Alaska Journey – Part I

Preparing a blog about a wonderful 13-day vacation to Alaska is not easy.  What I hope to cover here is our various impressions of Alaska and interesting things we saw and did.  Although I’ll cover aspects of the cruise ship, boring details about what we had to eat each day (it was all excellent) etc. I will skip over. Keeping it short and pertinent!

Our trip was all managed by Holland-America, the cruise line, but they put together all the details of the five days on land as well. We were amazed at their organization as we came across people in different towns, on different selected side trips, going different directions to different places, yet all the details, baggage etc. seemed to be handled without a hitch!

“Fifty.”

That was my first comment as our Delta 757 touched down in Fairbanks, Alaska, mid evening on Tuesday, July 3, 2013.  I have had the privilege of being in 49 of America’s 50 states for quite some time.  Alaska was number 50.  It’s a unique status that earns one nothing, other than a lot of personal memories.  I have been to 46 of those 50 states more than once.  Much of this came through extensive travel with my jobs at John Deere and AM General.  Some day I’ll do a blog entry on impressions of each state.

We experienced our first “Midnight Sun” evening.  We were there about 12 days after the Summer Solstice where there is 21 hours and 49 minutes of sunlight.  The hotel drapes were quite thick, but the light was coming from above the drapes.  It was weird to see this at 3 a.m.  In the winter they get just over three hours of sunlight.  They lose seven minutes worth of sunlight this time of year, so summer warmth comes to an end in mid September.

Fairbanks is only a 120 miles below the Arctic Circle.  It’s Alaska’s second largest city at 32,000+ and more than 90,000 in the metro area.  It is the largest city that far north in the US.  They seem to pride themselves on having the northern most everything…Wal-Mart, McDonald’s etc.

It’s sort of a “dusty cow town” in my estimation.  It’s on the inland side of the mountains and actually is quite dry, getting only 12 inches of moisture per year, much of it in the summer. . They average 61 inches of snow a year, a foot below South Bend’s average.  They also get the terribly cold temps, occasionally -60 for a few days. But it’s a “dry cold” they say, mimicking the Arizonans who speak of their intense heat as a “dry heat.”  Their snow is dry and crunchy, not the slushy messes that we’re used to the in Midwest.  Many of the citizens do not stay there for the winter.

The town was founded as a supply post for early gold prospectors.  Lots of interesting history, but seeking gold is the reason there were settlers in this region.  Some mining goes in the region now.  Many of the workers now are affiliated with “black gold,” oil, further north.  Many are employed at the two military installations or the University of Alaska.

I expound upon this city because it is quite different than much of the rest of the state.  It’s tough to live there and the people reflect the conditions.  It is not as typical as the coastal towns such as Anchorage, Juneau, Ketchikan and other Alaskan towns near the sea.

 

 

Discovery Tour

 

Our first Alaskan morning was beautiful…in the low 60s.  Part of our planned tour was a trip down the Chena River on sternwheeler riverboat cruise.  This actually was a very pleasant surprise and probably where we learned the most about Alaska.  The shallow Chena River flows about 100 miles into the Tanana River.  Fairbanks is built on either side of it.  It was the last place that vessels could navigate when bringing supplies to the prospectors.

 

We sat on the open air top of the vessel…there were 4 levels I believe.  The guide/announcer was tremendous.  Jay Lewis was a retired radio announcer (reminding me much of our local talk radio morning announcer in South Bend).  He made it so fun and interesting.

 

 

 Shortly after cruising, we saw a demo of a Piper Cub with pontoons taking off and landing on the river, just past our boat. More than one sixth of Alaskans own their own plane as it is often the only way in and out.  On this river, where a lot of homes are built, the planes land on the frozen ice in the winter.  No control towers, so watch out! 

 

Next we pulled right up to a dog sled training area.  Many years ago Susan Butcher, who is now deceased, won the Iditarod dog sled races across Alaska.  Her husband, Dave Monson, still maintains the training area for the sled dogs.  He came out to the shore and had a microphone that allowed us to hear him through the speakers on the boat.  He explained how the dogs are raised and trained.  We then had a demonstration with the dogs pulling an ATV around a lake in the background.  Quite interesting.

 

 

 

 

 We then made our way down river and turned around where it meets the Tanana, the largest glacial fed river in the world.  Salmon spawn in this area, hundreds of miles from the Bering Sea where they start their journey up the Yukon, then the Tanana rivers. 

 We then stopped at the Chena Indian Village and were able to get off after we viewed a fishing camp demo where the Athabasca Indians (Eskimos) catch, cut and cure salmon.  Chum salmon (the lightest pink) are used to feed the dogs.  The better salmon (darker pink, almost red) are the King and Sockeye, were not up into this area yet. Where salmon is caught determines the quality.  It is best just coming out of the salt water.  Grade 1 Sockeye salmon is the best.

 

 

 

 

 

This river cruise was very informational with a lot packed into it.  We were fed a “family style” lunch after disembarking.

The afternoon was spent at Gold Dredge #8 gold mine.  This was/is the top gold mining area in Alaska, but not near as much is done here as in decades past.  This mine is not operating, but is used for tourism.  It could be reopened since gold prices are high, but all the machinery would have to be replaced with OSHA standard equipment, making it cost prohibitive.

The Alaska Pipeline (Alyeska Pipeline as it is formally named after the company that built it), comes right by this mining area.  I guess you can think of it as the new “gold” or black gold as some call it.

 

 

 

 

We rode a small train through the area and saw the original mining equipment and then “panned for gold.”  It seemed a little hokey to me, but we did get a few flakes.

