Better Late Than Never

Well this trip actually happened on Labor Day....it just took us about 3 months to write the post. But like the title says, better late than never...

One of my customers who has a cabin up near Fairbanks suggested that we take a trip up towards Denali. She said that the tundra turns colors in the fall and that it is definitely worth the trip. So, on Labor Day we left early in the morning to make the long drive up the Parks Highway.

We picked a perfect day as it was very calm, sunny, and warm. As we worked our way North we started to see a color - yellow. The leaves in Alaska only turn yellow. No orange, red, brown, etc. I am not sure if that is due to the cold or the type of tree but they all turn that one shade.

We were just planning on going up to Denali State Park, but it was such a nice day out and we hadn't really seen any tundra yet so we kept going. A short drive from the furthest point we had gone before led to an exciting discover - our first sighting of a real Alaskan igloo!

Finally, we made it all they way up to Denali National Park (#43 on the list). To go most places in the park you have to take a bus (or win a ticket in a lottery they do every year to drive in), however you are able to drive about 15 miles into the park for free. There is nothing really exciting in those first 15 miles, but we had already come about 150 miles so we decided to make the trip.

The nicest part of the drive was the ability to see Denali from the North, and it was out on this day.

The tundra was definitely worth the trip (and probably another trip around the same time next year). As you can see, the tundra turns several shades of red and when combined with the green of the evergreens, the yellow of the trees, the blues of the sky, and the brown of the mountain above the treeline it leads to some picturesque views (new item on the list #97 - see the Fall foliage of the tundra).

And even just the contrast of the yellow trees with the evergreens leads to some nice views.

On the way back down we stopped in Denali State Park to get some views of Denali from the South.

This trip was one of our favorites from this summer and I am glad my customer mentioned this to me. Since then I have talked to several people who have lived in a Alaska for a long time (in some cases their whole lives) who never knew the tundra changed colors and have never driven up to see.


It has snowed about 6 inches in the past couple of days...so there may be some more posts coming soon with our first winter adventures!


Steven

Playing Tour Guide

Rebekah's mom and sister were in town this week - so we decided to show them as much of Alaska as possible during their visit. This meant two day trips each longer than 10 hours, but it was worth it. Here comes a long post...

On Saturday we drove up to Hatcher Pass (#65) which was FINALLY open. After the mine the road becomes all dirt and gravel for about the next 20 miles. You make your way up from the mine and at the top you reach Summit Lake. As you can see, the lake is gorgeous...

and the view down into the valley below is also spectacular.

Hatcher Pass was definitely worth the wait.

Rebekah and I hiked up the side of one of the mountains for a better view (#67).

And Sarah and Hildy played in the snow.

On the way down from Hatcher Pass to Willow, we pulled off the side of the road to stop at Albino Hare Gallery - Garden and Gifts. They sell some lotion that is supposedly very good for dry skin and mosquito bites - but it is around $20 for a small jar. I opened one of the jars to take a peek and accidentally spilled about $4 worth on the floor. The lady working at the counter was thrilled, but was nice about it and helped me clean it up.

The gardens out back had many different types of flowers and we explored it for a little while. They were having a flower sale...but we don't want or need any right now.

After we got back on the main road we headed north to Denali to see if the mountain was out today. Unfortunately, as you can see from all the clouds around the mountain - it was not. This is what the vast majority of people who travel to Denali see. After this brief disappointment we turned around and drove the 3 hours home for dinner. We ate at Simon's and Seafort's, which is one of our favorite places in Anchorage and one of the best for seafood in the city. I even got Sarah to try Halibut! We finally got back to the apartment around 10 and went to bed to get ready for another long day...
We woke up pretty late in the morning and headed south to the Kenai Peninsula ...

and the town of Seward (#49).

We started by visiting the Alaska SeaLife Center (new entry #91). The center has lots of information, diagrams, and videos on the sea animals in the area...and of course many of the animals themselves.

Birds....

Sea Lions...

and Sea Otters. Getting to see the animals up close was really cool. They have behind the scenes tours that you can go on to get an even closer look. And once you pay to enter you can leave and reenter on the same day for free! This is really useful when it is raining outside - like it was on this day. Not much else to do around the small town of Seward (or Alaska for that matter) when it is raining out.

Afterwards we drove around the town and found the historic start of the Iditarod! It now has two starts: a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage and the real start north of the city. One of the can't miss things to do in Anchorage during the winter is catch the start of this race - and one that we will definitely attend!

