feet from where we just were.

Exit Glacier

On our way to Seward we drove to the Exit glacier. This glacier descends from the Harding Ice Field. We were able to walk right up to it and touch it. The glacier’s sole size is magnificent beyond words.

Seward

It was late and raining when we arrived in Seward. Despite the time (10 pm) it was still remarkably light out. We explored the harbor and the surrounding town and saw multiple historical buildings and the scenic Resurrection Bay.

The Giant Vegetables of Alaska

We slept out the short night in Seward and headed off the Kenai Peninsula, back through Anchorage and into the town of Wasilla. This town is home to some of the largest vegetables(5lb. turnips, 30 lb. cabbages etc.} in the world due to the long hours of sunlight in each day. We visited a garden behind the visitor’s center to see these giants in progress. This rhubarb plant was bigger then my cousin.

Denali National Park and Preserve

We continued on our way up to Denali National park and Preserve through some of the most spectacular scenery. We spent the rest of the day gathering information at the Visitors center, finding a place to sleep, and hiking the trail at the end of the paved road.

Eielson, Denali

The next morning we took a 4 hour bus ride into the center of the wild, to Eielson. The trip was on a muddy dirt road in the rain and sometimes snow. We encountered a couple of moose, a herd of elk and a mama bear and her cub. There were several stops on the way to clean the mud off the bus’s windows.

When we arrived in Eielson it was raining and a few degrees from freezing. We sought refuge in the exploration center to get warm before heading back outside to walk the trails. A sign informed us: "17 hours and 5 minutes of daylight on that day and there was a 7 minute loss from the day before." Mt. McKinley was supposed to be visible from Eielson’s vantage point but the surrounding cloud obscured the view. I walked a trail to an outcropping overlooking the McKinley River and it began to snow. The silence there was truly deafening. The on the ride back we saw a fox, the Alaskan state bird (ptarmigan), and a moose very close to the road.

Sled Dogs

The next day we visited a kennel to see the sled dogs that are used to patrol the park in the winter time. Some of the dogs had blue eyes and others had strange habits (like eating rocks), but they were all happy and very excited about their jobs.

The North Pole

Leaving the freezing rain of Denali, we headed north to Fairbanks. Amazingly, we viewed some more incredible picturesque scenery. (It seems every bend in the road the view is greater than the last!). We cruised through the town of “North Pole” and passed “Santa Claus Lane”.
We saw a huge male moose near the road and on a small side road we saw another moose crossing a stream. In the light of ten o’clock at night, we picked some sweet, plump wild raspberries

The Alaskan Pipeline

We stopped multiple times to see the great Alaskan pipeline. 800 miles are covered by this pipe making it one of the longest oil pipelines. It carries crude oil from Prudhoe on Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez, the northern most ice-free port in North America.

Giant Mosquitoes

We proceeded to drive in a southerly direction heading towards Anchorage stopping at overlooks and hiking trails, all the while swatting giant mosquitoes and searching for beaver dams (this was the only animal abundant in Alaska we had yet to see).


In an attempt to portray the size of these mosquitoes, here is one on a water bottle cap.

Beavers

We spotted a large beaver dam right off the road and we pulled over to see if we could find the owner of such a magnificent dam.After our hopeless attempts to cross the surrounding swamp in several ways, finding a bone, and many different animal foot prints, we came upon a trail that led to the edge of the large dam. Quietly observing the dam for a while the beavers appeared. We watched them gnaw on blueberry bushes and peacefully paddle around their habitation.

Spectacular Views

We gazed upon many breathtaking views along the Richardson and Glenn Highways returning to Anchorage. This view took four shots to capture and was the perfect example of water pools created by humongous chunks of ice left behind by ancient, long gone glaciers. The pools make interesting additions to the spectacular surroundings.

Semi-Precious Stones and More Moose

We gave up panning for gold and stumbled along a river looking for interesting rocks and watching out for bears. We met a man who said that he came to the river bed in search of semi-precious stones to sell in town. He gave us a quick lesson in rockhounding!
Having fulfilled our want to hunt for rocks and finding a bear jaw skeleton with teeth, we walked back to the RV with our pockets heavy. As we turned a corner we saw a large mother moose and a few seconds later she was joined with her baby. After taking some pictures we backed off and had to tromp through alot of underbrush and trees to avoid them.

Matanuska Glacier

This Glacier is 27 miles long and we were able to slip and slide our way right up to the blue ice, home to the ice worms burrowed deep. We saw a group of ice climbers traversing some of the more erratic areas of the glacier. There were many interesting ice formations. It is unfortunate that I cannot include them all here because they were all worth of showcasing.

Departure from Anchorage, Alaska

We continued our long drive back to Anchorage through some of the pointiest mountain ranges I have ever seen.
When we arrived in Anchorage we returned the RV and spent our last day in Alaska exploring downtown and the lake airport again!
When we got to the Anchorage International Airport to leave and got to security this sign told us that security was closed and to come back later.
Security returned in time for us to make our flight back home, where the days are much shorter and the temperature significantly warmer.

Background

Alaska is the largest state in the United States at 656,425 square miles, that’s approximately the same size as 4 Californias or 424.8 Rhode Islands. It is also the least populated state by acre at 1.2 people per square mile compared to California’s 234.4 people per square mile or New Jersey’s 1,171.1 people per square mile.
Alaska was bought from Russia in 1869 for $7.2 million, which is roughly 2 cents a square mile, or really, really, really cheap.
Much of Alaska is only accessible by airplane, in fact the capital, Juneau, is the only state capital in the US not accessible by road.