Alaska

Alaska always was a destination, we had dreamed of exploring. Finally we got there. Already the first glimpse over the border was breath taking. As far we could see, there was only forest. We saw some wildfires in the distance, which produced some dust at the horizon, however, the sky presented itself from its best side, a deep blue and clear sky. This was a good start, entering our Alaska adventure. Alaska is the biggest State in the US (twice as big as Texas), therefore distances within the State are huge.

Our first stop leaded us to an old mine town, called Chicken. (www.chickenalaska.com). Its original name was Ptarmigan, called after a bird in this area. However, nobody could pronounce it properly, so everybody called it Chicken since. With only 21 inhabitant more a one-horse town, however modern and innovative. In its only Cafe provides wireless. There is also a gas station, a post office and a saloon of course. We headed along the Top of the World Highway toward Fairbanks. On our way we saw some moose and we had a beautiful view to the mountain range in the Denali National Park.

Fairbanks was founded from gold-digger in the time of the Klondike gold-rush. It became quickly the biggest settlement in Alaska. Today, Anchorage is bigger. Between 1975 and 1977 they organized the construction for the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline. In the Ice-Museum we learned more about the annually Ice-Sculpture-Competition. Artists, around the globe, form sculptures from huge natural ice chunks. Some of these exponents are in a chilly environment on display. Our “neighbors” at the campground, Kiwis (New Zealanders) gave us some fresh Halibut, which they caught the same day. It was delicious.

We made a side trip to the Chena Hot springs. It was nice and relaxing. The water temperature (38 Grad C/100 degrees F) was almost too hot for the nice and warm weather though. We found a nice spot for camping at a nearby lake. A noise woke us up the following morning and we were surprised to see a moose, grazing, directly in front of our tent. We don’t know who was more surprised, this huge animal or we. The moose jumped into the water though and swam across the lake at the other shore.

We had beautiful weather when we headed to Denali National Park.This Park is about 24.585 km² (6.2 Mio acres) and the only way to visit it is by bus, because of its high number of visitors. We were very lucky, because it seemed we have chosen THE best day in this summer. We had a clear view to Mount Denali (also called McKinnley), without any clouds. Only about 1/5 of the tourists are lucky enough to have a glimpse at it. Mount Denali is the highest Mountain in northern America (you may remember: Mount Anconagua in Argentina is the Continents tallest peak). We were very happy to have this nice view, especially in this year, which, according to the Rangers, summer only lasted about 3 days in Denali NP.

Not only we had a beautiful view to the mountains and surroundings, we also spotted caribous, moose, different kinds of birds and about 7 grizzlies. A Mama-Bear and her 3 cups were laying in the grass near the road. It looked like they were taking a sunbath. We generally support the system with these busses in the park. It reduces traffic and helps to keep wildlife wild. However, why do they still use those old-fashioned school busses? We cannot imagine a less comfortable bus-ride, and we are experienced bus-riders, with more than 200 hours bus-experience in South-America. The bus-systems enabled us to hop-in/out wherever we liked. In Denali NP are no maintained trails. Some parts are closed for hikers, especially in bushy areas.The reason is to avoid encounters with grizzlies or wolves in areas with poor visibility. However, every visitor is advised how to behave with wildlife.

The following day was rainy and our bus was delayed because of Laura Bush, who visited the park as well. (Luckily just her). This was more the Alaskan weather we had expected. However we saw many wild animals, like owls and grizzlies again. Unfortunately it didn’t stop raining the next day either. We attended the Discovery-Hike with a Park-Ranger. This 4 hours walk was nice, even the rain didn’t bother us much. The Ranger was very young and inexperienced therefore we (Swiss-Hillbillies) had to lead the group back to the road. She had no clue where we were. On our way back we saw some bears again. Grizzlies may look droll, however, we got a demonstration how fast (over 40 Miles per hour) they can run. A mother bear with a 1 year old cub was chasing another young bear, which was to close in her territory. The ranger supposed that the other young bear may was her 3 years old cub, which she chased away the spring before.
After 3 interesting days in Denali NP we headed south. On our way to Anchorage we stopped at a famous Musher who attends every year the legendary Iditaroad. This is probably one of the toughest races, 1200 miles thru Alaska’s wilderness with a sled and 12 Husky dogs. Vern Halter www.keloland.com/halter, many times in the top ten, won other races as well. We watched a video about the race itself. He also explained the importance of a perfect organization and that every little detail has to be considered. We learned about the equipment, like sled, clothes and other stuff. After a short stroll with his 3 months old puppies (more than 15 crazy ones) we went for a (wild) ride with 12 Huskies. Wow, such a power. Vern had to slow down; otherwise we would felt of the ATV.