Next we drove over to Exit Glacier (new entry #92), which so far has been one of our favorite glaciers. It is very easy to get to and view - and you can hike right up to it.

The hike to the glacier is one of two you can do in Kenai Fjords National Park (#40). Hint - you may see details about the other hike in a not too distant post. Any other part of the over 700 square mile park has to be accessed by boat or air. The easiest way to do this is to take a glacier and wildlife cruise, which gives you access to more of the park and some wonderful sights. We plan on doing that sometime fairly soon as well.

Sarah and Hildy enjoyed seeing their first Alaskan glacier! The weekend went really well and we got to see a lot of Alaska - including a lot that Rebekah and I hadn't seen before. We enjoyed having Sarah and Hildy visit for a week and hope they come back and see us again soon!


Steven

Change of Plans

We woke up this morning with a plan. Today we were driving up into the Matsu Valley past Wasilla and Palmer, through Hatcher Pass stopping at Independence Mine, and heading over to Talkeetna (#'s 64-66). We were going to leave early...around 8 am and have a nice relaxing day, taking our time along the back road.

Things started going badly before we even left. The weather forecast declared that it would start raining around noon. And with us being a two hour drive away that gave us only a two hour window of nice weather for the day. But, we stayed positive and headed off only a few minutes behind schedule.

The scenery as you approach Hatcher Pass is gorgeous. The road runs along Little Susitna River, which you can see above. The drive starts to turn upwards as you head closer to the pass and there are some spectacular views of the valley below opening up into the Matsu Valley with another range of mountains in the distance.
We continued to climb and were approaching the entrance to the pass and the Independence Mine area when we encountered our next problem...the pass doesn't open until June 20th. So, after the two hour drive up there we had to head back. However, just down the road from the turn off for the pass is the Musk Ox Farm (new item #88), so we decided to make a side trip there.
If you remember from a previous post, this is the animal that produces qiviut that is sold at the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers Co-op in Anchorage that we had already visited. There are only 54 animals in the herd to produce this material, which is why it is so rare and expensive. The animals were interesting looking to say the least, but they seemed to like the attention.
After that we had a decision to make. It was already 11 and it was supposed to start raining around noon. Should we drive around the non-scenic route to Talkeetna or should we do some things around Anchorage for the rest of the day. We decided to head Northwest from Wasilla up Parks Highway to Talkeetna.

The drive is pretty boring once you get outside of Wasilla. It was still pretty, just nothing compared with the other drives we had done in Alaska. After another couple of hours we stopped to have lunch at Sheep Creek Lodge, and got to sit outside as the weather was still nice. The food was prety good and the location was nice, just south of the turn off for Talkeetna.
We left and continued along to Talkeetna (#66), which with under 900 residents was smaller than we expected. It was a quaint little town that seemed mostly like a tourist destination. If you walk down one of the gravel roads from downtown there is access to the shore of the Susitna River, and from there we got our first glimpses of Denali. At 20,32o feet it is the tallest mountain in North America. And it is the highest mountain rising from it's own base in the world (beating even Mt. Everest). It is the large one in the distance right behind our heads.
We then headed back from Talkeetna, as there was not much to do in the town itself. We passed Fish Lake on the way back to the Parks Highway and got a great view of a floater plane in the mountain lake.
When we reached the junction to the highway we had yet another decision to make. Turn back towards Anchorage as it was already around 3 or continue on the additional hundred miles or so to Denali State Park (#41). Since we had already come all this way and the weather was still nice we decided to continue on....
Although the state park does not actual contain the mountain (the national park does), it has some of the best views of Denali and travels right along the Parks Highway. However, it is not an exceptional hiking park (as far as I could find just a few trails with none of them shorter than 9 or so miles).
The mountain was actually out today (although wrapped in some clouds), which from talking to other visitors and park employees/volunteers is quite unusual. This was apparently the best day to view the mountain all month. And in some years, such as last summer which was very rainy, Denali never comes out. Locals say that 85% of visitors to the area never actually see the mountain that they traveled all the way to see.
The park also contains an Alaska Veterans Memorial, which we thought was as appropriate stop on Memorial weekend.

In the end, it was good the pass was closed. It made for a boring morning, but we got to actually see Denali in the afternoon. And we timed it perfectly. As we turned around to head South the rain was just starting to roll into the area, and we even dodged it the entire drive home.

Well this was a long post and a long day, and just imagine...there are still two more days in this holiday weekend. So expect a couple more posts.


Steven