Newsletter 8 -July 2013

Lots of bears

The Delta Meat Company offered free samples of their sausages made from reindeer and buffalo, so we stopped to try them and came away with a variety including a loin of reindeer which we enjoyed a few nights later.

It's a tough time on the road with reindeer loin on the menu

North Pole, and of course Santa’s house in St Nicholas’ Drive which has been a landmark since the 50’s, is now internationally known (especially with the bus trips) and the 1000’s of childrens’ letters that are answered each year. Of course we had our photo with Santa and then checked out his reindeer.

But Santa, I can explain everything!

Rudolph must have been napping.

One of Santa's reindeer - not sure which one?

Around the corner in Mistletoe Drive the city‘s lamp posts and Maccas sign, are painted like candy canes.

Candy pole Macca's

July 4 performers at Pioneer Park

So we made it to Fairbanks, Land of the Midnight Sun, on July 4. Pioneer Park is a bit like an outdoors museum where old historic buildings have been saved and now house craft, gifts, and souvenir or food businesses.

All very patriotic

So we joined in with the festivities and even had a train ride around the park.

Patriotic train, and driver, at Pioneer Park

Shops in Pioneer Park

Flags where ever you look

This time of year, Fairbanks, the most northerly big city in Alaska, has 21 hours of daylight, with the nights only really twilight. Baseball games start at 10.30 in sunlight! Our reflective window cutouts really were appreciated when we went to bed.

First Family statue in Fairbanks

Fairbanks lies in a forested valley floor on the Chena River surrounded by rolling hills of birch and white spruce. The Eilson Air Force Base served as a storage site for aircraft on their way to the Soviet Union under the WW 2 Lend-Lease Program.

You can always tell the locals - they're the ones whose cars have plugs hanging out of the front to plug in the sump heater when the temperature drops to 40 below or more

We found the Visitors’ Centre had interesting displays and videos of the history and life in this town.

Alaska oil pipeline

The Prudoe-Valdez 800 mile pipeline had to be built elevated most of the way, as the travelling oil would have melted the permafrost and changed the environment.

Museum of the North, Fairbanks

A distinctive architectural landmark in Fairbanks was the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North from where great views extended across the valley.

So after a few days we headed for Denali.

Denali Village

We booked our bus trip out to Kantishna for the next day, and then did a walk along Savage River.

Another opportunity to use our National Park pass - best thing we ever bought

Ptarmigan with 6 chicks

A ptarmigan and her chicks scuttled across the track which was a nice surprise.

Denali NP view

Denali National Park view

Road into Denali - this is why they don't allow private cars

With a mixture of blue sky and clouds we set out for the day’s trip. Private cars are not allowed in most of the park, and the bus drivers know places to point out. Well the illusive Mt McKinley – America’s highest peak at 20,320 ft, was being very shy until about 7.30pm when we finally saw it and the surrounding high peaks.

View of what Mt McKinley is supposed to look like from the Eielson Visitor Centre - all we could see was cloud.  This is what it is like most of the time.

The real thing later in the day

We also despaired of seeing bears until a pair of grizzlies appeared on the side of the hill and then another a few miles down the road.

Denali Grizzly

Moose and caribou were the only other animals we’d seen but the scenery was spectacular and particularly the roads hanging off the sides of cliffs.

Denali Caribou

Denali Moose

 We were introduced to the National Parks Sled Dogs and shown around the kennels the next day.

Husky with pups

Mush you huskies

They are preserving the breed and working dogs that are just keen to run, instead of using motorized, noisy, petrol guzzling machines to cross the snow in  winter.

Iditarod Trail headquarters

On the way to Anchorage we stopped by the Iditarod Trail, Sled Dog Race Headquarters. We watched a video and checked out the Mushers’ Hall of Fame. The 1,100 mile race to Nome starts in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March and is a highlight of the year since the first race in 1973.