 

 

 

After a long day, we returned to the hotel with just enough time to clean up a little and head up for an additional adventure we signed up for, not knowing our day was already going to be long. 

We were taken to a nice place for dinner, and then headed out in a van for 40 minutes, and through the woods where we launched out in a rubber raft.  Our guide was Larry who had many tales of life in Alaska, some of which we were not sure were true!

I was amazing that we put in the upper reaches of the Chena River at 10:30 p.m. in bright sunlight.  Although there were four of us in the raft plus Larry the guide, we had millions of visitors…mosquitoes!  They had spray cans of Off and we had Off wipes, it did not deter these huge pests from swarming in your face!  We did not get bitten but it was irritating to have them swarming and buzzing.  Much of our time was spent laughing at Johnny, one of the other passengers who was obsessed with the critters and not having a good time!  Despite the bugs, it was a nice float. 

There was a large forest fire to the north of us (smoke on the horizon).

 

We did not get back to our hotel until well past midnight…in the brightness of the Midnight Sun.

A long first day in this fascinating and rugged land.

 

McKinley Explorer

Holland America owns ten domed passenger rail cars called McKinley Explorer Railcars.  They are pulled by the Alaska Railroad along the Anchorage to Fairbanks stretch of rail.  It really made our trip to the interior prior to our cruise a special time.  The scenery was in every direction and we could view it from the comfort of the car.  On the lower level was the dining area where you could have a great breakfast and lunch.  This has become a popular way to visit Alaska and because I was intent on visiting Denali National Park and Preserve, this was the best way to get there.  You can go by car between Fairbanks and Anchorage and visit the Park as well.

 

 

On our second full day in Alaska, we boarded the McKinley Explorer in Fairbanks and spent much of the Fourth of July celebrating the freedom to visit such a great place as Alaska in our nation! 

 

It was about a five hour trip to Denali.  The scenery was very good, but nothing in comparison to what we would see later.  We had pre-booked a helicopter ride to see the fabled Mt. McKinley, but it was quite cloudy and windy.  Our tour representative met us and informed us that the tour for that day had been cancelled.  It was really the only disappointment on our 12 day stay. 

 

We stayed at the McKinley Chalet.  There are a few different lodging choices which sit just on the edge of the park along the road and railway.  The rooms were cabin-like small buildings, nothing luxurious, but quite adequate. 



Denali National Park and Preserve

This park (with emphasis on Preserve) was officially designated such in 1980. It encompasses Mt. McKinley (or some call it Mt. Denali – or the High One or Great One as the Athabaskans call it), the highest peak in North America. For me it was to be the highlight of the whole trip. I’m a
“mountain and landscape” guy as my wife will tell you.

Space does not allow telling you all about the park. Plenty of information is out there. Americans probably don’t know as much about this park as others, but they should especially with its emphasis on preservation.

Of course the highlight of the park is the elusive Mt. McKinley. It is elusive because it is often difficult to see due to its remoteness and it is often shrouded in clouds. In fact travel information warns visitors that only about 30 percent of the visitors get to see it. It is a reason we had booked the helicopter tour, which was cancelled.

On July 5 we got up early to meet our bus driver and interpretive naturalist Mary Jane (MJ), who happened to be an Indiana University graduate with a Master’s in biology.  I’d have to say she was one of the best tour guys I can recall…both in her deep knowledge of the park and her ability to “herd” the bus across the narrow roads.  This was not a deluxe motor coach, but rather an older “Blue Bird” bus more familiar to school children across America.  It was equipped with a camera that MJ could use to zoom in on wildlife, which then could be seen on flip down screens on the bus.

 

 

The park does not allow private auto or truck traffic except to a couple designated areas. Otherwise entrance is by bus, either the tourist bus or a park bus, which is smaller and is able to navigate the narrower roads past the 63 mile post where our bus had to turn around.

I didn’t do a lot of prep work to have a good understanding of what we would be seeing. But once inside the park, it became apparent…this was something really different and spectacular. It is not like other national parks, in that it is for the most part tundra, mostly treeless landscape with small shrubs and wildflowers. In some ways it’s like a desert. The uplift of mountains stretches for miles, much of it carved out with glaciers, which fill the shallow braided rivers running through the major valleys. The park preserves a major ecosystem and wilderness that basically remains unchanged from the time Alaska natives and others have used the land for nearly 11,000 years.

Wildlife does not thrive here. The fragile eco system will only sustain smaller amounts of animals. There are no fish, so the smaller sized bears feed on berries. Dall sheep exist on the small ledges where they can be out of range of predators. Sick, injured or old animals are prey for others and are never touched or removed by park personnel.

We were able to see a red fox, porcupine, Dall sheep, caribou, and a golden grizzly bear.
The highlight was seeing the elusive 20,320 foot snow covered mountain. MJ stopped the bus as she would do if she saw wildlife. The clouds had cleared away from the very distant peak. She let us get our photos (from within the bus), then moved on. There were about four places she could stop for us to get a view. By the time we made it to the end of the passable road, where sometimes there is a better view, the peak was completely blotted out by clouds. But we were able to get a few good shots of it and I was able to later buy my “30 percent club” tee shirt, being part of the minority of people who actually get to see the peak!

I have seen most of the major US mountainous parks and they all have their grandeur and beauty.  But I think I was more “awed” by Denali Park given its great expanse, and unique terrain.  I would like to spend more time there, but with its distance away from home, that might not happen!  It was a visit worth every minute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

That evening we took in a dinner-theatre event called “Cabin Nights,” which was a comedy-musical illustrating life in Alaska after a family style meal.

Stayed tuned for Alaska Journey - Part II