Anchorage has a population of over 270,000, however it looks more like a village. The other day, fisher had spotted 2 black bears near a river, only 6 miles south of Anchorage. The bears were fishing salmon as well. The fishers didn’t care much about the bears. However, we read about an incident, a little bit further south that a black bear broke into a tent. The man was ok, though. A little bit scared, we suppose. This guy may didn’t listen, like many tourists, to the rules in bear-country. Food and any cosmetic items do not belong into a tent. However, we also got a little bit concerned because so fare we are mostly sleeping in a tent as well. In Homer, it started raining again and we were hoping for better weather for our next trip; bear-viewing in Katmai National Park.

Unfortunately it was raining the following morning as well. Luckily it cleared in the afternoon, so we could go for this exciting trip. Before take off, we had time to observe some bald eagles, which hang around the coast. These birds, United States heraldic animal, look very proud.

The one-hour flight across the bay was calm, however the landing on the narrow beach was a little bit scary. Especially after our pilots statement a few minutes before, when he flew a loop to have a look at something. We thought, he was looking for a whale or similar in the water, however he only responded: "Nope, we are missing an airplane since 5 days". Oops.

After only a couple yards we saw the first Grizzly, only 10 Meter (30 feet) away. In this meadow we spotted about 30 to 40.(!!!) grizzlies. They were peacefully snoozing, grazing or trying to catch some fish in the creek. The picturesque panorama with those glaciers, the mountains and the ocean couldn’t have been better. Our group (2 other tourists from Holland and our guide) was sitting in the grass, close to a Grizzly mother with her one-year-old cub and observed them. After a while she decided to move on, to our surprise, in our direction. She passed with her cub only 3 meters (9feeds). Wow, that was exciting, we only can say, our adrenalin went up. But our guide was really calm, so we knew, everything should be fine. The mother bear stopped, looked at us and walked by. We were wondering who is watching whom. We definitely won’t forget this experience.

Next day we went further to Seward, which also lies at the Kenai Peninsula. The first time, since we have left Leesburg, we treated our self with a nice dinner in a restaurant. Of course we tried the famous king crab and couldn’t say “no” for a few fresh oysters. Next day we were amused about a 2.5 miles tunnel, which seems to be a tourist attraction here in Whittier. We were astonished about the safety instructions we got. If we would have to stop at every 2.5 tunnel in Europe and pay 12$, it would ruin us. For example: Switzerland has a 11 miles tunnel, which is for free. (We should collect some money as well).

The 3 hours ride on the Fast-Ferry through the Prince William Sound was very nice. Usually in this area it is always cloudy and rainy, but today we saw only blue sky. In Valdez, the wettest area in Alaska, we enjoyed 2 days perfect weather. The Kayak tour to the glaciers was for our opinion with 200$ (per person) too expensive, so we decided to do a lovely hike instead.

After the Kenai peninsula we went to Wrangell-St. Elias-Nationalpark with 53.320 km² the biggest Nationalpark in the States and bigger than Switzerland. Here are a lot of wildlife diversity, from brown-/black bears, bison, caribous, sea lions, stone sheep, salmon and much more. The hike along the glacier was very nice. We walked a little further than the most tourists through a bushy area and were talking loud to each other, because of bears in the area. Fall of a sudden, a black bear cup ran away scared of us. We only saw some bushes moving very close and this was definitely something bigger. We spoke to the mother bear calm but with a strong voice and walked slowly back. Our adrenalin was high, but on the other hand excited as well. On the way back we passed Kennicott, once the richest cupper mine in the world from 1938. It was still some miles to go, but a cold beer was waiting for us in a bar in McCarty. It turned out, that we stayed not only for one beer. There was open-Mic-night for everybody with or without talent. It was funny and therefore we stayed more than 6 hours in the same saloon.

Next day we drove back to Fairbanks along the gas pipeline.The pipeline is longer than 1250 km (800 miles). We spent a night with rain and next morning, everything around the tent was wet. Luckily inside our tent everything stayed dry. However we decided to stay next night in a motel. (First time since we have left Leesburg)

We flew to Barrow which is the most northern town in the States with 4,400 inhabitants. Barrow lies 500 km (more than 300 miles) north of the polar circle at Beaufort Sea. It was interesting to see how people can live in such environment. The whole summer the temperature goes hardly above freezing point. Therefore nothing grows in the permafrost.Over 65% of the population are Inuits (Eskimos). They live from hunting, including whales, which ensure there survive.

Alaska was definitely one of our highlights on our whole trip. We are happy we didn’t miss this part of our trip. In our opinion, every US-American should visit Alaska at least once in his lifetime. The good weather, the beautiful landscape, this extreme diversity of wildlife we definitely will keep in our minds forever.

Now we are heading back to the lower 48 but on our way back we are going to cross parts of beautiful Canada. This time Yukon and British Columbia.