Anchorage main street scene

Anchorage Visitor Centre

Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, is located on the upper shore of Cook Inlet. James Cook was there in 1778 looking for the North West Passage. We had a beautiful warm sunny day and the streets with all the flowers looked so pretty in their hanging baskets. We viewed a video on the Good Friday Earthquake in 1964 which we’d remembered from our teens, and visited the Ulu Factory where a knife similar to the ones the First Nation Peoples had used (and small, like a pizza cutter) were made.

Road and rail around Turnagain Arm from Whittier to Anchorage

The highway running alongside the Alaska Railroad on Turnagain Arm was very scenic with huge snow topped mountains coming straight up out of the water, however the sand is very fine and warnings of quicksand were at all the turnouts.

With fine weather continuing we took a glacier viewing trip out of Whittier the following day.

Whittier harbour with a cruise ship in port

Very touristy at Whittier

The road way shares a three mile tunnel with the railway into the port so you wait and go through on the hour.

Road and rail tunnel

Cascade, Barry and Coxe Glaciers

Cataract Glacier

Coxe Glacier

Harriman Glacier

Surprise Glacier - see the boat closer in?

The cruise said we would see 26 glaciers and we lost count but we probably did, in glorious sunshine. We spent most of the trip out on deck watching the scenery and enjoying seeing sea lions, lots of sea otters and the kittiwakes, but of course the glaciers looked so majestic and dramatic and awesome!!

Sea Otters basking in the sunshine

Alaska Railways also has trains taking cruise ship tourists to Anchorage and Denali.

Trains and buses take passengers on the "optional" tours from the cruise boat

The Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage, is all about FISHING with cabins, campgrounds and access to hundreds of lakes, including Izaac Walton State Recreational Site.

Seward "beach" and RV park

Ex Governor Sarah Palin once described Seward as the mural capital of Alaska

More murals - Sarah would be proud!

Seward is very picturesque nestled between high mountains. Kenai Fjord trips are offered here too and the original Iditarod mail trail to Nome started from the port in 1910.

We continued to Homer stopping often for photographs in the sunshine. Along the west coast we could look across Cook Inlet to the Ring of Fire – five active volcanoes, Mounts Iliamna, Redoubt, Augustine, Spurr and Hayes - part of the Aleutian Chain, were just so big and dramatic.

Mt Iliamna across Cook Inlet

What a beautiful place to work

Mt Redoubt which became active again in 2009 (so air traffic in Anchorage had to be shut down often over that summer), is now quiet and Mt Iliamna puffs steam.

At Anchor Point (the most westerly highway in Alaska) we watched huge tractors towing boat trailers into the water for a day’s fishing against the backdrop of those majestic mountains.

Anchor Point

The tractor backs the trailer into the water and the boat drives straight on and is towed out.  Works well but I bet it is not cheap

Homer is at the end of the road. A high bluff with wonderful views from the RV Park looks over the 4.3 mile spit, a long narrow bar of gravel.

Welcome to Homer

View from our RV camp

As the sun went down at about midnight

In 1964, after the earthquake the Spit sank 4 to 6 feet and some buildings had to be moved or rebuilt. Today it is the site of a major dock facility, a small boat harbour, a cannery, and for the tourists, restaurants, motels and RV Parks.

So we turned north back up the coast. The Russian fur traders established settlements around Kenai in the late 1700’s before they sold Alaska to the Americans in 1867 for $7.2 million. They  built churches along the coast, which are still used today. Many place names are also of Russian origin.

Russian Orthodox Church at Ninilchik

Russian Orthodox Church at Kenai

But the WOW for the day was the Alaskan residents exclusively, who are permitted to dip net (holding large nets with long handles,) for salmon as they come up the rivers to spawn.

Locals "dip netting" for salmon at the mouth of the Kenai River

Dip net or the biggest landing net I have ever seen

The season is only for a couple of weeks so the weekend when we were there, was very busy.

Soldotna/Kenai area has a population of more than 50,000 – so much is to do with fishing. To protect the bank of the fast flowing river, where fishermen like to stand and risk falling in, many fishwalks have been constructed in order to make the river more accessible.

