The Great Alaska Wilderness

Traveling to Alaska has been a dream of Rick’s since I have known him. He actually thought he wanted to LIVE in Alaska, until we visited (much to my relief)! While it is a beautiful place to visit we decided it was not a place we could ever call home. While the scenery is spectacular I would surely freeze to death in the wintertime and decided I could not live somewhere where a heater was necessary in the summertime! We cruised past some of the most dramatic scenery we have ever seen, hiked with bears, took a scenic and short flight and watched massive glaciers fall into the sea. My biggest fear was coming across a bear in the woods. I was so terrified of this prospect that I purchased bells to hang from our backpacks which jingled as we walked. I don’t know if these bells help or not, but I thought of it as a security blanket!

We left Lauren with Grandma Karen and Papa Mike and shuttled Chris off to his Dad’s house, then we set off for Vancouver. We boarded the Diamond Princess Cruise ship in Vancouver, BC. Our cruise would take us through the inside passage making stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. We then cruised through Glacier Bay and College Fjord National Parks. It was beautiful, exhilarating and very COLD!! Cruise ships have swimming pools right, well you would have to be a polar bear to enjoy the pool on our ship! The staff on the cruise ship was very friendly and we were surprised to learn that this particular ship travel to Dalian China as part of an Asian cruise that Princess does in the winter months. We dined on gourmet food and spent most of our time out on deck taking in the splendid scenery. We did find time to squeeze in a ballroom dance lesson and I took a Zumba class on the ship!

Ketchikan
Our first stop was Ketchikan, Alaska where we set off to explore Totem Bight State Park. These totem poles date back to the early 1900’s and were carved by Native Americans indigenous to Alaska. Some of these poles tell stories while others are simply grave markers. We also toured the town of Ketchikan and walked along historic Creek Street.









Juneau
Our second stop was Juneau. Juneau is an interesting city in that it can only be accessed by boat or airplane. There are no roads that lead in or out of Juneau. From here we toured Mendenhall Glacier. This was our first glimpse of a glacier and we were awed by it’s size. Little did we know this one was small compared to some of the others we would see on our trip. I was mesmerized by the striking blue color of the ice. This is caused by the crystallization process which allows some colors to be absorbed better than others, the blue color stands out due to having a shorter wavelength.







Skagway
Our next stop was Skagway, from here we rented a car and drove up over the Chilkoot Pass. The road parallels the path that gold seekers took up though the mountains in search of gold in the late 1800’s. This is rugged territory and I could not image hiking through here with gear loaded on my back. There is a 33 mile hiking trail that leads up over the pass, obviously for those who have more stamina than I do!



At the top of the pass is a tundra area carved out by glaciers millions of years ago. There is little that can survive in this area and it looks like a strange moonscape.



We even passed through a desert caused by glacial silt that was deposited when a glacier lake dried up.



Our final destination in Skagway was Emerald Lake, a beautiful turquoise blue lake. We attempted to go kayaking here but the water was just too rough!




Glacier Bay National Parks and College Fjord
We were able to experience the massive glaciers up close from our cruise ship. The sounds of the massive chunks of ice calving, or breaking off and crashing into the sea sounded like thunder. They also created huge waves.








To Anchorage and Beyond
We took a short flightseeing tour in Anchorage with a friend of my parents. Thank you Dave for taking us flying! The views were incredible.





From Anchorage we traveled to Denali National Park. Unfortunately the day we went to the park it was cold and rainy. The Park Service at Denali has a sled dog team that they use to get around during the winter months. We got to meet the dogs and watch a sled dog demonstration. These dogs take their work seriously and seem to really enjoy it. We also took a bus tour into the park but had little opportunity to do much else.




We did see some animals on our tour, we saw lynx, hoary marmot, ptarmigan, moose, caribou, dall sheep and a grizzly bear. Most of the animals were far away and we saw them through binoculars.











Mt. McKinley was well hidden behind the clouds. We were told that fewer than 30% of park visitors get to see Mt McKinley. We did catch a glimpse of it on our drive back to Anchorage.



Mt McKinley peeking out from behind the clounds.


From Denali we drove to Seward, Alaska, a small town located on the coast. Here we hiked up to the Harding ice field at Exit glacier. This was a difficult 8 mile hike that had a 3400 foot elevation gain. It was a magnificent day however and the views were spectacular. We did see a bear on the trail eating leaves out of a tree! We stopped to take a few pictures then hurried along.





This concludes my blog on our Alaska Adventures! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!