River walk and fishing stage

An even bigger WOW was our “fly-in guided bear viewing and fishing trip” out to the edge of Lake Clark National Park. We wanted to see bears fishing for the migrating sockeye salmon and we wanted to fish for them too.

Talon Air float plane

Wolverine Creek fishing boat base - the whole area where the boats are, is a floating mass of vegetation

We had it all, and a calm day with it. Our fishing licenses entitled us to three fish each, and while we were at the front of Wolverine River where it flows into a lake, many bears came down to fish too.

Wolverine Creek black bear

Wolverine Creek young grizzly

Wolverine Creek young grizzly

To our absolute delight a mother grizzly and her three cubs walked around the rapids about 20 feet away from us (in our boat), and when she caught a large salmon she scuttled up a track into the bush with the cubs following her. Juvenile black bears also came and fished.

Wolverine Creek grizzly with 3 cubs

Grizzly with 3 cubs fishing

No fish here - lets look somewhere else

Just follow me and do what I do

I'm sure there was a fish under here

I can smell fish

I'll just see if I can land on one

Missed!

It was so exciting watching them up close, from the boat.

Great fun!

Almost the best fun you can have standing up

Guess who caught the biggest and most fish?

No prize for guessing who didn't

So when we had caught our quota we went to a quieter place and our guide filleted one of the fish and cooked it for lunch – scrumptious!!

A couple of nice fillets for lunch

A few herbs and spices, wrapped in foil and in the BBQ - delicious!

When the float plane picked us up we flew over the ice-field near Mt Redoubt and followed the glacier. We didn’t realise how many larges crevices were in a glacier. What a day!!

Redoubt Glacier

Redoubt Icefield

Steam coming out of a vent on Mt Redoubt

We had our deadline to meet the marine ferry at Haines. It was 771 miles and we had three days.

Moose on the loose - you don't want to hit one of these critters

So it was back through Anchorage and a stop at Palmer. The area has very fertile soil and in 1935, to get farmers from the southern states off the dole due to “the dust bowl” and then the Depression, 203 families were chosen to become the colonists. The growing season averages 100 to 118 days annually and the unique micro climate produces amazing giant vegetables. In 2009 a huge cabbage weighed in at 127 pounds to set a new world record.

Jen with giant vegetables at Palmer

The Musk Ox, hunted to extinction in Alaska have been reintroduced from Greenland and now the qiviut (fine under-wool) is being collected by combing in the spring. A Native cooperative then knit it into hats and scarves.

Bull muskox

Juvenile muskox

The farm was an interesting place to learn about this shaggy prehistoric beast now living on an original 1930’s Colony Farm.

There are lots of these "drive in espresso bars" all around Alaska

The road continued south east, past the Matanuska Glacier, some 27 miles long and 4 miles wide at the terminus, and more high snow covered craggy mountains and glaciers.

Matanuska Glacier

We drove between two mountain ranges often over 3000 ft, and followed wide braided rivers, grey from glacial silt. The biggest problem along this road was the frost heaves.

Frost heaves make for a bumpy ride

The soils absorb water in summer which then freezes in winter. This causes the road surface to expand unevenly, which makes a slow trip. There are many sections of improved road but the roadworks can only be done in summer.

Quaint Catholic Church at Beaver Creek

We stayed overnight in Haines and the smoke from the forest fires north of Whitehorse got fairly thick. This was not good for taking photos. The last part of the trip cut across the corner of the Yukon, then into British Columbia and back into Alaska.

River valley view

Smokey view of the mountains on the way to Haines

The road drops very quickly down to sea level in the last 60 miles from 3000 feet following the Chilkat River with magnificent views and more mountains.

Rotating fish trip on the Chilkat River

Almost at Haines and there are fish traps along the edge of the river that catch the migrating salmon so they can be tagged and released. We filled up with fuel at US prices and posted some postcards as when we get off the marine highway ferries we will be in Canada – so the inside passage will be the next newsletter.